There are many potential pitfalls in buying a used car, but if you exercise reasonable caution, they can mostly be avoided. Here look at a few of these traps and say something on how to avoid them. The old adage that if it seems to be too good to be true, then it is too good to be true certainly applies to the used car business. If a used car seems too cheap compared with similar models in a similar condition, then you need to question why. The reasons could be perfectly legitimate; on the other hand they may not.

You may decide to purchase your car through a magazine, classified ads or online used car listings such as at www.motors.co.uk/buy-a-car, or you may decide to browse some second hand car showrooms. If you have found your car from a listing then your first contact with the seller will be by telephone. This is an ideal opportunity to find out what you can about the person and the car in order to decide whether or not to view the car. It is advisable to have a check list of questions before making the call.

No doubt you can devise the list yourself, but you need to find out everything that you can about the car’s current condition and its history. For instance you will need to know how long the current owner has had the car; the number of previous owners; whether is has been in an accident; its mechanical state and the state of the bodywork; its service history and if it has an MOT. It is advisable to have one or two open questions such as asking what they would like to tell you about the car.

One thing that many people avoid in order to save a little money, and which they should not avoid, is a vehicle check. This will inform you whether the car is stolen, whether it is subject to a HP agreement and so technically belongs to the HP company, whether it has ever been an insurance write-off, and if the VIN is correct and the car is not a ringer.

These are all the things you should do before even seeing the car and by ensuring that you do you can save yourself a lot of time and money.