Big car sale: Is buying a 2-3 year old car as good as you think?

There are many cars in stock, businesses are offering big discounts to clear their inventory. Buying cars in stock now can get great discounts. However, if cars are left in stock for a long time, there is a risk of their quality decreasing.

Question about quality

The auto market is declining, causing high inventory levels. Some auto companies said that there are still many cars manufactured since 2016, even from 2015.

An auto company said that by the end of the first 6 months of 2017, the number of cars in stock was 3 times higher than last year. In the market, the car models with the biggest price reductions today are mainly inventory, unsold.

Many doubts arise: so, if a car is left in stock for a long time, will its quality be affected?

According to auto engineers, if a car is left in stock for months and cannot be sold, if the manufacturer or importer does not properly preserve it, it can easily affect the quality.

Car exposed to sun and rain will affect the quality.

If the car has not been filled with gasoline, oil, or started, using preservative oil can be kept for a long time. If you have filled with gasoline, changed engine oil, or run a test, you need to follow the preservation process. Start the car once a week, let it run for at least 10 minutes, so that the engine runs, the engine oil is stirred, and water vapor is prevented from condensing in the combustion chamber. At the same time, when the engine is running, it will help charge the battery, ensuring the battery's life.

In addition, do not let the tire contact the warehouse floor for a long time in one position. The tire must be lifted, rotated 180 degrees to change and always maintain the correct tire pressure to avoid cracking due to the weight of the vehicle pressing on it.

However, not all manufacturers or importers can do this properly. It can be done with small quantities, but with hundreds or thousands of vehicles in stock, it is not a simple task.

With cars, when you have filled up with gasoline and oil and started the engine, run it for a test drive, and then “stored” it in storage for a long time, it often causes many harmful effects. If you do not start it for a long time, the oil can easily produce some harmful compounds, which will corrode the engine, even creating a thin layer of sludge with high viscosity, clogging the capillaries that carry lubricating oil, contributing to the wear of the moving system.

With stock vehicles, the fuel tank is usually not filled to the brim, but only a little. If filled to the brim, it will help prevent the phenomenon of humid air entering the fuel tank over time, causing condensation inside. When starting, the steam will follow the engine.

When the car is left for a long time, water vapor also condenses on the cylinder wall, then seeps into the oil tank, promoting corrosion of the engine and moving parts, leading to reduced lifespan.

When there is a lot of inventory, the car has no storage, has to be left outdoors, exposed to the sun and rain, which is really harmful. Under the hot sun, the temperature inside the car increases, reducing the quality of the interior. If left for a long time, the rubber, plastic and solvents inside the car will evaporate. Parts that use lubricating oil such as air conditioning control knobs, brake pedals, seat controls, etc. do not operate smoothly. Because the lubricating oil evaporates and dries, under high temperatures, these devices are difficult to use or get stuck.

Many companies have cars in stock for 2-3 years.

Next, the rubber door seals will age quickly. Overheating is the main cause of premature battery death. The temperature causes the liquid to evaporate, change the concentration of the solution, the reaction occurs quickly and damages the internal structure of the battery. In particular, the air and coolant pipes are easily damaged, the tires age quickly, the car's paint fades quickly,...

Cars stored in a cool, covered warehouse are also at risk of being infested with rats and cockroaches. Under the hood, in the cabin or in the trunk are ideal places for these creatures to hide. This can lead to many negative consequences, such as damage to many parts of the car.

Identify inventory vehicles

When buying a new car, to identify which car is in stock for a long time, engineers say you should base it on the VIN number on the car. There are three places to find the VIN number: on the driver's side door frame, on the engine compartment partition, and under the driver's side windshield. Pay attention to the 10th character in this series of numbers, because this is the year of manufacture of the car.

According to regulations, from 2010 to 2030, the alphabet will start with A (not using the letters I, O, Q, U or Z). Thus, vehicles manufactured in 2015 will correspond to the letter F, in 2016 to the letter G, in 2017 to the letter H and in 2018 to the letter J, etc. In addition, the year of manufacture can also be determined based on the factory certificate.

In addition, if you want to know which month the car was manufactured, refer to the information on the tire. On the tire sidewall there is always a series of codes (starting with the phrase DOT) and ending with 4 digits. These are the numbers indicating the date of manufacture. For example, if the last 4 digits of the series are 2416, it means that this tire was manufactured in the 24th week of 2016. Normally, the time from when a tire is manufactured to when it is installed on the vehicle is only about a month.

According to some sources, in Vietnam, automobile companies with small market shares often have cars in inventory for a very long time. Some car models can be in inventory for several years. Cars in inventory are often not well preserved (because they are left in the yard), so their quality is degraded due to the weather. Each year of inventory, the material value of the car decreases by about 5-10%.

Customers who buy these cars now can enjoy cheap prices. However, when accepting to buy a car that has been in stock for a long time, they need to carefully check the interior, engine,... to re-evaluate the quality.

According to VNN