How to check a car before buying at the traffic police

How to check a car: procedure

According to statistics, 30% of Russians who bought a used car, during the first month of using it, identify a huge number of problems, the elimination of which requires large financial costs. How to avoid such a situation? "Autocode" will tell you how to check a car before buying.

Content

Procedure

We recommend that you carry out the first check of the car at the stage of viewing advertisements. Choose the options you like, write down the license plates and check the cars using the Autocode service. The system will issue a report with a detailed history of the car. If the information in the ad contradicts the report data, it is better to immediately abandon this option and not waste time meeting with the seller. Most often, sellers hide the real mileage, number of owners, work in a taxi and participation in an accident.

Start the meeting by checking your documents. Next, proceed to a visual inspection of the car. After that, take it for a test drive. Finally, go with the seller to the service station. Specialists will identify all the technical flaws of the machine. This will allow you to bargain or even refuse to buy a bad vehicle.

Documentation check

Before buying a used car, it is important to check the documentation:

PTS;
vehicle registration certificate;
seller's passport.

Make sure that there are no special stickers or marks on the PTS. What's the catch here? Marks are placed in cases where the body or engine numbers are interrupted, unreadable or unreadable.

Be wary if the seller provides you with a duplicate title. A duplicate PTS is issued if the original was lost or damaged, and also if there are no free lines left to enter the owners of the car. Therefore, you need to check with the seller how many owners the car had and for what reason the duplicate was made.

But don’t rush to refuse to buy a car just because it’s a duplicate. Check your car using the Autocode service. If the verification data does not contradict the seller’s words, then there is nothing to fear. If the service reports that the vehicle had two or more owners, and the seller claims that he is the first and last owner, then it is better to refuse the transaction.

Be sure to check the data from the seller’s passport with the data specified in the PTS. Even small differences in documents may subsequently lead to you not being able to register the car.

Checking your car for fines

There is always a possibility of purchasing a car with outstanding fines. Often, sellers themselves do not know about the debts to the traffic police, but sometimes they deliberately withhold information so that all debts fall on the new owner.

Of course, if you buy such a car, you cannot be forced to pay these fines; this is the responsibility of the former owner. However, there are situations when, due to non-payment of fines, registration restrictions are imposed on the car. In this case, the new owner will not be able to register the car.

To identify the presence of fines, you can use the following services:

To check a vehicle through the official website of the traffic police, you need to know both the license plate number of the car and the number of the registration certificate. To check using the Autocode service, you just need to know the license plate number of the car. At the same time, from the report, in addition to the history of fines, you will learn data on mileage, technical inspections, compulsory motor liability insurance, restrictions and much other important information.

Checking the car for collateral

If a car owner takes out a loan secured by a vehicle or a car loan, then the car is collateral. If you do not know this information when purchasing, then the bank or mortgage holder may subsequently oblige you to repay the loan or collect the collateral from you.

You should not immediately refuse to buy if the car is pledged to the bank. Sometimes credit institutions themselves put up for auction and sell interesting models at a fairly low price.

How to check whether a car is considered collateral? To do this, you can use the following sites:

To check a car through the registry of the notary chamber, you need to know information about the pledgor, the registration number of the notice and the VIN of the vehicle. For Autocode, a VIN or license plate number is sufficient.

Mileage check

More than 50% of car sellers inflate mileage. This procedure costs from 1,000 to 3,000 thousand, while the owner increases the cost of the car when selling it by a larger amount.

You can check the veracity of mileage data in several ways:

check documents;
carry out a proper inspection of the vehicle;
contact specialists.

Check for participation in traffic accidents

More than 75% of cars have been in an accident at least once, and sellers often try to hide this fact.

If during inspection of the car you notice signs of repair, check the car using Autocode. From the report you will find out where, when and what type of accident the car was involved in.

Checking for restrictions

Beware of car purchases that are subject to restrictions. We have prepared a special material in which we talk about restrictions on cars and what they can mean for the new owner.

