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Comment by demarq | Hacker News Reader

> round people who were good with their hands, but in my mind buying a used car isn't a scary matter - you visit the private seller, you look at the vehicle, you check for the things one needs to check for, and you know if it has problems or not.

This has nothing to do with America. The rest of the world has this problem too. Not everyone is a mechanic outside of America.

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Come to eastern Europe, nobody here buys a new car (people can't afford it unfortunately). For that exact reason most people have retained the knowledge of how to buy a used car, and choose one that is not awful, or at least the least bad one.

I am originally from EE and there are reports every month on how cars cause accidents because breaks didn't work, or an entire wheel flies out of its place. Not to mention the gazillion cases of accidents caused by improper headlights.

The only reason the second-hand market works there is because most of the used cars come from Germany, and they have strict laws for checking the cars periodically. Once they roll on the EE roads for a few years, then the cracks start popping up which cause horrible accidents.

Just implying that EE is this amazing place where second-hand cars have no issues and Americans should follow the same model shows that you have no idea what you're talking about.

So the issue isn’t second hand cars but a lack of oversight.

It depends on the country but some eastern European countries require an annual car inspection as part of registration. They check for basic stuff to ensure it's not falling apart. Thoroughness varies, and some inspectors can be bribed.

People in Eastern Europe buy new cars.

Most new cars in Eastern Europe are leases owned by banks. People buy brand new cars for themselves with cash every 15-20 years. The rest is importing totaled cars from Germany, Netherlands, and US of A.

That's how new car purchases work in the US too. Unless you pay cash, which few people do, the car belongs to whichever entity granted the loan to purchase it.

In Eastern Europe I regularly hear that car disintegrated into three pieces or engine fell off after a collision. These do not happen to a car having minor crash in its history, these happen to a car which had been totaled in the past. Eastern Europe is the scrapyard of Western Europe and yet its inhabitants found a way to fell superior about their 15 years old BMWs with engine mounted on three screws.

Some modern cars are specifically designed with frangible engine mounts to eject it downwards in a frontal crash. This is a safety measure to dissipate energy and prevent the engine from being pushed back into the passenger cabin.

I live in Amsterdam, and we can absolutely afford to buy new (especially if we were to choose not to live in Amsterdam), but there are reliable car dealers where you can buy a good second hand car for a decent price. I really don't see the point in buying new.

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