The purchase of a used car brings the risk of buying a car with accident past or a retracted odometer. Unfair seller hunt for people who are not experts in automotive and don’t know how to check the thickness of paint or verify the actual mileage. It is worth to start checking every used car by decoding VIN through a VIN checker (a search engine for VIN), which is available on autodna.com website.
You buy a car from abroad for a good price and with low mileage, you register it, pay the insurance and after a couple of months Police knocks on your door saying the car you own is reported as stolen. This is the biggest nightmare that could happen to people who bought a used car, yet there are ways to protect yourself from such scenario. One way is to check the register of stolen cars.
What to look for when buying a used car? While reading classifieds about used cars one can not resist the feeling that all of them are accidents free. However, the reality is completely different – if a car is cheap, has little mileage and good year of production it is highly probable that is was involved in some collisions and all faults have been fixed or hidden.
Checking the vehicle history (e.g. through VIN) we can encounter that it was previously leased to a company. Some customers instantly give up such vehicle assuming that it is neglected and has a high mileage. This is not entirely true and after lease car have their advantages too just like autos previously used as taxis. How important is the past of a used car when it comes to purchase?
Used car value is determined by many factors among which key elements are of course brand, model and year of production. However, there are other factors that have to be taken into account when precisely evaluating a given car.
Experienced car fraudster, who have sold many cars is very clever and can deceive even someone who knows autos very well. They sell car with fake service books, retract odometer so the mileage appears to be credible or hide collision effects. A good way to prevent this from happening to us is to VIN verification – thanks to this we will know the past of the car as it was.
So you just passed you driver’s licence test, received the document and looking for your own 4 wheels. What car to choose? Young drivers not always choose reasonable as emotions often take over rational thinking as they want to show off in a fancy car. However, a decision about buying your first car should be well-thought-out.
When buying a used car from someone else than family or friend we have basically three options – searching through classifieds in print (still used by older people who are not keen on using the Internet), browsing through online classifieds (e.g. websites like motors.co.uk or gumtree.com/cars) and visiting a used car dealer. Every option has its pros and cons.
You are buying a used car for a bargain price and at first glance it seems too good to be true. If you have doubts whether the seller is the actual owner of the car, it is wise to check the legal status of the vehicle. There are a few ways to do so.