Taking care when buying cars online

Many consumers use the internet as a research tool to shop around for the best deals when considering making a purchase. You can buy almost anything online these days and often, depending on what it is you’re looking for, there are sites designed specifically to allow customers to make direct price comparisons for the same products or services sold by different companies.

The second biggest purchase most of us will ever make in our lives, after buying a house, is buying a car. And shopping around for a car is no different to shopping around for your groceries in terms of wanting the best deal.

From a sellers point of view, if you think that placing an advertisement in the local paper when selling your car you get a fair amount of local enquiries, with the internet you could reach a much wider audience.

This is exactly what many people looking to buy a car online love about shopping online. But whether you are buying from an independent owner or a used car garage there are a number of points to remember to ensure you buy safely and don’t end up potentially out of pocket.

Firstly an advert can only tell you so much, plus advertisers tend to charge on a per word basis or have limited space so a seller may omit details in order to fit the description in. Many online car adverts have pictures accompanying their listing, however just because the car you’re looking at doesn’t have a picture don’t discount it yet, the seller may not have had time or wished to spend extra on a photo. This brings us to the next point…

Arrange a viewing before buying, it’s vital that you get a chance to examine the car before committing to any purchase, most sellers will be glad to arrange a suitable time for you to come and see the car, many will offer a test drive so you can find out whether the car is right for you but also notice any problems that may help you negotiate a lower price. If a seller isn’t prepared to let you view or test drive the car you have to ask yourself if there is a reason for this which you have to be wary of.

When buying the car you need to get the full service history if it is available so you know of any major repairs that have been completed on the car. It’s beneficial for the car to have a current MOT but if you are going to need to get one done then this is another area you can negotiate a lower price for; considering the cost of the test and any potential work which may be required. Getting the contact details of the seller is vital too, should you need to contact them for any reason concerning the car.

Ensuring you practice caution and detail on the buying process will mean you should be able to safely buy the car you want. One final consideration might be to use a car checking service to ensure that there is no outstanding finance secured against the car etc. More detail can be found on this by simply searching ‘online car check’ in one of the major search engines. Be aware that this could cost you and that some services are better than others.

Related topics include welcome car loans, yes car credit and car finance