How to haggle for a used car: negotiate the price with what its records show
The real money comes off a used car when you turn up with a priced list of what it needs, written down by somebody other than you. Most of that list exists before you've seen the car.
13 min read
HPI check vs carVertical: which is better, and our pick for a UK car
Both look up the car's paperwork. Which one you want depends on where the car's been, and neither reads the advert you're looking at.
9 min read
MOT advisories explained: how to check them, and which ones should worry you
An advisory is the tester writing down what's going to cost money soon. Read one and it's a note. Read every test in a row and it's the car's whole maintenance story.
12 min read
Service history check: how to check a car's service history is real and complete
"Full service history" is the most valuable phrase in a used car advert and the least checked. Here's how to check it properly, including the part almost nobody does.
10 min read
What is good mileage for a used car? The UK average, and what high and low really mean
The "10,000 miles a year" rule hasn't matched the official figures this century. And the number on the clock matters less than how it got there.
10 min read
How many owners has a car had? How to check, and how many is too many
"One owner from new" sells cars and "six previous keepers" puts buyers off. Both reactions are usually wrong, because the number tells you far less than when the changes happened.
8 min read
Is a pre-purchase car inspection worth it? AA, RAC and independent inspections compared
An inspection is the only check that puts someone who knows what they're looking at underneath the car. It's also £80 to £300 on a car you might not buy, so do the free part first.
8 min read
V5C logbook check: the five-minute check that catches a stolen or dodgy car
The log book won't prove the seller owns the car. Checked properly, it'll still catch a stolen document, a car that isn't what it claims, and a seller who isn't who they say.
8 min read
Has this car been in an accident? The honest answer, and what you can actually check
Plenty of sites sell an "accident history check". What they're selling is a write-off check, which is useful, but much narrower than the name on the button.
8 min read
Used EV battery health explained: how to check it, and what a good figure looks like
On a used EV the battery is the expensive unknown. It's also a number that can be measured, and most come with a warranty that outlives the rest of the car's cover.
9 min read
What to check before buying a used EV: the five checks that only apply to electric cars
A used EV is mostly a used car. Five checks only apply to electric ones, and two of them, battery health and battery ownership, can cost you thousands if you skip them.
7 min read
Do you get the battery with a used Renault Zoe? The battery lease, explained
A lot of Zoes were sold without their battery. The rental doesn't vanish when the car's sold: it transfers to you, or the seller keeps paying for a battery that's now in your car.
8 min read
AI car check: what AI can and can't tell you about a used car
A chatbot will give you a confident answer about any car in four seconds. It has never seen the car's records. That gap is the whole story.
9 min read
Should I buy this car? The ten-minute check that answers it from the advert
Most of the answer is in the advert and the car's own records, and it takes about ten minutes to read. Most people skip straight to booking a viewing.
12 min read
What used car advert phrases really mean, from spares or repairs to sold as seen
Most of the language in a used car advert exists to make a problem sound smaller than it is. Here is the plain English version, and what to ask.
10 min read
What to look for when buying a used car, in the order that saves you the drive
Most checklists start at the kerb, by which point you've spent your Saturday. Nearly everything that saves you money happens before you travel.
11 min read
Wet belt replacement cost: the job, and what a failure costs instead
£800 to £6,000 depending on the engine, and the gap between those two numbers is mostly about whether you got there before the belt did.
9 min read
Car recall check: how to find out if a car has an outstanding recall
GOV.UK will check a registration for free, but the usual answer is Unknown. Here's how to get a real one, and what an open recall means for a car you're buying.
10 min read
Best HPI check UK 2026: our pick, and when to use another
The finance, theft and write-off records are the same whoever you pay. So the best check is the one that does the most with them.
10 min read
Which cars have a wet belt, and how to tell before you buy
Car makers quietly shortened the change intervals after the failures started. Plenty of cars with a full service history are already overdue and nobody has told the owner.
11 min read
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
Honest John car reviews have gone: where they went, and the free alternative
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
AutoTrader vehicle check: what it covers, and how to check the rest of the car
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.
13 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
Car mileage check: 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: how to check, and 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 S and Cat N car meaning: what the letters 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
Used car advert red flags: the phrases that cover for known faults, counted
We counted the excuses. The harmless-sounding ones cover for the most faults, and the quietest sit in front of the biggest bills.
14 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 →And for the models we have covered in depth, a model guide: which generation and engine to buy, what to check on the day, and what it costs to run.
Browse the model guides →