我爱我车：选购二手车时的注意事项 （英文摘录）

从私人手中买车时，应注意了解的15个问题

买车时，针对车的内部应检查的10个方面

买车时，针对车的外部应检查的11个方面

买车时，针对引擎盖下面的部件应检查的10个方面

买车时，对车进行路试的10个方面

一些有用的参考信息

When responding to an ad for a used car, you shouold always make a call to the seller first. The purpose of the call is to learn a little more about the car and find out who is selling it.

Listen carefully to get a sense of how this person cared for the car. If he or she sounds knowledgeable and forthcoming, that may be an indication that the car has received good care.

Ask the owner these questions:

1. How long have you owned the car?

2. Did you buy the car new?

3. Has the car been in any accidents? If so, what kinds of repairs did it need?

4. What is the mileage?

5. Generally, has the car been driven around town or on long trips?

6. Was this the only car in your family?

7. What do you like best about the car?

8. What major repair work has been done on the car? (If you assume that major repair work has been done on the car, the owner may be less defensive and possibly more truthful.)

9. Have you ever had any problems with rust? Has the car ever been repainted?

10. Why are you selling the car?

11. Did you follow the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule (found in the owner’s manual)?

12. Has the car ever been recalled? If so, do you have receipts to verify that the defect was corrected?

13. Where did you generally get your service performed?

14. What would I need to do to put the car into top shape?

15. Are there any liens on the car? (If so, the owner owes money on the car.)

It’s important to check the inside of the car carefully for several reasons. First, the interior of the car can give you a number of clues as to how well that car has been treated. If the car has been neglected on the inside, it is likedly that it was neglected mechanically as well. A well-cared-forcaris going to be a better buy than one that has not been maintained. A diligent inspection of the interior can help you tell the difference. Second, the cosmetic factor: if you’re spending a lot of money on a car, you’ll want it to look good. You’ll also want to inspect it thoroughly to make sure that it has all of the features that are important to you.

The following ten spot checks will help you to evaluate the condition of the car’s interior.

1 Study the seats.

The upholstery and carpeting provide important clues as to the kind of care the previous owner gave the car. Check the car’s seat cushions carefully. If they are weak, have broken springs or are full of lumps, that’s a sign that the car has had some pretty heavy use. Check the rear sears. If they show excessive wear, the car may have been used as a taxi. If the back seat looks very clean and unused, that’s an indication that the car was a one- or two-person car and was probably not used by a large family.

2 Look under the mats and try the pedals.

If the car has floor mats or seat covers, check underneath them to find what kind of wear occurred before they were installed. Press on the gas brake, and clutch pedals. They should all operate freely without any excessife play or binding

3 Examine the doors.

Look for heavy wear or discoloration on the upper part of the door panel where the driver’s arm would rest. Also, check the inside handles to see if they are loose or worn. If there is a lot of wear and the odometer is relatively low, that’s a sign that the odometer could have been turned back.

4 Use your nose.

If the car smells musty or heavily deodorized. it probably leaks or, worse, was once under water. Pull back the carpeting and check for rusted flooring. Also check under the seats for rust.

5 Check the odometer.

The average car is driven about 12,000 miles per year. So compare the car’s age with its total number of miles. For example, it’s not unreasonable to expect a 5 year-old car to have 60,000 miles on it. If the mileage looks a lot less than the average (12,000 per year times the age of the car), you could have either a cream puff or a car with a rolled back odometer. If the car has considerably more miles on it than the 12.000 miles pr year average, don’t give up on the car until you find out how those miles were put on. For example, 18,000 miles per year of highway driving can do less damage to a car than 6,000 miles per year of stop-and-go city traffic.

6 Review the dash.

Take a minute to familiarize yourself with the dashboard layout and try every feature on the dashboard. Make sure everything works with the key turned on but without the engine running. Check the radio, windshield wipers, heater, air conditioner, cigarette lighter, clock, horn, parking brake, rear window defogger, fan, and all the air vents.

