Ensuring the car is fault-free?

zudecke

Hi Guys,

I'm close to buying my first ever car and have found my perfect one on Auto Trader.


My question is - I don't know much about motoring/mechanics etc and whilst I will do an HPI check, check the log book, service history etc, how can I ever be sure the car is fault-free before purchasing?


Is there like a "hired mechanic" service I can use to grab an expert to come along with me?
And if there is a fault with the car when bought, how am I protected, if at all?


Of course, I will be taking out Comprehensive insurance etc.

Thanks,
Zudecke

ftbworried

The AA do this type of service. I believe they also "insure" the checks that they've made , i.e. if they dont find a fault with, say, the gearbox and then it fails within a certain time period then the AA reimburse the cost to fix it.

I'm not certain about any of this though so you should perhaps give them a call.

Good Luck!

zudecke

Cheers! I'll give them a shout - any other ideas, keep 'em coming .

zudecke

Just checked the AA's website and their cheapest service is like £136 for an inspection, though I saw nothing about a guarantee of fixing faults found later that were otherwise okay'ed by them.

catflea

What type of car is it? Lots of cars have known weak spots - we MAY be able to indicate what to look out for

ftbworried

Yeah i've had a look after I posted, I can't see anything about that either, maybe theyve stopped doing it. Sorry. I also checked the RAC and they dont guarantee their inspections either. Maybe with a bit of googling you can find companies that do?

zudecke

It's a Mini Cooper 2003 1.6 litre automatic.

It's apparently done 49k miles..

vikingaero

The MINI has problems with the power steering going kaput and I believe the automatic is a CVT which isn't brilliant. Check out https://www.mini2.com and https://www.totalmini.com

december

It's worth having a look at usedcarexpert, I think it's .co.uk We're in a similar position and it's fab, pages and pages of reports on what's likely to go wrong/have gone wrong and how to spot it. Signing up is free and you can have up to 10 reports free.

Tucker

Try yellow pages for local independent vehicle inspectors.

They will do the same as the AA but normally for less. Last one I used was about £70 and he found a few bits that needed attention and led to a decent reduction in the price which more than made it worthwhile.

Piece of mind and a good method of bartering the price down.

forgotmyname

Sadly to say at that age it will not be fault free, You need to make sure you keep enough money back to pay for any repairs.
Even if the car is from a garage & comes with a warranty. They have so many loopholes they will be amost big enough for your car to fall through them.
If they do cover the fault it wll not cover the costs involved diagnosing the fault.
Sister found that out when the garage wanted to strip the engine to test for a cracked block. warranty company said no.