Leisure How To Buy A Car!

I buy a lot of cars from ebay, I love it, although I try and make some profit from the whole excerise, that is not the driving force, I just love the bidding, the winning, and the train ride across country, sometimes hundreds of miles, and then the drive home. Its like a blind date, only a million times better!

So I thought I would share some tips that experience has branded on my brain with a red hot brand.

1. Always go for a vendor with lots of recent feedback, and it should be all good, and recent, if reading it gives you cause for concern, don't bid!

2. Once you have satisfied yourself the vendor is genuine, the first thing is to enquire as to how long the car has been owned for, what you are looking for is something that has been owned for years, and has had money spent on it, ask for invoices, records, service history. If the car has only been owned for a few months, avoid, someone has got there before you and is trying to make a quick buck.

3. Ok so you have a good vendor, that has owned the car for a year or longer, and has records to show servicing and repairs. I don't spend more than £1000 on my hobby, as in the UK, cars are worth min £230 scrap, so my worst scenario is a £770 loss. If your spending much more than this, request an AA/AAA report, that will give you some idea on the state of the car before you finalise bidding. If your spending what I spend, ring the vendor, ask about rust, tyres, and always insist on a long MOT, clarify what extras come with the car and ensure they all work.

4. Ok so you have bid on the car, time to pick it up! try and take a mechanic with you, or someone who knows about cars, if this is not possible, make sure you collect in daylight, so you can verify the condition of the car, ensure that it is not on the stolen or write off register by paying for a private check. Take it for a drive, there should be no clanking or clunks, the gear change should be smooth, look for leakage on the floor, be prepared to take an insurance certificate to show you can legally drive the car, try braking hard, there should be no grinding, check for smoke from exhaust, or worse, steam, take the oil cap off and check that too, anything that looks like ghee means a blown head gasket! Check all lights work, heating works and fans blow without noise,

5. Provided you are happy with all the above, pay the vendor, stick your favourite cd in the cd player, stick your sunglasses on, and head for home

 

Re: How to buy a car

6. wake up next morning to the following.....

 

Re: How to buy a car

its only a bit of gearbox fluid, its not like it needs a new gearbox

 

Re: How to buy a car

Some good advice in general especially for the brits !
Sadly, over here the regulations are way too relaxed and they don't have anything close to MOT.
With regards to regulations, you must have a valid driving license on you at all times and the insurance doesn't stop you driving other cars either, it just simply covers the car and the name on the insurance indicates who legally owns the car.

Just a little tip to add to your many above,-
When inspecting a used car to purchase, I used to also check the engine compartment/body work and all door hinges...etc... to see if the screws holding the joints had screwdriver wear marks and or if they were original ! (you can usually see slite chipping on surrounding paint around screwhead as well)
Since paint jobs are excellently matched nowadays, you can only see if a car was totalled or had major body work by inspecting these screw heads.

 

Re: How to buy a car

HOW TO DEAL WITH A CAR WITH A BLOWN GEARBOX

OK! so you have bought your car and driven it home, only to find it has dumped all its transmission fluid. Obviously its not the gearbox, as your careful inspection would have picked this up, but then you get that awful phone call, yes, its the gearbox.

So you have now several options

1. Stick it back on ebay for scrap, even with a gearbox fault, it should still fetch reasonable money, I hope.

2. Get a reconditioned gearbox, this is for the financially able only, as it will dwarf the initial cost of the car, be prepared for around £2000

3. Try Lucas transmission fix, it is supposed to work wonders

4. Buy a second hand gearbox from a breaker, some come with a warranty, and start from around £400 inc delivery, expect to pay around £250 for fitting.

5. Leave the car where it is, it still looks great!, borrow your wifes car instead, and agree to never ever ever buy another Range Rover, for the minute anyway
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Re: How to buy a car

you are kidding me! no MOT???? how do they check if the car should be on the road?? given the tough economic times at present, the first thing people skimp on is the car, is the US full of deathtraps on the road?

