take it to a good mechanic to take a nice look through the whole thing....make sure there is nothing that will leave you regretting anything. frame, engine, maintence, interior, rust, rot, where it has been (anything that has been in the ocean is not good at all...), was it a plow truck (they take a lot of abuse!!) work truck, how much work was done? overworked?

just the basics, ya know

Quote from logitekg25 :

take it to a good mechanic to take a nice look through the whole thing

Best advice so far. And if the guy selling the car has nothing to hide, he won't have a problem with that either.

I do this everytime when i buy a used car. So far it has been well worth the trouble.

How much would that cost though? I'm not spending 1/4 of the cost of the entire car just on having it checked over.

Quote from Jakg :

I disagree - my tire wear issue, for example, to get fixed by a garage would of been £300+ in labour, yet it's pretty much un-noticable to the eye without actively looking for it.

My car also recently started leaking power steering fluid - I could top it up, drive for a day and then it would make a horrible grinding noise as it ran out of fluid. Luckily it was just a perished pipe but could of been all manner of things, and had I of cleaned the engine and moved just before you arrived to test drive it you'd never notice.

Radio doesn't work, needs code, PITA to get. Electic locking not working, same.

My cars doors also have a habit of unlocking if left out in the wet, but you'd never know in a test drive. Same for the passenger door lock freezing when left in *very* cold conditions...

Cars thermostat ****ed? No problem over a 30 minute test drive, but longer and bad things happen. Car doesn't start well when cold? No problem, get it started, warm it up, turn it off as the punter pulls up, starts like a charm.

Cars *can* have all sorts of issues with them. Obviously most people would sell a car honestly, and describe these faults, but my uncles son sells used cars from other peoples driveways when there on holiday so I doubt everyone does...

Well I'm not saying don't bother looking at the car and just drive it away, I'm just saying you don't need to panic about it, the chances are if it's a solid chassis then there's a solid motor there. We are talking of chance, if you notice it's been in a fenderbender and the chassis has weakness but you can't notice it, you will assume the engine or transmission is going to have been affected too. There's just no reason to make a big deal of looking through everything, but then again, I buy Volkswagens or other VAG stuff, and most VAG owners are honest people when selling cars. Not hard, since nothing ever goes wrong with them anyway.

Quote from Crashgate3 :

How much would that cost though? I'm not spending 1/4 of the cost of the entire car just on having it checked over.

AA do inspections for about £50 (but they can't be that solid). I'm sure a local garage would do it too, but charge a packet.

Easiest way it to find a friend who's a mechanic - i've got a friend that would happily do it for a pint or two.

Quote from BlueFlame :

Well I'm not saying don't bother looking at the car and just drive it away, I'm just saying you don't need to panic about it, the chances are if it's a solid chassis then there's a solid motor there.

Did you totally miss everything I just typed?

To fix all of those issues in a garage would be at least a grand, but you'd have a hard time noticing most...

Theres not to say theres not honest people about, but whenever you buy second hand expect problems (theres a reason they are getting rid remember) of some king.

Quote from Jakg :

Did you totally miss everything I just typed?

To fix all of those issues in a garage would be at least a grand, but you'd have a hard time noticing most...

Theres not to say theres not honest people about, but whenever you buy second hand expect problems (theres a reason they are getting rid remember) of some king.

No, I completely agreed with everything you said.
If you can't notice all of the faults, then if you aren't an expert on cars, what is the point bothering to look at all? Because you won't know what is wrong or not.

Quote from BlueFlame :

No, I completely agreed with everything you said.
If you can't notice all of the faults, then if you aren't an expert on cars, what is the point bothering to look at all? Because you won't know what is wrong or not.

*facepalm*

I highly doubt even an "expert" on cars would notice the issues I posted above - they are the sort of thing you wouldn't notice until you had the thing.

Another example - on the Focus, the fuel gauge can stick. Is it a big issue? Well a bit, it's £200 to fix. Would you notice on a test drive? Probably not because you wouldn't go far enough... Would an "expert on cars" notice? again probably not...

Quote from Jakg :

*facepalm*

I highly doubt even an "expert" on cars would notice the issues I posted above - they are the sort of thing you wouldn't notice until you had the thing.

Didn't understand that's what you were saying but not even a test drive could reveal alot of problems. Personally I don't care about service history really, I prefer a car that's worn at the engine and brakes etc, because then you can just change it all, and it's all brand new. Rather than have to change things at stupid intervals.

Quote from BlueFlame :

Didn't understand that's what you were saying but not even a test drive could reveal alot of problems. Personally I don't care about service history really, I prefer a car that's worn at the engine and brakes etc, because then you can just change it all, and it's all brand new. Rather than have to change things at stupid intervals.

