Used Car Buying – How To Do It Right.

15 December 2023

Used cars tend to be the most popular amongst UK drivers and it can be easy to see why. Second-hand cars have a lower purchase price, suffer from less depreciation and there is an endless amount of choice!

The main disadvantage of buying a used car is the lack of knowledge regarding its history. When you buy a new car, you will be the first owner and don’t have to second guess how the car’s been treated or if it’s been involved in an accident.

Reduce the risk of something going wrong with your next used car purchase by following these top tips below for safe car buying.

Know your affordability.

Before you make any large purchase, you should know how much you can afford to pay for it. This can speed up the buying process if you only shop for cars within your budget. Your budget may be one lump sum to pay for a car with cash or spread the cost into monthly payments with finance. Whichever way you choose to buy your next used car, you should try not to stray from your budget as you may get into a deal that you can’t afford to pay back.

Check the market value.

Once you know how much you can spend on a used car, it’s time to see which cars you could buy. A quick internet search of local, trusted dealerships can help you to find used cars you can afford. It also gives you an idea of how much the cars you like would cost.

For example, if you’re striving for a used BMW on finance, knowing how much it would cost to buy one can give you an idea of how much your monthly budget could be. Knowing the market value of the cars you want to buy also helps if you’re buying with cash and wanting to negotiate the price. If there’s a similar model from a dealer down the road but with a lower price, you could use this as leverage or get a better deal.

Check credit score for finance.

No matter if you’re looking for finance for a Volkswagen or a Porsche, the first thing you should do is to check your credit score. Your credit score can affect your ability to get approved for finance and not knowing where you fall on the credit scale can be costly.

A low credit score can make it harder to get approved if your low score is due to missed or late payments in the past or a lack of credit history. This is because you are seen as more of a risk to lenders and are more likely to default on future loans too. If you need to improve your credit score you should do so before applying for finance.

Check insurance rates.

If you’re buying your first car, insurance rates can be some of the highest around. Newly qualified drivers are more likely to have a road accident in their first year of driving which bumps up the premium. Searching around for cheaper cars to insure and in your budget could help you save money. buying a used car isn’t just about the initial purchase price but also about being able to afford the running cost too.

Use a reputable dealership.

You can buy a second-hand car from a dealer or private seller but to help protect your purchase, you should consider buying your car from a reputable and trusted dealer in the UK. Buying from a dealer gives you an added layer of protection and means you are covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

This act means you are entitled to a full refund, repair, or replacement if the car is not as described or fit for purpose. Check the status of the dealer with the FCA and read verified reviews of other customers before committing to the sale.

Check the history of the car.

Used cars run the risk of having a hidden history but you can check the history of a car you are interested in buying for free. You can check the tax and MOT status of a car and get more information by simply entering the registration number into the DVLA website. You can also make a one-off payment of around £10 with a trusted Car History Check website to see if the car has been stolen, previously written off or still has existing finance on it.

Test drive and check the vehicle.

Before you commit to buying a used car, you should always test drive it first to see how you like it. Take the car out for at least 30 minutes, drive it on different types of roads, and perform maneuvers to get a feel of how it drives. Also, take this opportunity to park up somewhere and check over the vehicle for any imperfections or damage.

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Nabamita Sinha

Nabamita Sinha loves to write about lifestyle and pop-culture. In her free time she loves to watch movies and TV series and experiment with food. Her favourite niche topics are fashion, lifestyle, travel and gossip content. Her style of writing is creative and quirky.

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5 Cost Effective Ways To Improve Fleet Maintenance And Route Planning

