I'm almost as new as you but I went ahead and bought one new and reading all these posts makes me nervous, all they talk about is problems, no one seems to say golly mine is runnin fine. I love mine so far but I can't tell you what to look at other than what is posted here already and you'd have to read forever, the dealer probably has done all the maintenance on it since it is so new so the oil and all fluids must have been changed so that won't be an indicator of any problems. Sorry couldn't help you but enjoy it if you buy it, don't expect any good gas milage and two wheel drive will be less to break than 4x4.