What’s the maximum age of car you will inspect?
If you’re looking at buying a pre-owned car, there’s a good chance you’ll come across one of the excellent value older vehicles on the market. The trouble is, you can’t always be certain you’re getting an honest older vehicle – especially since some inspection companies put age limits on the cars they inspect.
At Car.co.uk, we work slightly differently. We can inspect vehicles of any ages – and we can tell you a bit more about why we’re confident doing so here.
Inspecting older vehicles
At Car.co.uk, we firmly believe that age is just a number. After all, you could reasonably expect a 15-year old car that’s done 20,000 miles to be in better condition than a 5-year old car that’s done 120,000 miles – especially if the older car’s been well maintained.
So, why do some companies avoid doing inspections on older vehicles?
It’s often simply to do with the complexity of the task. With an older vehicle, signs of wear and tear might not be apparent until you take the car on a long test drive or perform a physical inspection to look for signs of movement or wear in mechanical components.
The good news is, this is exactly what we do as part of our Premium Plus inspection. We don’t just rely on looking at the car to tell us what condition it’s in – our inspectors roll their sleeves up and perform a physical inspection, before noting full details of their findings on a comprehensive report.
What will you see when an older vehicle is inspected?
Our Premium Plus inspection creates an extensive report that goes into great depth about the car you’re hoping to buy. As soon as the report’s ready, it’ll be emailed to you so you can make your mind up about the vehicle.
The report is broken down into 26 different sections. Each of those sections is dedicated to a separate part of the car – from the mechanical and electrical components – to the condition of the interior and wear-level of each tyre.
Of course, this level of detail could be overwhelming if it was presented as a large block of text, so instead, we make sure you get a colour-coded list that indicates the condition of every component we’ve inspected. A green mark lets you know the part is ‘OK’, amber suggests there’s a ‘Warning’, and red indicates ‘Danger’. There’s room for comments too – so if you do find any amber or red marks, you’ll be able to read a little more about what’s led to the cause for concern. In fact, you’ll even get photographs so you can see in more detail what’s being explained.
Exploring the car’s history
It’s not just the physical condition of the car that’s looked into when you get a Premium Plus inspection report. Our inspector will cross-reference data from the Police, insurance companies, and the DVLA, so you can be absolutely certain you know everything about the car’s past too – including accidents, insurance claims or write-offs, numbers of owners, and even number plate changes.
Is an inspection worth it on an older car?
You might be hoping to keep your costs down if you’re looking at an older vehicle – but that doesn’t mean you should compromise on your safety or spending going forward. Around 50% of cars on the pre-owned market have some kind of hidden history – so a pre-purchase inspection is money well spent if you want to drive your new car away with complete peace of mind.
