by Gauk
Wed, Aug 17, 2016 5:58 AM

used car buyers guideCompiled with the help of police, car buying professionals, and even ex-car criminals, GAUK Motors used car buyer’s guide is probably the most comprehensive guide to buying a secondhand motor ever written…

The GAUK Motors Secondhand Car Buyers Guide in extremely comprehensive and is 99% relevant to a worldwide audience. However, we are aware that occasionally there will be anomalies in different countries. If you spot something we have missed or that a certain document is called something different in your country then please let us know so that we can include it in the guide for the benefit of fellow countrymen/women. E-mail us

ON THE PHONE
The first contact you have with the seller of the car will probably be over the phone. You can save yourself a lot of time and wasted viewings by sorting the dogs from the genuine article from the comfort of your own home – just by asking the right questions.

Instinct and intelligence are the two major factors which affect your success rate when you’re looking to buy the car you really want.

INSTINCT
This includes your senses. Your senses are affected by your emotions – so never go car hunting with your emotions out of control, e.g. after an argument, or with something other than car purchase on your mind. Not everyone has finely tuned instincts.

The GAUK Motors V.U.It-Check-List puts your conscious on hold and allows your subconscious, to tune into the way the seller presents himself and his car.

On the phone there is no visual contact, or physical presence, to distract the focus of your attention.

Your attention is focused down the line. And that means land-line. Interference from mobile and remote phones can disturb your flow of conversation – as well as distract your attention. This is an unnecessary intrusion.

INTELLIGENCE
Not what gets you into MENSA, but MI5.

Intelligence gathering is planning, organisation and patience. Not everyone has the inclination to plan and organise – but everyone remembers patience as a virtue.

So in a nutshell GAUK Motors:

  • Increases your instinctive awareness
  • Gives you a planned routine each time you call a seller, and quite literally talks you through your routine
  • Organise your inquiries, so you don’t get your facts confused.

Without the Talk-U-Thru-Check-List you can waste your time and money chasing rubbish across six counties.

Once you’ve tracked down something and all your initial phone questions have been answered satisfactorily you’ll go out to a viewing where you’ll be armed your V.U.It-Check-List

Without the V.U.It-Check-List you can get swamped by detail and miss vital clues…..and undergo an experience, not unlike the writer’s last purchase, in which a medium-sized, strong, reliable car was required.

After six months of indecision, there was an urgent and increasing pressure for a result in this quest. Two absolute no-nos for car hunting.

If you want to pay over the odds and/or buy a dog, go car hunting under these constraints.

Buy when you want to – not when you have to.

There were just so many three and five series from which to choose. However, the writer fulfilled this task within four weekly issues of the Exchange & Mart (local car trader magazine), eventually settling on a 525e.

It was a lovely car but the level of cleanliness aroused immediate suspicion. The seller was private.

During the course of the viewing he revealed a reasonable knowledge of the car. His ‘wife’ had owned it in her maiden name for four years; the car was registered at the viewing address; the seller was at home. The car had been serviced under the seller’s name, two years prior, by the local BMW main agent.

He was stretching the truth, however, about recent maintenance with a list of repairs which had allegedly, been completed by a moonlighting BMW engineer. All the visible parts had been replaced, but I later found the
invisible ones hadn’t.

There were no garage bills and forgetting to ask to see the parts receipts just compounded the issue. I took his word as an honest John – just how gullible can one get.

It was a lovely clean car but it cost an extra £800 to get the fantasy changed to reality. The asking price was £4,900. The drive away price became £4,500. Not low enough to cover all the repairs. But it could have been worse!

With hindsight, it was obvious a trader had primed the seller. The facts were mixed with fantasy to fudge the issues. And there were too many variables with which to cope, without the V.U. It-Check-List.

This was the last pre-GAUK Motors purchase made without this checklist.

When the time comes to pool your arguments to get a realistic price, your mind can be a torrent of truths, half-truths, uncertainties and whatever else. This is when your V.U.It-Check-List takes over. It has all the facts written down waiting for this moment.

Initially practice with GAUK Motors on your current car, your friends’ cars, your parents’ cars, or any car you’re under no stress to buy. This way, you’ll realise that although all cars have a basic similarity in function and structure, the mechanics and layout can vary.

When you’re familiar with the car you want, you can start hunting for your own.

Although the Talk-U-Thru-Check-Lists allow you to track more than one make and model at the same time, just concentrate on one model, trim level, engine size and year.

Unless you know about cars you’ll just get confused.

You’ll require two other publications:

  • A car buyers’ price guide
  • A source of adverts

If you don’t know what you want, buy a ‘Good Car Guide’. It tells you what to avoid and gives you ideas around what you can afford.

Next, phone round some dealers or traders and take V.U.It-Check-List to their car lots. For viewing only.

Just get a feel for dealing – it could save your thousands in the long term.

It’s easier, and more fun, to take someone with you when you view – even if he or she knows less about cars than you do. You’ll be amazed by what an unstressed observer will notice.

With GAUK Motors and moral support you won’t get fooled so easily. You’ll realise how quickly you can analyse a car. But leave your money, cheque book, credit cards, ID and urge to buy, safely at home.

This may seem like a waste of time, but it’s part of the learning process. At the end of the day it’s more comforting to have your money in the bank, than to have your car in the repair shop and no money in the bank.

It’s historically accepted that most car dealers were – and are probably still – adept at pressurizing and leading potential buyers into buying the car they want to sell. What happens to the buyer at this crucial moment?

He goes fish: his mouth gapes; his eyes don’t blink; his brain freezes over. He can barely nod his chequebook and sign his head.

It will be to the successful business man, buying his first Rolls Royce convertible and inquiring if the aircon worked with the top down!

Moral of the story is to follow the system.

published by Gauk