In what cases are restrictions imposed:

if the customs authorities have suspicions that the vehicle was cleared through customs under a “gray” scheme;
if the vehicle is the subject of a dispute in court;
if the owner of the car is obliged by court to pay a bailiff a certain amount of money

You can check your car for restrictions on the official website of the traffic police. To do this, you need to know the VIN code or chassis number.

The check can also be carried out through the official website of the bailiffs. To do this, you need to know the owner’s passport details, SNILS or TIN.

Users of the Autocode service can find out about the restrictions imposed on the vehicle by the license plate number.

Checking a car for theft

If you purchase a used car that is listed as stolen, there is a chance that you will have to sue the owner who has turned up. In 85% of such situations, the judge obliges the new owner to return the vehicle to its real owner. In this case, you will lose not only the car, but also the money spent on it. It is unlikely that you will be able to get your money back from a fraudster who hid the fact of the theft during the transaction.

To check, you can use the following methods:

check through the official website of the traffic police;
together with the seller, deregister the car (if the car is stolen, the seller will not be able to carry out this action).

You can also use Autocode and get a more detailed report about the car in just 5 minutes.

Testing for work in a taxi

"Autocode" provides its users with the opportunity to check whether the vehicle is registered with official taxi services.

If a service check gives you such information, then it is better to refuse the purchase. Such a machine, even if it is relatively young, has most likely practically exhausted its service life. That is, you will face constant repairs that require large financial investments.

Checking a car for recycling

These days, a new fraud scheme has emerged among unscrupulous car owners. They deregister the vehicle, dispose of it, and try to sell the vehicle as soon as possible at a fairly low price. As a rule, buyers are attracted by cheapness. But needless to say, it will not be possible for you to register such a vehicle. Money will be thrown away.

Whether the car was scrapped or not can be found out from the Autocode report. To do this, just enter the license plate number of the car.

In addition, you can contact the traffic police with a statement. However, this will require the personal presence of the car owner. Or you can use the official website of the traffic police. In this case, you need to know the VIN.

Technical check

Technical verification is no less important than legal verification. During it, you will be able to visually identify all the shortcomings and defects of the vehicle. We will tell you how to properly check.

When checking a car, you need to pay attention to the following aspects:

tire wear;
presence of corrosion;
paintwork;
replacement of body parts;
repairs on the slipway;
motor operation.

To entrust the technical inspection to a specialist, use the on-site inspection service. An expert will be on site at the right time and will examine the car using special instruments.

A test drive is an integral part of checking the technical condition of a car. If the seller of a used car insists that he does not have time to drive around the city, then it is better to refuse the purchase. Most likely, serious shortcomings that appear while driving are being hidden from you.

Before the test drive, ask the seller what investments will be needed after purchase. Most often, under the guise of minor flaws, quite large problems are hidden that will require a lot of money. Carefully remember all the faults that the seller mentions. They will have to pay more attention during the test drive.

While driving, go at both low and higher speeds. Check for any unusual noises or knocks. For example, if the steering wheel vibrates when driving, this may subsequently lead to replacing the box. And such a procedure costs at least 30,000 rubles.

Checking the car with the help of specialists

If you are not confident in your own abilities, then it is better to have your car checked by specialists - at a diagnostic center or service station.

Be careful when choosing a service station. You should not ask the seller for advice, since outbids have an agreement with the station employees. You will not be able to get reliable information from them.

It is better to choose a service station that specializes specifically in your car brand for the following reasons:

the craftsmen are well versed in this model;
there is specialized equipment;
There is diagnostic software on your computer.

Avoid dealerships. The price there is high, and the service leaves much to be desired.

Ask the service station master all the questions that arose during the inspection. A competent worker will easily tell you whether parts have been replaced, painted or otherwise manipulated with the car, which can later cause you a lot of trouble.

Now you know how to check a car before buying. Good luck!

We have collected all the most important information about purchasing a car in the book “Buying a Used Car Safely.” Download the book for free on our website!

How to inspect a used car

In order not to make a mistake with the purchase

I worked as a trade-in salesman for an official car dealer.

