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..
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