berger car market
Used cars are letrarily described i different languages, in the U.S they are know as lemons which translates to " bad bargain " for cars that do not in any way satisfy the desire of the buyer, while in our clime (Nigeria) these used cars are referred to as TOKUNBO a common Yoruba phrase used to describe used goods,
Buying tokunbo cars do have its merits and demerits though, in these days of financial and economic down turns most people who do not have capacity to purchase brand new cars simply opt for the tokunbo cars, buying these grade of cars isn't all that rosy though, as its
associated with its pros and cons its best to inspect that tokunbo cars in the presence of a technician or someone with a strong background of the cars and their workings in order to get the best deals.
This post sheds more lights on what to look out for when shopping the car market for a tokunbo car.
tokunbo car market
1. Beware of the cars aesthetics, most people sometimes are carried away with the cars aesthetics and outer look that they easily forget the important part, this is not supposed to be the case as a sound engine is translated to be a sound car, one trick most used cars dealers apply is to make the cars they sell look appealing to the eye irrespective of if these cars have major underlying problems , rule no one its not professional to buy a car purely for its looks, and features, that might spell doom dont be fooled.
2. Observe car ignition with care, this is an area that needs proper surveillance, reason because the ignition system of a cars tells a whole lot about the state of heath of that car.
Turning on the ignition system of a cars ensures that all warning lights come up and goes off immediately when the car engine starts to run, some smart tokunbo car dealers in a bid to our smart their prospective buyer usually close this warning light with tapes, this will barr this lights from staying on when the cars engine is running thereby preventing unsuspecting buyers from detecting if there,s a problem with the car or not. to ensures the tokunbo car is in top shape as soon as the engine is cranked the all dashboard signs are supposed to go off immediately .
3. Check for vibrations, vibrations in a tokunbo car isn't far fetched, once the car has been cranked and is running at idle speed any occupant of the car at that point isn't expected to feel any sort of vibrations or whatsoever, if that is the case then there,s a problem with the car transmission, engine mount, or there,s a case of engine misfire, always look out for this.
4. Check the transmission, checking the transmission of a tokunbo cars before purchase simply is checking for irregular engagement.
If the tokunbo car is fitted with an automatic transmission, once the vehicle is idling its best to engage the gear on drive (D) or (R) reverse, this should normally be smooth but if there,s any form of jerking or whatsoever then there is an underlying problem that needs to be identified.
5. Run a simple load test on the engine, a load test is simply going to tell you if the engine of the tokunbo car can still withstand the test of time, to do this when the car engine is still idling turn on the air condition, the needle on the RPM cluster should remain stable but if there should be any form of movement it has to be a maximum of fifty over or below, any thing beyond this should raise cause for suspicion.
6. Look out for the vin number, this should be the last stage of our research on the tokunbo car we wish to buy, a satisfactory result after undergoing the previous checks mentioned above with positive outcome simply means your tokunbo car is up for grabs,
VIN simply means vehicle identification number, these 17 digit numbers normally provides information about the vehicle history, information's like year of car manufacture, country of make, factory where it was made, and all of that are all embedded in the vin number, simply look out on the lower left part of the vehicle wind shield copy the 17 number code and visit http://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/vin-check.html
Its pretty not as easy to get a tokunbo car with an issue at all there still has to be some sort of disparity here and there but these steps will only guide us in making the right choice when shopping for tokunbo cars and also help us negotiate better.
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Car Talk