Posted on by Mitchell Waters

Purchasing a car

When buying a second hand car, one must remember the shady Brit who is unlikely to care if the car he sells you may save your life on multiple occasions over the next few months. For the record he also doesn’t care if it’s dodgy brakes kill you on the Pamir Highway (see below).

I’d been warned about dodgy private sellers and dodgy used car dealers and even dodgier purchases, so much so that a friend had to go to court to get their money back because they were sold something un-driveable. So I didn’t really have high expectations, I also was unsure I could ever make a safe purchase.  Even so, some of my shopping experiences include the following suggestions:

  • If the engine makes a funny noise and the seller sprays some WD40 on it and says “that will fix it”, you should probably walk away.
  • If you are crawling under a car to check for rust in anything that looks like an important joint (remember you don’t know anything about cars) and the guy offers to jack up the car and the car bends where he jacks it, you should probably walk away.
  • If the car makes a funny noise when it turns and the guy says – “ah don’t worry about that, it’s just the drive shaft that needs replacing”, you should probably walk away.
  • If the car has just been serviced and the radiator and radiator reservoir is empty but the car doesn’t overheat, this is not a mark of the excellent durability and the “bulletproof” nature of the car as suggested by the seller. The radiator is leaking. You should probably walk away.

Things I’ve learnt to check:

  • Check the MOT history here it will tell you if it’s ever failed to be registered due to some sort of impending doom. Note: this will drastically lower the number of cars suitable and will break your spirit.
  • Learn from the frequent failures on MOTs, look up what they are and how to look for it when checking your future steed before purchase. Each model tends to fail frequently on the same things.
  • Do a HPI check here. Stolen cars are cool until you get all ready for the rally and it gets repossessed.
  • Check the basics. Oil, coolant, general condition, milage, different coloured panels (suggests replaced). Look for leaky things, crawl under the car and look for anything that looks like it connects the wheels to the car or the car to the car – if it is motheaten with rust, said car will likely bend on jacking.
  • Make sure they haven’t warmed it up before starting it. When they start it, check if it turns over easily, get them to start it and check the exhaust for purple smoke, listen for noises.
  • Test drive it: Check acceleration, heavy braking, turn wheels to full lock and move to test for issues with the driveshaft, listen more for noises.
  • Check out the seller, 90% chance he’s a dodgy bastard, avoid these people. Go with your gut and better judgement.
  • Eventually buy a vehicle knowing you’ve likely missed it’s fatal flaw. It’s meant to be shit anyway.

63 Replies to “Purchasing a car”

  14. Right here is the perfect website for anybody who wishes to find out about this topic. You know a whole lot its almost hard to argue with you (not that I personally would want toÖHaHa). You certainly put a new spin on a subject that has been written about for decades. Excellent stuff, just excellent!

    Reply

  18. Si buscas emoción y oportunidades únicas en el mundo de las apuestas en línea, no puedes dejar de aprovechar el código promocional 1xbet. Con el código promocional 1xbet, código promocional de bonificación 1xbet accederás a ofertas y bonificaciones exclusivas que elevarán tu experiencia de juego a otro nivel. Ya sea que prefieras las apuestas deportivas o los juegos de casino, el código promocional 1xbet te brindará ventajas adicionales para maximizar tus posibilidades de ganar. No dejes pasar esta oportunidad extraordinaria de disfrutar al máximo de tus apuestas en línea con el código promocional 1xbet. ¡Regístrate hoy mismo y descubre por qué somos líderes en el mundo de las apuestas en línea con nuestro código promocional exclusivo!

    Reply

  20. Si buscas emoción y oportunidades únicas en el mundo de las apuestas en línea, no puedes dejar de aprovechar el código promocional 1xbet. Con el código promocional 1xbet, 1xbet último código promocional accederás a ofertas y bonificaciones exclusivas que elevarán tu experiencia de juego a otro nivel. Ya sea que prefieras las apuestas deportivas o los juegos de casino, el código promocional 1xbet te brindará ventajas adicionales para maximizar tus posibilidades de ganar. No dejes pasar esta oportunidad extraordinaria de disfrutar al máximo de tus apuestas en línea con el código promocional 1xbet. ¡Regístrate hoy mismo y descubre por qué somos líderes en el mundo de las apuestas en línea con nuestro código promocional exclusivo!

    Reply

  21. 1xbet México se encarga de darle a sus clientes todos los beneficios para que estos puedan aprovechar de todos los rincones de la plataforma. código de promoción 1xbet hoycódigo de promoción 1xbet hoy Todo esto, siempre que cada usuario se encuentre previamente registrado/a en el sistema. Esto ayuda a la empresa a llevar la cuenta de cuántas veces es utilizado cada código por una misma persona, ya que solo se aplican los mismos una vez, al momento de realizar le proceso de registro. El Codigo Promocional 1xbet México debe ser ingresado al momento de realizar le proceso de registro, así como el de verificación de cuenta e identidad. Es importante mencionar que los códigos promocionales suelen variar con el tiempo, dependiendo de las condiciones y términos de los mismos.

    Reply

  23. Si buscas emoción y oportunidades únicas en el mundo de las apuestas en línea, no puedes dejar de aprovechar el código promocional 1xbet. Con el código promocional 1xbet, 1xbet hoy código promocional accederás a ofertas y bonificaciones exclusivas que elevarán tu experiencia de juego a otro nivel. Ya sea que prefieras las apuestas deportivas o los juegos de casino, el código promocional 1xbet te brindará ventajas adicionales para maximizar tus posibilidades de ganar. No dejes pasar esta oportunidad extraordinaria de disfrutar al máximo de tus apuestas en línea con el código promocional 1xbet. ¡Regístrate hoy mismo y descubre por qué somos líderes en el mundo de las apuestas en línea con nuestro código promocional exclusivo!

    Reply

  31. I must thank you for the efforts you’ve put in penning this blog.
    I really hope to check out the same high-grade blog posts from you in the future
    as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my very own website now 😉

    Reply

  35. I’ve been surfing on-line more than 3 hours as of late, yet I by no means found any fascinating article like yours. It¦s beautiful worth sufficient for me. In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made just right content as you did, the web will be much more useful than ever before.

    Reply

  40. Hi, Neat post. There is a problem with your web site in internet explorer, would test this… IE still is the market leader and a huge portion of people will miss your magnificent writing because of this problem.

    Reply

  44. I like this website very much, Its a very nice position to read and find info . “What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.” by Henry David Thoreau.

    Reply

  49. Wow that was odd. I just wrote an very long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyways, just wanted to say superb blog!

    Reply

  53. Thank you for another informative web site. Where else could I get that type of information written in such an ideal way? I’ve a project that I am just now working on, and I’ve been on the look out for such info.

    Reply

  55. Howdy! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good gains. If you know of any please share. Thank you!

    Reply

  56. My partner and I stumbled over here by a different website and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to checking out your web page repeatedly.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *