If you care about your car, or more to the point, about how much it will be worth when the time comes to sell it, you need to know about what will devalue it. From smoking inside to letting kids run riot, there are many ways to inflict lasting damage that will put buyers off your motor. Here are the top 10 that drivers would do well to avoid.
Expert advice: how to avoid a bank holiday breakdown
shutterstock / Fotosenmeer
Breaking down could make your bank holiday weekend memorable for all the wrong reasons. But the vast majority of breakdowns are avoidable. Less than five minutes spent checking your car over at home could save you the time and potential hassle of breaking down by the side of the road. Continue reading
How to write a car advert to sell a used motor
© Drivers who want to sell their car privately and successfully need to know how to write a clear and concise advert for potential buyers. The wording of a classified advert is likely to dictate how successful they are at attracting people’s attention. Prospective car buyers don’t want to read a literary masterpiece: they’re looking for something that describes a car to suit their requirements. The more relevant an ad is – to both the type of car and typical owner – the more likely it is that someone will take an interest and enquire.
As well as showing off the car you’re selling, you’re also showing off yourself as a responsible owner who’s (hopefully) cared for that car. The more honest and straightforward you can be, the more likely people will consider what you’re offering to be a good buy. And the more potential buyers you have, the more likely you are to sell the car and maximise its value.
Honesty is the best policy
Great British Drives: Cumbria
Where: Cumbria – Bluebells, Romans and railways
When to drive it: Spring
Essential stop: Allen Banks
Perfect stay: Crown Hotel, Wetheral, Carlisle
In our Great British Drives series we’ll be showcasing fantastic family days out by car. In this first piece we go to the north Pennines, Cumbria and Northumberland for a 70-mile round trip that takes in some of the most dramatic scenery in the British isles, along with a few attractions to keep the kids amused… Continue reading
How to sell cars for the best possible return
There are approximately two million new car and seven million used car sales every year in the UK. For most of those drivers, the greatest dilemma is how to is sell their old car to help fund buying the new model.
Our guide to selling a car examines the best options for shifting your current car so you can replace it with something newer and shinier.
Car buying websites
Is banning diesels really the way to avoid a ‘health crisis’
The particles produced by diesel engines are killing 7000 Britons a year. Experts want diesel engined cars banned from cities. But talk to enough people and you’ll find an argument to justify almost anything. Continue reading
What kind of garage is best for the cheapest MOT test
The £54.85 MOT test is often seen as an annual expense drivers could do without, but it’s an important safety check that must not be ignored.
We’ve already shown how to cut the cost of the test by conducting your own pre-MOT inspection. Another way of ensuring you pay a minimum for your car’s yearly health check is to consider the many locations that can carry out an MOT test today. Here are the options drivers can choose from.
Franchised dealer
A complete guide to car finance jargon
© Owning a new or used car is more attainable than ever thanks to the increasing acceptance of finance agreements. However, using credit to buy or own a car means consumers are exposed to a world of jargon and acronyms, which can be daunting at best and confusing and misleading at worst. We’ve already outlined the most common ways of using finance to pay for a car. This guide explains the most common terms and abbreviations so that car buyers can easily figure out the difference between their GAP and GMFV along with other common finance jargon. Continue reading
How to perform simple tyre care
© Falken
While the overall number of road accidents is falling, tyre-related crashes are on the up. Tyre industry experts agree that an important contributor is the lack of maintenance by drivers. Spot checks show the vast majority of tyres are under-inflated by around 15 to 20 per cent. According to tyre giant Continental, this can reduce a tyre’s life by a quarter and increase fuel consumption by 5 per cent. Yet tyre maintenance is remarkably simple and tyres that are correctly inflated are less susceptible to punctures and give improved handling and road holding. Here are some top tips from Steve Howat, general manager for technical services at Continental, on how to look after your car’s tyres.
Buy a tyre pressure gauge
Performance ‘chips’ for cars: are they worth it?
© Gone are the days of taking an engine to pieces and tinkering with oily bits of metal to extract more performance. Now a wide number of specialist companies can reprogram your engine’s Electronic Control Unit. It’s a process commonly known as ‘chipping’. And companies that do it frequently claim the procedure can result in improved performance, with as much as 30 per cent more power and 10 per cent more fuel economy. It typically costs around £200, but is it money well spent?
How it works
How to tell if you’re looking at a flood damaged car
A car doesn’t have to have been completely submerged or washed away by a river to be so seriously damaged it’s beyond repair. Fortunately there are ways to tell whether a car has been damaged by flood water. And with flooding frequently affecting many parts of the country, hundreds of cars can suffer water logging.
As many as 70 per cent of flooded cars are written off by insurers. Rather than being left out of pocket (as the pay-out is typically less than a like-for-like replacement would cost), car industry experts believe many owners will try to shift their cars onto unsuspecting buyers.
