Quote:
Originally Posted by Benholder90
So just found out this s40 d5 I want to look at today has no service history with it..
But guy says it drives fine and no problems
Still worth going to look ?
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With no service history you're starting to take a risk, has it been serviced at all? if you've only got the guys word for it. If you've got the reg number you could look up its MOT history and see if it passes first time each year or has to have basic repairs after it fails or things that the owner should have cared enough to do like changing worn out tyres.
You need to assess for yourself what risk you can afford and are willing to take. For 'my' car I usually buy cheap and am prepared to take my chances, I'm in the fortunate position that paying less than £2000 for a car (after I've done what I can to check it) is something I can afford so if it does turn out to be no good I'd be sorry to lose the money but I could just buy another one. My level of ability at fixing it also comes into play, if you're not confident with that you need to be more confident of the car to start with. For 'the wife's' car she wants something newer with some peace of mind that it won't go wrong, we spend nearer to £10,000 on her car so it's a much more rigorous process to buy it.
I also usually spend quite some time researching the car I want to buy before I start really looking for the one to buy, reading forums and other internet sources for what is good and bad about that model, and also watching what is selling on ebay, ebay may not be perfect but you can see a number of cars go by and see what they sell for at the end (asking price and selling price are different things), there may be some that once they've sold you'll wish you'd put a bid on but with reasonably common cars like the S40 there will be another one coming along soon and then you'll know what it's worth.
MOT test here
link
Tax isn't transferable but you can check that too
here