Mechanic reveals the six used cars you should NEVER buy because it could cost you thousands in repairs

A mechanic has shared the used cars that he believes you should never buy.

David Long, who is known online as the Car Wizard, uploaded a video to his YouTube channel detailing the six vehicles that he thinks prospective buyers shouldn't consider purchasing.   

The car enthusiast emphasized to 'not buy [them] under any circumstance, no matter what kind of good price or deal you're getting.'  

He warned that despite getting a discount, the amount of money that you'll spend on fixing these cars up won't make them worth it in the long run.

Here's what David advised people to avoid when searching for a used car. 

A mechanic named David Long has shared the used cars that he believes you should never buy

2004 to 2010 Ford F150 or Expedition F250

David started off the video by saying: 'Number one [on] top of the list, of course, [is the] 2004 to 2010 Ford F150. 

'Expedition F250 - any of the group of vehicles that Ford sells in these year ranges, with the Ford 5.4 triton V8 - the three valve.

'The two valves aren't so bad - we're talking about three valves, which is in this year range. 

'Those of you who have seen my videos before, know that I hate these engines. 

'I hate these cars - not so much 'cause the car itself is such a bad vehicle, but it's what they've done to people. It really aggravates me. It really bothers me. 

'These have cam-phaser issues, timing-chain issues, and most people for some reason do not maintain these very well with oil changes, and the engines are always sludged up.'

David continued: 'Every one that I've ever worked on is sludged up internally - all the oil passages inside are sludged up, and there's no way to clear all that out.

'They already have cam-phaser issues and the fix is a brand-new engine - six to seven thousand dollars [to fix it].

'By the time you're seeing an ad for one, or it's for sale, or they just picked it up at auction - it's very likely one of those is going to need a new engine.

'It has happened so many times guys - it's over 20 engines I've replaced now at six to seven thousand dollars a pop, where people say, "It was just making this little ticking noise. It ran fine." 

'Don't buy one of these. I'm going to say it one more time.'

He emphasized to 'not buy [certain cars] under any circumstance, no matter what kind of good price or deal you're getting' - including the 2004 to 2010 Ford F150 (stock image)

Cars that have General Motors' 3.6 liter V6

Next up, David listed a 'group of cars' that share 'the same problem.'

'The next one we're going to get to is a group of cars, because they all share the same drive trains, or same problems, or transmissions, and that is any and all, which means, all years - Acadia, Enclave, Traverse, Outlook, Equinox, Terrain - all of these, all of these have the horrible GM 3.6 liter V6 after use,' he explained.

'In many different cars and SUVs that GM makes - we all know the timing chain troubles -  they rarely ever maintain very well, which kills the timing-chain system. 

'In many different cars and SUVs that GM makes - we all know the timing chain troubles -  they rarely ever maintain very well, which kills the timing-chain system. 

Read More

Mechanic shares the six most reliable used cars that you can get for under $10,000 - and what makes them so good

'It's an engine-out job and it's always three, four, five grand, depending on how much damage is done.'

He added that when people email him inquiring about which car to get, he immediately responds with: 'Toyota - no brainer. Get the Toyota and it never fails.' 

David suggested: 'One thing you can do is look at your registration or look at your sales.

'When you bought the vehicle, it'll list the engine package usually, or list the options.

'Another thing you can do is pop the hood and find the emissions label. There's a little white label with black writing. It'll say 5.7 liter or 3.4 liter.

'It'll say what engine is in that car, and the third thing you can do is actually Google your year, and make and model, and see the engine packages [that] were listed in that car.

'You could look at images or Google pictures of the engines available, and see if it matches the one you have - if it looks similar - that's one way you can tell if you have that engine.'

David added: 'And lastly, a way that you can look it up is through the VIN number. You can just type in the VIN number, but I believe the 10-digit in the VIN is the engine identifier.

'You can see exactly what engine is in your car - if it's any of these I've listed that were bad, and [if] you're looking to buy this vehicle, don't buy it. 

Next up, David listed a 'group of cars' that share 'the same problem,' General Motors' 3.6 liter V6, which includes the Traverse

Any European car with more than 150,000 miles

'The next group of cars really doesn't narrow or focus on any brand or make - it would be any European car with over 150,000 miles,' he said.

