Comments by "Stephen Hendricks" (@stephenhendricks103) on "" video.

Good advice, Kirk. Especially to scour private party sources rather than dealers. Here's my story. A couple of months ago I needed to find a used car. Primarily for my 17 y/o daughter as a daily driver. We're a family of three drivers with two cars and though it was far from a desperate situation I'd found that the miles were piling up on our 2018 KIA Sorento (her mom's daily driver) and my beloved Mk 7.5 GTI, a car I used 3-4 days a week and treat like a first born. I hadn't purchased a used car in years and I knew it was a terrible time to be shopping but I figured (naively) that I could find a reliable, relatively low mileage (less than 100K miles on the clock) car she could drive for a couple of years as she went off to college for, say, $5K-$6K. And being a parent I wanted it to have as many modern safety and driver assistance features as possible. She would have been happy with anything with four wheels but she expressed a hope that it would be a "stick." (I suspect that was an effort to impress her boyfriend but having owned many MT vehicles over the years, I agreed that would be a great idea for a first car of her own.) I agreed to look for a car that came close to both her and my expectations. So off I went to dealers around the Seattle metro area and scoured Facebook, Autotrader, and other internet sites for candidates. It didn't take long to discover that my original budget and expectations were stuck back in the 20th century. Not only were MT vehicles few and far between but any hope of finding a car with fewer than 100K miles, service records, and a clean title for less than $10K was a pipe dream. What I did find weren't vehicles I'd want my daughter to drive. (I'm a dad, after all.) Still, I stuck with the search and after a month or so I happened across a 2012 VW CC from a private party about 90 miles away with 44K miles and (amazingly) a manual transmission. Asking price was $11K. That was about $3000 less (or even more) than comparable versions of the CC I found within a 500 mile radius, each of which had over 100K miles on the clock. When I drove to see it I found it was owned by an engineer who purchased it new, never drove it in the winter and kept it garaged year round. The only external blemish was a quarter inch curb rash on one wheel. The interior was like new. And he had every service record including oil changes in a fat folder he provided. I paid his asking price and drove it home on the condition that my mechanic could give it a thorough inspection. An oil and filter change and a new set of tires to replace the 9 year old originals were the result. (The tires had good tread but rubber gets old.) My daughter learned to drive a "stick" in a couple of weeks. Her reputation among her peers, especially the males, mushroomed. Now, rather than being pestered repeatedly to borrow my GTI, I have the great pleasure of pestering my daughter to borrow "her" car. And as a result of the low mileage I'm confident my daughter will be able to put 50K miles or more on the car over the next several years or replace it with only a moderate depreciation penalty. Lessons learned? Persistence pays off. If possible, keep looking for that rare well treated vehicle. Dealers have to make a profit on the cars they sell. Better deals are likely from private parties. If possible know the seller or get an impression of how they have treated the car they're selling. (Engineers are often a picky lot with a passion for details. Twenty-something Mustang GT owners rate at least a caution flag.) Nearly all modern cars will provide well over 100K miles of service without major issues but proof of regular maintenance from a seller, especially if they're the original owner, is a good sign. An immaculate interior is another sign of an owner's commitment to a vehicle. Yeah, it's a lousy time to be shopping for a vehicle. If you can hold off for a year or more, do so. But if you cannot, my experience suggests there are reasonable (if not fantastic) deals out there.
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