used cars for sale need checking

There are many things you can do before buying a used car in order to check if it's been repaired for a previous accident. Getting a history report of the car and bringing an expert along with you for a close inspection are two of them. However, you can also "train your eye" to spot accident repaired cars. Here's what you should check before buying a used car:

- Stand back a little and slowly check from both, front and rear, the condition of the car's general structure : we're looking for some kind of asimmetry or strange angles.

- Then, come a bit forward, put your head next to body of the car and try to determine if there are ripples of some kind on its surface. Straight lines on the side of the car should be, well, straight. There shouldn't be any interruptions, deviations or "waves". Ask for the car to be reasonably clean when doing all this and never do any inspections with poor light.

- Make sure there's no paint overspray. In particular, take a close look at the trunk, the engine and door gaskets.

Check the car's body panels to see if their colors match. Do they differ from the original color?

See if the gaps between the panels are similar. Again, check for asymmetries. Also, see if the car's doors open and close smoothly. If they do not, that may be a sign of structural damage.

Finally, take a look at the bolts on the sides, under the hood: Do they look like they've been tampered? If they do, that's obviously not a good sign.