You will find that most if not all these early Lancers are reliable and mostly trouble free, providing they have been looked after with oil changes and general servicing. Best think is that are easily fixed by a home mechanic, most components have easy access. Before you buy any car i would suggest you get a inspection done by a mechanic, put it up on the hoist and have a good look at it.
But before you get to that stage make sure it is worth while inspecting in the first place. These early Lancers are particularly bullet proof, but do quick checks of the following before you even take it to a mechanic, otherwise you may be wasting your money on an inspection in the first place.
· Do a walk around the car, do all panels line up, any colour variations between panels (bumper bars excepted) , look for any dodgy repairs/rust starting anywhere. Dark Metallic paints have been know become blotchy/start to peel, but a solid one colour should be fine, this mainly occurs on the top panels only (like bootlid/roof/bonnet), check for overspray on rubbers and panels, also check around windscreen, front cowl area outside and under bonnet.
· Inspect interior for wear, get a really bright torch, look up under the dash in passenger and drivers side, is everything clean, if you see mud/dirt/staining mark could indicate it may have been in flood at one time, again if something looks funny, find another.
· If it’s a sedan, open boot peel back and check under the boot rubbers in the top corners, this is a good indication of where the car was stored, especially if it’s starting to rust.
If you see fine cracking or blotch coloured clear on the other panels this is could be an indication of dodgy repairs
· See if you can start it up from cold, it should start quickly and idle smoothly and quietly
· Seeing you are getting an auto, make sure it’s not too slow to engage in forward/reverse.
· Go for a drive, auto should change up and down smoothly, get a mate to follow you in another car, look and see how car tracks down the road, look for any blue/black smoke which may indicate worn engine. When you get back, check under hood again for noises, switch it off, come back in 5-8 mins and start it again, give it a rev to say 3500 (DONT FLOOR IT), any smoke may indicate head problems.
· After you go for a drive,check the autoFluid on the dipstick, should be red, not dirty brown, and if it smells burned or there is smoke from the dip-stick tube once the car, if any of this occurs prob best to find another car.
· If they tell you it’s a one lady owner car only driven by her, check a few things out like look at the brake pedal, accelerator pedal, do they have wear mainly on one side only? Check area around accelerator pedal, do you see worn carpet/indentations in carpet at bottom of pedal, most of the time these indicate a lady driver, otherwise just look at usual wear and tear, check wear on sides of driver seat/ vs / passenger seat.
· Best to check for oil leaks/CV joint rubbers/chassis damage/brake wear/steering while its up in the air, by all means have a quick look and check these if you wish.
· Try the a/c, if you hear strange noises under bonnet ($$$? to fix) if it doesn’t get cold, compressor engages but no noises, allow about $300-$500 for service/receiver drier/possible tx valve change. (these prices are aprox and can vary depending on problem/what company you get the job done at)
At the end of the day it all depends on price, klms as a low price will overcome all objections if you find anything serious wrong. Check the log books, is a private name / or company name (if its a company car look twice as hard) make sure they are they stamped/signed/do the dates make sense vs klms travelled/you can ring the dealer and check service history if you have the details/ best to contact selling dealer first as others may not be so helpfull.
Does it look like a 90,000 /180,000/ 250000 klm car should, ive seen high klm cars that still look new, most of those were h/way klms though, so this doesn't always hold true.
You can check all the other stuff out with mechanic while its up on the hoist, if you get that far, GOOD LUCK
