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.
Workshop
A workshop price list customers understand
Anyone putting two price lists side by side compares numbers first and what lies behind them second — if at all. For your own price to be read correctly, the scope has to be where the customer looks. This piece is for garages and goes through the price list line by line.
6 min read
Workshop
Booking requests: confirm, reschedule, decline
A booking request is not yet an appointment but the start of a short conversation. How it goes is usually decided by the first answer: it either settles what is missing or leaves the customer guessing. This piece is for garages that receive requests through the directory.
6 min read
Workshop
Checking for recalls with the VIN
A recall never covers a model as a whole but a list of individual vehicles. Whether yours is on it cannot be read from the model name, only from the chassis number — and the list is kept by the manufacturer.
6 min read
Workshop
France's contrôle technique: process and defect levels
The contrôle technique does not end in a simple pass or fail but in a report that puts every fault into one of three levels. The level on that report decides whether you may keep driving, whether a retest is due — and what a buyer learns about the car.
5 min read
Workshop
Italy's revisione: the test and its record
In Italy the revisione is carried out either by a Motorizzazione office or by an approved test centre, and the result is one of three words. Know what regolare, ripetere and sospeso mean and where the result is stored, and you read an Italian listing with different eyes.
5 min read
Workshop
Spain's ITV: appointment, test, windscreen sticker
In Spain the ITV is not a workshop service but a test at a dedicated station run on behalf of the region. Know how it works and you pass first time more often — and when buying, you get more out of the sticker, the report and the register than out of the listing.
5 min read
Workshop
Poland's przegląd techniczny: station, record, mileage
In Poland the odometer reading is officially recorded at every test. That makes the przegląd techniczny more than a duty for the keeper: it leaves a trail that a buyer can read for themselves before paying.
5 min read
Workshop
STK in Czechia and Slovakia: what the test covers
In Czechia and Slovakia the periodic test consists of two checks, and some registration steps add a third that is only about the car's identity. Keep the parts apart and you understand the report — and know what a listing that mentions “STK” is actually telling you.
5 min read
Workshop
New windscreen: why the camera needs calibrating
Behind the windscreen of many cars sits a camera that several driver assistance systems depend on. When the glass is replaced or the wheel alignment reset, it may end up looking slightly off target — and you only notice when a system reacts wrongly.
6 min read
Workshop
Roadworthiness tests in the Nordics and the Baltics
Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the three Baltic states test their cars under the same European ground rules, but with their own names, their own bodies and their own consequences. Anyone keeping a car there or planning to buy one should know the differences — and know that the test reports often say more about a car than the listing does.
6 min read
Workshop
Renewing brakes: pads, discs and what goes with them
That the brakes are due, the wear indicator or the workshop will tell you. What exactly gets done then turns on a few points that appear on the quote as a single line — and that make the difference between brakes that stay quiet for years and brakes that squeal after three weeks.
7 min read
Workshop
Preparing for a garage appointment: what the workshop needs to know
A workshop works with what it learns when it takes the car in. Say “it makes funny noises” and you get a search billed by the hour. Describe when, where and how, and you get a diagnosis — and usually the smaller bill.
7 min read
Workshop
Reading fault codes: what an OBD code tells you and what it does not
A simple adapter for the diagnostic socket costs little and delivers a code with a plain-text description in seconds. That tempts you to conclude you now know what is broken. What you know is which sensor complained — and that is a different piece of information.
7 min read