Mike has a bottomless supply of tips for buying used cars, but do you think there are any he hasn't covered?

Hiya,

Here's some advice I've learned along the way..

1. Sunroof - If its an after-market item its almost garranteed to leak over time so they should be avoided.

2. Tyres - always get underneath the car and check the inside edges - when a car has been in a smash it often knocks the suspension out of alignment which affects the tyre wear - a worn inside edge often signals this (Though it can often be careless parking that knock's the tracking out, too).

3. Electrics - If there is any wiring lash-up near the battery it usually signals an ex-mini cab.

4. Power steering/Automatic transmission fluid check - these items often cost monster money to fix so make sure its nice and clean.

5. Buy something reliable! Look at JD power results to get a feel for which brands produce reliable cars, and don't be surprised if you see "Premium" manufacturers like Mercedes and Audi getting slated here.... Believe it or not, reliable and sexy are not always mutually exclusive; Honda S2000 anyone? (JD power top performer..)

6. Enjoy it! Buying cars is great fun and contrary to popular belief, it is possible to buy with your heart and you head.

o

Ok Basically what your tying to do is get the car a bit cheaper, you could just slag off the car and start picking fault, but on the whole this will only get peoples backs up and make them not like you, hardly conducive to getting a good deal. Or you could negotiate hard and get the best deal, this will work in a lot of cases, but often times people get defensive and clam up and become entrenched , because lets face it nobody likes to be cornered. What I find is best to do is,when your talking on the phone and you start to get the feeling that this car might be worth buying say to the seller, “look its a long way to come, and the car sounds great, whats the very least amount of money you’ll sell the car for today?”now in most cases the seller will say “well whats the most your prepared to pay for the car?” or words to that effect cause he won’t want to reveal his bottom price, so you say in as friendly a way as possible trying not to sound like a dealer trying to take advantage “play fair mate I cant be the buyer AND the seller , you’ve got to say how much the car is” in my experience he will then give you a better price straight away on the phone, Say for arguments sake the car is advertised at 10 grand he might say 9 grand, with that your in your car and going to have a look, now supposing the car is everything you hoped it would be you say to the seller,” ok look if I was to say to you Ill pay you £8100 for the car that would be 90% of the money your asking for” 90% it sounds like a lot dosnt it, but of cause you have already had a grand off,Now if he holds his hand out at this point, have another look at the car and the paperwork etc to check everything is as it should be cause it shouldn’t be this easy.Hes unlikely to take the 8100 but he will most likely negotiate from there and as you have only bid him once he should be ok for say, 8500. Thats a net profit on the car of 15% if you sell the car at the price HE advertised it at, thats more than a lot of traders work on.The object of all this is to lower the sellers expectations of what he is going to sell the car for in a series of stages , from the very first phone call.

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Don't buy anything off a teenager!!

Never sit on a car's bonnet that you are trying to sell or buy, im looking at you Mike Brewer

Clutch:
To test the state of the clutch. Start the engine, put it in to 3rd or 4th gear, leave the hand brake on, that is imported, just in case, give a good clearance in front of you or put the foot brake on, bring up the clutch pedal slowly, if the engine stalls, then the clutch is fine, if the engine is still running when the clutch pedal is fully up then the clutch is on it’s way out.

Automatic gearbox:
To test the automatic gearbox. Start the car up, with the hand brake still on, put the gear leaver into drive, there should be hardly any movement, if there is a jolt then the gearbox is on its way out, as far as i know most automatic gearboxes still have a clutch too.