7 Turn the ignition on.

With the key on but the engine off, make sure the alternator and oil pressure lights go on. If they don’t, either the bulb is burned out or the seller has disconnected the light to ensure that it won’t come on later while you’re driving. This is something to put on your checklist for your mechanic to go over. When you turn the engine on, both of the lights should go off. If the oil pressure light stays on, turn the engine off and check the oil level. It may just be that the oil is low. However, if the oil level is OK, this light signals that the car could have major problems. If the alternator light stays on, it means the battery isn’t charging, which could be a problem as simple as a loose fan belt or as serious as a bad alternator.

8 Try all the windows.

Check to see that they slide smoothly and don’t bind. Also, make sure that the front seats slide forward and backward easily.

9 Look in the glove compartment.

Look for the owner’s manual and orginal warranty papers. If they are present (or if they are still available), and you’re buying the car from a third party, you will have the opportunity to contact the previous owner to find out more about the condition of the car. If the warranty papers indicate that the original owner was from a distant area or another state, that’s an indication that the car might have become available through an auction or an otherwise less desirable source for used cars. Also examine the original warranty and other papers to determine whether the serial numbers on these papers match the serial numbers one the car. If they don’t match, either the car has been stolen or it is the product of two cars that have been welded together.

10 Inspect convertible top carefully.

To check a convertible, park the car in bright sunlight and carefully examine the roof from the inside forany holes or cracks in the fabric. Look for stains from leaks. Check the back window for clarity and test the top at least twice to make sure it goes up and down properly. If you have the opportunity, hose down the top or run it through a car wash to test for leaks.

There are three reasons to inspect the outside of the car carefully. First, it’s one of your best clues as to whether the car has been in an accident. Second, it will help you avoid one of the most insideious of car repair problems—–rust. Third, if the exterior shows signs of neglect, the owner may have also neglected the mechanical maintenance of the car.

Tips: Always shop in the daytime. Shopping at night or under the glare of lights in a used car lot can hide problems with the body work.

1 Examine the glass and test the lights.

Front and back windows are expensive to replace, and problems with them can mean a safety hazard. Test the headlights, taillights, flashers backup lights, brake lights, turn signals, and parking lights. (bring a friend and this task will go a lot faster.)

2 Look carefully for rust.

Repairing rust is far more expensive than most mechanical repairs, and rust does more to depreciate the value of a car than any other single item. Take special note of the following area: wheel wells. rain gutters, window moldings, door frames (especially around the bottom), and the joints where the roof supports connect with the body. If the car has a vinyl top, look for bubbles and push on them with your finger. A crinkly, crunchy sound means there’s rust under the vinyl that can be almost impossible to top. Also check for bubbles or blisters around the trims. which indicate the beginning of rust under the paint. Rust is a good reason to avoid a particular car because there is no inexpensive way to repair rust problems.

3 Examine the paint and body.

Beware of new paint jobs. A newly painted car may have had a severe rust problem or may have been in a major accident. Unless you know the person selling the car and know who it was repainted, stay away from cars with new paint jobs.

To determine whether a car has been repainted, check for telltale signs: the trim on the inside of the doors doesn’t quite match the exterior trim; the color inside the hood and the trunk doesn’t match the exterior; or little bits of paint on the rubber molding around the windows and doors or on the chrome.

A magnet can tell you if a fender is the original metal or filled with plastic body filler. Or you can check by tapping on suspect body areas with your knuckles. If the fender sounds hollow, it’s probably okay. If it sounds solid, it may have been filled with body filler.

4 Try all the doors, the hood, and the trunk.

Make sure the doors, trunk and hood all open and close easily and tightly. Open the driver’s side door and try to move it up and down. If it seems loose, then the car has probably had some heavy use. Also, if the door drops or falls out of place when you open it, again beware of heavy use. When the door is closed, check the gap between the door and the body. If it is uneven, the car may have been in an accident. The bumper can also provide a clue to a car’s accident history. Both sides of the bumper should be evenly spaced from the car. If not, an accident could have knocked the bumpers out of line.