Over the years, I have attended dozens of used car inspections. I'll tell you how to check a used car when buying.

I will write a separate article on how to choose a car based on an ad. In short: if the number is hidden in the ad, the VIN code is not indicated, or the price is lower than the market price, this is a reason not to trust the seller. In this article, we will consider a situation when you have already selected several suitable options and you need to choose the best one from them.

Checking against databases

Even before the in-person inspection, be sure to check the car according to the database. You may not have to go for an examination after this.

To check against the databases, you need to know VIN, or wine code, - this is the individual identification number of the car. Sometimes sellers immediately indicate it in the ad, sometimes they hide it. If you like the ad, but there is no VIN code, ask the seller to send it. If the seller refuses, explain that the VIN code itself is not a secret: anyone can look it up on a plate under the windshield. If the seller flatly refuses to send you the VIN code, just don’t buy such a car.

In addition to the VIN code, you will need the full name of the car owner. With this information, we will check the car in open sources: on the traffic police website, FSSP and in the Autocode service.

Traffic police website. In the special section, enter the VIN code. We see how many owners the car had, whether accidents involving it were registered, whether there are restrictions on registration actions, and whether the car is wanted.

Service "Autocode". If the car is from Moscow, then using this service and the VIN code you can also check it against Moscow databases. It's free. Be careful: there are sites on the Internet that are similar in design, where an inspection report costs 250-300 rubles. Checking on Autocode is free.

FSSP. We check the car itself using the VIN code, and the seller using the full name. On the website of the Federal Bailiff Service, you can check the owner for the presence of enforcement proceedings. If there is enforcement proceedings against the owner for debts, his car may be taken away and sold.

An example of checking a car on the traffic police website. The database is updated daily

On the website of the Federal Notary Chamber you can check the owner of a car by full name and passport number. There you can check the car by VIN code for collateral.

The car with this VIN code is pledged to Plus Bank

What to take for examination

Thickness Gauge - You can rent one, but learn how to use it first. The thickness gauge shows the thickness of the paint layer. Too much paint is an indirect sign of an accident.

Flashlight - you can use it to illuminate the engine compartment or parts of the body.

Where and how to inspect a car

The car must be inspected clean, in the light and not in a cramped garage, but in a spacious room or in the open air. This way you have a better chance of seeing imperfections in the paintwork, possible traces of an accident and body repairs.

Inspecting a car in an underground parking lot under dim artificial lighting is dangerous: you can easily miss defects. If the car is parked close to other cars or to a fence, ask to drive it to a free area. If the car is dirty, ask the seller to wash it. A normal seller won't mind.

If the car is parked in a cramped and dark parking lot, ask the seller to move it to a spacious and well-lit area. If you look around in a parking lot like the one in the photo, it's easy to miss defects.

During the inspection, we first check the documents: vehicle passport (PTS) and vehicle registration certificate (VRC).

If the car has had up to four owners inclusive, then it is very desirable that the title be original. A duplicate PTS could be issued simply to replace the disposed one if the space in the old passport ran out. Or they could have issued it in exchange for the lost one - I do not recommend buying cars with such a title. There is a risk that this is a stolen duplicate car or a car recovered after a serious accident and written off by the insurance company.

The reason for replacing the PTS is indicated in the “Special notes” column.

If the seller is a private individual, he must be included in the PTS and STS. This makes him the owner of the car. Check that the owner’s full name in the PTS matches the seller’s data in the passport. As a last resort, the husband can sell the wife's car.

If the seller says that he is the brother, friend or matchmaker of the owner, be wary. Most likely, this is a private reseller who resells low-quality cars. Such businessmen buy a car in poor condition at a price below the market price - after an accident or with a mileage of several hundred thousand kilometers. Then they repair it as cheaply as possible, increase the mileage and try to sell it at the price of a good car.

The body is one of the key elements of a car. Your safety depends on its condition. A body restored after a serious accident is unpredictable in the event of a repeat accident. At the same time, a minor accident in which only the attached elements were damaged is not critical for the body.

