Dodge charger 2019 pre-owned buying advice

[Jithin Benjamin]

Guys,

I was using a 2013 charger SE since 2019 until i sold it last week.

Now i am planning to by a pre-owned charger 2019. I will be doing a test drive in couple days. Before I do that, any suggestions.

The car i will be test driving is a 2019 charger sxt v6. Around 84000 mileage. Cost is 96K approx. I know the price is pretty high, cant expect much from alfuttaim automall. I tried to search from direct owners, but all of them were close to the same range. So i thought instead if getting from owners who may not reveal all the problem  the car has, better to buy from dealer who at least give 1 year warranty. Maybe i am wrong. Would really need your suggestions.

Is it worth it?

[Frederic]

4 hours ago, Jithin Benjamin said:

Guys,

I was using a 2013 charger SE since 2019 until i sold it last week.

Now i am planning to by a pre-owned charger 2019. I will be doing a test drive in couple days. Before I do that, any suggestions.

The car i will be test driving is a 2019 charger sxt v6. Around 84000 mileage. Cost is 96K approx. I know the price is pretty high, cant expect much from alfuttaim automall. I tried to search from direct owners, but all of them were close to the same range. So i thought instead if getting from owners who may not reveal all the problem  the car has, better to buy from dealer who at least give 1 year warranty. Maybe i am wrong. Would really need your suggestions.

Is it worth it?

Hi @Jithin BenjaminAl Futtaim usually tries to sell these cars at a premium but it is worth it because of the 1Y warranty. How thorough the pre-inspection is from Al Futtaim when they buy this vehicle is a bit of a question. 

I don't think there shoud be serious  issues with a car that's only around 4 years old, but you should definitely research where the car came from (Al Futtaim does this), and look at the maintenance history of the vehicle. If the car has been serviced under a dealership you can perhaps approach that dealership and request to see if all needed maintenance was done.

With the VIN number at hand, you can also do a quick search to see if the car has been involved in an accident:

 

 

[Gaurav]

I was in a similar situation few year back, and bought my Mustang GT from auto mall employee who have bought the car from automall 6 months back. Never had any problem and car served me for 2 years without any issues.

I agree with Fredy that automall cars are 5-10% expensive but it's worth it knowing the inherent risk and suffering that can come from abused cars and plus 1 year warranty.

As it's a road car and not an offroad, so buying and inspecting is lot easier. Just make sure that it has full service history from Dodge and not from outside garage.

Definition of FSH from seller stand point is always yes, but as buyer you should insist on seeing all services done with granular details. As it's a bit of task to pull each service full detail, so seller might make you run around or wait, but still insist. Unless you see each service date wise breakdown and what all has been serviced in printed or electronic format, dont buy. I mean it.

I have been doing the same for all my cars and surprisingly spot major issues in service history, either big gaps (means owner wasnt responsible enough) or doing minor service at dealership and major ones outside. For older cars this is fine, but for cars within first 3 - 5 years I would prefer FSH from dealer and I'm ready to pay 10% extra for peace of mind.

Once FSH is really FSH, then you can get it check at any garage for computer and mechanical testing, if all comes clean, you are good to go.

For the mileage its tad high, so you can try to push on that point and see if they give some discount. Trick for that is to visit automall with cash in hand (my fav trick) or bank approval and get the last minute discount by showing your fair reason to negotiate (mileage and/or any issues) and your seriousness to buy (most imp).

Good luck it's a beautiful fun car,

[Jithin Benjamin]

Thanks a lot guys. Will make sure all the points suggested are in my checklist.