Best for car checking

shaydy

Hi,
What is the best way to check a second hand car? Are motorcheck.ie & cartell.ie decent or is there a better way to check?

I noticed motorcheck doesnt do an all in UK check whereas cartell does, am I to assume cartell is the better of the two?

Apologies if this is already covered, I checked the last 4 pages but no sign

Thanks

niceirishfella

shaydy wrote: »

Hi,
What is the best way to check a second hand car? Are motorcheck.ie & cartell.ie decent or is there a better way to check?


Yes!
Use your Brain, Eyes and your Gut when you're identifying and viewing a car.
Your human nature will NEVER see you wrong.

Ohhhhh, and haggle like hell.

Johnathon

Car checks only work if an accident has been reported to insurance, other than that bad stuff generally won't show up.

The best way to check a car in my opinion is to look it over thoughly.

1. Check all the paint, does it match? Is the paint on the car the same tone as in the engine bay, in the trunk behind the paneling and in all of the doorjams? Is there any overspray to show that the car has ever been repainted?

If so, most likely the car has been in an accident.

2. Check the engine bay thoughly for any leaks and the what not. If you know it has been parked in a spot for awhile, suck as in a dealership, look under the car for any fluid leaks.

3. I always check in the wheel wells for rubber. I want to make sure the people that are selling the car havn't been doing burnouts and the what not before they sold it.

I know I tend to be very hard on a car before I sell it......

4. Test drive it thoughly and look for anything out of the normal. Is there any abnormal vibrations, does the car hesitate anywhere in the RPM range? Do the brakes work well. If the car has abs Jam the breaks somewhere where it is safe to test this feature out. Does the clutch slip if it is a manual? How far does it engauge from the floor? If it is an automatic does it shift smothy? Do all of the buttons work properly?

5 Check the under carrage of the car. Is it clean or rusty?


6 Check in the trunk for leaks. If the bottom of the trunk is damp, either it is an indication that there is a bad seal somewhere or that it was rear ended and is leaking somewhere. I have had 2 cars where the trunk leaked and later I found out that they were rear ended badly.

7 Lastly, you can find out a ton about a car just by the appearence of it. If it is dirty and there are a whole bunch of stains all though the car, that is most likely a sign that the people didn't keep the maintenence up on the car either.

I hope that helps,
Johnathon

shaydy

many thanks for the advice, this is very helpful and much appreciated
Shay