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TL;DR ✨

Today's article is somewhat different in subject matter from the other articles on this blog. It is more of a brief insight into a different area: buying a used vehicle.

The article is intended primarily for people with no experience of buying a used car. They are either doing it for the first time in their lives or have no idea where or how to begin. They know little or nothing about the automotive industry and, as laypeople, do not want to make a costly purchasing mistake.

How to Buy a Used Car: A Guide for Beginners and Amateurs

✨ 🚀 A Little Motivation to Begin With

Today's article is somewhat different in subject matter from the other articles on this blog. It is more of a brief insight into a different area: buying a used vehicle.

First, let us establish who this article is and is not for.

The article is intended primarily for people with no experience of buying a used car. They are either doing it for the first time in their lives or have no idea where or how to begin. They know little or nothing about the automotive industry and, as laypeople, do not want to make a costly purchasing mistake.

💡 Spoiler: Buying a car is more emotional than rational.

The article IS NOT intended for experts, and its author does not consider himself someone with the technical authority to speak definitively on the subject. The topic is viewed from a broader, more general perspective.

The author's main motivation for writing this article is to help others by freely sharing sound advice on how to perform a basic analysis, so that they do not end up as he did: so badly burned by the purchase of his previous car that the experience led him to write this doctoral thesis. He believes it may help others save at least CZK 100,000, perhaps more, and if it does, the article will have served its purpose.

💡 Spoiler: The article will refer primarily to Ford vehicles and diesel engines.

✨ Article Outline

✨ 🚗 The Used-Car Market

It is important to begin by understanding the essential point of this article.

Used cars constitute a specific market in which luck plays a central role. With a used car, buyers never know exactly what they are purchasing. Many mechanisms can filter out numerous problems through proper analysis, but not everything can be covered. The risk is simply inherent. On the other hand, a genuinely excellent used car occasionally appears on the market, and it is useful to know how to find it. Unfortunately, many poor vehicles are also offered, so it is equally useful to know a few basics and avoid being taken in as the author was a year earlier.

Falling for a bad deal usually costs an order of magnitude more over the following months, not only in money but also in time. The process can involve everyone from a court-appointed expert to a lawyer and formal demands before legal action.

Mistakes when buying a used car cannot be eliminated; they can only be minimized.

🔍 🚗 So What Car Should I Choose?

There is no universal matrix capable of predicting how a used car will age. Some vehicles from a particular year have defect X with one engine, while the same model from the same year with a slightly more powerful engine does not. For example, Ford Focus Mk3 TDCi vehicles with the 1.8 diesel suffered from an unfortunate defect involving a poorly shaped oil sump where carbon particles accumulated. Oil changes therefore had to be carried out by a garage capable of flushing it thoroughly; it was not something that could simply be done at home. Yet the same common-rail engines with a 2.0-liter displacement did not suffer from this defect. Neither TDCi engine uses a timing chain, so neither option is particularly impressive in that respect. There is NO point in examining every car in this level of detail at the beginning, because no choice would ever be made. Every car has something wrong with it. None is perfect. It is better to consider more general parameters. A 2012 Jeep Compass with a four-cylinder Mercedes-Benz engine, for example, has a long-standing design problem and often develops cylinder defects with age.

In both cases, the discussion has deliberately strayed into details that often prevent people from seeing the forest for the trees. Let us therefore return to what the forest should look like.

The forest is an analogy for your needs.

✨ The Needs of an Experienced Driver

Any previous experience with a vehicle is helpful. It makes needs easier to map, and those needs may vary, for example:

  • I need a car to haul wood.
  • I need four-wheel drive because I live in hilly terrain.
  • I need to commute to places 40 km away.
  • I only need to drive to the shops and around town.
  • I have a large family and need room for two bicycles, a child seat, and a wife with a suitcase the size of Brno.

People with experience usually already know these needs, making it easier to compare their current situation with what they now require and derive from that the type of vehicle, used or otherwise, they should buy.

Needs are often a mixture of all sorts of things.

I need it to get me to Croatia, run economically, use inexpensive spare parts, climb a hill in winter, not crawl along the motorway like a snail, be safe, and look presentable.

Needs may often contradict one another:

I need the car to be luxurious yet inexpensive.

This is where the definition of a need begins to form. Once it does, it determines how vehicles will be considered from then on. For frequent journeys of 40 km or more and regular motorway driving, petrol may not be the best choice from an economic perspective.

For someone with a large family, a two-seat sports car is not the best solution.

People's needs do change over time, but that is not a problem; cars can be replaced too.

