You’ve been scouring the various car-selling sites online, and something has grabbed your attention. It could be the car of your dreams, or perhaps it’s your next project car. In either scenario, you contact the seller and arrange to go and view the vehicle. Now, you might think this next step involves hopping in your car and going to their location – but you’re wrong! You shouldn’t attend a car viewing without bringing along these crucial things to ensure you get the best deal:
A Vehicle History Report
Always come prepared with receipts to avoid being scammed by an online car seller. People can make mistakes – or intentionally lead you on – so you need to know everything about a car before buying it. Obtain the vehicle history online before you go, meaning you can read up on everything from the service history to insurance claims.
You can even use apps like carVertical to get an even deeper report on a car – these apps often show you things like hidden damage that didn’t go through insurance providers. If you know all of these details, then you can spot when a seller’s trying to hide things. It lets you notice red flags or green flags to either go ahead with the purchase or walk away.
A Flashlight
Never view a used car without bringing along a trusty flashlight. You need this to look at all the nooks and crannies – and it also lets you shine a light under the car to check for signs of rust or corrosion. If you don’t have a flashlight, then there’s a strong chance you can buy a car, take it home, and then discover loads of unwanted rusty parts that weren’t visible during your walkaround.
A Second Opinion
It’s not wise to view a car on your own, and this isn’t just for safety reasons. Bringing someone along means you won’t feel pressured to buy a car even if you don’t like it. It also stops you from being disillusioned into thinking you’ve found the perfect car. You may be so determined to find a specific car that you’re willing to overlook key mechanical problems or price points. If you’ve got a friend with you, they can step in and give you a second opinion so you know if it’s genuinely a good car or not.
It’s even more helpful if they’re mechanically minded, which means they can look at the car and assess it for you. Use their expertise to spot things that would otherwise go unnoticed, so you don’t walk away with a vehicle that has clear mechanical issues under the hood.
If you want to take things a step further, then bring along another friend who’s more of a wheeler-dealer than you. They can help you with the bartering stage if you do want to buy the car, meaning you can potentially get a better deal.
A Tow Truck
Okay, this isn’t something you necessarily need to bring with you right away, but it helps to have a tow truck company on standby. Why? Because it’s not always suitable or possible to drive the car away if you buy it. This is normally the case when buying classic or project cars – they’re either broken or don’t have enough fuel, so you want to tow them to your home or garage.
To be honest, even if a car is in good condition, it’s not always smart to drive it all the way home, especially if you live hundreds of miles away. You want to tow it safely from the seller’s property to yours, reducing the risk of something going wrong within minutes of buying the car.
A Magnet
This is a sneaky little tool that helps you detect filler in cars. Now, why might a car have filler? It’s a common “quick fix” when a vehicle’s been in an accident – a mechanic, or the driver themselves, will use a filler to cover up the cracks or replace shipped pieces of the body work. To be fair, it’s also very common when a car corrodes and parts fall off. Filler replaces these parts – but it’s not magnetic.
Passing a magnet over a vehicle lets you detect metal and non-metal pieces, which is the easiest way to spot a filler job. This is particularly important if the seller doesn’t mention anything about filler in the advert, as you know they’re hiding it.
So, when you’re buying a used car, make sure you bring along these five things with you. They’ll help you assess the car in more detail, check for any warning signs, and avoid a host of common problems.