This week’s “Ask the Mechanic” piggybacks off Dave’s answer to last week’s question with some informative advice on how to take advantage of your local specialist by getting a used car checked before purchasing it.

We welcome special guest Katie Neer, who has worked alongside her husband Dave to provide quality car repair services to their community at large for over 14 years.

More than the business' receptionist, Katie brings life, knowledge and dedication to Solomon’s Garage every day with her kind demeanor.

Since Dave had to travel out of town this week, she did not hesitate to step in and offer helpful advice to us.

Here is Katie’s valuable input:

You probably wouldn't dream of buying a home without having an inspection done beforehand. You don't want to risk buying something with a major problem and not be prepared to handle it.

Most people's second largest investment next to their home is their car. And yet they often rush out and buy a used car without knowing fully what they are getting themselves into.

In our 14 years at Solomon's Garage, we have served many customers who have made used car purchases they later found to regret. Through these experiences, we have concluded it would be very wise to consider a pre-purchase inspection before purchasing a used vehicle.

Generally, whether you’re purchasing from a dealer, a used car lot or an individual, if you ask whether you can drive the car to the shop and have your mechanic look over it, most sellers are more than willing.

If they insist you don't have it looked over, or that their service department already looked it over, that is a red flag and good enough reason to simply walk away. If you think about it, the mechanic at a used car lot or dealership has a vested interest to NOT find issues.

They usually won't let the car leave their lot with a major safety issue, but they often neglect to share all the information. If the seller has nothing to hide, they will not mind you having your mechanic look at it at all.

For a nominal fee, our pre-purchase inspections have helped our customers avoid lemons, vehicles that have been severely neglected, and not serviced, or vehicles that have not been kept clean, resulting in premature rusting of frames and suspension components.

We are able to give the customer an idea of any maintenance or repairs upcoming on the car (which often led the previous owner to decide to put it up for sale).

For example, a couple may own a Honda Pilot that has just reached 100,000 miles. They take it in for service and find it is due for its first timing belt service and spark plugs. Rather than pay for that $1,500-$2,000 service, they buy a new car and sell this or trade it in. You are now considering buying the car. You will want to know that $1,500-$2,000+ in service is still due.

In fact, there is usually SOMETHING that the previous owner did not do before selling the vehicle. So, we typically suggest whatever your budget for a used car is, simply subtract about $2,000 and plan to spend that on deferred repairs or maintenance the previous owner opted not to do before selling.

Most people are familiar with the advice, "find a good used car with low miles, something that has been sitting in Grandma's garage and only driven to church on Sunday." We are here to tell you that has all changed.

We live in a throwaway society these days. While your grandma's garage fridge is the one she originally purchased when they moved in back in 1962, and it still works just fine, new refrigerators purchased in recent years are considered great if they last five years.

Similarly, our vehicles are throw-away as well. We are finding that the average modern car has a useful life of 10-15 years max nowadays. Therefore, you no longer want to find that 10-year-old car with 20,000 miles sitting in an elderly person's garage, barely driven. That car is made with all the same materials engineered by the manufacturer to last 10-15 years, whether it is driven or not.

The lighter-weight metals are corroded and rusting, and the plastics get brittle and break, whether Grandma is driving that car or not. That time capsule of a car is no longer a good thing. Rather, we are now in a race against time to get as many useful miles out of a car as we can in 10-15 years.

So when shopping for a car, you can simply drive down the price by looking for the newest car you can find with near 100,000 miles. Other people are terrified to buy the car with that many miles! But most manufacturers make the cars these days to hit 200k miles, but it has to be done in that 10-15 year period. And we just let you in on this great secret!! This is how we saved $20,000, for example, on our minivan.

If given the choice between a three to four year old car with 100k miles and a 10-year old car with only 20k miles, we pick the NEWER car every time. The materials in the newer car are not rusting, brittle, and breaking.

And the car still has 10 years of life. The 20k-mile car only has 3-5 more useful years, and repairs will become plenty and expensive because the car is literally falling apart.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but getting your trusted mechanic to look it over before you buy it is always a great idea. At Solomon's Garage, we understand that when buying a good used car, time is of the essence, so you don't miss out on a good one, so we work to prioritize pre-purchase inspections on the schedule.

Thank you, Katie, for this commonsensical advice. Solomon's Garage is located at 122 S. Detroit St., West Liberty. Call (937) 887-0029 to book today or visit solomonsgarage.com for more information.