What to check before you view, what to ask the seller, what mileage really means, and where you stand if a fault appears after you've bought.
Most of a used-car purchase is settled before any money moves. The checks that save you thousands take minutes, and nearly all of them happen before you turn a key.
Start with who you're buying from, because it decides what you're owed later. A dealer carries obligations a private seller simply doesn't. Dealer against private seller sets out that gap plainly, and it's wider than most buyers realise.
Then work out what the car should cost and when to buy it. The best time to buy covers the points in the year when forecourts get more flexible. Price negotiation covers what actually shifts a price, which is rarely the thing people try first.
At the car itself, two guides do the heavy lifting. Questions to ask the seller gets you the history the advert leaves out. How to test drive a used car is a proper checklist rather than a lap of the block. If the numbers worry you, what mileage is too high explains why a high-mileage motorway car often beats a low-mileage town one.
Before any of that, check the car is the car. What a VIN is and how to check one covers the number stamped into the metal. Reading it takes ten seconds.
Safety kit is worth its own look. What safety features to look for explains why emergency braking still isn't required by law in Great Britain, and how to tell what a particular car actually has.
Most buyers are weighing several cars at once, not one. Comparing cars without paying for three full checks sets out which check to run on which car. And how many previous owners is too many explains why that number counts keepers rather than owners.
Buying new instead? The Electric Car Grant takes up to £3,750 off a qualifying electric car, though never off a used one.
Some purchases need their own guide. Used electric cars turn on battery health and charging costs. Used vans bring weight classes, a different MOT class and a second set of emissions rules.
If something goes wrong afterwards, you're not stuck. Your rights when a fault appears covers what you can demand and from whom. Run a history check before you pay, though. It's the one thing you can't do afterwards.
Driving a car you don't own without cover is a £300 fine and six points, and the car can be seized on the spot. So sort the insurance before you touch the wheel. After that, work through what to look for, listen for and feel before, during and after the drive.
7 minIn Great Britain, a new car still doesn't have to have emergency braking. In Northern Ireland it does. What a used car has comes down to the year it was built and what its first owner ticked.
11 minThree cars on a shortlist doesn't mean three full history checks. Most of a shortlist can be narrowed for nothing, and the detailed evidence only earns its cost on the car you're about to hand money over for. The order you do it in is the whole trick.
4 minEvery guide on this question says the same thing. There's no magic number, it depends on context, and then nobody tells you how to judge the context. This is the part they skip. The number isn't counting owners, and the useful information is in the dates, not the total.
5 minAbout to go and look at a used electric car? Run every check you'd run on a petrol one, then four things a petrol buyer never thinks about: how healthy the battery is, what's left of its warranty, how you'll charge it, and the road tax it now pays. Take this list to the viewing.
10 minLoad a van past its payload and you risk more than a fine. It can invalidate your insurance if you crash over the limit. Payload and MOT class are the two things car buyers never deal with. The usual car checks still apply too.
7 minBought from a dealer and the car went wrong within weeks? The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you a refund, a repair or a price reduction. Which one you get depends on how long you've had the car. They come in a fixed order.
11 minUp to £3,750 comes off the price of a qualifying electric car, and you never have to claim it. The catch is the one most guides bury: it only ever applies to a brand-new car.
5 minBuying a used car safely comes down to five things: a budget with headroom, a history check, an inspection, a test drive, and paying in a way you can prove. Miss one and you're relying on luck. The paperwork comes last, and it's what makes the car legally yours.
8 minPay a dealer's higher price and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 comes with it, automatically. Buy privately and you save money, but you keep only a narrow set of rights. Price, warranty, part-exchange, finance risk and the scams all shift with the channel you choose.
8 minRinging a seller about a car this week? Ask these questions in order. Some before you travel, some at the viewing with the documents in your hand, some during the drive, and some before you agree a price. Work through them and very little gets past you.
7 minHaggling on a used car works because most buyers don't do it well, not because prices happen to be soft. Research the fair price, bring evidence rather than a feeling, and be genuinely willing to walk. That works with a dealer or a private seller, and in any market.
6 minTwo windows in the year suit used car buyers, and they suit different ones. The weeks before a plate change bring discounted forecourt stock, so you get the choice. The weeks after bring a wave of part-exchanges, so you get the price. Timing buys you a cheaper car, never a sounder one.
7 minNo number is automatically too high. Mileage only means something next to the car's age and the life it's had, and the average car covers a little over 7,000 miles a year. Multiply from there, work out what counts as high for the age, then check the reading itself looks genuine.
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