On that used car from a Louisville lot, do a rudimentary inspection yourself to get a feel for whether a car has ever been in an accident big enough to require body work. Scrutinize the paint in bright sunshine. Today’s paints are extremely difficult to match, so you may see subtle color contrasts. Also look for paint lines. Shoddy shops will leave paint lines underneath the hood where they’ve taped. Look at the underside of door handles and you may see more paint lines. Sometimes you can detect overspray on a car’s weather stripping too. If there is a tiny crack in the paint around the bolts that hold your doors on, that may mean those doors were removed for body work. 
Open the hood and look for the factory stickers up underneath. If the hood has been replaced, the stickers will be missing or handwritten. Make sure the gaps along the sides of the hood are the same width from side to side and from top to bottom. You’re looking for symmetry. Test to see whether all the doors open and close smoothly. Accidents can also damage electrical systems. Try out every single button, bell and whistle to make sure it’s working. When I got out of college, I bought a used car without testing the stereo. It didn’t work, and as a 20-something, my music seemed all important to me at the time.
If the car passes your self-inspection, have a trusted mechanic in the Louisville area inspect it for you. This is an incredibly important step and one too many people skip. If the seller won’t let you take the car to a mechanic, walk away from the deal. If you’re looking for convenience, there are mobile mechanics who can bring all their diagnostic tools to you instead. If you don’t have your mechanic check for flaws before you buy the car, don’t be upset when he starts pointing out those flaws the first time you take the car in for an oil change.
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