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For me, one of the best measures the Government has taken to help protect car buyers is their “Check the MOT history of a vehicle” website…

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

All you need is the Registration number of the vehicle you are thinking of buying – go to the site – press Start Now – enter the number – press Continue – this page will give you basic details of the car – then press MOT history – and there you have it. Virtually a complete history of the results of all the tests carried out. Not only does it include whether it was a Pass or a Fail – it lists the Failure and Advisory items.

This is incredibly useful – here is an example.

Checking out one of the Closed Auction sites I came across a 2005 Chevrolet Matiz SE+ – surprisingly these are very popular as a very cheap run-around. This one had all the right credentials – Only 31k miles – a couple of owners and good service history AND it already had a virtually new MoT. Not only that – it had a glowing report from the Main Dealer who was selling it – extolling its virtues they said this – “Really tidy clean car for age with great miles”.

Sadly the reality was somewhat different – checking out the MOT history I discovered the car had failed its test on 2 areas of severe corrosion. Now, these had obviously been repaired (welded) BUT that is not the point. I was only aware of this significant fact by checking the MOT history. Would I now consider buying the car? – NO!

In itself, this is not enough to avoid all those “lemons” but it sure reduces the risk!