Over here in the UK, the MOT is an extremely comprehensive test, it involves giving the MOT inspector a small paper bag full of cash, upon which, provided there is enough cash, you get your certificate!

 

Re: How to buy a car

or gearboxes

 

Re: How to buy a car

Oh yeah there are some death traps and nutters on the road !
You will sometimes see a hillbilly driving an old rusty station wagon without any proper working lights/wipers..etc.. in the slow lane blowing out black smoke!
You just stay away from it, that seems to be the general idea with all motorists.

They have this requirement for ''aircare'' on used cars but this is valid for 2 years and is only a 3-5 minute check on gas emmisions- that's all !!!!
No tire checks, fluid checks, brake function checks..etc... like MOT.
There is no official legal limit on tire tread as far as I know, except that if completely bald or near visible bald then they are illegal !
In other words if a 7 yr old kid can see your tire is bald and has no tread, then you know it's illegal !
It just seems bonkers at first !!!

With tires, I also found that the majority of punctures can be repaired, whereas in UK they will only repair or patch legally if it is below a certain size and within a certain area of the tire.- But here, they will patch up anywhere as long as it is not on the side rim of the tire !

There are quite a lot of differences with motorists and I could go on...
But the most amusing one I find is that most motorists don't even know what litre engine size their car is ???
You see, up until recently fuel has always been dirt cheap here and they have never had to give much thought on engine size when purchasing cars.
So most people go for whatever is available and they never thought twice of having something 4.5 litre compared to 2.5 litre, instead they pay more interest in the power of whether the car is 4 cylinder, V6, V8 or V12 !!

It's real funny because when I ask most people what engine size their car is, they say V6 or V8 !!

I know some regulations in UK can be annoying, but they are all there for good reasons and our own welfare.


Another funny episode we had here is when we got pulled over and flashed down by the police.
I immediately did what i would do in UK and that is to get out of the car and see what's up or what the problem is.-BUT, when I got out, the police announced on their huge tannoy speaker for me to 'freeze where I was and put my hands in the air !!!
I thought ''what the hell is going on''
It was like being in a movie stood outside my car with my hands in the air !
I later learned that you never ever get out of your vehicle when stopped and they can end up shooting you because you may have got out to shoot them or threaten them !!!!!!!
....WHAT?????
Yes, the police will think that I have got out and am walking towards them with an intent to harm and they can argue and reason their own rights to shoot me !

 

Ok, one new sump, and new ball joints later, gearbox still a bit flaky, but not too bad!

I have to confess that my posts on Range Rovers have gone down better here than my posts on Sikh philosophy I posted on the Land Rover forum! lol
My only problem now is light steering, it feels vague and not very firm.
Check the following, play in steering box, if its the steering box, these can be adjusted, so don't automatically lay out for a new one, check play on ball joints, again not hugely expensive, but most important of all, tyre pressures. I found the fronts had been inflated to 40! After dropping down to 28, it is perfect! I found these to be the cheapest and most obvious solutions to the light steering problem.

Also, I think we have gone beyond the point where auto mechanics are the fountain of all knowledge, I found myself making suggestions that had not been thought of, it does not seem about solving your problem, just making lots of money from gullible drivers. So, research your problem, scour the internet, find forums where people have had the same problem as you, read how they solved it, get an idea beforehand of how much it should cost, I am actually getting to the point now where I do not bother asking for a diagnosis, I diagnose myself, until I am sure, then I see my mechanic and tell him what I want to do, and I provide the parts, its not an ideal situation, and many mechanics will not play ball, but be firm but polite.

I for one am fed up being ripped off by so called specialists who are just out to make money.

:kaurkhalsaflagblue:

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Does sound to me as if auto-mechanics are sounding more each day like baba derawales lol and you have the right spiritual attitude toward car repairs and spiritual progress.