And yes, irrational behavior can sometimes be seen: someone buys a car for CZK 2 million just to have something to drive to a fishing spot. 🤷‍♂️ Everyone has different needs.

✨ I Have No Experience With Cars

For someone with no experience who wants to buy a used car, what they buy is probably not that important. Everyone has to learn on something and map out their own needs. The used-car market is ideal for beginners, and the recommendation is to begin wearing out clutches on something inexpensive.

Once needs and the expected budget are known, the process is straightforward. Start browsing broad categories, such as small cars, lower-middle-class cars, larger cars, and luxury cars. Before long, one particular category will emerge in which to look around and see what is and is not available.

💡Spoiler: The author's view

The author believes that beginners need to work their way up to a vehicle. Buying a young driver the latest factory-new car is uneconomical. Ideally, they should begin with something worth almost nothing or two years away from being scrapped. That is the best way to learn the absolute basics: how to hold a gear lever, how the handbrake works, what it feels like to scrape a wheel against a curb, and to be told off for it. Only then does it make sense to continue evolving and choose another car. It also helps enormously with mapping needs and understanding many other things in practice.

In the author's view, it makes no economic sense for a first used car in 2024 to cost more than CZK 80,000. It should simply cover some distance, cost little, and provide an opportunity to try various things.

✨ Learning the Basics

Now the article finally reaches something a little more enjoyable that will help explain some of the terms mentioned above.

Anyone as unfamiliar with the subject as the author was should begin by studying general information about cars. It is reasonable to set aside at least eight hours for this. YouTube is an excellent source of information. The videos are very well presented visually and make it much easier to understand at least the basic relationships.

Here are a few suggestions:

The videos above are only suggestions. There are many more videos and useful articles, including those on the EGR valve and DPF; further study is up to each reader.

These videos are excellent because their visual presentation makes it much easier to grasp the basics and understand the relationships between components. Unfortunately, the material is mainly in English, with little available in Czech. This creates a problem when a Czech viewer needs to connect “crankshaft” with the Czech term kliková hřídel. In a differential, “spider gear” is what Czech speakers call satelitní ozubená kola or pastorek. If someone later discusses the subject in Czech and says flywheel, they sound like an amateur if they do not know the Czech term, even though they have long understood the component from the videos: dvouhmotový setrvačník, or dual-mass flywheel.

It is useful to understand that fluids need to be changed:

💡Spoiler: The author's favorite videos

It is useful to know that a car is not a pair of slippers. It needs care too:

Once there is at least a rough idea of the car under consideration, it is worth watching various reviews and focusing on common faults. In the author's case, the search had already narrowed to a Ford:

✨ Research

There is now some understanding of a car's inner workings. Let us look at the information relevant to buying a used one.

This article, for example, is excellent:

There are many resources to study; only a few are listed here:

The resources above can be used to create a personal checklist. Here, for example, is the author's checklist of what to watch for and when.!

✨ What Is on the Market

At this stage, buyers know approximately what they want. They have learned a little about cars and engines and what to watch for when buying a used vehicle, so it is time to search the databases. In general, the market offers several possibilities, with the main ones being:

✨ 1. Buying a car from a used-car dealership

✨ 2. Buying a car from a private seller

Both have advantages and disadvantages, and exploring the subject further is beyond the scope of this article. Many articles cover the topic.

One interesting alternative is worth highlighting: having a car imported to order. It sounds like an excellent idea. The author found one business on the market capable of doing it. Communication with the business was entirely trouble-free and pleasant, but as of July 2024 it:

  • ❌ Had its trade license registered to somebody else.
  • ❌ Had held the trade license for only three months.
  • ❌ Had no limited liability protection because it was not a limited company.
  • ❌ Had its registered office at a family home.
  • ❌ Had one troubling negative review from 2021 on YouTube.
  • ❌ Could not supply a vehicle from a VAT-registered seller.

For the purposes of this article, the discussion will concern buying from a used-car dealership, which again has its own particularities. This leads naturally to the second most important question:

🔍 Who Is the Other Party?

This is a rather vague subject because there is a great deal of both positive and negative feedback about different used-car dealerships. Some reviews are positive, some are deliberately commissioned to be positive, some are negative, and some are written solely by competitors. In short, they are very difficult to navigate. Consider AutoESA a.s., for example. It has several branches across the Czech Republic. Salespeople behave well at some and poorly at others, making generalization difficult.

💡AutoESA is so popular that even emimino.cz has questions asking for reviews.

