How to buy used from a dealer?

[subbus]

I am talking about 2006/7 car with 60k miles and up....

A) Should I pay the same dealer to perform an inspection on the car they are selling?

B) Should I take it to another dealer instead? Would it be unusual for me to ask the dealer if I could take it elsewhere for the inspection?

C) Should I pay for carfax report on top of A or B?

Thanks!

[SovereignAxe]

A) No. Conflict of interest

B) Yes, do that or take it to a mechanic that specializes in Subarus or boxer engines

C) If B doesn't satisfy you, then yes. They're not that expensive and can give you a little more peace of mind. Even if B did satisfy me I'd do it anyway.

[Wagondude]

The dealer should run a Carfax for you. They want to sell you the car. If they won't supply it, they are most likely trying to hide something.

[cougar]

And get a warranty!

[proton]

DEFINITELY take it to an outside mechanic. We went to a dealer to look at an '05 with 68000 for $10,500... Seemed like a decent deal. Yeah, the carfax said it had been in one accident, but it was just a little fender bender. Tons of cars are in little accidents all the time. You can't see any damage, so there must not be any...

Well, we took it to our mechanic, and it had frame damage all over. Tons of replaced pieces and pieces that didn't fit together anymore... Wasn't worth $5000. The dealership had to have known about this, but they just wanted to dump the car.

By the way, they let us drive it off the lot and keep it overnight so we'd have a chance to take it to inspection, and I'm sure they were hoping we'd fall in love with it. Didn't require anything more than a copy of license and insurance. So it's not unusual to do something like you're asking.