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People shopping for a used car worry about the engine.
There are actually two risks, and they need different checks. One is mechanical: what is worn or broken. The other is paperwork: whether it is really theirs to sell, and whether somebody else still has a claim on it.
Pay a mechanic you chose to look at the car before you buy it.
Not the seller's mechanic. Not the garage next door to the seller. One you found and are paying.
It costs a small fraction of the car, and it is the only opinion in the whole process from somebody with nothing to gain from the sale.
A seller who refuses an independent inspection has answered your question.
There is no innocent version of that refusal. The car is either fine, in which case an inspection costs them nothing, or it is not.
Thank them and leave. This is the cheapest decision in the process.
Why do experienced buyers insist on seeing the car with a cold engine?
Water hides scratches, dents and mismatched paint. Darkness hides everything.
A seller who only has evenings free, in winter, in a car park with one lamp, may be perfectly honest. You still cannot see the car.
Daylight, dry, and somewhere you can walk all the way round it.
Every car carries a unique identifying number, stamped in more than one place. It is usually visible at the base of the windscreen and inside a door frame.
Check the number on the car against the number on the paperwork. Check it in two places on the car as well.
If they do not agree, stop. There is no explanation you want.
Three things can be true of a car that looks perfect.
Money is still owed on it, so it can be repossessed after you buy it. It was declared a write-off and repaired. It is recorded as stolen.
Most countries have a paid history check that answers all three. What it is called differs. That it exists usually does not.
Which risk does each check cover?
Tap an item, then a bucket
Ask to see the car at the address on the registration document.
A private seller with nothing to hide is selling their own car from their own street. Meeting in a supermarket car park is not automatically wrong, but it removes every way of checking that they are who they say.
The registration document is not proof of ownership. It is proof of who registered it.
You are not counting stamps. You are looking for a pattern and a gap.
Regular servicing that stops three years ago is the story. So is a car serviced everywhere except one two-year hole.
Ask what happened in the gap. There is often a fine answer. There is sometimes a very long pause.
A car shows very low mileage. Which of these would make you doubt it?
A bubble on a door is cosmetic. Rust underneath is not.
Look along the sills below the doors, inside the wheel arches, and at the mounting points you can see under the car.
Surface rust on a bracket is normal on any older car. Flaking that leaves holes, or metal that gives under a thumb, is structural.
Look across the tread of each front tyre, not just at the depth.
Worn on one edge and fine on the other means the wheels are not pointing straight, which can be a cheap alignment or a bent part underneath.
Four different brands on four corners is a car that has been kept going as cheaply as possible.
Pull the oil dipstick. Oil darkens with use, which is normal. Gritty, or so thick it barely runs, is not.
Open the oil filler cap and look underneath it. A pale creamy paste there can mean water is getting into the oil.
Look at the coolant. It should be coloured and clear, not brown and cloudy.
The engine bay has been steam cleaned and looks spotless. Good sign?
A lap of the estate proves nothing. You need a real drive.
Get it to full road speed. Take it up a hill. Find an empty space and brake hard once. Turn the wheel to full lock both ways and listen. Stop on a slope and pull away.
And turn the radio off, the whole time.
Match the symptom to what it usually points at.
Tap one side, then its match
The trade is simple and it is worth saying out loud.
A private seller is cheaper and, in most places, you have far less protection once the money moves. A dealer costs more and usually carries obligations that a private person does not.
What those obligations are depends entirely on where you live. Find out before you choose which kind of seller to shop from.
Another buyer is coming this afternoon. The price is only this until the weekend. They need cash today because of a family thing.
None of those are about the car. All of them are about stopping you doing the checks.
The correct answer to every one of them is that you will think about it.
An inspection that lists four hundred in upcoming work is not a reason to walk away. It is a number you now both know.
Say it plainly. The report says this needs doing. Ask for the price to move, or for them to do the work first.
A seller who will not move on either is telling you what they think it is worth.
By the time you have driven out to see a car twice, you want it to be the one. That feeling is the expensive part.
Decide before you go what would make you walk. No cold start. No inspection. Numbers that do not match. A gap they cannot explain.
Written down beforehand, it is a rule. Decided in the moment, it is a negotiation with yourself.