AA car check - used car

akrot1

Hi- is there any point in paying over £100 for one of these AA 128 or 150 car point checks before buying a used car. I'm buying it from a MAzda dealer and they said they've done their own one and shown it me- is there any point in paying extra for my own or not?

Please help!

MrRedundant

Yes there is although the necessity for it really depends on the age and price of the car along with the aftercare package.
Dealer point checks mean very very little.

sassy_one

Dealer points are only visual, the AA checks do more deeper checks than what they will do, hence it's called a 'point check'

jd82

It depends on the value of the car but if its nearly near and in warranty then I doubt anything much will be wrong with it. If it is about 5 years old it might be worth having done, £100 is a lot of money to save if stops you buying a dud.

frothey

From the ones I've seen, a lot of it was for show - what's the point looking for scratches, etc on the paintwork? Fair enough if you are buying blind off the web I guess. The also only jack the car up, rather than put the car up on ramps. Better to get someone you trust to go along with you, and put it up on the dealers ramps.

akrot1

It's a MAzda 3 with 57 number plate - 6.2K it's costing. just finished on its 3 year warrantee. It's had a recent service in August and they're doing the MOT before i buy it as 3 years is up very shortly.

Any more thoughts anyone?

Thanks!

frothey

TBH if you are buying it from a Mazda dealer, it's being MOT'd before you pick it up and it's coming with a Mazda warranty, I wouldn't worry too much. Just make sure you take it back for MOT a month early next year so they can sort any potential problems whilst it's still got warranty on it.

bigjl

frothey wrote: »

From the ones I've seen, a lot of it was for show - what's the point looking for scratches, etc on the paintwork? Fair enough if you are buying blind off the web I guess. The also only jack the car up, rather than put the car up on ramps. Better to get someone you trust to go along with you, and put it up on the dealers ramps.

I somehow doubt that a dealer would let you use his ramps to check out a car.

As said the AA inspection is only of value away from the nearly new main dealer market, such as private sales, home traders.

All cars can break down or have a component failure, but due to the good providence of main dealer stock then you pay more but also have better backup should something go wrong.