Pitfalls of Buying A Used Car
Buying a used car can be a perilous experience for many because unfortunately there are fraudsters and conmen who seek to profit from others naivety, and are quite unscrupulous when it comes to selling cars that are not fit for the road, and in some cases downright dangerous!
Horror stories abound of people purchasing second hand cars only to find they’ve actually bought a ‘cut and shut’ — two halves of separate written off cars that have been welded together to form a reconstructed vehicle. Needless to say such cars are death traps, and people selling them are breaking the law. Buy a car such as this and not only is your life at risk but every penny you spend on it is likely to be unrecoverable.
Stolen cars are often offered for sale along with the V5 log books. The first thing a motorist will know about the fact that it is a stolen vehicle is when they send the buyers portion of the V5 to the DVLA and receive a visit from a police officer. If you have any doubts you should abandon a purchase, even if you have paid a deposit. Go to a reputable dealer, not a private seller who will be untraceable once the transaction has been concluded. If possible, take someone who is fairly knowledgeable about cars with you when you go to view a potential purchase. They might pick up something that you may miss, and they can always give you a second opinion.
Although whilst it is a good move to get cheap car insurance you shouldn’t always go for the cheapest car because another favourite trick of a fraudster is to sell a car on which there is outstanding finance at a massive discount. Usually advertised at market rates, the seller will normally offer a big discount for cash. It’s easy for him to be so generous because he doesn’t actually own the car, it is the property of a finance company who will seek to recover the car or the outstanding balance from anyone who actually parts with cash and buys it in good faith.
If you are in such a position motoring organisations such as the AA offer to check whether there is any outstanding finance on the car. They charge a fee of ?35, but as they say if it appears too good to be true, it inevitably is, and that upfront fee could save you a fortune in the long run.
Adam Singleton writes on a number of topics on behalf of a digital marketing agency and a variety of clients. As such, this article is to be considered a professional piece with business interests in mind.