Efficient fleet and route management present some of the most significant cost savings opportunities for transport operations looking to streamline expenses amidst rising overheads. While cutting too deeply risks performance impacts, simple modern technology tweaks can significantly optimize fleet maintenance protocols and delivery routing without demanding significant capital investments upfront. This article summarizes five budget-friendly tactics to boost fleet maintenance productivity and route planning accuracy using existing assets more strategically. Let's explore prime areas worthy of attention when aiming to balance the books without compromising quality. 1. Telematics Integration For Intelligent Maintenance Onboard telematics tracking solutions generate immense data around vehicle usage - everything from daily mileage to fuel consumption rates, acceleration patterns, and engine fault alerts. GPS fleet monitoring systems generate data that is integral for transitioning to more intelligent maintenance planning. For example, tracking the total mileage elapsed on each vehicle provides maintenance teams advanced notice to schedule preventive services aligned to actual usage rather than guesswork. Engine fault alerts similarly assist workshops in stocking correct parts beforehand, reducing repair times. Such predictive, conditioned-based maintenance enabled by connected telemetry hugely increases workshop productivity and asset longevity over fixed service intervals alone. The marginal hardware costs pay themselves back rapidly by eliminating unnecessary jobs on under-utilized vehicles while significantly cutting downtimes for aged trucks requiring urgent repair. Managers also gain better oversight on accurate asset utilization - identifying overcapacity and right-sizing accordingly. 2. Dynamic Route Optimization Saves Fuel, Time Route planning technology has evolved, allowing detailed mapping of traffic conditions, customer needs, and variable delivery volumes to generate optimized routes and sequenced schedules scientifically. Dynamic routing feeds ongoing location pings and logistical changes into algorithms pinpointing the most time and fuel-efficient plans moment-to-moment. For example, sudden traffic jams easily reroute deliveries, minimizing delays through detours or customer sequence swapping automatically. Live ETAs provide dispatchers with increased responsiveness to urgently insert priority, high-value stops. Route optimization similarly groups nearby customer drops, minimizing dead miles between stops. The aggregate savings from sharply reduced idling times, fuel spending, and completing more drops per shift quickly offsets monthly routing software subscriptions. A fluid platform also simplifies planning around volatile customer orders or urgent requests. Finally, the streamlined routing eases driver pressures and provides more predictable shift cycles, preventing overtime overruns. 3. Leverage Low-Cost Driver Behavior Analytics While extensive telemetry solutions assist maintenance practices and route optimization advice, essential low-cost tools encourage safe driving habits with significant safety and cost advantages. Driver safety starts with journey behavior - sharp acceleration/braking, excessive speeding, and distraction cause most fleet accidents. Installing essential accelerometer apps on company phones, which riders keep in their pockets while driving, gives managers reliable indicators of driving standards without major privacy invasions. The identified high-risk drivers become eligible for supplemental training to rectify gaps proactively rather than reactively post-accident. Even occasional coaching nudges promote defensive habits, directly preventing liability claims. Tax write-offs on essential safety apps provide further incentives against the staggering fallout of adverse driving. 4. Revise Periodic Inspection Regimes Most fleet vehicles undergo rigorous annual or bi-annual mechanical and safety inspections to renew registrations and compliance certificates. However, modern usage patterns indicate that minor intermittent inspections work better for heavier-usage vehicles. For example, an urban delivery van racking high mileage daily deserves more frequent - yet shorter - 30 or 60-day inspection intervals concentrating on high-wear items like tires, wipers, and fluids rather than entire annual drivetrain teardowns. This spreads CAPEX costs into smaller bites while catching deficiencies earlier before catastrophic failures materialize at the worst moment. For vehicles with lower utilization, quarterly checks remain suitable to balance effectiveness against outlay. Managers shouldn't rely on annual checks to assure complete reliability on today's asset-intensive fleet demands—review inspection regimes to align with contemporary mobility profiles. 5. Embrace Eco-Driving Practices For Light Vehicles Too While most eco-driving programs target commercial trucks, light fleets equally deserve policy attention, given their ubiquity on roads. Minor optimizing tweaks around acceleration, idling, revs per minute, and running A/C make significant impacts multiplied over thousands of miles annually. Simply avoiding jackrabbit starts saves gas and brake wear dramatically. A/C idling policies similarly cut petty energy waste. Lower viscosity oils boost fuel economy while protecting modern engines from higher operating temperatures. Removing unnecessary cargo weight or drag-inducing racks after shifts conclude also assists in marginal performance gains. The eco-driving ethos crucially builds employee engagement around fuel budget guardianship. Business mileage reimbursements accordingly shift to reward MPG rather than total gallons consumed. Small in-cab reminders keep consciousness pervasive till smart habits become instilled in practice. Final Thoughts With transport margins tightening amidst inflation, energy volatility, and labor churns, sweating assets harder makes commercial sense if done responsibly. The above five pathways leverage connected fleet technology, data insights, and driver partnerships for optimizing critical maintenance and route planning protocols without demanding elaborate upfront investments. The collective small gains directly enhance workshop productivity, vehicle longevity, fuel economy, and driver experience while cutting risk and delays significantly. Beyond the operational enhancements lie vital cultural shifts, placing field teams at the heart of finding solutions rather than externally imposing changes. Collaborative problem-solving builds their engagement around responsible optimization critical for sustaining a continually improving business despite market uncertainties. Additional Reading:

