Thanks. It's so frustrating trying to find honest people or sometimes even dealerships, specially a vehicle in this price range. As I'm trying to buy another car I'm also selling my old car, it is old and has lots of issues, so I'm selling it as 'old with lots of issues and rust'. Who ever buys it will know what they get. Have a couple of buyers who is willing to buy and fix up. Now if only I can find someone who is honest to sell.
It is unfortunately a mark of the times that it's exceedingly difficult to find anything near decent for much below R80k. If I were in your shoes, I would try to stretch my budget just a little bit further. You'll also need to accept that you're looking at the Alto/Picanto/Spark/i10 kind of ballpark. If you need something bigger you'll have to compromise on age and/or mileage.
That's not even touching on everything you'll need to look out for once you do find a suitable car at the right kind of price. People who aren't in the trade will overlook the most obvious signs of past repairs, but I can give you a few pointers. Even panel gaps and matching colours across panels are the obvious ones, but there's more: Check all rubber seals for any sign of body colour overspray on them. Check all exposed screws and bolts that attach any body panels, especially on door, bonnet and boot hinges. Panel-beaters can do the nicest job imaginable, but very few will bother to repaint screws and bolts once repaired panels have been reattached. Obvious tool marks are a dead giveaway. Look under the bonnet at the top fixings of the grille, headlights, radiator and such for both tool marks and misaligned screws, washers and spacers. On many cars you can see stickers with production dates on the headlights, which means you can cross-check the headlights' date of manufacture with the car's. If you have a 2008 car with headlights made in 2013 there was probably a prang in its history.
Feel the paint! Run your hand across panels and especially on the edges of doors, bonnet and boot. Factory paint jobs on modern cars are, for the most part, near flawless and smooth to the touch; any inconsistency - especially from one panel to the next - should raise questions. Another common giveaway would be the texture of the paint on door panels behind the handles; if the doors feel smooth to the touch but rough behind the handles, someone wasn't in the mood for a tricky sanding job. Keep in mind though that there's nothing inherently wrong with driving a properly repaired car - the aim would be to spot obvious botched repairs, and to rather walk away from something that looks like it's been through the wars.
That's a crash course of the most obvious telltale signs as far as the bodywork goes but buying a second-hand car is also fraught with mechanical pitfalls. Checking for a stamped service record is one thing, but that wouldn't preclude the car from having current mechanical issues. Check tyre tread all round. Check if you can see how much friction material the brake pads still have - anything above about 1/2 a centimetre or so should be alright. Pay attention to the travel of the clutch pedal. If it's not progressive from top to bottom, or feels unusually stiff, it's probably past its best. When test driving feel for any play on the steering that could betray worn front suspension components: if you keep the steering wheel still the car should maintain its current track, and anything more than a degree or two of turn before you can feel the car react would be cause for concern. Drive the car with both radio or ventilation switched off and listen carefully for any unusual knocking or grinding noises when cornering or traversing an uneven surface. Once you're satisfied with the drive, check that aforementioned radio and ventilation actually work. Air con repairs can be very costly...
That's about as much as my Sunday brain can muster. I can't overstate the value of having someone knowledgeable giving any prospective purchase a once-over though. Even if you only take any car you're considering past the nearest franchise dealer, most used car managers would be happy to give a car a quick glance for any glaring issues even if you're not likely to buy from them. Most of all, keep your expectations reasonable. Genuine bargains on the used car market are exceedingly rare, so if a car's price seems too good to be true it probably is.