With private individuals, it is simple: check the criminal records register and the enforcement register, and the answer is immediately clear.

✨ 🚗 Checking a Car With Various Tools

The VIN, the car's equivalent of a birth number, is required. A VIN looks like this: WF06XXGFC5LD30715

The best place to begin checking a car is the Czech Ministry of Transport tool kontrolatachometru.cz. This website deserves praise as an outstanding tool for an initial vehicle check. It provides information about mileage and records from roadworthiness and emissions inspections.

The information is only indicative. Here, for example, is an imported car from abroad:! It was later found to have been involved in at least two accidents.! According to the roadworthiness and emissions records, everything looked fine. This information is therefore only one piece of the puzzle.

💡 What should stand out in this screenshot is that the car had covered more than 10,000 km since its last inspection?!

Next come commercial tools, whose results must also be treated as indicative. Combining information from the Czech tool operated by Cebia and the Polish tool AutoDNA provides only a general overview, but reveals considerably more about the vehicle.

Here is Cebia's mileage information.! The AutoDNA figure approximately matches it and adds a little more context.! Again, this is only an indicative check. Far more important is whether the car is encumbered by finance or, conversely, has been stolen.

✨ Here, for example, is a reported loss event:!

This information is valuable because it establishes that the car has been in an accident.

However, an incident may not always appear for a car in any of these checking tools. A loss event presupposes that it was reported. A previous owner may sometimes crash the vehicle, not report the incident, and have it repaired without paperwork. The buyer then discovers it only during a professional vehicle inspection, if it is noticed at all.

Cebia's information about recalls is very useful. Here is an example of a Ford recall involving the clutch pressure plate. It indicates what may lie ahead if the previous owner ignored the issue.

Cebia also provides several supplementary details, such as whether the car was used as a taxi, which is not something a buyer wants either.

As stated above, everything is only indicative. Only a professional inspection can assess the actual condition. At this stage, the information merely provides orientation. Every vehicle has a market value, and a price below that value generally comes at the cost of something negative. Dealers also sometimes play games with prices to confuse the end customer because, as already established, nákup auta není racionální záležitost, ale emocionální.

Cars imported from abroad generally suffer from several problems. Besides odometer fraud, these include “car laundering” and attempts to conceal that the vehicle has been in an accident.

An explanation of car laundering:

Car laundering means that a vehicle from Italy is imported into Germany and re-registered. It sits in Germany for three months, after which it is imported into the Czech Republic and sold for more than its true market value. Typically, the car is registered to someone of Turkish nationality, for example. Nobody would knowingly want such a vehicle.

How can such a car be recognized at first glance in a dealership? With difficulty. Information from the service book and its history is needed, and, as already noted, this can sometimes be disguised. An underbody inspection by an experienced person may therefore provide the first clue, because roads in Italy are not salted in winter.

Another weakness of foreign cars is the traceability of their history. As noted regarding the Ministry of Transport website, the Czech Republic can be proud of this simple and highly useful tool. Finding historical information in other countries is much more difficult. The history is likewise lost when a car arrives in the Czech Republic from abroad.

For a used car, the best candidate for purchase is one whose previous owner and history are known. This crucial element is deliberately obscured or very difficult to trace when cars are distributed through used-car dealerships, even though it is one of the most important factors for a customer during the initial search.

💡A small piece of subjective advice from the author:

The advice does not apply to every foreign car, only statistically: do not buy cars from Slovakia.

✨ 👀 First Contact

A car has been selected and the seller contacted. It is time for the first date. Notice the impression the seller makes and how much attention they pay. Observe how they respond to additional questions. Ask follow-up questions and record the information. As will become clear later, dealership salespeople tend to conceal or omit information unless explicitly asked about it. If possible, ask about the history and request as much detail as possible about the previous owner. How did they drive? Who were they? Where were they from? What were their circumstances?

✨ A Man or a Woman? Did They Understand Cars or Not?

Look for details in the service books, provided the other party is reputable enough to let you inspect them. If access to the information is refused, it is better to end the transaction.

Check whether every entry in the books was written with the same pen. In short, apply all the information studied above. This initial data collection will be useful for comparison at later stages.

Once everything else is complete, arrange an initial inspection of the car without obligation. If it has passed the preceding research and is appealing, make this the first opportunity to get a feel for the vehicle. Commit to nothing. If everything looks fine at first glance and there is no immediately obvious fatal problem, it makes sense to proceed to the next stage.

✨ Detailed Analysis

The second visit to the dealership will not be an easy one for the dealer, and the seller should at least have to break a sweat.

