It’s never an easy task to buy a new car – the whole process is fraught with stress and anxiety! I really don’t think there is any way round that – you can never guarantee the condition of any car, no matter how you try. Ok, I guess you can buy new, but with today’s prices this is prohibitive to most people. Personally, I always try to find something with low mileage for its age, and I always make sure that there is lots of history. I also always carry out an HPi check – just to make sure there is nothing untoward, because you never know.

Beyond that, there is not much else you can do but trust your instinct. It’s obviously a good idea to test drive the car in question if you get the opportunity. The other difficult thing about finding a used car is where to buy it from. You can use your local paper but this is somewhat limiting. I would suggest going online and using one of the many quality car search sites, such as Motors, which is a very effective way of searching. It allows you to input your search criteria such as make, model, specification, location and price. Being able to search like this means that you can control the parameters and it can really help you to focus in on exactly what you like in a car.

Good luck with the hunt, and remember to take as many precautions as possible to ensure that you are buying a great car!

Tags: buying car, online search, second hand cars, used cars