Merityre Article Archive

‘Caveat emptor’ is Latin. It means ‘Let the buyer beware’ and it makes the perfect maxim for anyone intending to buy a secondhand car. The rules for a successful purchase are simple enough and making a matchless deal is easy if you use these pointers.

1: Check the tyres. Car tyres save your life on a daily basis, simply by doing their job. Tyres with 3 millimetres or less of tread need replacing. Tyres can also be excellent tell tales. If they’re worn unevenly, the car’s suspension, steering or brakes could be at fault. Cracked tyres are generally pensionable and lumps or bulges in tyre carcasses suggest internal damage. Remember to check the spare tyre and bear in mind that tyre failure can be a killer.

2: Check the VIN. The car’s Vehicle Identification Number should match that in the logbook. If it doesn’t or is absent, the car could have been stolen, ‘rung’ or be two half cars welded together.

3: Check the history. This advice counts in two ways. Dealers must offer an HPI check by law. If buying privately, have one carried out yourself. An HPI check is to validate the car’s history and would reveal previous damage, theft, insurance claims, writings off and more.

Service history is equally important. If a main dealer or an approved concern has carried out servicing, the car’s automatically a better prospect.

4: Check the deal. Often, dealers can offer a warranty. The car may have some remaining manufacturer’s warranty and there may be ‘sweeteners’, such as included accessories. Be very careful if buying from a private seller. Once the car is yours, you have very little comeback if it proves to be a bad buy.

5: Check the car. Unless professionally executed, accident repairs are easy to spot. Look for poor panel gaps, paint colour and texture mismatches, non-factory additions (e.g. lights) and damaged exterior trim. Take particular note of the car’s extremities: the nose and all four corners. Suspiciously thick, new-looking underseal can hide a lot, as can the boot carpet.

Look under the bonnet, for a clean engine bay with no rust or coolant stains. Dip the oil, which shouldn’t be like black treacle, and look underneath the car for spots of leaked fluid.

6: Check the mileage. The car’s MOT certificates should show a believable progression of mileage figures and the speedometer’s mileage reading should tally. Modern electronic mileometers can be easily tampered with so checking that the speedo screws aren’t butchered doesn’t always reveal a clocked car. That said, plastics and modern trim can wear. If the steering wheel rim and the pedal rubbers are shinier than the bodywork, chances are the car has an intergalactic mileage in reality. A worn, bursting drivers seat, is a dead giveaway, as are badly worn driver’s door mechanisms. Don’t forget that these parts could have been replaced, so if they look too new, be wary.

7: Check the performance. Have a realistically long test drive, using the vehicle as you expect to on a daily basis. Try the brakes, steering, transmission and electrical items. Should something be not as expected, be careful to not fall for the old ‘They all do that’ routine!

8: Remember these three golden rules. Unless the car you’re examining is so rare that there simply isn’t another, you can always find a rival example. Rule two: it’s a buyer’s market at the moment and you can always walk away. Rule three is simpler still: buy with your head, never your heart!

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Merityre.co.uk are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.

Car tyres do a magnificent job. Few would argue with this but there are those who seem to believe that their car’s tyres can perform miracles. Most people who’ve seen the consequences of this belief would argue with it. Now that winter is upon us with a vengeance, knowing what car tyres can and can’t do, particularly on snow and ice, becomes particularly helpful. Here are some basic facts to begin with…

* Car tyres, like many shoe soles, are made of materials that provide grip in most conditions. On snow, car tyres provide much-reduced grip and on ice, can offer practically no grip.

* Treating the road surface, with a mixture of salt and grit, enhances the available grip.

* This enhanced grip is nowhere near that provided by even a wet road surface.

* Should the treated surface re-freeze, the level of grip will decrease radically.

* Loss of grip equals loss of control.

Ok. For those who would argue that their car has anti-lock brakes and traction control, there are further facts. Electronic aids notwithstanding, a car (or a van, truck or whatever) can only obey the laws of physics. ABS, DSC and other driving aids help but like car tyres, they can’t perform miracles.

So, how do we deal with snow and ice? The short answer is very carefully but there are ways of driving in such conditions. Let’s take a look at the most useful…

* When setting off, you can lose traction. A car with furiously spinning wheels won’t be going anywhere except possibly downwards. Be subtle with the controls and in really bad conditions, try setting off in second gear.

* Should your car tyres insist on spinning, you may be able to progress by using wheel spin but only as a last resort. Turn the steering repeatedly from lock to lock and you might, just might, find a little traction.

* In adverse conditions, driving becomes very much a matter of the balance between grip and sliding. This is an immensely delicate balance that’s easily upset. Your fingertips and the seat of your pants give the best feedback about what’s happening at ground level.

* Despite all the theoretical talk, your car can only skid in three ways. In understeer, the front of the car loses grip and runs wide. In oversteer, the rear loses grip and tries to pass you. In a four-wheel slide or skid, all the wheels lose grip. If you’re skidding, you’re going too fast for the conditions.

* If the front wheels skid (understeer), reduce the amount of steering you have applied. In a rear wheel skid (oversteer), steer in the direction the tail of the car has taken. In all cases, four-wheel skid included, lift off the accelerator but avoid hard braking.

*If your ABS cuts in under braking, you may have a limited amount of steering control. Again don’t expect miracles.

* Where traction and grip are radically limited, stopping distances increase vastly. Never, on any account, follow a vehicle too closely and be aware that what’s behind you could have only a minimal chance of stopping. Should a vehicle be following too close, pull in and let it pass.

* Remember that even a treated surface can refreeze. Pay attention to your car’s ice warning and act on it. Black ice can remain in shadowed areas long after sunrise.

Above all, be realistic. Should conditions be dreadful, accept the fact and don’t travel. With the abovementioned driving aids, not to mention seatbelts and airbags, you’re likely to survive an accident. However, surviving the consequent insurance issues and the inconvenience of repairs can be a major hassle.

If in any doubt at all, you need answer one question, the one that posters carried during World War Two: Is your journey really necessary?

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