One way to check that the body is intact is to look at the bolts that secure the parts to each other. Sometimes, in order to hide traces of intervention after changing a part, the bolts are painted. To determine the actual condition, run your fingers along the surface of the bolt. If it is factory, it will be smooth and without scuffing. If it was unscrewed, marks will remain on it. The same applies to the inside of the wing - in the factory state it is smooth and even.

Assess the condition of bolts and attachments. It's good if they don't have burrs from a wrench. Also pay attention to the shape of the fasteners - they should be smooth, as in the photo. The surface is smooth, without scoring, and the bolt is in the factory color

The gaps between the body panels must be uniform throughout the entire junction of the body panels.

If the gaps between similar parts on the right and left sides of the car differ in thickness, this is an indirect sign of an accident in the history of the car.

If you are buying a car yourself, I recommend looking at several options for one model. This way you will understand which gaps are normal and which are not. The fact is that cheap cars from the factory may have poor build quality, and the gaps will be large or uneven.

Please note that the hood runs straight along the bumper, but the headlight sticks out a little. This is the norm for this Kia-Sid model. Sometimes, to understand the permissible limits, you need to look at several cars of the same model. If the gaps are obviously uneven, then most likely the car was involved in an accident. Source: malceva.mostlux.ru

Paintwork

Experts can identify painted parts by eye and touch, but the average car enthusiast is better off using a thickness gauge.

Pay attention to the color of adjacent body elements. If there is a difference between the shades, the car may have been repainted. Different tones between plastic and metal elements are the norm for mid- and economy-class cars.

Run your fingers along the end of the body element. A factory-painted surface is smooth, while a repainted surface is rough and convex, like an orange peel.

The thickness gauge must be calibrated and applied strictly perpendicularly

Glass marking

There is no uniform standard for glass marking. Each manufacturer encrypts data about the year of manufacture in its own way. If you do not understand the features of a particular car, compare the markings with other glass on the same car.

The number 16 is the year the glass was produced. Here they are from 2016, just like the car. Instead of 16 there can be 6 - this also indicates the year of manufacture of the glass

A 2016 car may have 2015 glass. But glass produced after the year the car was assembled can only appear on it as a result of replacement. The glass could have been replaced due to an accident or wear and tear. If the glass has been replaced, it is important to understand the reason and carefully check the nearest body elements.

The automaker's logo indicates that this glass is original. When repairing after an accident, they usually install cheap Chinese glass Xyg, SAT, Benson.

The same goes for body parts. If there is a car brand logo on the hood, that’s good. If not, then the hood is most likely not original, but from an accident.

Engine compartment

Under the hood, look at the internal body parts and the condition of the engine. The main strength elements are the wing spars and flanges.

The lower square tubes are the spars. There should be no creases, traces of welding or deformation on them. In the photo the spar on the right, with gray marks, is after repair: it was damaged in an accident

The metal at the top of the engine compartment is the fender flange. It should be smooth, without creases or cracks. The thickness of the paint layer according to the thickness gauge on the internal elements of the body should not exceed 150 microns. The sealant at the joints of the parts must be applied evenly.

Check your car with a scanner

When you have already chosen a used car and are ready to buy it, check the electronics with a diagnostic scanner. Scanners can be portable - for checking a car on site - and stationary - for working at a service station (service station). I recommend going to a service station of an official dealer and having it diagnosed there. The price depends on the brand and model, on average 3000-5000 rubles.

An airbag error may indirectly indicate a serious accident. A gearbox error is a reason to have it checked carefully at a service center. The more expensive the car, the more sensors it has and the more relevant this check is.

Traffic police checking a car. Online service of the State Traffic Inspectorate

Main types of checks

Offers the website of the State Traffic Inspectorate as “Staff traffic police car check”. At the moment, we can say with confidence that more and more citizens have begun to actively use the Internet service in order to use government services. This is much easier than coming to a certain authority in person, collecting a huge number of documents, and waiting in long lines.

