Buying a used car is something that almost all of us are going to do at some point
and it can be scary it's a big purchase so you've got to kind of take the emotion
out to the buying process and look at the information that's available to you
There's loads of information available
from all sorts of places especially online
and you should look at that, but for what it's worth here's what i look
for when I'm buying
a used car
There are all sorts of things you can check
without even getting inside and starting the engine Does the mileage ring true
with the exterior condition of the car. Now if this car had been flogged
up and down the motorway
for tens of thousands of miles there'd be telltale signs
not least
scratches and nix in the paint work especially here on the leading edge of
the bonnet
also check the windscreen for little cracks and scratches
Now the conditions of the wheels and the tyres is usually a dead giveaway
this one
has got a bit of a
curving mark on it there
but that's not too serious
don't kick tyres
kicking tyres
tells you nothing, modern tyres the constructions incredibly rigid
but if you do go to buy a used car
you will have to take with you a twenty pence piece because
if you put it in the tread
then it'll give you some indication
of whether the tyres are legal, 3mm
is the legal requirement, there should be a bit more on a car of this age
with the kind of mileage that this one
is supposed to have. When I say supposed to have
there is startling statistic - 1 in 3 used cars
has been clocked - the mileage has been wound back
to increase resale value so you need to be careful
Look at the wing mirrors - they are a dead giveaway. What kind of condition are they in
do they look like they've spent
many many many thousands of miles on a motorway? Are they covered in scratches
are they faded>
Have they been clattered?
is the glass cracked? The mirror's always a good indication.
Here's another tip for you - most cars are central locking these days so you can
tell that if there are a lot of scratches
around where the keyhole is that here is a car that's got problems perhaps with it's
electrics
or it's done many many more miles that it's supposed to have had
and that's why there's been a key put into that lock so many times.
Check the fuel filler cap as well
has it been forced has he been replaced have the keys been lost at some point
do the keys all tally together
these are all sorts of things that you can ask asks questions, ask the
previous keeper why the mileage is so low or why the mileage is so high
and these are all things that you can do
before you even get into that car
or think about starting the engine
Right, we've got the keys
let's have a look in the boot. First thing, the parcel shelf these things at the very easily
detachable we all do it you put it aside you drive off - expensive to replace
Check the carpet
is it dry? If it's not the boot seal.
might've failed that could be an expensive job
Right, let's check the spare tyre.
There isn't one.
instead
we've got one of those
emergency get you home kits
Check the jack make sure it works. Make sure the wheel brace is actually the right
wheel brace - the number of cars i've got in
where somebody's just stuck a wheel brace
in the back of the car so make sure it fits. If you're lucky enough to have alloy wheels like
these car does
check that the lock (the key for the lock on the alloy wheels) is there. If it isn't
with the car that can be hundreds of pounds to replace
Right, Let's uh...
see what's going on under
the bonnet
For goodness sake when you put the bonnet up like this don't start randomly taking
the tops off to check levels.
If this car had just been running and you undid this one
you'd get a scolded hand. There's a warning helpfully on here but do dip the oil though
because it tells you so many
things about the car. let's try this one - there we are...
so let's stick it in there and see what it tells me
all's good
If it's below the minimum mark then walk away from the car - if the car has been run
with your level below the minimum that's low oil pressure
moving parts of the engine aren't getting lubrication that they need
walk away from it. However
if when you dip it and you look at the indicator and it's over the
maximum mark that is a classic sign
of a car that's using oil - oil has been rapidly topped up
when they know that your coming round to see it so ii it's
under the minimum walk away
it is over the maximum ask why.
Right what can we tell from sitting here about this car?
without starting the engine? Well we want to know, don't we, if the mileage that's
showing
is the actual mileage this car has done. There are some tell-tale giveaways about
how much use a car has had - for instance
when you get into the car
you're inevitably rub against the door seal and the bolster of the seat
that's this bit
so check, compare the two. Look at the bolster on this side
but look at the bolster on the other side. If there's dirt or wear
or if the stitching's coming undone
the car's probably had a lot of use likewise
a leather covered stearing wheel is a dead giveaway as well wear on the wheel if
the colour's a little bit reduced where you'd put your hands at the ten-to-two position
likewise the gear stick. This one's leather covered - again
if there's signo of wear and the stitching's come undone it's probably a high mileage
car.
I would've given you a tip about whether the previous owner was a smoker
car by looking at the ashtray but like a lot of modern cars
this one doesn't come with ashtray. What it does come with though is all of the
documentation that you need - the warranty, the maintanance shedule, the service
record of the car so you can check when and where
this car been serviced. It doesn't matter too much these days
if the handbook isn't there
because you can download them from the internet. What you can download though
are the codes for things like alarms and for the radio so make sure that you've
got that information because if you haven't
if the battery's disconnected
you can't reset the alarm, you can't reset the stereo and that could cost you
a hundreds of pounds.
So, if after those comprehensive checks
you're still interested
you'll be wanting to take the car
for a test drive which is another story.
But before the test drive
you can be assured
that as one of the UK's leading retailers of used cars The Co-operative
Motor Group
makes sure it does a hundred point check on every used car it sells so that you can
be assured that the car you're interested in
is exactly the cor
that you think it is.