5 Look inside the trunk.

If it smells mustry, it might leak. Check under the mat or carpeting for rust or other problems. Make sure you have all the jack equipment. check the spare tire. If it’s worn unevenly, it may have been changed with a front tire to hide a front-end problem.

6 Check for leaks under the car.

A leaking black liquid may be oil from the engine or manual transmission; reddish fluid may be from an automatic transmission; greenish, watery liquid may be antifreeze. Clear water, usually from the air conditioner, is okay. Oily, odorous fluid may be brake fluid. You can recognize gasoline by its smell.

7 Examine the tail pipe.

Make sure it’s cool; then rub your finger inside the tail pipe. You should see a white or grey powder. If your finger is black and sooty, the car may simply need a tune-up. However, if it’s black and gummy, the car probably has a problem with its rings or valves and is burning oil.

8 Check the tires.

New tires may indicate that a serious alignment problem exists. Don’t be afraid of old tires. They tell an important story about the car. Inspect them carefully for wear and scuffing. If they are worn irregularly (the middle seems balder than the sides or one side or the other seems to have less tread than the middle), the car has either bad shock absorbers, poor wheel alignment or poor wheel balance. Don’t forget to check the inside of the tires, the side of the tire facing the car. Sometimes, owners of tires that are badly scuffed will merely turn them around so that the good side faces out.

9 Test the shock absorbers.

Push up and down on each corner of the car until it starts bouncing. When you let go, the car should not bounce more than one time. If it does, you’ll need to repair or replace the shock absorbers.

10 Examine the car’s overall alignment.

Park on a level surface and look at the car from a squatting position about 20 feet behind it. Are the front tires perfectly aligned with the rear tires? If not, the car has severe frame problem and should be avoided. Also, you should check to see that the car is level. If one side dips lower than the other, or if the front dips lower than the back, the car could have serious suspension or frame problems and again you should avoid it.

11 Remove the gas cap.

If a sign on the dash says to use only unleaded gasoline, look down the filler tube to the gas tank to see if the opening is small enough to prevent the larger, leaded gas fuel pump nozzles from fitting in it. If it looks like anything has been puched out, then the owner was probably using leaded gas, which can destroy the catalytic converter and will result in expensive repairs.

While many of us find the engine compartment to be a rather intimidating place, these simple checks can help you steer clear of lemons. Items 1 through 8 should be done before starting the car. Items 9 and 10, checking the oil and automatic transmission fluid, should be done alfter starting the engine.

BEFORE YOU START THE CAR:

1 Check the radiator.

While the engine is cool, open the radiator cap to see if there is a shiny oil film on the top of the water in the radiator. If so, engine oil is probably leaking into your cooling system through a cracked head, cylinder block or a leaky head gasket. All are expensive repairs. If the coolant mixture is rusty, you may need to replace the radiator. Stick your finger inside the filler neck and check for sludge. This usually means that somebody addded a “stop leak” product to plug up holes in a leaky radiator.

Caution: Always make sure the radiator is cool before making these checks.

2 Examine the engine compartment.

Check the overall cleanliness of the engine, but beware of perfectly clean engines. That’s a possible indication that the engine has just been steam cleaned in order to prevent you from seeing various leaks. In either event, inspect the engine carefully and look for leaking around the various components.

3 Look for maintenance stickers.

Look around the engine compartment, air filter, underside of the hood, or door frames for any maintenance stickers put on by a service station. This may provide a clue to how frequently the car has been serviced. A key factor is frequent oil changes. If the owner regularly changed the oil, then your chances of getting a well-running car increases dramatically.

