buying used toyota advice

We're looking at buying used toyota corolla in private sale. We want to have this car looked over and engine compression test, frame inspection, etc. for any possible major issues. Would it be better to bring to toyota service center than local mechanic? Thanks in advance! K

Reply to
Geo
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Either, if they are good at what they do. Be sure, however, that they ARE good, and that they take the time to really go over the car.

You might want to run a Carfax too, just for good measure.

Reply to
HLS

It's not so much about dealership verses local shop, but rather good shop verses bad shop. It depends on the tech *and* on the shop that employs him. If you know someone or some place who is detail and quality oriented, and specifically ask them for a *thorough* top to bottom inspection, road testing, and computer scan, then I think you have a good shot at getting an accurate report of the car's health. Some shops will cherry pick the obvious and easy stuff wrong (brakes, CV boots, etc.) and miss the stuff a pro would catch, like a transaxle bearing noise. Keep in mind that this testing and report should cost you their straight hourly time. Don't necessarily expect a discount unless you want to gamble on discount results.

A little self-serving story to drive the point home... I offer a highly comprehensive used car checkout for $105. I may spend as much as

4 hours between fully inspecting, scanning all modules, test driving 20+ miles, extensive year/model specific research on my paid professional websources , and preparing a full report with estimates. I don't know of anyone that checks the car out as thoroughly as I do. Some others charge ~$150ish for a similarly themed inspection service, while others charge much less. I don't know what to make of what they'd find, but giving my service as an example, I can find problems that will creep up on you, that had you known about you would not want to buy the car.

I recently saved someone from paying top dollar for a great looking Acura when I caught a sign of impending failure in the fuel control system on my OE scantool. I backed it up with screenshots on a graphing scanner and made my recommendations. Based on other info I was able to gather, and the very recent emissions inspection done by the selling dealership, along with a pending code that set near the end of my testing, I could accurately conclude that the dealer knowingly cleared the codes, ran a few monitors to completion, and made the car pass even though it was way out of fuel control at cruising loads. This problem was going to be the buyer's problem if he had signed the paperwork. There was even some light misfiring once the PCM neared its control limit. This is stuff that the dealership's used car tech should have noted, and if he did, the sales manager should have authorized fixing according to MO and Fed EPA law. I knew from my testing that the fix was going to be around $800 minimum, with potential unforeseen secondary problems to boot. Plus the brake rotors were warped, cruise control didn't engage (possibly very expensive), and there was a bacterial odor from the vents that very possibly could have been from a former rodent in the HVAC blower - a smell that may never completely go away even with all of the spray treatments in the world. The potential buyer went back with this info, they blew smoke up his axx about the "mystery" code and fuel control problem, so he walked. He expressed his gratitude for finding this stuff and said the money spent was well worth it.

Reply to
Toyota MDT in MO

Wanna take a look at a Chrysler van for me? ;)

Reply to
Hachiroku $B%O%A%m%/(B

I'll give you a recommendation via usenet post for $105. Wait, I already did. Umm, I guess you owe me :-)

Reply to
Toyota MDT in MO

Toyota MDT in MO wrote in news:_vx5m.11800$ snipped-for-privacy@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com:

Pretty impressive.

Now what if I needed a bit of help with my Integra? You're about 500 miles away from me as the crow flies, so a personal visit would be difficult.

(Oh, by the way, that guy who was going to send me the OBD training documents actually did send them to me. There's a LOT of information there, which I haven't got around to reading yet.)

Reply to
Tegger
******Not self serving at all.. It shows the difference in a really good mechanic and a tire kicker.

Local independent mechanic here, a friend of mine, has now extended his capabilities to forensic work. Apparently some vehicles store a lot more information than the casual observer would suspect. He and his son do work for insurance companies, manufacturers, legal investigations, etc to determine, as much as possible, was was really happening to the car at the time of the event of interest...Sort of like airplane black box interpretation.

