This is a design mockup. Second Owner Auto is an invented business. Every vehicle, price, measurement, name and number on this page is a placeholder.

Every car here is listed with the repair bill that got it onto the lot.

A used car is only worth what was done to it before you saw it. Most lots will not tell you, because most lots did the minimum. We put the whole work order on the page: what it came in as, every part we replaced and what the part cost, the brake and tread measurements in the numbers a shop actually uses, and the things we chose not to fix along with why.

One owner, one name over the door, on 169 Highway since 1984. Ray answers the phone himself and he is the one who signs the bottom of every work order below.

Nothing is sold as-is

Every car gets a 30 day, 1,000 mile powertrain warranty from us in writing. If we would not put that on it, we send it to auction instead of onto the lot.

Take it to your own mechanic

Before you buy, not after. Drive it to whoever you trust, on our plate, and bring it back with their list. We will read it with you. Three cars a year go back for this reason.

The price on the page is the price

No dealer prep, no reconditioning surcharge, no market adjustment. The only things added at the desk are the state's and they are printed further down.

Four of the eleven, with their work orders.

The rest are the same format and we will read any of them to you over the phone. Photographs are provisional. Mileage is as of this morning.

2016 Honda CR-V EX, all wheel drive

104,380 miles · VIN ending 41207 · one previous owner · on the lot 19 days

$13,450

Came in as

Trade against a truck, from a household in Excelsior Springs. Serviced at a dealer its whole life, folder of receipts came with it. Ran fine, sounded wrong on cold start.

Replaced

VTC actuator and timing chain tensioner$612
Both front axle boots$188
Cabin and engine air filters$54
Oil, filter, drain plug washer$71
Four tyres, Firestone Destination LE3$688

Measured and passed

Front brake pads9.0 mm of 11
Rear brake pads7.5 mm of 10
Tread, all four, new11/32 in
Battery, load tested590 of 600 CCA
Compression, four cylinders184 to 189 psi
Coolant freeze point−34 °F

Not fixed, on purpose

Rear hatch has a dent below the glass, about the size of a hand. Body shop quoted $540 and we did not think it was worth adding to the price. Paint is unbroken so it will not rust. The rear wiper arm is faded.

$1,613 of parts and labour went into it after we took it in. The folder of dealer receipts is in the glovebox and stays with the car.

2013 Ford F-150 XLT, 5.0, four wheel drive

158,902 miles · VIN ending 88431 · two previous owners · on the lot 6 days

$14,900

Came in as

Bought at the Wednesday sale in Kansas City. Farm truck, bed liner, gooseneck ball still in it. Southern Missouri its whole life, which is why the frame is clean.

Replaced

Front pads and rotors, both sides$396
Upper and lower ball joints, driver side$470
Spark plugs, all eight$212
Transmission fluid and filter$245
Rear window regulator$168

Measured and passed

Front brake pads, new12.0 mm of 12
Rear brake pads6.0 mm of 10
Tread, front7/32 in
Tread, rear6/32 in
Battery, load tested640 of 650 CCA
Frame and rockers, on the liftsurface rust only

Not fixed, on purpose

Tyres are matched and legal but they are at the point where you will want four inside a year. Budget $900. We would rather tell you that than sell you the cheapest set on the shelf and call it new rubber. Air conditioning blows cold but the blower squeals on setting one.

$1,491 of parts and labour after we took it in. Rear brakes have about 25,000 miles left in them on our reckoning, and that is a guess, not a promise.

2018 Toyota Corolla LE

71,004 miles · VIN ending 30916 · one previous owner · on the lot 2 days

$14,200

Came in as

Estate car out of Liberty, driven by one person to church and to Price Chopper. Nothing was wrong with it. This is the one we spent the least on and it is the one we would put a teenager in.

Replaced

Oil, filter, cabin filter$88
Both wiper blades$34
Rear brake pads and rotors$310

Measured and passed

Front brake pads8.5 mm of 11
Rear brake pads, new10.0 mm of 10
Tread, all four8/32 in
Battery, load tested545 of 550 CCA
Compression, four cylinders191 to 194 psi
Accident historynone reported

Not fixed, on purpose

Nothing. There was nothing to fix, which happens perhaps six times a year. The paint on the roof has the fine haze that a car gets from sitting outside for eight summers, and a detailer could improve it. We left it.

