Car and driver used cars

Caution: No matter how hard it might try, a possum is not a good substitute for a starter motor.

Any Car That Wants to Drive Back to the Hertz Lot

Not everyone who rents a car abuses it, just people with even the smallest streak of rebelliousness, those under the age of 60, or people whose meeting this morning went really, really badly. Parking-brake slides and burnouts, neutral slams, the occasional purposeful curbing just to maliciously screw up the alignment—in many cases, rentals aren’t cars at all. They’re whipping boys.

Cars, it seems, can’t make use of fluids that aren’t contained within them./ppIt’s always best to wait at least one night before signing a purchase contract for any used car. It’s even better if you know where the car is parked that night—and you put a clean piece of cardboard under it./p table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"x">

Caution: Any lot clearly marked as an EPA Superfund cleanup site is to be avoided. Bonus points if the sales staff is wearing hazmat suits.

Manufacturer Press Fleet Refugees

The role of a press vehicle is to demonstrate maximum performance for numerous outlets and journalists and to educate them on the limits of the car’s abilities. That can leave a vehicle a bit, well, tired.

Tires can be changed, bearings repacked, and bushings replaced—those are no problem. But there’s no knowing what the effect of a few hundred laps on various skidpads can mean if that sloshed all the oil away from the cylinder walls. And a couple thousand burnouts aren’t going to have a positive effect on the life span of a clutch or differential. It’s simple fact that test cars—like rentals—are born into a life of abuse. To a slightly lesser extent, the same applies to dealer demo cars, and be wary of cars sold as “executive demos, ” as that is often spin-speak for “press car.”

By the way, if you’d like a nice used 2007 Audi S8, be on the lookout for C/D s former long-termer. After $29, 969 in repairs from a collision with a minivan, it’s as good as new! Sort of.

Caution: Haphazardly sawed-off roll cages might give you tetanus.

Any Camaro Wearing Death Metal Stickers

There’s a lot of good to be said about old Camaros: They were available with small-block V-8s, massaged right they handle well, and they’re dirt-cheap. But it’s also true that these cars attract the sort of buyer who saves his greatest loyalty for death metal legends like Slayer, Necrophagia, and Morbid Angel. Vehicle care isn’t a top priority when you have three kids by four different women and a serious meth addiction.