The recommended people to involve, step by step, are:

  1. You
  2. A trusted person
  3. A mechanic
  4. A court-appointed expert

✨ 5. A lawyer

Each member's role is described below:

✨ You

You are the layperson here. Do not expect too much of yourself. Most of the time, you will simply walk around the car and at most collect information using a layperson's checklist. There is little else you can do. There is no reason to feel bad about it; your role is completely fine and normal. You are a layperson, not an expert or professional. That is why capable people are there to help and support you.

✨ A Trusted Person

This is a second person, usually someone more experienced than you. It could also be the mechanic, a professional driver, or simply a father. It depends on the budget, desired thoroughness, and available options. The best possible companion is a professional driver. By touch alone, such a person can tell whether previous owners really used the gear lever as a gear lever rather than as a vibrator.

After a brief inspection, they can tell whether the car has been in an accident and what the dealership has concealed, knowingly or otherwise.

Such a person can help enormously because they see things that a layperson would struggle to recognize on a second, third, or fifth inspection. And if women are reading this article too, they should not look only at the color of the car. 🚗

✨ 🚗 A Mechanic

Another essential person is a mechanic, an experienced professional who works with cars from morning until night. During a visit to a garage, a diagnostic scan, and a thorough look underneath the machine's skirts, they can provide far more information than anyone could ever discover alone by watching a million YouTube videos.

There is no substitute for earning practical experience through work. When doing something for the first or second time in life, that experience must come from the right people if the right decision is to be made.

✨ A Court-Appointed Expert

This person is optional. There is no harm in speaking with someone who knows what happens when two people disagree about a car. Their view of the situation can be valuable too. It may prevent the purchase of a nightmare that would otherwise haunt the buyer for months instead of providing comfortable transport.

✨ A Lawyer

Is everything technically sound? Then it is time for the administration and the signing of the agreement. Nowadays, this simply cannot be handled properly without an experienced and capable lawyer. This is precisely the person who can advise whether some hidden trick is buried in wording that could cause regret later.

Mandatory information in the agreement includes:

  • Identification of the seller and buyer.
  • Information confirming that the vehicle belongs to the seller and is not subject to any legal encumbrance.
  • A detailed description of the vehicle, including its color, registration certificate number, and registration plate.
  • The date by which the seller must hand the car over to the buyer.
  • Identification of the person responsible for transferring the vehicle's registration.

It is advisable to list every defect discovered and include it in the purchase agreement under “detailed description of technical condition.” This may prove very useful in the future.

🧾 Purchase Agreement

Has the lawyer analyzed the agreement? Does it contain everything required? Have any details or objections concerning the dealership been omitted? Is the car technically sound?

Then check twice more what is included in the vehicle handover report. If it lists anything that was not previously identified, reopen the discussion with the seller. This may lead either to a price reduction or perhaps to withdrawal from the agreement. The important thing is not to be pressured by time or phrases such as “We already have another interested buyer.”

✨ Everything Fine? Congratulations!!!

Enjoy the final ritual of the process: signing the agreement.

You have done well to manage it and complete the entire process.

That was stressful!

💡 The most interesting thing about selling and buying a car is that, at a certain point before the agreement is signed, both the buyer and seller are generally afraid.

The buyer is afraid of making a bad purchase.

The seller is afraid of making a bad sale.

Now it is time to deal with the small, pleasant details: registration transfer, mandatory liability insurance, perhaps comprehensive insurance, vehicle decals, tuning, or christening the newest member of the household. ❤️

💡Bear in mind that a car is not like a pair of slippers. It needs care and is a money box. It will continue to demand attention, but anyone who has studied the links above already knows that.

✅ 🏁 Conclusion

The author does not feel qualified to speak for other, more experienced people, let alone those with professional expertise. Many of them could add further valuable information to this account.

His primary motivation was to write a consolidated article because he could not find one on the Czech internet when he needed it most.

This article is certainly not a step-by-step guide, but inspiration for minimizing risk. Buying a used car will always involve risk, but it is better to make that risk as small as possible.

Every reader will undoubtedly filter the information, add something, and remove something. There is no need to be as pünktlich as the author. If the article helps even one person save a few thousand crowns by avoiding a botched, protracted legal dispute, that will be a satisfying outcome for this doctoral thesis.

Here is the promised result of the author's odyssey through the car market. 🤘

Technical details:

Ford Focus, 2.0 TDCi, 110 kW, varianta ST. Láska na první pohled ♥️

✨ Front view:!

Side view:! ! Engine:!

✨ Interior:!