Buying a banger thoughts...

500 quid car, very good condition, aiming to run it till it dies,
worth running an HPI check on?

 

Have a look at the seller and make up your mind...

 

Yes.

 

That dear old chap, Ben tugged on his old shag and said:

Nope.

If you think the seller is dodgy, just move on and buy the next one up
the street.

I'm a bit of a fan of shonkers for commuting when the weather is
inclement. Bought my Volvo 940 Wentworth last June for the princely
sum of 400 quid - years MOT.

I've done 15,000 miles in it since then without a spot of trouble. Nice
too - loads of room for shite and full leather etc and 30 to the gallon
(as long as you don't use too much of the turbo boost all the time).

Look on the car as disposable - if it goes wrong just scrap it or bodge
it and out it for the same money.

 

Nope, not unless its a couple of years old and your buying it cash
behind the garage.

If it looks good buy it.

Alan

 

I did one when I bought the old pug two years ago because the odometer
digit at the thousands position was not properly in line. This revealed
a mileage discrepancy. I still bought it because it still seemed sound
enough, but I used the discrepancy to drive the price down and thus
saved more than the cost of the HPI check. Flogging the 17 inch alloys
and tyres it came with on Ebay was another money saving success.

Generally though as others have said, probably a 'no'.
--

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

 

One in favour.

 

One against.

 

Two against.

It's got MOT till January 2008 which is the main reason I'm looking at
it.

 

Three against.

I ran one when buying the Fiesta ST but 11k is a lot of money to risk.
500 quid isn't so bad. I'm actually more interested in it flagging up
as stolen as I imagine most 13 year old cars aren't subject to finance
deals.

 

Seems like a consensus then. Cheers chaps.

 

At that price, no. Hardly worth anybody's while for that car to be
dodgy.

5K, now, different story.

 

If it's got the docs and you can trace the seller, then no.

 

Nope.

However... www.freevehiclecheck.co.uk is worth using in conjunction
with a throwaway spamtrap email addy - go to that with the reg of the
car in question, fill in all the fields requiring a load of personal
info such as phone number with guff, and it will give you a freebie
report that will flag up any outstanding finance or whether it's been
subject to an insurance claim or not.

If anything does come up, but everything else seems to ring true, as
in the seller seems honest, logbook is present etc., then you can
decide whether or not you want to pay out for a full HPi check.

Either that or approach the seller saying it's flagged up as having a
problem on HPi, and you'd like more info - if they won't play ball or
claim ignorance, just walk away - the market is awash with perfectly
good cars with long MOTs at the mo.

I bought SWMBO an R plate Ford KA2 (1) three weeks ago with just under
a years ticket and six months tax and with full service history for
£450.

Been using it since then, and it's been spot on bar blowing one
headlight bulb.

And then this week I picked up an M plate Cavalier 2.0 GLS with 98k
genuine miles, full history, full MOT and a recent clutch, for £400
for me.

Both were brought privately, not from auction which, going by recent
experiences is best avoided if at all possible, especially if the car
in question is unwarranted.

If you stay away from over complicated shite, bangernomics (2) make
more sense than ever.

(1) Leccy windows and factory CD headunit as standard

 

Very useful, particularly as the reg is visible on the advert. Cheers
chap.

 

Yep I sure am. Even though it doesn't cost much the person selling it might
not own it?

 

It doesn't matter if it is subject to finance - if the seller doesn't tell
you there's outstanding finance then you're in the clear - the law gives you
good title to the vehicle and the finance company can't chase you for the
money they're owed.

--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1, Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
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The speccy Geordie twat.