h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

While all the mechanical things mentioned by other contributors are very important, don't forget to check some of the little things when buying a used car.

Listed below are a few things that have caught my friends or I:

Do all the windows wind up and down? Even if you're usually the only one using the car, at some stage you'll have passengers in the back. It's not much fun if they can't get the windows down when it's hot, or back up again when it starts to rain.

Do all the seatbelts work? I discovered six months after buying a car that the buckle wouldn't hold on two of the three back seatbelts. No matter how hard you tried to make it catch, they would just slip open again.

Make sure the spare tyre is where it should be, and that it's the right size tyre for the car. We stopped to help someone once who'd just bought a car in the city and was driving home (about 4 hours drive) and got a flat tyre. Whe he went to change it, the spare the seller had generously provided didn't fit. He'd been stuck on the side of the road for 2 1/2 hours before we stopped by.

I bought a car a wee while ago, NEVER go car hunting in the rain. That's the first bit of advice I'd give. You're always in more of a hurry when it's raining and don't tend to take the time to look around. Never rush yourself and never let the staff rush you. So what if someone else slaps the deposit down while you're still making your mind up.
The boot is a good place to start. Look for scratches on the rim of the boot, where things would have scraped the paintwork while being loaded into and out of the boot. These will probably have been touched up so that they're hard to see, but for some reason dealers often forget to touch up the paint on the back of the rear seats. Make sure also that the carpet in the boot matches that in the rest of the car. Look to see if there are any empty brackets and things in there. It's been known to tool kits that were supposed to be part of the car to go missing during the life span, and dealers may just remove the brackets so it seems as though they shouldn't be there.
Unless you know anything about mechanics don't bother with more than a cursary glance under the bonnet. Let's face it, you either know what you're looking for or you don't, and if you don't the dealers will soon notice that you haven't noticed things. As long as the engine sits solid in it's casing.
Inside the car check for the stereo. Okay, not the most important of things but that depends on your opinion. Is there stereo there for a start? If not, check the wires behind the casing. Are they easy to understand? Do they have the right connections to add a new stereo? Or have they just been cut? Don't forget also to look for speakers. No use having a stereo if there're no speakers. Don't be afraid to turn the radio on and listen to the quality. Take an old spare tape along with you and check that the tape deck actually plays tapes, rather than having a taste for them, and chewing up anything you put in. Don't forget to check for an arial. Modern arials are either electrically retracable, or more commonly screw off and on, so that they don't catch in the car wash. A lot of dealers will remove the arials while the car is on the lot, for the honest reason that they tend to get nicked. But make sure that they have the right arial for the car and know that they have to put it back before you take the car away.
Another thing to check while inside is the upholstery, check for things like cigerette burns and tears. Re-upholstering a car isn't cheap. And let's face it, the chances of finding the same material are virtually none existant, so you will be re-upholstering the whole car, or putting up with a ripped seat.
And check that the dash-board actually reaches to the sides of the car. Mine doesn't for some reason, but I've a feeling that's just because of the car it is.

I bought a car a wee while ago, NEVER go car hunting in the rain. That's the first bit of advice I'd give. You're always in more of a hurry when it's raining and don't tend to take the time to look around. Never rush yourself and never let the staff rush you. So what if someone else slaps the deposit down while you're still making your mind up.
The boot is a good place to start. Look for scratches on the rim of the boot, where things would have scraped the paintwork while being loaded into and out of the boot. These will probably have been touched up so that they're hard to see, but for some reason dealers often forget to touch up the paint on the back of the rear seats. Make sure also that the carpet in the boot matches that in the rest of the car. Look to see if there are any empty brackets and things in there. It's been known to tool kits that were supposed to be part of the car to go missing during the life span, and dealers may just remove the brackets so it seems as though they shouldn't be there.
Unless you know anything about mechanics don't bother with more than a cursary glance under the bonnet. Let's face it, you either know what you're looking for or you don't, and if you don't the dealers will soon notice that you haven't noticed things. As long as the engine sits solid in it's casing.
Inside the car check for the stereo. Okay, not the most important of things but that depends on your opinion. Is there stereo there for a start? If not, check the wires behind the casing. Are they easy to understand? Do they have the right connections to add a new stereo? Or have they just been cut? Don't forget also to look for speakers. No use having a stereo if there're no speakers. Don't be afraid to turn the radio on and listen to the quality. Take an old spare tape along with you and check that the tape deck actually plays tapes, rather than having a taste for them, and chewing up anything you put in. Don't forget to check for an arial. Modern arials are either electrically retracable, or more commonly screw off and on, so that they don't catch in the car wash. A lot of dealers will remove the arials while the car is on the lot, for the honest reason that they tend to get nicked. But make sure that they have the right arial for the car and know that they have to put it back before you take the car away.
Another thing to check while inside is the upholstery, check for things like cigerette burns and tears. Re-upholstering a car isn't cheap. And let's face it, the chances of finding the same material are virtually none existant, so you will be re-upholstering the whole car, or putting up with a ripped seat.
And check that the dash-board actually reaches to the sides of the car. Mine doesn't for some reason, but I've a feeling that's just because of the car it is.