$432 of parts and labour after we took it in. Priced $600 over the Ford above because it will need nothing for two years, not because it is a nicer car.

2011 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium

186,441 miles · VIN ending 55208 · three previous owners · on the lot 41 days

$6,750

Came in as

Walked in off the street with a head gasket weep and a check engine light. This is a cheap car and we have priced it as one. Read the right hand column before you drive it.

Replaced

Head gaskets, both banks, machine work included$2,180
Timing belt, water pump, idlers, tensioner$690
Rear catalytic converter$540
Front wheel bearings, both sides$430
Oil, coolant, plugs$165

Measured and passed

Front brake pads6.5 mm of 11
Rear brake pads5.0 mm of 10
Tread, all four5/32 in
Battery, load tested510 of 550 CCA
Compression after the rebuild171 to 176 psi
Emissions, retestedpassed, no codes

Not fixed, on purpose

It is a 186,000 mile car and it looks like one. The driver's seat bolster is worn through, the tailgate struts are tired, and at 5/32 the tyres are legal but past half worn. Four tyres and brakes all round is roughly $1,400 and you will want that inside eighteen months. It has sat here 41 days because we will not pretend otherwise.

$4,005 of parts and labour after we took it in, on a $6,750 car. That is why the head gasket job is worth reading about rather than worrying about.

Those numbers are useless unless you know what good looks like.

Three measurements decide most of what a used car will cost you in its first two years. Here is what each one means, so the work orders above are readable rather than decorative.

Tread depth, in thirty-seconds of an inch: New is 10 or 11. Missouri's legal minimum is 2. Rain performance falls off a cliff below 5, which is where a lot of "plenty of tread left" actually sits. Under 5, budget for tyres this year.
Brake pad thickness, in millimetres: A new pad is 10 to 12 mm of friction material. Shops call it at 3 and most states fail inspection at 2. So a pad at 6 mm is genuinely half used, not "fine", and a pad quoted without a number is not a measurement.
Cold cranking amps, against the rating: A battery is printed with what it should make. A load test says what it actually makes. Below about 75 percent of the rating it will start the car all summer and strand you in January. Every battery figure above is a tested figure, not the label.
Compression, in psi across the cylinders: The absolute number matters less than the spread. If the highest and lowest cylinder are within about 10 percent of each other the engine is healthy. A single low cylinder is the expensive kind of bad news, and it is why we test before we buy.

What happens at the desk, and what it adds.

We are not a buy-here-pay-here lot and we do not carry paper. If you need financing we send the application to two credit unions and one bank and show you all three answers, including the rate, on the same sheet. If your own bank beats them, take your own bank. We are paid the same either way.

Trade-ins are appraised on the lift with you standing there. We tell you the wholesale number and what we would price it at afterwards, so you can decide whether to sell it yourself instead. Roughly a third of people do, and that is a fine outcome.

Missouri collects sales tax and titling fees at the licence office, not from us, and the rate depends on where you live rather than where you buy. Bring the title and both keys if you are trading. Bring proof of insurance either way, because you cannot leave without it.

Everything we add, in full

Administrative and documentation fee$199

Temporary tag, 30 day$12

Title and processing, paid through to the state$18.50

Safety and emissions inspection, already doneincluded

30 day 1,000 mile powertrain warrantyincluded

Full tank of fuel at deliveryincluded

Sales tax, registration and personal property tax are collected by the state at the licence office in Liberty and none of it comes to us. On a $14,000 car in Clay County that is commonly around $1,200. Ask us to work yours out before you decide.

Come look at the underside of it.

There is a lift in the back building and it is the reason to come here rather than read this page. Point at a car, we will put it up, and you can stand under it with a flashlight while we tell you what every wet spot is. It takes ten minutes and nobody ever regrets it.

Call (816) 555-0163 Or just turn up. Somebody is here all day.

118 N US Highway 169, Smithville, MO 64089
Monday to Friday 9 to 6, Saturday 9 to 4, closed Sunday.