Buying a car, for most, is one of the biggest purchases of your entire life. You need a car that can get you from where you want to go as quickly, safely, and reliably as possible. Especially when buying a used car, there are all sorts of things you need to be on the look out for when shopping. You need to know how reliable the car will be, the issues it has had in the past, how much you should pay, and much more. Buying a clunker could, and probably would, make you suffer for a long time, so it’s important to look at every little detail. It use to be that you would have to scour the newspaper or suffer through annoying, pushy sales people to even get to see the car you wanted, let alone find out the history of it and detailed information about it. Now, however, you can do all of this and much more with your Android phone. Read on as we countdown the top 10 apps to use while shopping for a car.
So, let’s say you have found a car for an incredible price. It hasn’t had any major accidents and looks amazing, but both of the headlights have gone out and need to be replaced. You’re pretty competent with cars, so you decide to replace them yourself, but you need to know how much they would cost and if the car would still be as cheap when the headlights are factored in. Auto Parts Warehouse is an app that indexed all sorts of car parts and catalogs and let’s you easily search for what you need. It will break down the price by the model of your car and even let you order the part directly within the app. Best of all, it is free to download.
Finding the car that is right for you may be the hardest part of the process. Do you want four doors or two? Hatchback or sedan? SUV or minivan? Honda or Toyota? AutoTrader.com is an app that lets you easily search for all cars near you or in a certain radius. The app allows you to break down the results by new or used, the mileage, make, model, and of course, the price. AutoTrader indexes cars from both dealers and private sellers and makes it easy to contact the car owner. AutoTrader is also free on the Play Store.
One of the biggest factors you should take into consideration when shopping for a car is the history. How many accidents has it been in? What repairs has it had done? How often was it inspected? Well, every car carries a unique Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN for short. Searching this number will show you a break down of history of a car and provide you with a vehicle history report. Usually, these consist of the accidents and inspections a car has had. VIN Scanner Appraiser allows you to search or scan a VIN and see detailed information about the value of the car and a vehicle history report. Though, it’s worth noting that even though the app is free, most of the data is not and you will have to pay.
Edmunds is one of the premier sources for finding out detailed information about a car. It offers detailed reviews and a specific breakdown of how reliable the car should be. It also offers the price of how much you should pay for whatever car you are considering based on the mileage, title, and source from which you are purchasing it. Edmunds also allows you to search for cars for sale near you and favorite ones that are interesting. Edmunds is free on the Play Store, as well.
This app applies more to what you should do after you have already purchased a car, but is still very useful. aCar allows you to easily keep track of things you have to do to your car. This includes things like repairs, gas fill ups, expenses, modifications, and mileage. It will even calculate how many miles per gallon you are getting based on how much you have driven and how often you fill up. aCar will also alert you when you should change things like your oil and air filters based on how many miles you have driven. This is also very useful when selling a car because you can show the detailed log to the potential buyer. aCar is free on the Play Store.
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