[MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) 1, 2, 3, 4. Rev up your engines! [ENGINE REVVING] It's time for ScottyKilmer.com. If you were thinking about
buying a used car then stay tuned, because
today I'm going to show you how to quickly check
out a used car for purchase. Now, all modern cars
are computerized, so if you have one of these OBD2
readers, plug it into the car and you'll learn a lot. And realize that these OBD2
scanners will fit any car from 1996 to the present. So if you don't have one,
it's a good idea to get one. Some are as cheap as 40 bucks. Now, in this Toyota,
you go under the dash. And here's the plug that
in plugs into right here. You just plug the
code reader right in. It snaps in, then start the car. [ENGINE STARTING] Then the first thing you want to
do is see if there's any codes. So we'll choose Read Codes. Well, there is no
code, so that's good. Now, if there were
any trouble codes, that means there's a
problem with the car. There aren't any, so we
know that at least there's no solid trouble codes. Then you also want to
check a thing that's called drive cycle monitor. And in this case, you can say
it says all monitors are OK. And that's really
important to check also, because sometimes the owner
will have the computer reset and it will have problems. Then it would say some of
the monitors weren't OK yet. You wouldn't want
to buy the car then. Now, the next thing to do is to
park on a nice, flat surface, and then look under it to see if
there's any kind of oil leakage that's dripping
down on the ground. And in this case,
it's dry as a bone. But we're going to
jack up the front end anyways to check things. You can learn a lot
by jacking up a car and looking at the underside. You want to look
at the CV joints to make sure they're
not ripped or torn. And you can check the bottom
of the engine and transmission. And in this case,
they're bone dry, so they're not leaking at all. While you have it
jacked up in the air, you can pull on the
tires to see if there's any suspension where the tire
would wobble back and forth. Now, this car is pretty new. It's only about a year old. So I know that it
runs pretty good. We're mainly going to be
looking for body damage to see if the car's
been wrecked or flooded. So you slam the hood, and then
see if it's aligned correctly the whole way around. Look at the seam on
one side of the hood and compare it with the seam
on the other side of the hood. And in this case, the right
seam and the left seam look exactly the same, so the
hood hasn't been crumpled in. And do the same thing
on all the door seams to make sure they look the same
front to back and side to side. So we're going to
the other side. And they all match, so it wasn't
whacked one side or the other. Now we'll pop the trunk
open and look inside to see if it's been rear ended. Well, the seams inside
are clean and they're all factory-looking. And now we'll pick up
the rugs and look inside. And sure, a little
cardboard stuff is ripped. But more importantly,
all these factory seams are still exactly as
the car was built. They haven't been
touched and done over, so it hasn't been rear ended. Then you want to go up and down
the car looking at the paint. And look at the reflections,
because that way you can see if there's
any little dings. As we walk down
the car here, you can see, hey, this
looks strange. There's a little ding
in the door right here. You're only going to see it when
you look at the reflections, though, so look closely. Now, of course,
you don't buy a car just because it has a few
dings but you knock some money off the price. And the last thing you want
to do in this quick check is look at all four tires. Make sure they're not
[? cupped ?] or have gouges in them, showing that
there's a problem. These are flat and evenly worn. And then, of course, take
it for a good road test. Drive it for a good
10 minutes in town and 10 miles on the highway. Listen for buzzing noise,
humming noise, clicking noises, and see how the vehicle
tracks at highway speeds, if the steering
wheel goes straight and whether it shakes or not. And then if you're real
serious about the car, do like my customer did, bring
a car to a mechanic like me to do the final check. Because you're going to be
saving thousands of dollars buying a used car, so
spend 80 or 90 bucks to have a pro check
it out before you buy. And aside from a little
dent on the side of the door and some cracked
cardboard in the trunk, this Toyota passed
with flying colors. And remember, if you have
any car questions, just visit ScottyKilmer.com. [MUSIC PLAYING]
