How to find a car's previous adverts
An old advert is the seller's own words about the same car at a different moment. Comparing the two is where the gaps show up.
13 min read
The most economical used cars in the real world, not the brochure
Every economy ranking you've read was built from brochure figures. This one is built from what owners report getting, and it looks different.
9 min read
The Honest John alternative: how to research a used car for free
Your old routine started on one site. Here's the rebuilt version: known faults, real MPG and the car's own history, in the order that saves you a wasted trip.
8 min read
Why is my MPG lower than the official figure?
Everyone knows the brochure figure is optimistic. Here's how optimistic, measured against what 8,216 engines actually return on the road.
9 min read
Honest John's Good & Bad: where the fault data lives now
The list you checked before viewing a car went down with the site. Here's what we rebuilt from it, and how much of an owner report to believe.
9 min read
How to check if a car is stolen before you buy it
Of the three things hiding behind a private sale, theft is the one with no legal shelter at all. It's also the cheapest of the three to rule out.
10 min read
How to check a car on Gumtree
Gumtree's own safety guide covers fake profiles and dodgy payments, and never once mentions checking the car's history. That's the bit that matters.
9 min read
How to check a car on AutoTrader
AutoTrader checks more for you than anywhere else you'll find a used car, and still leaves the most useful half of the job undone.
10 min read
How to check a car on Facebook Marketplace
Every buying guide says run a check on the registration. Marketplace adverts often haven't got one, so here's how to get it and what to do next.
14 min read
What happened to Honest John? Where the site and its data went
After 25 years, honestjohn.co.uk now bounces to a car marketplace. Here's what moved, what was retired, and how to reach the parts that mattered.
7 min read
Honest John Real MPG is back: real-world fuel economy for 776 models, free
The UK's best real-world fuel economy database went down with Honest John. We recovered it from the archives, and submissions are open again.
9 min read
How to spot a clocked car before you hand over any money
Forget the pedal rubbers. The reading that catches a clocked car is free, takes a minute, and most buyers scroll straight past it.
10 min read
What an HPI check won't tell you
It's worth every penny and you should still run one. Just don't read "clear" as "good car", because those are very different results.
10 min read
Buying a car with no service history
It's the phrase that knocks the most money off an advert, and the risk is concentrated in one component you can't see.
8 min read
Free car checks: what you actually get for nothing, and what you don't
The free checks are genuinely useful. They're also missing the four things that cost buyers the most money, and that isn't an accident.
7 min read
Outstanding finance on a used car: what happens if you buy one
Everyone tells you the finance company simply takes the car back. The law is more on your side than that, as long as you can show you didn't know.
8 min read
Cat N and Cat S: what they actually mean when you're the buyer
The letters are the easy part. Whether that £3,000 discount is a bargain or a trap comes down to things the advert won't tell you.
7 min read
Nine phrases in a used car advert that should worry you
Most sellers aren't liars. What you get instead is careful vagueness, sat exactly where the awkward detail should have been.
9 min readLooking for a specific car?
Our known-faults database has pages for individual models: what goes wrong, at what mileage, and roughly what the repair costs.
Browse common problems by make →