Hi all Just a quick question, my grandson has just won a bid on E Bay for a car, and is giong to look at it on Thursday, Any advice as to what he should be looking for with regards to documentation, and all questions he should ask befor parting with his money.

It ia a 1996 Colf TDI with 98000 on the clock and a MOT till Sept 2008.

All help will be appreciated.

If he's won the bidding, isn't it too late to pull out of the sale (assuming the car is as described)?

Chris

I appreciate the comment, but as he has asked a few questions and also looked at the description he just want to make sure all is ok.and to check if the description is an advertised. And ant other things he has missed he can ask.

How much he paid for it (or more accurately perhaps, the reserve price put in the car) is going to affect what he can expect documentation-wise.

Looking at comparable cars on Autotrader, I reckon that anything costing over a grand or so should ideally come with full service history, otherwise you'll probably have to rely on it having a valid MOT. Of course the best thing will be stacks of receipts, although as it was an ebay purchase, I assume the car isn't a minter (not saying it'll be bad, just not 100% perfect!)

Most things ought to become apparent when he collects the car (although he will need to be aware of what was in the description, of course!), however it will be important to either find out when the cambelt was done, or set aside some money to do it in the near future...

Hope this helps

Get a HPI check as that will give you some legal rights.

Eg any outstanding finance or major accident damage not declared means that you could pull out of the ebay bid.

Better to lose face on e-bay than to lose your life in a badly repaired car IMHO.

Its never to late to pull out of an ebay bid. If you dont want it, you dont have to buy it. All the seller can do is winge to ebay and they wont want anything to do with it. You may get bad feed back on your ebay account but as said, better bad feed back than being in a car wreck!

The AA also do a service where they wil come out and give the car a Once over so to speak, not sure about prices but may be worth investegating.

My advise would be to check theres not to much movement in the engine, Check the car has a serial number, Peel back carpets and check for any damage, welds, rust etc. Also check under the car and just make sure everything looks as it should.

Good luck with the car.

When you get a HPI check you'll need

1 - the chassis VIN number which is on the V5 log book and check the ones on the car match.

2 - The V5 log book number (somewhere on the bottom but the HPI people tell you where)

If you can always look at the car before you bid (standard used car buying checks)

Always examine in the dry and good light.

Do your research before hand to know common faults and what to look for and prices so you dont end up paying over the odds.

Slightly related story - My Dad bought a V-Reg freezer van from the scrappies £700 and spent another grand doing the fecker up. The worst part its still a wreck and he won't recoup the money spent on it so its the biggest waste of money. For that kind of money he could have put a deposit down on a van in much better nick.

So it's worth thinking long and hard if you see a cheapy vehicle at bargain money. Do ity right and you'll get a bargain. Do it wrong and you'll end up regretting it.

Thanks for all the comments He got the car and his words were a bargin. He drove it from where he got it 170 miles home and not a flicker and since then has driven a few hundred mles and he is stil l happy. So thanks again all and for all the advice which he appreciated and so do I

Thanks for all the comments He got the car and his words were a bargin. He drove it from where he got it 170 miles home and not a flicker and since then has driven a few hundred mles and he is stil l happy. So thanks again all and for all the advice which he appreciated and so do I

Good to hear a positive outcome.

I am glad he liked it