Buying Your Car Privately - How To Avoid The Usual Pitfalls

Buying a car privately is often talked about by TV leadership figures in the automotive industry like top car journalists, as the cheapest way to buy a used car. This is true, but it also the most risky form of transaction, and will probably be among the most risky purchase you make in your lifetime. It's with this serious that I advise you absorb all the information in this article and ensure that your relationship with your new car is a very happy one indeed!

The Risks

These are the major risks you will encounter when purchasing a second hand car:

1. The mileage has been over-clocked. This means you'll buy a worn out car for the price of a much healthier one.

2. The car has been previously involved in an accident, and is not as safe to drive as the seller purports.

3. The seller is a fraudulent criminal, who intends to receive your funds and give you nothing in return.

4. The car has broken parts that the seller has not disclosed, which will require considerable attention from a mechanic to correct.

5. The car has been stolen. This means that if the police verify that your car should rightfully belong to someone else, it will be seized and you will be out of pocket and without a car, this is a serious and potentially life-changing financial loss for which you cannot insure.

How to combat these risks:

1. Over-clocked cars are hard to spot, as there is no physical sign of It having occurred. Instead of trying to spot evidence of tampering, perform a sense check. Does the car presented to you, appear to be one that has only done the amount of miles shown on the clock? The test drive will help you assess this, as the wear and tear of a tired engine is often manifested through many rattles, whines and shakes.

2. To discover whether a car has been in an accident, perform a HPI check on the vehicle. Text services offering to do this have recently advertised nationally and usually cost 3 GBP or so. Avoid these services, and have a proper HPI check carried out online. Its only in very few cases that you won't have the license plate number of the potential purchase before you hand over the money, so do this check up front. An online check will cost a few pounds more, but will provide far more information.

3. Scams involving car sales are often carried out online, via auction style websites or even classifieds. A common case is where a criminal has simply taken pictures of a random car parked on the streets and purported that it is their own for sale. They then suggest that the buyer carries out the transaction through an escrow site (which will typically protect the buyers funds until the vehicle arrives) however in these cases, the escrow sites themselves are fraudulent companies run by the criminals in order to take your money. To avoid this, choose the escrow website yourself and ensure they are a reputable market leader or well-known brand in this area. A quick Google search will determine this.

4. This is the hardest risk to avoid. The best advice I can give you, is twofold. Firstly, warn the seller in advance that you would not like them to start the engine prior to your arrival, as you would like to inspect the engine. Naturally, I wouldn't expect you to know the ins and outs of a healthy engine, because in reality, you should ask this simply so that you will get to see how the car starts from cold.

Similarly, the seller may have taken the car out for a spin to loosen up the gearbox, which could be very sticky and difficult when the car has just started. Finally, you'll also get a good idea of the health of an engine through how easily it first begins running from a cold start.

5. To avoid buying a car that has been stolen, I recommend again that you perform a HPI check. Although realise that this will not always work, as the seller may have cloned license plates etc. If you are particularly suspicious about a car, you may wish to verify engine bay numbers and the like, but the safest option would just be to not buy the car in the first place. There are plenty more cars on the market!