Used Car Decoder

Used Car Decoder Skill

A used-car listing is a document written by someone who knows the car's problems, for someone who doesn't. The dialect is learnable: "selling for a friend" (distance from liability), "drives well for its age" (adjusted expectations), "minor cosmetic damage" (photographed from the good side), "no test drives without deposit" (walk away now). This skill decodes the ad the way [[lease-decoder]] reads a lease — severity-ranked, money math attached — then arms the viewing: the checks a non-mechanic can actually do, the questions that surface evasion, and the honest boundary: which findings mean pay a professional for an inspection and which mean leave.

What This Skill Produces

• A listing decode: phrase-by-phrase, 🔴🟡🟢, with what each hedge typically means and the question that tests it
• The before-you-travel checks: history/title verification items (accident/write-off status, finance owing, mileage consistency, recalls) — each flagged as country-specific-verify-locally with what to search, since registries differ everywhere
• A viewing & test-drive checklist ordered by cost-of-miss: the cold-start, the panel-gap walk, fluids, tires including the spare-match, electronics sweep, the specific listen-fors on the drive
• Seller questions that make evasion visible ("why selling?", "what would you fix next?", "can I take it for a pre-purchase inspection?" — the last one is the real test: honest sellers say yes)
• The money frame: comps from sold prices, what each found flaw is worth in negotiation, and the walk-away list where no price is right

Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):

• The listing text and photos described, plus price and the car (make/model/year/mileage)
• The buyer: first car or fifteenth, mechanical comfort level, who else might inspect with them
• Budget truth: the price ceiling including the first-year surprises buffer (insurance, immediate maintenance)
• Country — for the verify-local flags on history checks and paperwork (this skill never asserts registry procedures)

Framework

1. Decode the ad's dialect. Flag the classic hedges: liability distance ("for a friend/relative") · condition adjectives doing heavy lifting ("well for its age", "usual marks") · photo tells (no full-front shot, wet-car photos hiding paint, interior only) · urgency pressure ("first to see will buy") · the deposit-before- viewing 🔴s. Each flag gets its test question, not just suspicion.
2. Never travel before the paper checks. Mileage across ads/photos consistent? History check run (accident, write-off category, outstanding finance — finance owing can follow the CAR, not the seller, in many places: 🔴 verify locally)? Recalls outstanding? Seller matches the registered keeper? All flagged with what-to-search terms, none asserted as universal procedure.
3. Inspect in cost-of-miss order. Ask for a cold start (pre-warmed engines are a tell) → head-gasket-adjacent signs (mayonnaise under the oil cap, white smoke — described plainly for a novice) → panel gaps and paint-tone walk (accident repair) → tires including date-codes and the spare (uneven wear = alignment or worse) → electronics sweep (every window, warning-light theater: which lights come on at ignition and go off) → the drive: straight-line braking, full-lock turns, a listen with the radio OFF.
4. Let the questions do the work. The pre-purchase-inspection ask is the sorting hat: "can my mechanic look at it?" — yes means proceed, any version of no means the listing decoded itself. "What would you fix next?" beats "any problems?" — everyone answers the second with "nothing."
5. Frame the money before the feelings. Sold-price comps (not asking prices) set the anchor; each finding gets its rough repair-cost class (small/medium/engine-money — classes, not fake precise quotes) as negotiation material. The walk-away list is absolute: finance owing unresolved, write-off category undisclosed, no-inspection sellers, mileage that doesn't add up. And the standing rule: the deposit buffer for year-one surprises is part of the budget, not optional.

Output Format

## Listing decode
| Phrase / tell | Reading | 🔴🟡🟢 | Test question |

## Before you travel (verify-local items)
[ ] History check (search: …) [ ] Finance owing [ ] Mileage consistency
[ ] Recalls [ ] Seller = keeper — each with country-flag

## At the viewing (cost-of-miss order)
[The checklist with novice-friendly descriptions of each sign]

## Ask the seller
[The questions + what evasive answers look like]

## The money frame
[Comp anchor · findings → negotiation classes · the walk-away list ·
the year-one buffer line]

⚠ A pre-purchase inspection by a mechanic beats every checklist here for
engine/transmission health — budget for one on any car you're serious about.

Quality Checks

• Every decoded phrase quotes the actual listing — no generic suspicion without a receipt
• All registry/history/paperwork items carry verify-local flags with search terms, never asserted procedure
• The checklist is executable by the stated mechanical comfort level; pro-inspection items say so
• Repair costs appear as classes, never invented precise quotes
• The walk-away list is present and absolute — items where negotiation is explicitly the wrong response

Anti-Patterns

• Do not diagnose remotely — signs and their severity class, yes; "that's definitely the clutch," no
• Do not assert country procedures (title transfer, history registers, deposit law) — flag and route
• Do not let a good price override the walk-away list anywhere in the framing
• Do not write the seller as an enemy — most are honest; the decode exists to identify which kind is across the table
• Do not skip the pre-purchase-inspection recommendation because the buyer is excited

Related

[[mechanic-quote-decoder]] for after you own it; [[car-lease-decoder]] for the leasing route; [[car-tco]] for what this car really costs per year; [[franklin-decision-ledger]] when it's down to two cars.