Guides
Guides: what to settle before buying a car
Long-form answers to the questions that get three sentences on a landing page — from importing through the viewing to the handover when you sell.
Technology
Connected car: removing the previous owner's account
A car can be sold and still obey someone who no longer sits in it. Through the manufacturer's app it can be located, unlocked or pre-heated, and the screen holds the previous owner's contacts, destinations and home address. Hardly any handover checklist has a line for it.
6 min read
Technology
AdBlue: what the system needs and what stops it
A modern diesel needs a second fluid besides fuel, and if it runs out or the system behind it fails, the engine eventually refuses to start. Knowing how the system works lets you spot the warning signs early — on your own car and on a used one.
7 min read
Technology
Clutch and dual-mass flywheel: the warning signs
The clutch and the dual-mass flywheel sit one behind the other between engine and gearbox, and when either of them tires, the sound and feel are often similar. If you can tell the signs apart, you negotiate on a used car with arguments rather than a hunch.
6 min read
Technology
Coolant and overheating: what the gauge tells you
The temperature gauge is the instrument hardly anyone looks at until it moves. By then it is often late — because many gauges are deliberately damped and only react once something in the circuit is already wrong. Knowing how the cooling circuit works lets you read the signs earlier.
7 min read
Technology
Shock absorbers and suspension: spotting wear
Suspension wears so slowly that the driver adapts along with it. You notice the difference only by comparison, or in the one moment when it matters: swerving, braking on a rippled road, a crosswind on the motorway.
6 min read
Technology
The starter battery: when it fades and what matters when replacing it
A starter battery usually announces its end; hardly anyone reads the signs. And when it comes to replacing it, it is no longer a part you choose by size and clamp in — on many cars it belongs to the electronics, which need to know a new one has been fitted.
7 min read
Technology
Towing a trailer with an electric car
An electric drivetrain pulls away with a trailer effortlessly and holds a combination down a hill beautifully. The two problems lie elsewhere: in the paperwork and at the charging bay.
10 min read
Technology
Mild, full and plug-in hybrids — the differences
The same word appears on all three, but inside they are three different concepts. The difference decides whether the purchase pays back or merely adds weight.
9 min read
Technology
Type 2, CCS, adapters: what has to come with the car
A missing charging cable is not a cosmetic flaw but a three-figure item. And an adapter that does not exist is why an imported car will not charge at the nearest point.
8 min read
Technology
Timing belt or timing chain: what matters when you buy used
The belt-or-chain question is usually asked as if one design were simply better. The more useful question is a different one: what happens when the part gives up, and what tells you beforehand that it is about to.
9 min read
Technology
The particulate filter: how to tell it is struggling
A particulate filter rarely fails suddenly. It fills up over months, and the car says so in several ways long before the warning lamp comes on.
9 min read
Technology
Automatic gearboxes: the oil change that gets forgotten
No part of the drivetrain is overlooked as reliably as the oil in an automatic gearbox. Many maintenance schedules do not mention it at all — and when it fails it costs more than any other item you could have planned for.
10 min read
Technology
Turbochargers: the signs before it gets expensive
A turbocharger is a simple component under extreme conditions: two wheels on one shaft, bearing in engine oil, at speeds far beyond anything else in the car. Almost everything that happens to it happens to the oil first.
9 min read
Technology
Brakes: spotting wear without taking the wheel off
Brakes are the one wear item on a car where a misjudgement has immediate consequences. Most of the assessment can nevertheless be done standing still, with a lamp and ten minutes.
9 min read
Technology
Tyre age: what the DOT code tells you
Tread depth is the figure everyone looks at, and it answers only half the question. The other half is moulded right next to it on the sidewall, and most people read straight past it.
9 min read
Technology
All-wheel drive is not one thing: the designs compared
A listing says “4x4”, and underneath that sit constructions with little in common. The difference decides how the car behaves, what tyres cost you, and what breaks as it ages.
10 min read
Technology
Engine oil: which figure on the papers actually counts
The registration document does not say which oil belongs in the engine. It does carry the details that answer the question — and the three blocks of text on the bottle are not worth the same.
10 min read