Hi All
Looking to buy a VF SV6 Ute (series 2) for work.
Private car sales are always cheaper however you can find yourself buying someone else's mechanical nightmare.
Can anyone provide a dot point list of things to check/ lookout for when inspecting VF Utes /V6s
Cheers
Just remember, when buying private, you don't get any guarantees at all. You can get a PPSR certificate which defines whether any loans against the car exist (which can thus protects you from later claims) but you don't get guaranteed title. That is, you need to check that the seller is the legal owner above and beyond the PPSR certificate and rego papers state. Don't confuse registered owner as legal owner... check his/her purchase docs and prove to yourself he/she has the right to sell it.
Buying at a dealer provides guaranteed title, no loans held by someone else. Better still it provides both a 90? day 5000? kms used car warranty as well as an ACL statutory warranty. It also means you don't have to deal with some private sellers who can be delusional with their asking price.
As for any used car, unless you are mechanically proficient, get the vehicle checked by some independent mechanic you trust. Don't blindly trust service book stamps. If you can, look for one owner dealer serviced vehicle and then ask to look at the Holden dealer service receipts as they list all the driver complaints he's made about the car. There can be gold info in them there complaints...
As for the types of issues, modern cars if well serviced can be good cars. As for issues, well anything can go wrong but good servicing will have them addressed. Engines and gear boxes need TLC and probably more frequent servicing that every 15,000*, especially if they have a tow bar attached and the owner has a trailer, boat or caravan... Likely that's the case for many utes trades people would be looking at as they;d fall into the towing category. In such cases I'd want to see 7500km oil changes as a minimum and trans fluid and diff oil changes at 50,000kms if not sooner. If it;s some old guys well service low km garage queen, pay a premium.
* buying a car whichtows heavy trailers in stop start city during summer and only changes oils every 15k is asking for engine and gearbox trouble.