Next is to ask the owner why they are selling such a beautiful car? By now you should have some nice small talk and have somewhat of a new budding friendship going and the answer should be the same as the one during the telephone interview.

Ask the owner if they are aware of any squeaks or rattles that you should know about as you get the keys to turn the ignition part way as to not start the vehicle but to watch all gauges. Become familiar with them prior to starting. You are looking for anything that seems not to work right. While starting the car for the first time do not give it any gas. You want to see if it starts on its own and comes to an idle by itself. Does the engine rev up and down or settle into smooth idle. At the same time you start the car you want to immediately look at the rear of the car for any amounts of smoke coming out of the exhaust. There should not be any and if there is you don’t want that car.

Allow the engine to run for a little while with the driver’s door open as you listen for squeaky belts, rattles, or other sounds that don’t sound correct. Ask questions about them. In reality you should not hear anything out of the ordinary. When all sounds correct start looking at general operations. Check turn signals, brake lights, AC, heater, sun roofs, power windows, stereos and doors. All accessory functions of the vehicle should work 100% correctly and by checking them now you will know what all the buttons are before you get on the road.

Ask the seller if they are ready for a test drive. Ask the seller if they have had any problems with acceleration or the vehicle pulling from one side or the other. Acceleration problems could be fuel/engine related while vehicle pulling from one side or the other could be alignment. Good leading questions before the drive can cause the seller to divulge information they normally would not. Check to see if the car accelerates smoothly, tracks straight. Watch the temperature, oil pressure, and battery gauges to see if there are any problems. Try to test drive the vehicle on side streets and freeway and don’t forget to try the cruise control. The test drive should be no less than 15 to 20 minutes. Only then can you get it up to temperature with the AC/Heater on with a full load. Get the vehicle up to at least 70-80 miles per hour to see if it shakes or not which is usually a problem with alignment.

While driving ask the seller how they came up with the price of the vehicle. Ask why not trade it in with a dealer on the new car. Tell the seller that you normally do vehicle purchases at your bank so that all paperwork is on the up and up and legit and will that be a problem. Ask them if the car is paid for or if your bank will have to wire funds to pay the vehicle off. Ask the seller if they are upside down on the vehicle which means they owe more than they can sell it for. See if the owner is prepared for this. Probe into the mindset and logic behind what they think they might be able to get for it without you stating a price. The repo guy could be on the verge of paying a visit. Move onto another topic and finish the test drive.