There is a saying that buying a used car often means buying someone else’s problems. The same goes for buying a used aircraft, except the problems are usually significantly more expensive to fix.
A pre-buy inspection can help thwart some unpleasant surprises, but it can’t catch everything. That’s because sometimes information is hidden or missing from maintenance logs or the new owner is in a hurry and doesn’t get a pre-buy, or it is a “buddy buy,” where they trust the seller, only to learn later that the seller did not disclose some issues, and the cost of repairs to make the aircraft airworthy is close to or more than the purchase price.
