aside rom making sure that the car's never been in a registered accident by looking up the vin (which you already did right?), paying a mechanic you trust fifty bucks to give the thing a serious going-over is the best thing to do.
both these things i have learned by NOT doing them, and getting stuck with such shitty cars and giving various mechanics a LOT of $$, so that eventually i just bought a new pick-up truck -- which is really dumb too just based on depreciation, but i don't plan on ever getting rid of it so maybe it's a'ight in the long run (besides it's paid off).
― yetimike, Monday, 27 November 2006 21:00 (seventeen years ago) link