These tips are intended primarily for motorists buying privately. Buying from a dealer is generally safer, but care is needed here too!
Decide how much you can afford to pay, and do your best to stick to it! Include the cost of insurance, MOT, road tax, petrol, repairs and servicing. Bear in mind that older prestige and sports cars can be cheap to buy, but repair/insurance costs may be higher - ask dealers for estimates of typical repairs to get an idea. Don't rush into a decision - shop around, and compare prices from different sources, like car dealers, private adverts, auctions and web sites.
View the car in clear daylight and take a friend to confirm what you see. Do not arrange to meet at a service station or lay-by and do not let the seller bring the car to you. Check the seller's address is the same as that recorded in the logbook and seek additional reassurance that the seller lives where they claim to - are they in the 'phone book'?
Check that all documentation you would expect to find is available. This will normally include the Registration Document (V5), service and insurance records, MOT certificate (on vehicles over 3 years old) and receipts. Then make sure everything tallies. Also investigate the keys - are they all there? Are there too many? Does the driver's door or boot need a different key from the rest of the car?. These clues may point to prior damage or theft.
An independent inspection (by an organisation such as the RAC or Green Flag) will help to identify potentially expensive mechanical problems and can also spot the signs of major accident repair. The results will either give you greater confidence that the vehicle is a good buy, tell you to walk away, or provide the basis for negotiating on price to take into account necessary rectification work. If the seller won't allow an inspection, that tells you something too!
Over 5 million vehicles require bodywork each year. Given that there are about 24m cars on the road, this means we all have a 1 in 5 chance that our car will be accident damaged in any one year. The 4Car HPI Check will tell you if a vehicle has been so badly damaged that an insurer has declared it a total loss. But even where a car has not been "written off", don't assume it is free from major accident damage.
While the V5 is not proof of ownership, it does contain a lot of useful information. You can contact the previous keeper to confirm the car's history. Also you can compare keeper change dates with the result of the 4Car HPI Check to ensure you're not looking at a document which has been forged or altered.
Also, use the service history to do a bit of detective work. What do the dates and mileages tell you about the car's past life? Is the "full service history" really full?
Reducing the mileage of a vehicle by turning back the odometer, or 'clocking', is a common trick used by unscrupulous sellers to obtain a higher price. An 4Car HPI Check can help detect known discrepancies, but there is no substitute for a careful inspection. Examine steering wheels, gearshift and seats for excessive wear, and look outside for stone chips.
Make sure that you test drive the car on a range of roads for a drive of at least 10-15 miles. Check you are properly insured and take a friend with you. Look and listen carefully for rattles, creaks and banging noises. Watch for smoky start ups (especially blue smoke). Pay special attention to the steering, and check for wandering and pulling under braking, bearing in mind that wide tyres can make cars more sensitive to white lines and camber changes.
After point 10, this is the best advice of all! If we're honest, many of us start to get emotionally attached to cars even before we've seen them. Don't let the paintwork or the price blind you to aspects of a car that don't add up. HPI's advice is that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Don't hand over any money until you have completed an 4Car HPI Check - this will allow you to cross-check the car and the documentation, and help to ensure that you will actually own it! When doing the Check try to have the mileage and MOT certificate to hand, and most importantly, the VIN as well as the registration mark. Make sure the information we supply matches the vehicle and the documentation in every respect - if it doesn't, you may not be covered by our guarantee.
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