performance automotive tips

Now that it has come round to the time when I need to start thinking about getting a different car, I ask myself the question, do I really need to buy a new car? For the past ten years I have been buying a new car, getting rid of it three years later at a much lower price, and then repeating the process. Now that I have a few years of experience buying and selling cars it occurs to me that I might just be pouring my money away! I always presumed that it was best to have new cars, and partly my pride was probably to blame. I decided this time around that I would investigate the possibility of buying something second hand.

I wanted to know exactly how much I would save by doing this, so I went onto a site called motors to find a used car. This site was great. I could type in exactly what make, model, and year I wanted to buy, and all of the choices would come up nearly instantly. I discovered that I could buy the same car that I have now, but the very top model, for almost half of what it would cost new. It suddenly seemed so stupid that I had been spending this sort of money on cars for so long, and I could see that this sort of car would not lose much value over the next three years of its life.

Because of this realisation, I decided to hang on to my current car. I would run it for a few more years, and from that point on, I would make sure I bought second hand every time!

Any used car will always have minor hitches that will reduce its performance and even looks as compared to a new car. But it is still a profitable venture if the car has been properly taken care of. When you go in a car sale you find hundreds of cars. Therefore it’s not an easy task always to look at all the details of the car. So, the most important question is how to pick the best car among all the used cars for sale? Well here are some useful tips while buying used cars for sale:

• Carry a small magnet piece with you and check the car body for any filling job done. The magnet will stick nicely to the body but not so easily to the area which has been filled indicating that the car has been through an accident.

• Many dealers reduce the mileage of the vehicle just to bag a higher price for the vehicle. Look at the interiors of the vehicle. Check whether the wear and tear is in sync with the car’s mileage.

• Take a test drive of the car keeping the radio off. Drive half the distance with air conditioning (AC) off and the rest with it on. Compare the performance of the vehicle and check whether the car accelerates properly with AC on.

• When you go to a dealer where you have hundreds of used cars for sale it is better to accompany with you someone who knows more about cars than you (usually a trained mechanic or technician).

• It is also very important to check all the paperwork before buying a used car. Make sure the engine number and chassis number on the documents match with the vehicle’s specifications. If possible also get the car HPI checked. Though it will cost you around 40 pounds but it will tell you whether the car is stolen or not and when and where the car has been serviced along with the complete accidental history of the vehicle.

By Stuart Michael M