Seller has offered a run around the block, which he reckons is ten minutes. That felt short to me but I have no reference point and I do not want to be the buyer who is unreasonable about someone else's car and insurance. What do experienced buyers actually ask for, and what do you do with the time that is different from just driving it?
Ten minutes round the block is a soft refusal in most cases. Some sellers are genuinely nervous about insurance and that is fair, so offer the alternative: you will pay for an independent inspection at a garage of your choosing, and you will drive it there and back. A seller with a good car says yes to that immediately. A seller who says no has answered a different question.
Also settle the insurance question before you turn up rather than in the driveway. Depending on where you live your own policy may cover you to drive another car, or you can buy short term cover for a day for very little.
Take somebody with you. Two sets of ears, one person can watch the exhaust at startup while the other turns the key, and a second person makes it much easier to say no and walk away. That last part is worth more than the mechanical checks.
Bring a torch and a small magnet on a cloth. Torch for looking under the sills and into the wheel arches, magnet for finding filler in a panel that looks straight. Both fit in a pocket.
@otis_haverford · last yr. · 3 replies
Thirty minutes minimum, and the route matters more than the length.
You need four things in it. Motorway or a fast road, so you can hold 100 for five minutes and feel vibration through the wheel and hear whether it drones. A rough or broken surface at low speed with the radio off and a window down, which is where you hear worn suspension. A car park, for full lock in both directions listening for clicking and for any grinding when you brake gently while turning. And a stop, so you can switch it off, leave it two minutes, and start it again warm.
Before any of that, insist on the cold start and be there for it. Arrive early, hand on the bonnet. That is where you see startup smoke and hear a rattle that disappears after twenty seconds.
Things to do while driving that people forget: brake firmly once on a straight empty road and feel for pulling or pulsing. Take both hands off the wheel briefly on a flat straight to check it tracks. Try every gear including reverse. Turn the air conditioning to maximum and check it actually gets cold. Windows, mirrors, heated screen, lights, all of it, because those are the expensive small things.
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@gio_castellan · last yr.
Radio off and one window down for the whole drive. It feels rude and it is where half the useful information is.
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@epsilon_eddie · last yr.
Wrote this out as a checklist for the weekend. The stop and restart warm one had not occurred to me at all.
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