Online service on the traffic police website

You don't have to do that anymore. You just need to visit the main website of the traffic police and get acquainted with all the popular services that make life much easier and allow you to quickly determine all the necessary information regarding a particular vehicle.

You can use checks for the following search queries:

registration with the traffic police; Registration with the State Traffic Inspectorate
participation in an accident; Participation in a traffic accident
being wanted; The car is wanted
presence of restrictions. Car restrictions

You can also check the car to see if it is pledged using the FNP service.

Information about the vehicle being pledged

After the car check is completed on the traffic police website, you will be able to view its results. There will be separate information for each item. It is important to remember that if, as a result of the check, it turns out that the vehicle is wanted, you must report this to the police. This can be done either by telephone call or by visiting the branch in person.

Carrying out verification

In order to use the special traffic police service: car inspection, you must have certain data regarding this vehicle. It is best to use the VIN code.

Entering VIN code

This is a unique number of seventeen characters, which is set by each manufacturer. Thanks to these numbers, you can find out who created the vehicle and what production serial number it has.

Each car has its own code. When a vehicle crosses the border with the Russian Federation, it must be registered. Then this number is entered into a single register. In certain situations, the set of numbers may be missing. In this case, to carry out a car check on the traffic police portal, you must use the following numbers, which are located on the chassis and body of the vehicle.

These numbers for checking a car at the traffic police are also different. Each user only needs to enter numbers in specially designated lines on the official website of the traffic police to obtain comprehensive information about the car. In order for the request to be processed by the system, you need to wait a little time. Processing the received information does not take more than one minute.

Check by VIN code

Vehicle verification thanks to identification number

Thanks to the vehicle identification number, you can easily obtain all the necessary information about it. This means that you no longer need to spend a huge amount of time visiting various authorities, checking documentation, or standing in queues. From now on, on the traffic police website you can check your car completely free of charge and in the shortest possible time.

If the car was wanted or registration restrictions were imposed on it, then the verification system will definitely determine this. As a result, every person has the opportunity to significantly save their time and money without ending up in the hands of an experienced fraudster. Because at the moment, hundreds of thousands of cars are stolen every year, which are sent to other countries and sold there to gullible buyers. And if you check the VIN code every time, you can deprive yourself of many problems.

The fact is that then, when you receive a new car, you can immediately check it without unnecessary paperwork or a personal statement to the traffic police. You just need to use the functionality of the main portal.

Documents to determine the legality of car registration

Not everyone uses the traffic police website to check their cars. Additionally, be sure to check the documentation for the vehicle. At the moment when the driver is satisfied with the appearance of the car, you can proceed to directly checking the securities. In order to have complete confidence in the legal purity of this car, you need to check the following certificates:

PTS, as the main document about the characteristics of the car;
registration certificate;
power of attorney to conclude a sale transaction.

The last point is necessary if the seller is the official representative of the owner of the property. It is imperative to ensure that all documents are certified by a notary.

When purchasing a new vehicle, you often come across a fake title. If such a purchase is made, the person may simply lose his money. It is very important to carefully examine documents for signs of forgery. It should be taken into account that all traffic police documents have certain degrees of protection, which makes checking the car easier.

The form on which the PTS is issued must be made at Goznak enterprises. In this case, it is necessary to have several degrees of protection. The simplest method of verification is to look at documents through a gap. Special inclusions that are on banknotes should immediately appear.

If you touch the text “Vehicle Passport”, then such an inscription must be in relief. There are also certain requirements for a hologram on a document. It definitely needs to be bright and shimmering. In appearance, this part shimmers like a circle or strip. Obviously, all the details on the form must be an irreplaceable part of it, and it is imperative that each element of the traffic police document, when checking a car, should not be glued with glue or tape.

There is a special design on the upper left corner of the back of the document. According to its parameters, it is very voluminous and also has a rosette shape. The color of the existing image will certainly change if you change the angle of inclination. At the same time, the colors shimmer from green to gray.

