The obvious one is damage, including glass, then look for clues as to its use, tyres correct same all four wearing smoothly in line with mileage or ripped edges, interior all good check for scratches and stains and any repaired tears on seats plastics or carpets and roof lining.

As well as normal inspection kneel down and look down the sides of the body using it as a mirror, you'll be able to spot any large panel distortion that way (don't forget roof), check front and rear skirts and sills underneath for kerbing or other damage, lift bonnet and boot have a good poke nose about, is the oil clean and up to the mark, no nasty stains or other signs of something not right.

Wheels undamaged, visible brake discs should be perfect at this mileage as should exhaust.

Does it have a spare wheel and tools, is it the right one, locking wheel nut key present, handbook incl service book stamped with any pre del required, load cover in place incl any extras such as dog guard, any other items it should come with such as satnav disc or remote anything, all keys present including the master (possibly non plipper) if it should have one, all plippers work.

Starts instantly, all lights come on and go out as they should.

Test drive your chosen route, not theirs, go through all the gears including reverse, brakes smooth, clutch and gears or auto gearbox doing what you want it to at junctions/manoeuvering, steering straight no wheel wobbles, check all electrics work, radio work, does it pair with your phone, does any auxilliary input on the audio work, CD player working.

Check price carefully, could you have bought this car new from a broker for not much more, especially by the time the sales bod has tried to talk you into diamondbrite, finance and various insurance products.

Check previous ownership, if so called leasing/company car was it a renter (nothing wrong as such and the mileage is a bit too low to be one anway), or was it a so called management car such as employees can renta vehicle cheaply for 6 months rinse and repeat, again nothing worng but handy to know what the previous ownership was, one owner only?

Thats all i can think of at the moment.

Edited by gordonbennet on 18/04/2016 at 02:35

This is a good question. Many years ago I bought a brand new Mini, which had endless minor mechanical troubles in the three months I had it.The larger ones were -

*A choke that wouldn't retract ..

*A high pitched while at all times from the alternator

*Fuel pump failure

I gave up and traded it in after 3000 miles. A month so later i saw the car with it's new owner in a car park--and engaged polite conversation asking "How is it?" .The new owner replied he was told by the dealer that there was nothing wrong with it, but a day after he took delivery the "choke stuck out". He also said there was now a funny whine coming from the engine bay.