Alan Cureton, Manheim auctions’ dealer sales director said: “We already know that some less-damaged vehicles are being offered for sale. Car buyers should be extra cautious about water damage over the coming months.”
To the unwary, it’s relatively easy to buy a car that’s been flooded and be none the wiser until things start to go wrong. If water gets into an engine it can result in catastrophic failure later in the car’s life, while electrical systems can take time to play up before failing completely. Follow our pointers on how not to make the mistake of buying a flood-damaged car.
Are the windows misted up?
How to wash Sahara dust off your car
pandara / Shutterstock
Getting rid of the Saharan dust that periodically blows up from Africa is vital to the future value of your car.
Dust is bad news for a car’s paintwork. Not only does it dull the finish of your once immaculate motor, it can also be very abrasive, causing millions of minute scratches to the surface it’s sitting on. And the duller and less appealing a car’s bodywork is, the less it will be worth when it’s time to sell it.
Cleaning a car involves slightly more than giving it a wipe over with a wet rag. We’ve taken advice from car care experts Autoglym to give you four simple steps that will enable you to return your dust-covered paintwork to its former glory…
Step 1: the first rinse
Which of the different car finance options to choose
Today, around three quarters of new cars in the UK are bought through finance deals. This increasing trend towards buying on credit has been driven largely by car makers increasingly promoting finance packages. At the same time, people are more accepting of buying expensive items using finance and the unstable economy has put an emphasis on monthly budgeting.
The finance package you choose to buy a car depends upon personal circumstances; there is no right or wrong way. But it pays to remember that there is still no substitute for shopping around and comparing different offers.
For finance, the aim is to get the lowest APR (annual percentage rate) and lowest total cost of the package over the agreed term. To help explain the differences between the most common finance products, here’s a guide to what is available in the showroom and on the high street.
How to test drive a used car
With millions of used cars sold every year, there can be good and bad examples of the same model for the same price. Deciding on the right used car for you and making sure you buy a tidy version of that particular make and model comes down to taking a test drive. Following these steps should help you get the best car for your budget. Continue reading
Used car scams to watch out for
More than seven million used cars are sold in the UK every year. That’s more than three times the number of new cars. Unfortunately, there are plenty of disreputable sellers around. And they’ll try every trick in the book to convince unwitting car buyers to hand over their hard-earned money for a dodgy motor. Here are some of the more popular used car scams that buyers from private sellers should look out for.
“The car’s cheap because it’s from abroad”
Home checks to help pass the annual MOT test
Like a check-up at the dentist, your car’s annual MOT test comes round quicker than you expect and can be a painful experience. It can also be more expensive than many drivers anticipate.
Last year, a staggering 40 per cent of the 26.9m cars that took the annual MOT failed. That’s more than 10 million vehicles. Of those, more than 3.5m were pulled up for having dodgy lights, something that could easily have been checked by owners before the test.
Here are the most common reasons for MOT failure (in 2012/2103) and a guide to carrying out your own pre-MOT test to minimise the chances, aggravation and cost of flunking.
Lighting and signalling: 18.7% of fails
Save money on your car safety kit
Staying safe in bad weather means carrying the right safety kit in your car, just in case. I can speak from experience. Last winter my car became stranded on a snowy hill near home, but fortunately it wasn’t long before a passing local farmer offered me a tow using his tractor. Trouble was, neither of us had the good sense to carry a tow rope.
Buying what you need doesn’t have to cost the earth. But first, here’s what your winter kit should comprise, at the very least: Continue reading
How to claim for damage caused by the pothole plague
It has been called the great pothole plague. An estimated nine million vehicles sustained pothole damage in 2013, leading to around £1.2bn worth of repair bills. With an estimated £10.5bn maintenance backlog on roads across England and Wales, there’s no quick fix.
So what should drivers do if their vehicle suffers damage caused by a pothole? Tyres, wheels and even suspension are routinely ravaged. But if your vehicle suffers such damage it is possible to make a claim for the cost of repairs against the highway authority. Follow these steps: Continue reading
Make money out of your car
© Vauxhall
If your car is redundant for most of the working week, it’s likely to be a money burner. But with a little legwork it’s easy to turn it into a money earner. Here are 10 ways of using your car to generate income ‑ without resorting to mini cabbing or pizza deliveries! Continue reading
Keeping kids entertained in the car
holbox / Shutterstock
It’s easy to forget just how boring long drives can be for kids. I distinctly remember half-term journeys with my parents where the only thing to do was fidget. And in those pre-DVD days, a TV/VHS combo was just too big to strap onto my mum’s headrest.
Not everyone wants to simply plug in a DVD player or hand over their mobile though, so here’s our top 10 (screen-free) ways to keep the kids entertained in the car. Continue reading