Contents of documents

When a potential buyer does not find the appearance of the PTS to be counterfeit, then it is necessary to begin familiarizing itself with the contents of the securities. It is extremely important to carefully review all available documentation. For example, you need to know that the first two digits in the series identify the region in the Russian Federation that issued this document.

An important feature is that if a vehicle was created in our country, then its region code must correspond to the one located on the special seal of the manufacturer. It's in the lower left corner. The signature of the person who issued this security is also located there. Thanks to this information about traffic police documents, checking a car will be much faster and easier.

How to check a car by VIN before buying

Buying a car on the secondary market involves some risk: the car may be in collateral or be restored after an accident. In this article, I will tell you how not to buy a pig in a poke and check the vehicle for legal cleanliness and accidents before drawing up a sales contract. Moreover, this can be done both free and quickly, but for a small fee.

Collecting information on free services

We just need access to the Internet and government. car number (you can find it out from the seller by phone or look at the photos of the car). If you want to feel like a super agent and know everything in advance, then you need to get the full name and date of birth of the potential seller.

1. Checking the car for an accident according to the state. number

In fact, the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate has long taken care of motorists and has developed a convenient car checking service https://gibdd.rf/check/auto/. Here you can get free complete and reliable information about registration actions, traffic accidents, prohibitions and restrictions related to the car.

The only problem is that you need a VIN code to run the check. Therefore, if you choose a car remotely, for example through Avito, or the seller does not have documents with a VIN in his hands, the traffic police website will be useless. But there is one “trick” that will help us a lot - knowing the state number of the car, we can easily get the VIN code!

I once wrote about buying a diagnostic card online. So, to check its authenticity, I had to use the EAISTO database. The meaning of its work is that by using the state number you can find out about the current diagnostic card for the car, while the EAISTO check service issues the coveted VIN.

Just write the car number and press the “find” button. As a result, we get something like this (I painted over the number):

In addition to the code we are looking for, we can find out whether we will have to pay for a diagnostic card after purchasing the car or whether we can use the old one. Also, by the date of diagnosis, you can find out how long ago the car was insured (usually the card and insurance are done at the same time), and therefore indirectly understand the owner’s plans for its sale.

So, let's move on to the next stage.

2. Find out the history of the car by VIN code

We go to the above-mentioned traffic police website https://gibdd.rf/check/auto/:

We write the VIN at the top and click on all the links “request verification”, not forgetting to enter the numbers from the captcha pictures.

The State Traffic Inspectorate will tell us a lot of interesting things. For example, registration history:

What can you learn from this example? Firstly, the car has been traveling around Russia since 2003. Secondly, she changed many owners. Frequent “re-registration” at short intervals may indicate that there is a “jamb” in the car, which, when identified, each subsequent owner tries to get rid of the car as quickly as possible. This, at a minimum, should alert you, or better yet, serve as a reason to leave this option “on the shelf.”

Go ahead. Here is the most interesting thing, namely, the car is “not broken, not painted” or has a history of accidents (the database contains data from the beginning of 2015):

This information should be compared with the dates of re-registrations. If the car was sold after an accident, then most likely the damage was serious. Knowledge of the places of damage, coupled with a careful inspection of the body, will force the silent seller to tell where and how he “scratched” the bumper. It should be understood that the car could have received very minor damage, but knowing about them, you can reduce the price.

Now the most interesting part is checking for wanted status and the presence of restrictions (arrests):

In our example, the car is not wanted, but restrictions are imposed on it - a ban on registration actions. Until this entry disappears, you don’t even have to talk about buying this car with the seller. The seller has a debt recognized by the court and is being executed by the bailiffs. This could be mortgage debt, or maybe car loan debt.

Remember at the beginning of the article I talked about super agents? I hope you already know the name of the seller...

3. We break the seller into debt

Everything is simple here, go to the website of the Federal Bailiff Service http://fssprus.ru and enter the seller’s data into the form:

Click the “Find” button and enjoy your powerful results:

In the example, issuance by full name without date of birth. The more data, the more accurate the result. What is worth paying attention to here? First, look for the presence of writs of execution against the seller - if there are many of them, then restrictions may be imposed on the car. It will be difficult to register such a car with the traffic police. Secondly, pay attention to the number of traffic police fines.

