BMW to Mercedes

In December 2009, my old BMW was written off after an accident. That meant I needed to buy a car. A friend of mine told me why not try a brand new car, pointing out that it did not need MOT in first 3 years and the manufacturer's warranty would be a peace of mind. Of course, I want to. But i feel an extra bill for finance would be a great burden in next 3-4 yeas. Moreover, the market price of a new car will drop by £3000-4000 in the first year, according to the reports. So I decided to go for a used car.


I'm still missing this BMW 316. It was a good runner.

Buying a car is not an easy business if you have more and more knowledge about it. I meant when I bought my first car, I did not know anything behind the sale of a car and I did not check anything. I did a test drive and I purchased straight away. Fortunately, there was no problem.

This time, first of all, I did research on Autotraders and Gumtree. After sometime, I had got an idea about current price. Once I was interested in a car, I rang first. If still available, I made an appointment to view. At this point, in terms of documents, I needed to check if VIN (Vehicle Identification number ) on car body matched with the one on log book (Vehicle registration book). If not matched, it is likely a clone car. The owner should be the same address as shown on the log book of the car. A regular service history meant that this car was likely to be well maintained . I can also get a rough idea about mileage. Yes, mileage fraud is relatively common here. I also made sure any annoying things inside and outside of the car. MOT certificate is also an important document.

Next step was checking the car history on HPI or DVLA's Car data. This small investment is worth doing so. Yes, basically, I would avoid the car with bad history, such is outstanding finance, previous damage and stolen vehicles. I also do not the car with history of plate transfer for some reason.

After those were satisfactory, I made an offer to reduce the price by 100 or 200£.

Basically, private sellers want cash. I was told before someone was beaten and money was taken when he was buying car. So for a safety measure, I needed to get my friends when I went to purchase this Mercedes.

I intended to buy a Mercedes C class 3 doors coupe' (C200 or C180) previously because it is affordable with a nice looking to me. But once I tried to buy, those cars had been sold quickly while I was working week days and some weekends. As a result, I did not have a car in last 3 weeks. Fortunately, after the new year night, I found out new advert about this car while I was in London for the New year celebration at riverside and we reached a deal quickly. But it is a family car.


I bought this yesterday

Update (03/01/2010 23:00hr)

Some experience and knowledge obtained while trying to buy a car.

1. The registration number of a car advertised by a small trade was not found in the HPI. When I rang about that, they gave me another number which was also not found in the database system. I have not idea what they were trying to do.

2 A couple of sellers advertised the mileage much less than actual one.

3. One Mercedes with cheap price was written off in the record. That means ?a major accident in the past.

4. If the number plate was transferred, it is said that the full history of car is unable to be traced.

5. Mileage history is important. we can check it on old MOT certificates and service history.

6. 3 door coupé cars are on demand.

7. One dealer advertised a car, saying owner was a doctor. Weird!

8. VIN (Vehicle Identification number/ chassis number ) has 17 digits. There are no alphabet O and I. but O is Zero and I is one.

9. If the MOT certificate is lost, you can get a duplicate copy, costing you £10.