General Car Buying Advice

The first thing to consider when buying any type of car, is where you buy the car from. There are 3 basic options; a private sale, an auction or a car dealer, the first two options give you no come back at all i.e. the car is sold as seen, while a dealer has to give you, by law, a 3 month warranty where the car has to be of merchantable quality. He may also offer an extended warranty and these are usually insurance based. Be sure if you are offered one of these that it is as comprehensive as possible and be aware that the insurance company will try to avoid liability in the event of a claim. Also please remember that you still have the 3 month warranty with the dealer that the law provides running concurrently and so you still have come back on the vendor. With any car dealer, make sure you take a close look at the finance rates as these can be quite high and you may be able to get cheaper elsewhere.

When you go to see the car make sure you go to the vendor’s home address or in the case of a Garage to their premises. This can be checked with the address on the registration documents. While you have the registration document handy check that the chassis number (see below for location on alfa Romeo cars) on the registration document matches the car, these areas should not show any signs of having been tampered with. Also check that all the details are correct – colour, number of doors etc. Also whilst checking the documentation check the mileage by referring to the MOT and service history, and be very suspicious if there is any history missing especially the first few years as it may have been a company car and could have done a lot of miles in this period. Always ask if there is finance outstanding and if you can get a statement to this effect from the vendor and remember if there is finance outstanding the bailiffs will come for your new car not the original owner’s cash. It is always best to do a HPI check on the vehicle to check if there is finance or accident damage on the vehicle and a HPI check can be done by various organisations.

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