and it can be scary it's a big purchase so you've got to kind of take the emotion

out to the buying process and look at the information that's available to you

There's loads of information available

from all sorts of places especially online

and you should look at that, but for what it's worth here's what i look

for when I'm buying

a used car

There are all sorts of things you can check

without even getting inside and starting the engine Does the mileage ring true

with the exterior condition of the car. Now if this car had been flogged

up and down the motorway

for tens of thousands of miles there'd be telltale signs

not least

scratches and nix in the paint work especially here on the leading edge of

the bonnet

also check the windscreen for little cracks and scratches

Now the conditions of the wheels and the tyres is usually a dead giveaway

this one

has got a bit of a

curving mark on it there

but that's not too serious

don't kick tyres

kicking tyres

tells you nothing, modern tyres the constructions incredibly rigid

but if you do go to buy a used car

you will have to take with you a twenty pence piece because

if you put it in the tread

then it'll give you some indication

of whether the tyres are legal, 3mm

is the legal requirement, there should be a bit more on a car of this age

with the kind of mileage that this one

is supposed to have. When I say supposed to have

there is startling statistic - 1 in 3 used cars

has been clocked - the mileage has been wound back

to increase resale value so you need to be careful

Look at the wing mirrors - they are a dead giveaway. What kind of condition are they in

do they look like they've spent

many many many thousands of miles on a motorway? Are they covered in scratches

are they faded>

Have they been clattered?

is the glass cracked? The mirror's always a good indication.

Here's another tip for you - most cars are central locking these days so you can

tell that if there are a lot of scratches

around where the keyhole is that here is a car that's got problems perhaps with it's

electrics

or it's done many many more miles that it's supposed to have had

and that's why there's been a key put into that lock so many times.

Check the fuel filler cap as well

has it been forced has he been replaced have the keys been lost at some point

do the keys all tally together

these are all sorts of things that you can ask asks questions, ask the

previous keeper why the mileage is so low or why the mileage is so high

and these are all things that you can do

before you even get into that car

or think about starting the engine

Right, we've got the keys

let's have a look in the boot. First thing, the parcel shelf these things at the very easily

detachable we all do it you put it aside you drive off - expensive to replace

Check the carpet

is it dry? If it's not the boot seal.

might've failed that could be an expensive job

Right, let's check the spare tyre.

There isn't one.

instead

we've got one of those

emergency get you home kits

Check the jack make sure it works. Make sure the wheel brace is actually the right

wheel brace - the number of cars i've got in

where somebody's just stuck a wheel brace

in the back of the car so make sure it fits. If you're lucky enough to have alloy wheels like

these car does

check that the lock (the key for the lock on the alloy wheels) is there. If it isn't

with the car that can be hundreds of pounds to replace

Right, Let's uh...

see what's going on under

the bonnet

For goodness sake when you put the bonnet up like this don't start randomly taking

the tops off to check levels.

If this car had just been running and you undid this one

you'd get a scolded hand. There's a warning helpfully on here but do dip the oil though

because it tells you so many

things about the car. let's try this one - there we are...

so let's stick it in there and see what it tells me

all's good

If it's below the minimum mark then walk away from the car - if the car has been run

with your level below the minimum that's low oil pressure

moving parts of the engine aren't getting lubrication that they need

walk away from it. However

if when you dip it and you look at the indicator and it's over the

maximum mark that is a classic sign

of a car that's using oil - oil has been rapidly topped up

when they know that your coming round to see it so ii it's

under the minimum walk away

it is over the maximum ask why.

Right what can we tell from sitting here about this car?

without starting the engine? Well we want to know, don't we, if the mileage that's

showing

is the actual mileage this car has done. There are some tell-tale giveaways about

how much use a car has had - for instance

when you get into the car

you're inevitably rub against the door seal and the bolster of the seat

that's this bit

so check, compare the two. Look at the bolster on this side

but look at the bolster on the other side. If there's dirt or wear

or if the stitching's coming undone

the car's probably had a lot of use likewise

a leather covered stearing wheel is a dead giveaway as well wear on the wheel if

the colour's a little bit reduced where you'd put your hands at the ten-to-two position

likewise the gear stick. This one's leather covered - again

if there's signo of wear and the stitching's come undone it's probably a high mileage

car.

I would've given you a tip about whether the previous owner was a smoker

car by looking at the ashtray but like a lot of modern cars

this one doesn't come with ashtray. What it does come with though is all of the

documentation that you need - the warranty, the maintanance shedule, the service

record of the car so you can check when and where

this car been serviced. It doesn't matter too much these days

if the handbook isn't there

because you can download them from the internet. What you can download though

are the codes for things like alarms and for the radio so make sure that you've

got that information because if you haven't

if the battery's disconnected

you can't reset the alarm, you can't reset the stereo and that could cost you

a hundreds of pounds.

So, if after those comprehensive checks

you're still interested

you'll be wanting to take the car

for a test drive which is another story.

But before the test drive

you can be assured

that as one of the UK's leading retailers of used cars The Co-operative

Motor Group

makes sure it does a hundred point check on every used car it sells so that you can

be assured that the car you're interested in

is exactly the cor

that you think it is.