Buying A Second Hand Car

[Svalbaard]

Count the wheels. If there are fewer than four, back away from the deal.

On a more serious note, if you have to ask a bunch of internet geeks what to look for in a second hand car, you should probably be looking at this http://www.theaa.com/car-data-checks/ rather than CUK.

Unless it is a 3 wheeler like a Robin reliant. Then it should be something like:

If wheels < 3 then
back away from car
endif

[sasguru]

Buy a banger now. Wait till the government's imminent announcement of £2K recycling offer for cars over 10 years old, provided they are exchanged for up to a 1 year old car. Voila, a free discount.

This will happen. Remember you heard it here first.

[Ruprect]

get an inspection from dekra. this includes the data check. Also, check out parkers guide for how much its worth to see whether it is priced correctly.

Lastly, don't let the wife drive it into a wall 10 days after you buy it.

[oracleslave]

For me, what is the seller like (applies to private and garage). Decent cars are sold by decent people.

Service history. Has the car been serviced on time by a reputable specialist or main dealer.

Ring the garage that has serviced the car and make sure they know it.

Check the car out https://www.mytextcheck.com/

Read up on the car here http://www.whatcar.com/valuations.aspx

Check it has a long MOT and has no obvious faults. Test drive it a long way in different traffic conditions.

Didn't you flog a car recently with some fault that you were trying to hide?

[Ruprect]

Didn't you flog a car recently with some fault that you were trying to hide?

Someone on here managed to flog a car that stank of sh it to a bloke with a cold. Don't test drive a car with a cold!

[DimPrawn]

Didn't you flog a car recently with some fault that you were trying to hide?

Read my post.

"Decent cars are sold by decent people."



HTH

[Drewster]

Unless it is a 3 wheeler like a Robin reliant.

No No No PRC1964 Had it right.....
A Reliant Robin is NOT a Car

[oracleslave]

Read my post.

"Decent cars are sold by decent people."



HTH

[zara_backdog]

Check the log book.

If buying private, there are lots of 'dealers' who sell from home or people who by and sell on the side. The logbook will confirm how long the person selling the car has had the car. Also never buy a car with 'log book to follow'. And be warned if they are 'selling for a friend' and the last name on the log is a fair distance away. This may be a sign of a car been brought at auction, done up and sold on.


This also goes for main dealers as well, got caught with this buying a car from a main dealer ( sorry if I sound like Wilmslow) where they said ' we are waiting for the log book to come back as we had to tax the car'. I was told it had one owner plus the garage, when it was sent back to me I was the 5th owner on the log and the car was only 2 1/2 years old.

[Tensai]

I'm actually selling one at the moment, and the most pertinent questions tend to be around what work has been done on the car. E.g if it's done 70K (or whatever) with no replacement parts, then you can be fairly sure you'll need to fork out for brakes/clutch/etc some time soon.