'I don't care if it's a Mini Cooper, a Mercedes, a BMW, a Land Rover, a Jaguar - all of them, because it frequently drains people's bank accounts. 

'When they get this many miles on them, they will never be finished being fixed.'

David insisted that you will 'never reach a point where you can say, "I got everything fixed, I'm good for a while."'

'You will never be good for a while,' he said. 'It will be constant - one to two, to three thousand [dollars worth of] repairs every three to six months. There is a slew of these cars with high miles for sale.

'They're really cheap. These cars might have been fifty, seventy-five hundred thousand dollar cars when they were new, and now they're only five thousand dollars.

'You say, "Boy that's a bargain." No it's not. There's a reason why it's so cheap - because people who have money that bought those cars new - they know better. 

David also called out European cars, like the Mini Cooper (stock image), that have done more than 150,000 miles

'They're like, "Oh hell no, I don't want one of those cars. It'll cost more than I paid to buy it, to keep the repairs up-to-date, and keep everything maintained."

'It's very easy to buy one of these for five grand, and put 10 grand in repairs in it over five years. It is not a wise financial decision. 

'These cars can literally break your bank, and they're not fun. They're fun for the first few weeks, but after that, and you're like, "This was a mistake. This is costing way too much money." Don't buy one of those guys.'

Any General Motors vehicle with a 3.1 or 3.4 V6 

David also recommended to stay away from any vehicle with a General Motors engine with a 3.1 or the 3.4 V6.

'I myself have repaired a lot of these as well,' he shared. 'They really only have head gasket or intake manifold issues that leak coolant into the oil, and ruin the engine, and if this is caught ahead of time, or if they're maintained well, it's actually not that bad of an engine, but there's the key thing that I just mentioned - "maintained very well." 

'These 3.1 and 3.4 are the most abused engine I've ever seen in my life. They're usually purchased by someone. 

'They're really cheap, and they're someone that has no interest in maintenance, whatsoever, and they drive it until the wheels fall off.

He warned that despite getting a discount, the amount of money that you'll spend on fixing up the cars won't make them worth it. The Equinox was also on his list (stock image)

'They don't even do oil changes. They do nothing. They just drive it, and it always comes to the intake gasket leaks.

'[They tell me]: "It's been leaking a little bit like that for a year. I've just been nursing it along. Now, I need to get it fixed," and I'm like, "you can't get it fixed - it's ruined. The bearings inside the motor have gotten water on them."

'It's so easy with these cars to financially total it, with the intake gasket leak, [cause] if the engine's shot, even if you put a salvage yard motor in.

'By the time you pay for labor and the motor, even if it's two or three thousand dollars, which is cheaper than a new engine, which is eight or ten, you still have spent more than you spent on the car.'

David also shared tips for people looking to buy one, adding, 'Check the coolant reservoir. Make sure there's not gunky oil inside of it. 

'Check the oil dipstick. Make sure it's not got water or milky-looking oil in it, and go drive it. 

'Make sure it doesn't overheat, or make sure there's no issues with oil pressure or anything like that, but it's not really something you can see that easy. 

'You just have to to drive it, and kind of know what you're looking at, but check the oil for sure, because if it's milky, like chocolate milk, don't buy it. In fact, don't buy them at all. They're that bad.'

Any truck or SUV that has these two features

The other type of vehicle he suggested people avoid was 'any truck or SUV that has AFM or MDA, which is multi-displacement system or active fuel management.'

David said: 'These would be the 5.7 or the 6.4 Hemis with MDS. This can also be the 5.3 or the 6.0 Max Vortec that have active fuel management. 

'What these have is lifters, that can turn themselves on and off, to shut down cylinders, which is oil pressure operated.

'Regardless if it's Chrysler Corporation, or General Motors, these things fail like crazy - they drop like flies.

'It's really sad because on an older engine, you could pull a cam out, and do a cam- change, and change a valve train without a major tear-down, but both the hemi and the vortec engines require the heads to come off.

'There's no way around it - you're not getting the cam out without pulling the heads off.'

David continued: 'These lifters have little rollers on them that roll on the cam shaft, and what can happen is they can actually turn sideways - it's no longer rolling properly, and can just destroy the camshaft - destroy the lifters. 