4 Examine the belts.

Check the fan belts for cracks or shredding and make sure that they are not too loose. When you push down on them, they should give only about half an inch. It’s OK for the belts on a 4- to 5-year-old car to look as though they need to be replaced—-they probably do. While you check the belts, wiggle the fan blade and other pulleys connected to the belts. If any are loose, the bearings may be gone and they will have to be replaced.

5 Check the wiring.

Check any wires for frayed or worn sopts and cracks. If the car is more than two years old and all of the wiring looks new, the owner could have had a major problem. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s something that you should inquire about. The wires going to the spark plugs (known as the ignition wires) should have no cracks, burn marks , or wear. If so, they most likely will have to be replaced. This isn’t a major repair. It’s more an indication that the car has received poor preventive maintenance.

6 Check all the fluids.

In spect the brake fluid, power steering fluid, and windshield washer fluid. Low power steering or brake fluid could indicate a leak in either of those systems, which should be checked out by a mechanic. If the windshield washer fluid is low, put some water in and test the system to see if it works. In general, low fluids may indicate that the car has been neglected overall.

7 Look at the battery.

A brand new battery on a car that’s less than two or three years old could mean electrical problems. If the car is four or five years old and you’re convinced that it has the original battery (it bears a date), you can assume that the electrical system works fine.

8 Check the air filter.

If it looks particularly dirty, then the owner probably did not do much preventive maintenance, bacause changing the air filter is one of the easiest things that can be done to keep a car in good shape.

AFTER YOU START THE CAR:

9 Check the oil.

After the engine has been running, find the dipstick to check the oil level. If it’s low, then the car is either an oil burner, has some kind of oil leak, or the owner has not replaced what was naturally lost. If the oil is fresh, it will be a clear, amber color; if it is dark it usually indicates that the oil has been in the engine for some time. The color of the oil is not very significant; in older engines it will repidly turn drak. Gritty or gummy oil is a sign of infrequent oil change, which could signal that the engine has not been very well maintained. If the oil is milk brown or grey or has small bubbles in it, then water is present and the car could have a cracked block. Very thin oil that smells like gasoline also indicates severe engine problems. Very thick oil could indicate that the owner is trying to quiet the noise from a failing valve lifter.

10 Check the automatic transmission fluid.

The automatic transmission has a dipstick, which is usually located at the rear of the engine. Put the emergency brake on, and with the transmission in park, start the car and check the color of the oil on the transmission dipstick. It should be reddish. If it’s dark brown and sludgy, the transmission has been poorly maintained. If it has a burned smell, it means that the transmission has excessive wear and could quite possibly fail shortly. If you notice any metal flecks, actual parts of the gears are being ground up. If the fluid level is low, then the transmission leaks. (note: This is a very important check. If you can’t find the dipstick, put it on your mechanic’s checklist.)

Plan on taking every car you’re considering for a good long test drive. You should map out two or three types of road ahead of time to include a highway, normal roads for around-town driving, and a bumpy road that will allow you to slow down and check for creaks and groans. If the owner does not allow you to test drive the car, then you have a simple solution: Don’t buy it.

1 Check the steering.

With the front wheels pointed straight ahead (and the engine on with the car in park for power steering), stick your head out the window and watch the front tire as you slowly turn the steering wheel. The tire should begin to move as you begin to turn the wheel. If the steering wheel has to turn more than two inches before the wheels start moving, the car’s steering system could need some expensive repairs.

You can check the power steering when parked by turning the wheel all the way to the left and then all the way to the right. If the car screeches loudly or surges and bounces as you turn the wheel, the car might need a new power steering pump, or it may need repairs to the power steering system.

2 Check the exhaust.

While you drive, check your rearview mirror and note whether any exhaust smoke is coming from the tail pipe. Blue smoke indicates that the engine may need an expensive overhaul. If it’s black, the car may simply need a tune-up or carburetor adjustment. If it’s white as you start up but stops after a while, it could be water vapor that had built up in the engine and is nothing to worry about. If the white smoke continues throughout the drive, water from the radiator may be leaking into the engine.