Car Insurance For Electric Vehicles Explained

You’ve taken the leap into electric vehicles, leaving behind petrol fumes and high bills at the forecourt lured by the prospect of low running costs, no vehicle tax, and low emissions. Or maybe you’re just considering ditching fuel tanks for plugs and are doing the maths, calculating whether the savings you can rack up with an EV, from the government’s rebate to lower servicing charges, can offset the higher initial outlay. While electric vehicles are exempt from vehicle tax and from charges in London’s congestion zone, and you can rack up discounts on parking permits from many councils, you can’t avoid some of the standard costs of owning a vehicle. A major, unavoidable expense is for car insurance, which is a legal requirement for any vehicle using or even parked on public roads in the UK. If you’ve never sought out or arranged insurance for an electric vehicle, you might be baffled about where to start. Cost and Providers: You may heard electric vehicles are significantly more expensive to insure and that you’ll need to see out a specialist provider. It’s true that the market for electric vehicles, and therefore for insurance for electric vehicles, is still in its infancy. As of the end of September 2018, there are just 178,000 plug-in vehicles (including fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids) registered in the UK, out of a total of 37.3m vehicles on our roads. But the number is rising quickly: there were 5,000 new registrations of plug-in vehicles each month of 2018, while in 2014 just 400 new plug-in vehicles were being driven off lots. With the increasing uptake of EVs and hybrids, especially in the run up to the 2040 ban on petrol and diesel vehicles, the cost and complication of insuring them will fall. Electric vehicle insurance policies will become standard fare from mainstream insurers. Today, the higher purchase price of EVs drives up insurance premiums for them, as insurers need to consider to cost of replacing your vehicle if it’s stolen or damaged beyond repair. But even now you might find insuring an electric vehicle might be comparable to, or even cheaper, than insuring a petrol- or diesel-powered car, owing to the small size and less powerful engines on EVs and the discounts some insurers can give you for driving environmentally-friendly cars. However, the process of obtaining insurance quotes and policies for an electric vehicle is different than that for EVs and a rundown will be helpful as you start your electrically-powered journey. What Impacts Cost of Insurance for Electric Vehicles: You’re probably familiar with the features of a standard vehicle that can inflate, or reduce, your monthly premiums for its insurance, including its car insurance group, the size of its engine, and purchase price. For insuring electric vehicles, there’s a new calculus, accounting for who owns the battery and the risk posed by (not kidding) power cables. leased batteries: Some EV manufacturers like Renault and Clio offer motorists the option of buying the vehicle outright but leasing its battery, with a monthly fee and mileage agreement. These arrangements spare you the steep cost of replacing batteries when they lose functionality after a few years. But if you’re leasing the battery, you’ll need to inform your insurer when obtaining quotes, as a leased battery will affect who needs to be paid if your electric vehicle is written off. Additionally, some policies may not cover leased batteries. power cables and liability: Much like your smartphone, your electric vehicle will need to be charged, just with a very big cord. If you’re charging in your driveway or garage, you won’t have to worry about the cord trailing large distances. But if you’re charging your vehicle while it’s parked on the street or at a public charging station, that cord could pose a tripping hazard. When obtaining an insurance policy for your electric vehicle, you should ensure it provides enough liability cover to protect you if a member of the public face-plants over your cable. fires from at-home charging: If your electric vehicle or cable fire while plugged in in your driveway or garage you might wonder which insurance policy will pay out: your home insurance policy or the one for your car. That ultimately depends on where the fire originates, but the risk of an electric fault within your vehicle causing a fire that then destroys you home can push up premiums for car insurance for EVs. green discounts: Some insurers will offer discounts of up to 5% on your annual premiums as a reward for you driving an environmentally-friendly car. Others will make charitable donations to green causes in your name from your premiums or plant a certain number of trees. Read Also: Why You Need Classic Car Insurance? 7 Reasons Why Teenagers Pay Extra For Car Insurance

