How To Find The Right Used Car

How To Find The Right Car

Insider Secrets - Part 1

Buying a used car can be an important decision. When people make a decision to buy anything, they’ve usually made that decision emotionally and then justify that decision with logic. When you’re about to make an expensive purchase like buying a used car, you want to buy the best vehicle for you, at the best price and to do that you need to think about what you’re doing.

The first place to start is with scanning advertisements in your local paper, your local Auto-Trader, online and even on ebay. Make a small list of used cars of interest, and make a note of its specification details like air-conditioning, ABS, power assisted steering, miles etc.

When you’re reading adverts you must learn to read between the lines, because sellers and dealers only have a small amount of space to list the cars features and good points. Often it is what is not said that means the most.

Low mileage, one owner, full service history (FSH), sun-roof (SR or FFSR for factory-fitted sunroof), etc are all selling features and will be included in the text. If they are not mentioned, then, invariably, they do not apply to that used car. Check the other cars in the same advert to get a feel for the dealer’s style.

Before you start phoning to get car details, make yourself a short list of relevant questions to ask so you can make notes as you go along. Before you even decide to look at a used car, you need to know the following:

The exact make and model
The year of manufacture and registration prefix
The colour
The mileage
MOT and Road Fund expiry dates

If you are talking with a private seller, you also need answers to the following questions:

How long have they owned the car?
Is the log book in their name?
Do they have a receipt for it?
Why are they selling it?

Any hesitance or reticence in their answers should be treated with suspicion. If you cannot get clear, definite answers, strike the car off your list. There are plenty of others to choose from.

If the vehicle is a limited or special-edition specification, then clarify exactly what that entails. Many manufacturers bring out low-specification models as loss-leaders and advertise them heavily on order to bring people into the showrooms. Once they are there, the salespeople try to persuade the customers into taking a more expensive model.

Some special editions are no more than bog standard cars with a sun-roof and a fancy name, though others are better equipped. Ensure that you know exactly what is included. The used car guides list many of these manufacturer-created specials. They do not, however, list the ones that the dealer makes up himself.

Once you have your short list, you should have some idea of the merits and demerits of each of the vehicles. The next step is to actually go out and have a good look at all the potentials in the metal.

It is not within the scope of this website to bring you up a great mechanical level of understanding. You cannot hope to diagnose accurately the faults apparent in every car you look at.

But using an ordered, systematic approach, however, you can avoid the most common pitfalls and the confidence tricksters.

Now that you're ready to go and look, I'll show you what to look for. Any used car can hide a world of problems but you don't need to be a mechanic to spot them.

The next part in our Insider Secrets series will give you the fundamentals you MUST know before you ever buy a used car. In fact, within the next few minutes, you'll be a mini-expert when it comes to checking out cars privately or at dealers. Click here to become an instant expert...