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A used car checklist you'll actually use
Most checklists are ninety items of padding. These are the checks that actually stop people buying the wrong car.
Used car guides
Everything we know about checking, buying and running a used car, written down. No jargon, no scare tactics: just what to look for and why it matters.
Checking a car's history
Reading the MOT record, the logbook and the plate, and spotting clocking, cloning and hidden write-offs.
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How to check a car's MOT history (and actually read it)
The test record is free to look up and most buyers never read past the pass/fail line. The interesting part is everything underneath it.
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How to check if a car has been written off
The free DVLA data won't tell you: write-off status lives on an insurance register most buyers have never heard of.
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Car clocking: how to spot a wound-back odometer
A £100 gadget can take 60,000 miles off a digital dash in minutes. The paper trail is much harder to wind back.
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Outstanding finance on a used car, explained
On HP and PCP the debt follows the car, not the seller. Buy one that still has finance owing and the lender can repossess it from your driveway.
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How to check if a car is stolen (before it's your problem)
If you buy a stolen car, the police return it to the real owner and you're left chasing a seller who has vanished. Prevention is everything.
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Free vs paid car history checks: what do you actually need?
Most bad cars die on the free checks. The paid ones exist for three flags nothing public will show you, and here is when to use each tier.
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How to check a car's service history
No official database holds service records. Here's where they actually live, how to read them properly, and how to prove a stack of stamps is real.
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The V5C logbook: what it proves, and what it really doesn't
Printed on the front of every V5C: "this document is not proof of ownership". Most buyers never read that line.
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Number plate cloning: how to spot it
Cloning copies an innocent car's plate onto a dodgy one, so the paperwork looks perfect while the metal tells a different story. Here's how to tell.
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Cat N and Cat S write-offs, explained
A write-off marker isn't automatically a death sentence; sometimes it's a cracked bumper on a slow news day for the insurer.
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UK number plate formats, explained
A reg plate quietly tells you where a car was registered and roughly when. Here's how to decode all five formats still on the road.
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Imported cars: what the paperwork does and doesn't tell you
An import can be the same car for less money, or a spec you can't insure with a history that stops at the border. Knowing which is which is the whole game.
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When is a car worth repairing? The write-off decision, explained
A write-off isn't about whether a car can be fixed; almost anything can. It's about whether the sums add up for the insurer, which is a very different question.
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Category A and B write-offs, explained
Cat A means crush the whole car; Cat B means crush the shell. Neither should ever be driven again. So why do they occasionally turn up for sale?
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How to check a car for outstanding recalls: free, in thirty seconds
The repair is free however old the car, but the recall letter goes to the registered keeper, and that isn't you yet. Thirty seconds on gov.uk closes the gap.
Buying a used car
Where to buy, what to check at the viewing and what your rights are once you have paid.
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A used car checklist you'll actually use
Most checklists are ninety items of padding. These are the checks that actually stop people buying the wrong car.
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Dealer or private seller? Know your rights before you buy
Buy a dud from a dealer and the law has your back. Buy the same dud privately and you're largely on your own. The seller matters as much as the car.
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What's a good mileage for a used car?
Forget the 100,000-mile death sentence; it's decades out of date. Multiply age by 7,000, then worry about whether the miles are genuine.
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Buying a used electric car without the guesswork
On a used EV the battery is the engine, the gearbox and half the price all at once. Judge the car on that and the rest gets simpler.
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Buying a car at auction without getting burned
At auction the hammer is the contract: no test drive, usually no warranty, no returns. The winning is the easy part; the homework is what saves you.
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Car warranties, explained: what's actually covered
Not all warranties are the same animal. One is a manufacturer standing behind the car; the other is an insurance policy with a claims department hoping you won't read the exclusions.
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When is the best time to buy a used car?
Plate-change gluts and quarter-end targets are real; most "best month" advice isn't. When prices genuinely soften, and why the right car still beats the right month.
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Should you buy an ex-fleet or ex-rental car?
An ex-fleet car had one driver; an ex-rental had hundreds, yet both show one keeper on the logbook. Telling them apart is the whole game.
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Buying a modified car without the headaches
A well-modified car can be a bargain; a badly modified one is somebody else's expensive mistake. Telling them apart is mostly about who did the work.
Tax, insurance and finance
Car tax, insurance groups, finance agreements and what a car really costs to run.
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Car tax, explained without the spreadsheet headache
Three different tax systems are running at once, and which one applies depends entirely on when the car was first registered.
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How to tax a car you've just bought
The seller's tax is refunded the day they sell, which means the car is untaxed from the second you own it. Here's how to fix that before you drive off.
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Car insurance groups, explained
Two cars the same price can be a world apart on insurance. The group number is the clue most buyers ignore until the quote lands.
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Petrol, electric or hybrid: what actually costs less to run?
The cheapest car to run isn't always the obvious one; it depends on your mileage, where you charge, and how long you keep it. Here's how to work out your own answer.
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Dashcam footage and insurance claims: what really counts
A good clip can turn a your-word-against-theirs claim into an open and shut one. A badly set-up camera just records the sky and the time wrong.
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Voluntary termination: how to hand a car back
A legal right on regulated HP and PCP agreements, and the lender cannot refuse it. The catch is working out where halfway actually falls.
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Do electric cars pay road tax?
Yes, since April 2025. The bigger surprise is the supplement, which a fairly ordinary family EV can trigger while its petrol twin does not.
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PCP vs HP vs leasing: which actually costs less?
PCP looks £100 a month cheaper than HP on the same car, until the balloon lands. The honest arithmetic behind the three ways to pay.
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Euro emissions standards, explained
Euro 6 diesel, Euro 4 petrol: these little labels decide whether a car drives free through a clean-air zone or pays every day. Here's what they actually mean.
Owning and selling
Keeping a car on the road, taking it off, moving a private plate and selling it when the time comes.
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SORN explained: what it is and how long it lasts
A SORN never expires, the car can't sit at the kerb outside your house, and there's one journey it still allows. What the rules really say, and what a gap means when you buy.
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How to take a car off SORN
There's no form to cancel it and no call to make. What catches people out is the order: insurance, then the MOT, then the payment, with a wait in between.
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Part-exchange or sell privately? The honest maths
The convenient option and the profitable option are rarely the same one. The gap between a part-ex figure and a private sale is where the decision lives.
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Transferring a private number plate, step by step
Moving a personal plate isn't hard, but one missed step (an expired retention, a car that's not taxed) and you're stuck. Here's the order to do it in.
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Selling your car privately, safely
A private sale can be hundreds more than a trade-in, provided you don't get stung by a bounced payment or a "buyer" who never intended to pay. Here's how to stay safe.