Buying a used car in Ireland guide

Esel wrote: »

Meaning you will pay for the repairs, or you will kick some guy called Bill?

No cheeky!

He means he will give me my money back if things go wrong!!

LM - pm'ing my paypal acount details shortly!!

Great thread Limerick man. Was dreading going out and prentending I knew what to look for. Now it looks like I'm an expert! :rolleyes:

I went into geek mode and converted all the info in this thread to a questionnaire-type format that you can copy/paste into a Text Document and use it for each car you look at.

Happy hunting everyone!

____________________________________________

Initial question when calling! I'm enquiring about the car you have for sale.


Car:____________________________________

Registration: _____________________________

Mileage:_________________________________

Price:___________________________________

Phone Number: ___________________________

1.Reason for sale:_________________________________________________

2. How long have you had the car? _________________

3. How many owners has it had?_________________

4.Is there any outstanding finance on the vehicle? Yes/No

5.When was the last full service carried out on the vehicle? _______________

6.Has the car been imported and if so, have all relevant charges been paid (VAT, VRT etc)?

7.Do you have documented service history? Yes/No

8.Has the car ever been in an accident? Yes/No

9.Is the mileage displayed correct? Yes/No

10.Viewing Date/Time: ______________________

11.Owner's Name: _______________________________

12.Are you the registered owner of the car? Yes/No

13.I will need to see some photo ID at the viewing.

14.Address: _______________________________________________________

Before Viewing – Car History Check

www.motorcheck.ie or www.cartell.ie

Viewing

Visual

1.All panels fit? Yes/No
2.Any unusual gaps? Yes/No
3.Is car symetrical? Yes/No
4.Paintwork same throughout? Yes/No
5.Tyres – Thread even? Known brand?
6.Keys – how many sets?
7.Boot Check - Is it damp inside and pockets either side? Yes/No
8.Lift Carpet
9.Spare Wheel - is it there? Thread ok?
10.Locknut there? Yes/No
11.Tools there? Yes/No
12.Boot closes ok? Does it line up?
13.Original Badges there? Yes/No
14.Do they look like they've always been there?
15.Bonnet Check –
16.Front left/right bars creased? Yes/No
17.Any rust inside? Yes/No
18.Look at the bolts that hold the wings in. Do they look like they’ve been removed? Do both wings line up with the lights and the bumpers on both sides?
19.Timing Belt – Has it been done? (if the car has one). This is normally marked in white tipex either on the engine cover or somewhere around the engine bay. If this hasn’t been done (Zafira every 40,000k) ask the owner about it. If they can’t prove when it was done take into account that this will have to be done, this is a very important part of the engine and can be very expensive to do (and can require a new or rebuilt engine if it snaps.).

Oil Check:

Wipe dip stick
1.Level? Up near max? Yes/No
2.Colour? Black/Golden/Creamy coffee colour – Golden good, all others bad!


Windows Check:

1. Do all numbers match on sides/front/back? Yes/No

Numberplates Check:
Is there one new and one old numberplate? Or two new ones? If there is one new numplate take note of the bumper, does it look freshly painted? One new numberplate could easily be because one fell off, but more often than not, the old one was damaged. All ok? Yes/No

Interior Check:

1.Driver's seat Bolster worn?
2.Steering wheel worn?
3.Handbrake worn?
4.Pull seat belt out – release – Fast/slow?
5.Carpet damp? Under pedals/Under dash?
6.Buttons – push every button in/out
7.Radio – Turn on/off – Volume up/down – CD Player working?
8.Lights on/off – Dip/Full ok?
9.Indicators
10.Seats – push back/forward – up and down

Turn Engine on:

1.First Click – all lights lit? Yes/No All lights go out?
2.Airbag Light – different sequence to Oil light?
3.Engine starts first time? Yes/No
4.Any unreasonable sounds? Yes/No

Start car/Test Drive – at least fifteen minutes:

1.Rev car up all gears and down all gears.
2.High Rev – any blue smoke?
3.Test brakes – soft stop. Hard stop – Any weird feeling? Do the wheels wobble badly?
4.Air Conditioning working?

__________________________________________________

MidlandsM wrote: »

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Don't get suckered into the tippex thing, some cnuts write false info on the cambelt cover. I always want to see a invoice or parts invoices to back up a belt change.

Also, check the coolant, is it fresh and coloured? any oily shyte/gunk in the coolant (very important to check and when making an appointment respectfully as for the car to be cold when you arrive to allow you to start it up from cold, easy to check coolant then etc. Also, on test drive, geat the car up to temperature and see where the temp guage sits.

Can you please explain to me how you get the car up to temperature. Never had a temperature guage before!

yeah, a good test drive for over 20 mins will take it up to temp.
Re; reason for sale question, no harm in asking, but i like to eyeball the vendor when asking this just to see if they hesitate and to study their body language, which is something you cant do over the phone

The reason you ask them the reason for sale is because you ask them twice, once on the phone and once out of the blue in person, the stories might not add up

Its a great idea doing up a checklist for someone buying a car for the first time dont get me wrong here, and a great thread too btw.

Just pointing out regarding the checklist that you could probaly ask the sellers name even before reason for selling car.

You are only presuming that this is also the 1st time the seller is selling a car and has no experience at it either. For example I sell cars for a living, if say i wanted to sell dodgy cars (which i dont btw) i would give the same reason for selling a car to every person. (eg iam selling the car because my granny is in a nursing home and i need to sell the car to fund it). So when you do ask me why am I selling it wouldnt phase me because ive been belting out the same story for possibly 2 years to people and i would have it down to a tee. (hope i explained this ok?).
I just dont want people here thinking that if the reason for selling seems ok that the car is probaly ok too.

Also midlands to someone who sells motors fulltime i honestly cant see an eyeballing phasing them, they will probaly of come accross a lot worse than that in their time. These tricks might work on some dodgy young fella trying to pawn you off a junker but id imagine you would of figured that out as soon as you see him/his car.

Again lads i hope i dont come accross as being harsh here as i dont mean to be. Everyone is coming up with good ideas here, iam just trying to be constructive too.:D

I'm fairly sure asking someone's name comes naturally and doesn't need to be wrote down

Agreed. But its number 11 on the checklist.

No, it's actually to try catch out people that are otherwise trying to sell off a dodgey motor

My point being that this question wont catch out an experienced car seller.

That's possibly the worst excuse I've ever heard and I'd hang up on someone if they gave me that!

Again you missed my point, i only used that as an example. My point was that a guy who sells cars for a living could be using the same excuse for selling his car to peaople on a daily basis for years, so this "reason for selling" question wouldnt make him bat an eyelid.

Theres no harm in asking it, I just dont think its of benefit. Especially not as no1 question on the checklist