Buying a used car in the Vega Baja: what to check before you pay

The Vega Baja is full of cars with few kilometres and many years. It is the local pattern: short trips between Almoradí, Callosa and Orihuela, and summers parked in the sun. That use leaves marks the odometer never shows.

Before you go and see it

Ask the seller for the plate and the VIN. With those you can check on the DGT site whether the car has debts, charges or a temporary deregistration, and when the next ITV is due. It is free, it works from your phone, and it avoids most nasty surprises.

Ask too whether the car was imported. That is not a problem in itself, but it changes the paperwork and sometimes the equipment.

With the car in front of you: the body

Look at the car in daylight, never in a dark garage or in the rain. Stand at one end and look along the side: reflections give away the ripples of a reworked panel.

• Check that the gaps between panels match on both sides. A different gap between bonnet and wing usually means an impact.
• Open doors, bonnet and boot and look at the rubber seals and the bolts: tool marks on bolts mean the panel has been off.
• Compare the paint tone panel by panel. A door slightly different from the rest has been resprayed.
• On the coast, check the sills, skirts and lower door edges: that is where salt starts the rust.

Tyres and suspension

Tyres with tread but cracked sidewalls are typical of a car parked in the sun: they need replacing even if they look new. Check the date on the sidewall, four digits, week and year. Over six years old is a reason to negotiate.

Push down on each corner of the car: if it bounces more than once, the dampers are tired.

Engine and electronics

Start it from cold. A car already warm when it arrives may be hiding a difficult start. Listen to the idle, look for blue or thick white smoke, check the oil level and colour.

The engine light must come on with the ignition and go out when it starts. If it never comes on, be suspicious: the bulb is sometimes removed to hide faults. A code read with a machine is cheap and answers in ten minutes what the eye cannot see.

Paperwork

Registration document, technical sheet with a valid ITV, the latest municipal tax receipt and proof that there are no debts. If the seller is a private individual, a written sale contract. If it is a business, an invoice with VAT.

What we do

If you are hesitating between two cars, bring them in — or call us and we go and look — and we run a pre-purchase inspection: body, underside, suspension, fault codes and a road test. We tell you what it has, what fixing it will cost and whether the asking price makes sense. We also sell cars checked in our own workshop, and with those we show you exactly what we would look at as the buyer.