'And in worst-case-scenario, can actually break the engine block. The bores where the lifters sit - they can actually crack and break them - it causes so much damage.

'One of the telltale signs is [there is] a squeaking or a ticking while it's running on the hemis, or on the Chevys, you'll just hear a ticking noise.

'Every time I've done these jobs, it's three to five thousand dollars, just because like I said, the heads have to come off.

'Now there is AFM or MDS delete, but what does that do for the prior damage, before you purchase the vehicle, because it is known for these rollers on the lifters to score the cam lopes.

'And maybe it may not be a problem for another year or two, but just because you deleted the AFL or MDS, doesn't mean that that now is also gone - it's not.'

The mechanic commented: 'You can still have rollers go bad on these and guess what, heads are coming off. Don't buy these guys, they're just not worth it. 

The YouTube video has gotten more than 2.3 million views and thousands of comments

Any early 2000s Subaru 

David's last car on his list was 'any of the early 2000s Subarus.'

'We all know they have head gasket issues. We all know the blow head gaskets is kind of a running joke,' he said.

'The cars themselves are actually decent cars - they're really a decent engine if you take care of the head gasket issue, but when it is time to get that done, it's two to four grand. It's an engine-out job and it's very, very, expensive.

'Here's the real crazy thing though - it's easy to think that there's not that many of those left out there that have blown head gaskets [that] are going to blow.

'They've all been fixed by now, or either they're in the junkyard, but that's not true. 

'One of the things you can check on these is [if] there's not a lot of stop leak, put in the coolant reservoir.' 

He advised buyers to stand clear from buying any Subaru from the 2000s (stock image)

David added: 'You can actually smell it. It smells really bad. It'll be brown or gray gunk all in the reservoir. Another thing you can tell is if you go to drive it, it overheats really fast. 

'Also turn on the heater. If you turn on the heat, and there's no heat coming from the heat at all, that's a very good sign that the head gaskets are blown.    

'Don't buy one of the early 2000 Subarus, unless it's had documented that the head gasket issue has been solved by a reputable shop.

'If there's no documentation [and] no records, don't buy it. It'll save you a lot of money, so hopefully this will help you guys out if you're in the market.'

The YouTube video has gotten more than 2.3 million views, and rake in thousands of comments from viewers.

Some followers were fans of the mechanic's helpful advice. One person wrote: 'I've been a mechanic for over 20 years. This man is spot-on. Listen to him'

Many followers took to the comment section to share their personal experience with buying cars that weren't worth it.

One person wrote: 'One of my favorite sayings is: "There's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes."'

A second person commented: 'With the high end "prestige cars" from Europe, the best saying I've heard is: "If you couldn't afford it new, you can't afford it now." Wise words to live by....'

A third person commented: 'I am genuinely surprised that "any Nissan with the XTRONIC CVT" didn't make this list....'

A fourth person added: 'I heard a quote that was very good: "The few thousand dollar price for a used luxury vehicle is just the down payment. The rest will be paid in repair costs."'

In addition, some followers shared their top car picks. 

'I worked building engines years ago, and this guy is right on the money,' another user shared.

'I own only Toyota and Lexus - absolutely bullet proof. I have sold my cars to family members, and none have ever been disappointed and they sold and broke even sometimes.'

A different person commented: 'Most reliable vehicle I've ever owned or known of, was my 96 ranger with the 2.3L motor. 425K plus.'

'My best experience was with 2007 Chrysler T&C that was BUILT LIKE A TANK, according to [an] oil change place,' a third added.

'3.8L made it to 440,000 with original transmission, exhaust [and] starter.'

'I have never had a single issue with my three valve 5.4 in my F150, and I use the truck for work, and I drive it hard and flat out through dirt, mud and anywhere,' someone else said. 'I don't even maintain it that well. 265,000 miles on it and runs like a beast.'

Other followers took to the comment section to praise the mechanic's advice. 

One person wrote: 'I've been a mechanic for over 20 years. This man is spot-on. Listen to him.'

A second person commented: 'I've been a mechanic for over 21 years now, and I have no issues whatsoever with this list. This wizard knows what he's talking about...keep up the great work.'

A third person wrote: 'I’ve been a mechanic for 17 min. This man knows his business.'