I dont know the extent of the possibilties yet, but found it interesting, and a promising extension of technology. (I am it wont be welcomed by a lot of people either)

Reply to
HLS

The check is in the mail!

Reply to
Hachiroku

I don't remember the story about these training docs you speak of. Do you have a link or?

Reply to
Toyota MDT in MO

This is the only commercially available unit I'm aware of, the Bosch CDR:

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It is used as you say for accident reconstruction and blame pointing. Not every car is designed to have this extra hidden layer of storage data, but it started becoming very common in the 2000s, and is possibly mandatory by now.

Reply to
Toyota MDT in MO

Before I retired (the first time, a few years ago), our company began pressuring to have special data recorders on every company car. At first it wasnt mandatory, but I think that all of them must have these devices now.

They are a bit intrusive but, then, if you arent doing anything wrong, you dont have anything to worry about.

I believe they monitor a number of imprudent driving practices.

Reply to
HLS

Toyota MDT in MO wrote in news:IZK5m.3845$ snipped-for-privacy@nlpi065.nbdc.sbc.com:

Got a valid email address? I can send it to you. It's about 8MB.

Reply to
Tegger

Toyota MDT in MO wrote in news:IZK5m.3845$ snipped-for-privacy@nlpi065.nbdc.sbc.com:

MDT in MO are you located in the St.Louis area?? If you are, would you mind emailing a local address so that I could hook up w\ you for my next auto purchase. Just remove any "nospam" from the email address shown above to reach my private email. Thanks dc

Reply to
doncee

Those units are probably logging OBD II powertrain data only, though depending on the car they could extract hidden airbag data like the CDR. It sounds like they were logging generic PIDs like vehicle speed, and possibly tying in an integrated GPS locator. Not too many other PIDs come to mind regarding driver safety.

Reply to
Toyota MDT in MO

I was just curious about the type of info since I don't remember the conversation that your tone implied I should have :-)

This isn't 80's/90's Honda specific training material by Grant Swaim, is it? If my WAG is right, I'm getting a lotto ticket pronto :-)

Anyhoo, if it isn't copyright restricted material and you feel like sending it, my header shows my email. Thanks.

Reply to
Toyota MDT in MO

I was told they flag excessive acceleration, panic braking, excessive speed, etc. I dont know whether there is any gps location or not. Now my curiosity is up, and I will try to find out exactly what they do, and how.

I retired from that job before my new Irish boss turned me into a murderer ;>)

Reply to
HLS

I bought a unit from here

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the personal use model, that we used to monitor our teenagers. It worked pretty well. It was instructive to them how often they had to brake hard, accelerated too hard, and how fast they were going. I think it actually helped them to be better drivers. It can be programmed to record various so could also be used for recording various engine parameters.

Reply to
M.M.

The Professional and Fleet models look like you can get a lot of information about the driving habits...where you are, when you left, when you stopped, how fast your drove, how many times you had to execute panic braking, etc.

We had a lot of people killed over the world, driving when or where they maybe shouldnt have been. Tolerance for driving with alcohol or drug usage went to absolutely zero tolerance....even at the highest executive levels.

I am sure it is for the best interests of the employee and the company, but it certainly introduced some non-traditional habits into the oil patch.

Reply to
HLS

Email sent, thanks.

Reply to
Toyota MDT in MO

Toyota MDT in MO wrote in news:MlM5m.16119$ snipped-for-privacy@flpi146.ffdc.sbc.com:

Sorry, the thread was a while back, and it turns out you didn't actually get involved in it, which I'd forgotten. Sorry for the confusion.

Yes it is. It's dated 2000. Am I in trouble now?

Turns out it is copyrighted, something I did not consider when I asked my source if he could send it to me. I also pointed out to him that if he could /not/ send me the material that he could just tell me where he got it and I'd take care of procuring it myself. At the time I had no idea what his source was, and he didn't tell me.

I was originally hoping to get training info from American Honda's Techinfo site, which it turns out is unavailable to non-US residents.

Reply to
Tegger

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