3 Check the brakes.

After the engine warms up, stop the car and push the brake pedal down as far as you can. It should go no more than one and a half inches to the floor. Keep the pedal down for at least a minute. If, during that period, the pedal seems to sink lower, the car could have serious brake problems.

When it’s safe to do so during the test drive, step on the brakes hard enough to slow down quickly without skidding. If the car dips forward excessively or pulls to one side, it probably needs brake or suspension work.

4 Check the alignment.

When it’s safe to do so, let go of the steering wheel on a level, straight road to see if the car pulls to either side. This pulling could mean something as simple as improper tire pressure or as serious as steering linkage out of alignment. Caution: Be careful in conducting this test, because if the car is severely out of alignment, the wheels could turn sharply.

5 Listen to the engine.

When you’re on the highway at crusing speed, listen for unusual sounds of stress and strain. Even if the weather is very cold or very hot, drive with the window rolled all the way down in order to hear any clanks, groans, or other sounds that could signal expensive repairs down the road. As you accelerate, the engine should not feel as if it is laboring. Listen for a pinging or tapping from the engine. This sound may disappear by simply using a higher octane gas, or it may signal the need for a major engine overhaul. Have your mechanic check it out. Even if you can’t identify the sounds, report anything unusual to the mechanic who inspects the car for you.

6 Listen to the engine idle.

Pull over and let the engine idle while the transmission is in park. It should run smoothly. If you notice any acceleration, hesitation, or uneven performance, the problem could be something as simple an idle adjustment or as serious as a carburetor overhaul. You shouldn’t hear any loud tapping noises coming from the engine. If you do, the car may need expensive valve work. If you hear some light ticking or tapping noises, the car may simply need an adjustment. In either case, be sure to put these noises on your mechanic’s checklist.

After you’ve listened to the engine for a while, ture off the key. The engine should stop immediately; if it continues to run for a few seconds, the car might need a carburetor overhaul, or it may simply require a tune-up.

7 Listen to the transmission.

With your foot on the brake, move the shift lever from drive to reverse several times. If you hear a soft thump or no noise at all, the transmission is operating properly. However, if you hear a loud clank, that’s a sign that the car may have a major transmission problem.

In general, the automatic transmission should shift smoothly from gear to gear. Any whining of the transission, jumping, or irregular performance could indicate big transmission problems down the line. If it seems that the car drops temporarily into neutral while shifting from one gear to the next, your transmission is probably slipping and in need of repair. Don;’t forget to check the transmission while the car is in reverse. You should drive the car for at least fifty yards in reverse to make sure it runs smoothly and doesn’t jump.

If the car has a manual transmission and the engine revs up when you step on the gas with your foot off the clutch and the car in gear, the clutch is slipping. You may have to replace it. If you hear a knocking sound from the transmission, press the clutch in. If the noise disappears, it’s probably in the transmission; if it doesn’t, there could be problems with the clutch.

Note: Any clanking sounds you hear when you’re testing out your transmission could also indicate problems with the universal joint. For example, if you hear a clank each time you go down a hill, the car may have a worn universal joint.

8 Listen for clunks.

Take the car out on a very bumpy road, roll down the windows and drive slowly (five to ten miles per hour) to see if you can hear any unusual clanks or other sounds that may indicate you’ll need to have some serious suspension work.

9 Check the heater and air conditioner.

If it’s winter, first check the heater by warming up the car. Then check the air conditioning system. To check the air conditioner, run it through all of its cycles. The air compressor should thump slightly as it kicks on and off. However, if you hear loud banging or trumbling, that’s an indication that the air compressor may need replacing. Put your hands over the vents to check the pressure and temperature of the air coming out.

10 Check for inside leaks.

If it’s handy on the test drive, try running the car through a car wash. For a few dollars, you’ll find out whether the car has any obvious leaks. Otherwise, take the car to a place where you can hose it down vigorously. Directly spray the hose around the windows, vents and trunk.