What To Look For When Buying A Second Hand Car

Buying a second hand road car can be an intimidating prospect. A step into the wild west. Even if you know what you are doing its not straight forward. If you happen to be less mechanically minded, buying a second hand car can be frankly terrifying. It is not that the physical act of buying a second hand car is scary, although many used car lots are far from plush, more the fear of buying a dud.

What you want is to give yourself the best chance of buying as good a used car as you can. To know that you got a good deal. That the car is going to meet your needs, whilst causing you the minimum of headaches.

Cars are not cheap so what can you do to make sure that you’re giving yourself the best chance of a successful purchase?

In this article, I’ll give you my quick practical checklist. A list of basic things people who are not mechanically savvy can do to give themselves some comfort in their used purchase.

Think Like A Detective (But Guilty Before Proven Innocent!)

Before I pile into the practical checklist, the first thing to consider is how you are thinking about this purchase.

You are buying a second hand car. This means that the car has been “pre-loved” before it even knew you were interested. Sorry ?

Unlike most things in life, with a used car you might find it better to assume the negative in the first instance. Rather than thinking “this car looks great, what could possibly be wrong?” … Go in thinking “this car has everything wrong with it, unless it can prove to me otherwise!”

Of course you won’t be looking at a second hand car unless you thought it was ok - I appreciate that. This is just a very subtle shift in mindset, because you are now thinking like a detective investigating a potential crime scene. You don’t actually want to find anything wrong, but you will assume everything is wrong until you can see it is not.

The Big Things That Go Wrong

There are several chunky areas where things can go wrong for you when looking at a second hand car purchase.

Roughly in order of how you’d tackle them, these include:

• Documentation
• Body work
• Suspension, brakes and steering
• Engine
• Interior & Electrical items

Unless you really know what you are doing, you are not going to find everything in each of these areas. What you can do though is try your best to at least find the big things.

For example, you might not be able to tell if there are serious engine problems looming but you can use a combination of “clues” to give yourself comfort that major engine issues are less likely.

To help you even more with that, try and take along another pair of eyes - a friend or relative. The more detectives you have on the case the more likely it is you won’t miss something.

Used Car Buyers Checklist - Documentation

Start with the easy things. Every country has their own documentation requirements but what you are looking for here is:

• The person selling has the right to sell it:
  • Clues you want to see:
    • The ownership documents
    • Evidence of no outstanding finance
• The car has been well looked after:
  • Clues you want to see:
    • Complete service history. This doesn’t have to be from a main dealer but it should be complete. If not just walk away. There are plenty more fish in the sea.
    • Evidence of previous bills and repairs.

Used Car Buyers Checklist - Body Work

I’m going to keep this high level here. Some people suggest taking magnets around to check paint thickness and such like. Unless that is your thing, leave that for the pro inspectors.

With body work you are looking for:

• Crash damage - or lack of!

  • Clues you want to see:
    • Even paint colours all round the car
    • Even panel gaps - i.e. the gap around the doors, bonnet, boot etc are even.
    • Consistent lines looking down both sides of the car. Does everything look even?
    • Lift the boot carpet. Have the panels been repaired? Is it body colour?
    • Lift the bonnet. Do both front wings look similar? Is the engine bay body colour?
    • All closures (doors, bonnet, boot etc) open and close easily and there is no interference with other body work.

• Rust - or lack of!

  • Clues you want to see:
    • Even body panels with no blisters or bumps.
    • Open all closures (doors, bonnet etc) and look along edges for blisters or bumps.
    • No evidence of filler. This can be harder to spot but you don’t want to see any.

If you’ve any doubt about the body work. Just walk away.

Used Car Buyers Checklist - Engine

Many people, when they are not comfortable with second hand car buying simply open the engine because … well I’m not really sure why really. Your car will have an engine so what should you be looking for:

• Start the car from cold.
• The engine should start first time.
• Watch out the exhaust (normally at the back of the car) and look for smoke.
• Some smoke is normal but only initially.
• The exhaust should be clear once the engine starts to warm.

There are lots of other engine related things here. One is to look for white deposits in the oil, check the oil levels, look for leaks, check all the fluid levels, check the battery condition, look for missing or loose wiring, look for split or broken pipes, look for warn out belts, listen for “rattly” noises and such like … but … just do this at start up, look under the bonnet and you should be ok.

Engine checks on the test drive.

You want to test the clutch and gear condition on the test drive.

• Clutch test
  • Clues you want to see:
    • Travelling at about 30mph, put the car in 4th gear. Floor the throttle. You want the car to labour and slowly pick up speed. If the revs rise faster than your car is gaining speed, this is a clue the clutch is no good.
    • The bite point of the clutch should be about the middle of the travel.

Used Car Buyers Checklist - Suspension, Brakes & Steering

This is about making sure the wheels remain attached to the body. That you have enough grip on the road to be legal and safe. That the moving parts are not worn out.

This section requires a test drive. Don’t do a test drive if the tyres (or electricals) are no good …

• Tyres.

  • Clues you want to see:
    • Tread on the tyres. Take a small ruler. You want 5mm+ on each tyre. Lower? Walk away.
    • No cuts in the side walls of the tyres.
    • Recognised brand tyres: Pirelli, Michelin, Yokohama, Bridgestone etc.
    • Minimal scuffs on alloy’s.
    • Spare wheel, including jack and toolkit, is in place.

• Suspension. This can be harder to do but what happens is that some moving parts wear and become loose over time.

  • Clues you want to see:
    • Car steers straight and does not pull to one side
    • The steering has no wabble at speed

• Brakes. You want the brakes to work in an emergency.

  • Clues you want to see:
    • At about 30mph find a safe spot to do an emergency stop. You want the car to stop in a straight line. If it pulls left or right this is no good.
    • If it doesn’t stop fairly aggressively … walk away.

Used Car Buyers Checklist - Electrical Items

With a second hand car purchase you should assume none of the electrics work! Think of the moment on the first hot sunny day of the year when you go to put the air conditioning on and … nothing. You just don’t want that.

With electrical items you simply have to push and prod every button you can see! Clearly you will need the engine on for this.

• Get your companion to check all the lights are working. Include the brake lights, hazards, low and high beam.
• When you turn the engine on, look for all the warning lights to disappear once the engine is running.
• You want the interior lights to work when you open and close the doors.
• You want the wipers, including the wash part, to work - front and back.

Used Car Buyers Checklist - Interior

For the interior you have to take a bit of a balanced view here. Depending on the age of the car you are looking at, some can look very tired.

What you want is:

• Seats that still support you and your passengers,
  • Clues you want to see:
    • Clean seats
    • No holes in seat fabrics
    • Seats that adjust easily through their full range
    • Heat restraints that adjust as designed
• Seat belts that will save you in an accident
  • Clues you want to see:
    • All belts pull out easily and lock securely when tugged.
    • No frays on the edges of the belts
    • Full adjustment of the anchor points (i.e. over drivers shoulder)
• A pleasant (or at least not rotten eggs!) aroma on all fabrics …

In Summary

This is quite a basic level checklist. It is what I would start with and should uncover most of the major issues. It also gives you something to actually do when looking around a used car, instead of just standing and looking at it.

The idea of this guide is not to make you an expert in second hand car buying! The idea is to give you a perspective to take in your mind, and one or two basic things to do when you get to inspect the car. If you are spending a lot of money, you should consider getting an expert inspection. If you follow this guide first though, you can at least narrow down the expert inspection(s) to a car you are already feeling fairly confident with.

Best of luck out there and hope this helps you.