Used car buying in Southern California sucks! Even over KBB's inflated values.
Tight budget, but want safety for my daughter. Haven't bought it yet.
Monroe sells a quick strut Strut and Coil Spring Assembly (example 472597 on Amazon). If we can get 60k+ of decent use, we'd be relieved at the price savings.
I am also thinking of adding a 1 or 2 oz amount of AT-205 since the car was unused for long stretches of time. There are no visible leaks anywhere I can see, would that be effective to just give an edge before the shock of being used regularly?
Long backstory... Japanese-made Corolla was owned by elderly woman who rode her brakes a lot, hit a lot of curbs and lost a lot of keys. Low mileage (especially low usage in the last 2 years). I've been looking for a used car for most of this year, but now need to get it as kid goes back to campus living. The car isn't perfect, but the seller's story is legit and verifiable. I have more service records than the seller does 🙂
Other than finding OVER 3 DOZEN (no exaggeration) of altered odometers* on OfferUp and occasionally Craigslist, I have found a considerable number of cars described as "great," "excellent" and "very good" with remarkable oil sludge and stinky, black and gritty transmission fluid. Oh, and batteries from 2013, active oil leaks from weird parts of the engine, etc...
I am avoiding CVTs and the new 8-speed transmissions like the plague. I will only buy Toyota after two horrible cars that I bought PSKA (Pre-Scotty Kilmer Awakening).
*Through online research, I find mileages taken at service visits, Takata airbag and other recalls that are close or more (a few times over 100,000k more) than the advertisement... Probing questions help if it's a suspiciously low amount of mileage since the recorded mileage. While the California DMV will take reports (a convoluted system), they don't enforce it very much. Sadly, that impacts the people they virtue signal most, the poor and those lacking resources and knowledge to protect themselves.
BTW Carfax is a joke.
For struts, buy KYB brand (Scotty's recommendation) and have the car checked by you mechanic to make sure about the car health and also the real mileage.
Try shopping for cars up here in Sacramento even worse than in LA! Anyways, unfortunetly many believe ads and don't do research on the real odometer etc. The important thing is to take your time and do your research, which you are doing so you are on the right track.
