Marketplace

The latest action from auction and Russ’ tips on ones to watch.

I’ve found a great way to not buy cars – my new obsession with the MOT history site gov. uk/check-mot-history. I’ve dabbled with it a few times before, obviously, but right now I am shopping with a tidy sum of money for a quality new daily driver. Not new-new, of course… what I’m after is a really special example of something around 15 years-old, preferably Alfa Romeo or Volvo badged. A modern classic, shall we say?

So far I haven’t actually been to look at one car as I’m dismissing them all from the comfort of my laptop. All it takes is the registration number and marque to fill you with doubt and suspicion from past test results – especially the advisories. After all, if a car has been flagged in the past for things like non-failure play in suspension components or creeping underbody corrosion, yet the seller isn’t crowing about recent expenditure and new parts fitted to rectify such potential issues, then that’s a pretty fair indication of what you’d be getting yourself into.

Even worse is a growing number of cars being photographed for adverts complete with gaffer tape or similar masking over their number plates. That means you can’t run the check, and that makes me even more suspicious. There may be another very good reason for doing it, but as far as I’m concerned I’m out, as those Dragons are fond of saying.

Paranoid? Absolutely, that’s surely the best state of mind with which to purchase any older car. I’m saving a fortune in fuel bills, but do wish something would come up. I like kicking tyres as much as the next man.

‘All it takes is the registration number and marque’