How to buy a used car in England

1. Decide on a class of car, but keep your options open, especially if you have special needs--like you can't drive a stick, and 95% of the cars are manual.

2. Do your research.  Test drive several cars, talk to people.  Ensure you are buying from a reputable party.  Check the registration documents and make sure you are dealing with the actual owner.

3. Do a thorough inspection, checking the brakes, suspension, steering, tires, engine fluids, exhaust.  Check for rust and accident damage. Run an HPI check, which uses the car plates and VIN to see if the car was scrapped or stolen. These can be done online for £4.

4. When you have found the car you want, have a professional inspection to ensure there are no major mechanical problems.

5. Negotiate the price, arrange insurance, get a banker's draft (cashier's check to you), and ensure you get the current MoT certificate, the tax disc, service history, and the green portion of the V5 registration certificate proving you own the car.  (You'll need all of these items to renew the tax disc when it is due.)

Or you can do what I did--choose a specific car that you can only find one of in London; meet a guy at a pub who is not the owner of the car; do a 3-minute test drive because there is *no* gas in the car, plus driving the car is illegal because the tax disc is expired and you don't have insurance; check the engine oil but forget everything else; get an HPI check which costs £29.95 over the phone; and then buy the car at the full asking price.

The guy offered to get me a new tax disc by showing them his own insurance, which we did at the Post Office (go figure).  However, to do so they take the green portion of the V5 registration certificate, so I have no proof that I own the car, other than a hand-written receipt.

About the only thing I did right was insist on paying by banker's draft, which took my bank over an *hour* to prepare!  First I queued for 15 minutes for the cashier, and even though I said "bank draft" twice, she started to count out cash.  When I said "bank draft" the third time, she got very flustered, and told me I had to go to "customer services" instead.  She assured me she would put the cash bank in my account, but couldn't give me a receipt.

Customer services said it was a 20 minute wait, as I was behind people who wanted to open an account, discuss a mortgage, and challenge a direct debit.  All I wanted was a cashier's check!  When I finally met with someone, she had to leave the room three times--once to find the bank drafts, once to get a signature, and once to review with a manager because I had to explain why I had just deposited the money in cash, and now wanted to withdraw it as a bank draft!

So I think I bought a car...

Next month I have to get a new MoT certificate, which proves that the car is road-worthy. I hope it passes.