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Checklists

Checklists

Three lists we use ourselves. Print them, or copy them into your phone. Six points each, in the order that catches the most expensive problems first.

The cold walkaround

Done in daylight, on a cold engine, before you sit in the car or ask the price. Allow twenty minutes and take a torch.

Six points, in order

  1. Underside with a torch: chassis rails behind the front wheels, the sill seams at the jacking points, the floorpan under the driver's heel, the rear spring seats and the boot floor around the spare well. Press firmly with a thumb; sound metal does not flex.

  2. Panel reflections along each flank with the light behind you, plus paint on the inner door shuts, overspray on rubber seals and any mismatch between bonnet, roof and rear quarter.

  3. Tyres: the four-digit code on the sidewall for age, tread across the full width rather than just the centre, feathering that says the alignment is out, and whether the spare is present, inflated and the same size.

  4. Front of the car: aircon condenser fins for corrosion and stone damage, radiator for weeping, headlight lenses for hazing, and the bonnet slam panel for repair marks.

  5. Under the bonnet, cold: oil level and smell, coolant colour and level in the expansion tank, brake fluid clarity, battery terminals, and any fresh cleaning in one corner of the bay that suggests a leak was washed off.

  6. Boot carpet lifted and sniffed for damp, the spare well checked for standing water, and the rear light clusters checked from inside for perished seals.

The paperwork check

Nothing here costs money and every item on it has saved somebody a car. Do it before you agree a price, not after.

Six points, in order

  1. Registration certificate in hand: owner name against the seller's identity document, and titleholder noted. If a bank is the titleholder, nothing proceeds without a settlement letter.

  2. Vehicle identification number read off the body and the windscreen and compared with the certificate, plus the engine number where it is listed. Any sign of tampering sends the car for a police identification and clearance check.

  3. Service book read line by line: kilometre figures beside every stamp, who did the work, and whether the cambelt entry names the tensioner and water pump. Ring the workshops that did most of the work.

  4. Roadworthy status and the licence disc expiry, since a renewal falling due next month becomes your cost, and the roadworthy must be valid for the transfer.

  5. Written answers to two direct questions: has the car ever been written off and recoded, and has it ever been in water. Get them on the offer to purchase, not in a conversation.

  6. Change-of-ownership forms signed by both parties, photographed before you hand anything over, and a payment sequence written down: settlement to the bank first, balance to the seller only after the papers are released.

The test-drive sequence

Allow an hour and twenty minutes of driving, including town, highway, a hill and broken tar. Radio off throughout, window down for the first and last few minutes.

Six points, in order

  1. Cold start with the bonnet open and the radio off: listen for a rattle in the first two seconds, watch for blue or white smoke, and check the dashboard lights all extinguish rather than never coming on at all.

  2. Town stage through traffic and four or five robots: feel for a flare or a thump between the lower gears, a clutch that bites high, or a shudder at light throttle around 40 km/h. Set the aircon cold and judge it at idle, not at speed.

  3. Fifteen minutes held at 100 to 120 km/h on the N2: hands loose to check tracking, gentle lane sways to listen for a wheel bearing changing note, and a check for vibration that appears at one particular speed.

  4. A long uphill pull in a high gear without kicking down, watching the mirror for blue smoke and the temperature gauge for a creep that town driving hid.

  5. Broken tar and a gravel verge at low speed, with weight in the back if the car will carry any: knocks from the front are usually bushes or top mounts, a single clonk from the rear is often a trailing-arm bush.

  6. One firm stop from 100 km/h on a clear stretch, then park on a slope, idle in gear for a minute, switch off and look underneath for drips. Restart it hot before you say anything to the seller.

A car underside on ramps with corrosion visible on a chassis rail.
Photograph

A car underside on ramps with corrosion visible on a chassis rail.

Tell us about the car you are looking at

Send the kilometres, the asking price, the body style and where the car has lived, and we will tell you on the phone whether it is worth an inspection. That conversation is free, and it has talked people out of appointments more than once.

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