4. Checking the car for fines

If you have the number of the registration certificate and the state license plate of the car, you can find out all the ins and outs about the fines of its owner using the resource https://govtdd.rf/check/fines/.

Perhaps our seller is a fan of “driving”, and this leads to an assumption about how the car was operated. In addition, if there are a large number of unpaid fines (depending on the traffic police department and the subject of the Russian Federation), a problem may arise when deregistering the car.

5. We look to see if the car is pledged

In order to check whether a car is pledged, you need to open the website of the register of pledges of the Federal Notary Chamber: https://www.reestr-zalogov.ru/search/index

On this site we will be interested in the “Find in the registry” item. Next, select the search tab “By information about the subject of collateral”, enter the vehicle VIN in the input field and click the “Find” button. If the search returns an empty result, then everything is fine and the car is not pledged.

Comprehensive verification through a paid service

You can also obtain detailed information about the history of ownership and operation of a particular vehicle through the paid service “Autocode”.

This official service can provide a complete and accurate report on any car operating in the Russian Federation, by VIN, chassis number or state registration plate. In addition to information from the traffic police databases, you can find out there:

Number of owners
Mileage
Checking databases for theft and accidents
Use as a taxi
Customs history

Currently, the cost of preparing a report in this service is 349 rubles.

We told you about all the ways to break into a car. We hope that you will come across only legally clean cars and honest sellers.

How to check a car before buying

Where to start checking a car

So, the first check of the car occurs before meeting the seller. There is a high probability of getting scammed, so carefully study the ad and then contact the seller. Do not rush to send him money as a down payment, make an appointment, make sure that the seller really exists.

The meeting should begin with a document check and an external inspection of the car. If there are several scratches and broken parts on the body (headlight, bumper, door handles), it means that the car has not been well looked after. Be sure to try driving the car and listen for any extraneous sounds.

Technical inspection

The documents are in order, you liked the car visually. Now you need to conduct a thorough technical inspection. It is very important to pay attention to the wear of the tires, the presence of corrosion on the metal, whether the paintwork is intact (it is worth remembering that painting one part costs from 5 thousand rubles), and, most importantly, to the operation of the engine. There should be no extraneous sounds, much less knocking, during engine operation.

— It will be good if you have a special thickness gauge device. Using it, you can determine whether the car has overturned. I don’t recommend buying a “changeover car”, but my colleagues and I have different opinions; they believe that if it has been properly repaired, you can buy it. I’ll tell you possible problems when buying a “shifter”. Over time, the rigidity of the body is lost, a lot of extraneous sounds and creaks appear, if the geometry is incorrect, the windows burst or even fly out, it is impossible to correctly align the wheels during wheel alignment, comments auto expert Ildar Nurimanov .

Note that even if you were told that the fluids, including oil, were changed quite recently, they must be changed before purchasing.

The specialist advises to start the car to check the operation of the starter. The car should start “click” without unnecessary whistles and rattles. Next, we stick the gear in - if it sticks in problematically, it’s better to say goodbye to the seller and look for another car.

You definitely need to check the wheels to see if there are any cuts on the tires and how worn they are. Check if all the bolts are in place. Take a ride and try to brake; braking should be clear, without unnecessary crunches or sounds. If you brake on a slippery road in winter, ABS must work if the car is equipped with it.

It is necessary to check whether the car is “blooming”. Check for rust on the doors, trunk, gas tank flap, look under the bottom, and it’s best to check the car on a lift. At the same time, check the grenades.

The condition of the interior also says a lot - worn seats, steering wheel, plastic parts, all this directly proves that the car is already “tired”. When talking with the seller, ask him unobtrusive questions about where you drove this car, where it was parked, why you are selling it, why certain parts were replaced, and, of course, what investments the car requires.