You Can Now Print Your Own MOT Certificate

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) recently implemented a new system that allows drivers to print their own MOT certificates at home. If you consider that more than 630,000 MOT certificates were issues last year, at the cost of £10 each, the new system is set to save UK drivers an estimated £6 million a year. This new system will allow owners of cars, vans, and motorcycles to view, save and print MOT certificates issued after 20th May 2018. The printing of the MOT Certificate by drivers can help save them from a number of bureaucratic hurdles and ease efficiency. The Ministry of Transport is already burdened with a number of problems. Saving them from such a process will help them concentrate on some other important area of business. In terms of the drivers, it is important, as it will help save them from running around with paperwork at all times. A great number of drivers in the UK, misplace their MOT certificates routinely. The process of getting a new one is problematic and time-consuming. By enabling drivers to print their own MOT certificates, the Ministry of Transport is contributing to citizen welfare and promoting citizen responsibility. The new system was only initially available for cars and vans, but it was made available for motorcycles and will soon become available for buses, Lorries, and coaches. All drivers who wish to use this service only need the vehicle’s registration number and the 11-digit reference number found on its VC5 logbook. How to Get Your Free MOT Certificate: Here’s how to get your free MOT certificate brought to you by Plateman Show Plates. Considering that you need to show the MOT certificate if you need to tax the vehicle at the post office or change the vehicle’s tax class, this new and easy way of getting the MOT certificate may prove invaluable to some users. If you are not able to get the MOT certificate online and print it yourself, you can still get a certificate from MOT centers at £10. According to Neil Barlow, the Head of Vehicle Engineering at the DVSA, this move was aimed at making it easier for motorists to have the “information they need to keep their vehicle safe.” It is also easy to argue that the government seeks to reduce the need for you to visit a government office for most of the documents you need. The move is a welcome one since it means that you don’t have to spend money on an MOT certificate, but also because you are able to get one at your own time and in your own way. It is also a good way to get a replacement MOT if you happen to lose yours. According to the DVSA website, you can use this service to replace a lost or damaged MOT certificate. The service is also very easy to use and with the right documentation, you can print out your MOT in a matter of minutes. This free service is however not available for heavy goods vehicle, trailers of public service vehicles. Owners of these vehicles have to visit an MOT center if they want an MOT certificate. An MOT certificate verifies that your vehicle is safe and roadworthy and given that it also tests the emissions your car produces, it is a vital document to have. Now you can get it more easily which leaves no excuse for not having one. Read Also: Road Ready: 5 Essential Things To Keep In Your Car Things To Consider Before Buying Your First Motorcycle

Used Car Buying – How To Do It Right.

Know your affordability.

Check the market value.

Check credit score for finance.

Check insurance rates.

Use a reputable dealership.

Check the history of the car.

Test drive and check the vehicle.

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Nabamita Sinha

Nabamita Sinha loves to write about lifestyle and pop-culture. In her free time she loves to watch movies and TV series and experiment with food. Her favourite niche topics are fashion, lifestyle, travel and gossip content. Her style of writing is creative and quirky.

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Used Car Buying – How To Do It Right.

Know your affordability.

Check the market value.

Check credit score for finance.

Check insurance rates.

Use a reputable dealership.

Check the history of the car.

Test drive and check the vehicle.

Share this Article

The Best Car Brands To Buy As An Investment

How To Negotiate The Best Deal When Selling Your Car For Cash In San Diego?

Nabamita Sinha loves to write about lifestyle and pop-culture. In her free time she loves to watch movies and TV series and experiment with food. Her favourite niche topics are fashion, lifestyle, travel and gossip content. Her style of writing is creative and quirky.

Leave a Reply

All Comments

Popular

Follow Us

Recent

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