Some of us aren't that rich! Is that your Dad's garage in your homepage link?

Quote from Crashgate3 :

How much would that cost though? I'm not spending 1/4 of the cost of the entire car just on having it checked over.

If it's a friendly guy, he'll do it for free (only takes about 15 minutes). It helps if you know the people at said garage. Ask friends and relatives if they have mechanic friends, or a well trusted garage/mechanic they know since a few years, etc.

If you don't know the mechanic/garage, there's not much of a point to go there and let them take a look.

Another thing we have in switzerland is something called "TCS". Which stands for "Touring Club Schweiz". They'll do the same thing for a small fee of about 100 bucks and will do a quick inspection of all the important things on the car (check for broken stuff, previous accidents, oil leaks, etc). Maybe there's something similar in your country?

Quote from tristancliffe :

Some of us aren't that rich! Is that your Dad's garage in your homepage link?

Well spotted, where the world's leading diesel tuner has obviously honed his expertise. I'm not sure if being greeted by a badly photoshopped Skoda is really the best start, or the gratuitous use of stolen press pics. And has the van been photoshopped or just parked outside a much more impressive building?

Ha ha, I hadn't spotted the photoshopped Skoda. But hiring 6 year olds to do the photoshopping is much easier financially

Quote from tristancliffe :

Some of us aren't that rich! Is that your Dad's garage in your homepage link?

No.

In case anyone who missed it wants a laugh.

http://www.centralvwaudi.com/

Quote from ajp71 :

In case anyone who missed it wants a laugh.
Only needs to look at me driving my Lada

No? Why remove it then?

Oooh, started with the Lada comments. Feeling vulnerable Blueflame?

http://www.cylex-uk.co.uk/comp ... ral-vw-audi-13319069.html

Are you Simon, Peter, Tim or Paul Cooper, or Russ Fellows? Or are you none of them because you don't know enough about... anything... to work in the company?

Yes the Lada is a laugh a minute as is the Volvo and pretty much any small old petrol engined rear wheel drive car with Oscars stuck on the front on a night rally. It's a pretty simple formula that doesn't involve diesels, front wheel drive, bodykits, silly LED day time lights or purple paint.

Quote from tristancliffe :

No? Why remove it then?

Oooh, started with the Lada comments. Feeling vulnerable Blueflame?

http://www.cylex-uk.co.uk/comp ... ral-vw-audi-13319069.html

Are you Simon, Peter, Tim or Paul Cooper, or Russ Fellows? Or are you none of them because you don't know enough about... anything... to work in the company?

I removed it because I didn't know I still had it on there. I'm non of those people.

i have no idea the price, as i am only 14 :hide:

but my dad does all that for us, and all of our used car needs....we literally almost bought 5 cars but all of them had something wrong with them tht would have costed us in the long run.

if you ship it to around here my dad probably wont mind taking a quick look at it for you

Back on topic:
1. That the seller owns the car in full (He. Not the bank, not the repoman, not IRS, not some other dude etc.)
2. That I can afford the inevitable surprise. All old cars have faults, some you can live with some you can't (varies by person).

Don't go take a look at the car at night it hides a multitude of sins

Yeah, that's one of the things every guide I've read says. Or in the rain.

Speaking of "not at night or in the rain," one thing to point out is, you should also check it out at night. My last car I bought I found out how horrible the lights were about a week later after the first time driving in the dark. They were absolutely horrible lights on my Nissan Altima.

I ran over a dead deer in the middle of the road because I never saw it. The headlights on the Altima sharply cut off about 5 feet ahead of the bumper. There was no transition, it was a case of "can see somewhat" to a sharp line where "can't see anything". At 60 mph, when there's suddenly a large animal lying in the middle of the road that you cannot see at all until you are 5 feet from it, you are hitting it no matter what it is.

Quote from mrodgers :

Cool story

That's not pretty clever to do, you know? Lately the generator on my car did not work, so even though I charged the battery and the engine started I did not drive the car until there was that generator replaced...

Quote from 5tag :

That's not pretty clever to do, you know? Lately the generator on my car did not work, so even though I charged the battery and the engine started I did not drive the car until there was that generator replaced...

I'm thinking you are confused over what I said. The headlights sucked. They lit the path 5 feet in front of the car and beyond 5 feet, there was nothing. Really crappy headlight design. Most headlights shine in front of the car and the light output tapers off the further away in front. These lights had a sharp cutout as in no light shining further than 5 feet ahead of the car. (note, maybe 5 feet is a bit of an exaggeration, but it surely wasn't far enough to see anything ahead on the road, but it really wasn't much farther than just over the hood that you could see the road from the driver's seat.)