Buying my first car; what do?

cHk4

cHk4

cHk4

Soldato
Joined
21 Jun 2005
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I've got £2,500 to spend on a car I'm looking at a Golf TDI, Ford Focus, Honda Civic or something like that. Anyway how do I go about being able to drive away from buying the car legally?

Say I buy from a dealer and pay them cash how am I able to drive it away that night? Same if it's a private dealer? Do I not need to get it taxed or do I not need to be insured before I buy it?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks
 
Well if its a proper trader they will have trade insurance on it so you won't need your own insurance. If it's a private seller then technically you will need insurance and you can use something like day or temp insure, otherwise get someone you know who has insurance and DOC on their policy who can drive it. A lot of private sellers will let you drive it regardless.

As for getting insured on the day, what I do is first hunt around qoutes online (or phone if needed) before I view a car and then I get the reference code off them, so when i do go to see the car and buy it, I just ring them straight after and quote the reference and get insured, saves a lot of time and hassle.

For tax if it hasn't been sorned or anything then it will be on the system as taxed. So just drive it home and tax it online in your name, you will need the new keeper supplement as it has the reference code on it needed to re-tax it in your name.
 
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In both cases you'll tax and insure it online or over the phone after you've bought it but before you drive it away.
 
Have the dealer deliver it - That's what they have the red-on-white slip-over registration plates for, surely?
Then take your time to find the best insurance you can.
 
lemonade said:
As for getting insured on the day, what I do is first hunt around qoutes online (or phone if needed) before I view a car and then I get the reference code off them, so when i do go to see the car and buy it, I just ring them straight after and quote the reference and get insured, saves a lot of time and hassle.
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^ This - just ring up and get an quoted policy "activated" and make payment over the phone via credit card.


lemonade said:
For tax if it hasn't been sorned or anything then it will be on the system as taxed. So just drive it home and tax it online in your name, you will need the new keeper supplement as it has the reference code on it needed to re-tax it in your name.
Click to expand...

If you get stopped though surely it will show in whose name the car is taxed?

Howard said:
In both cases you'll tax and insure it online or over the phone after you've bought it but before you drive it away.
Click to expand...

Should be no issue with taxing it over the phone now.

Dealers can also still tax the car for you - mine took the v5 to the local post office and taxed it at the same time.
 
Armageus said:
^ This - just ring up and get an quoted policy "activated" and make payment over the phone via credit card.




If you get stopped though surely it will show in whose name the car is taxed?



Should be no issue with taxing it over the phone now.

Dealers can also still tax the car for you - mine took the v5 to the local post office and taxed it at the same time.
Click to expand...

Very unlikely that is going to happen and you can just tell them you just bought the car, it doesn't matter if the tax isn't under your name because technically the car is still taxed and you can drive a car that is registered and taxed by someone else so long as your insured. The new tax won't even show up on the system for up to a week, I bought a car couple of weeks ago, it was sorned by previous owner and it didn't show up as taxed for over a week and I drove it around everyday including past the old bill and never got stopped.
 
lemonade said:
Very unlikely that is going to happen and you can just tell them you just bought the car, it doesn't matter if the tax isn't under your name because technically the car is still taxed and you can drive a car that is registered and taxed by someone else so long as your insured. The new tax won't even show up on the system for up to a week, I bought a car couple of weeks ago, it was sorned by previous owner and it didn't show up as taxed for over a week and I drove it around everyday including past the old bill and never got stopped.
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If it is SORNed then it won't be taxed by anyone. If it comes up on the system that it's untaxed and you say it is then I'll just make enquires with the DVLA. If they say it's not taxed then it can be seized.

The chance of this are unlikely but when it takes 5 mins to tax, why risk it?
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Taxing a car online is amazingly simple, you can do it from your phone in about 5 mins total.
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I had an issue using the ref number from the V5C over the phone / online to pay for the VED. Had to take it into the post office later on in the week where they sorted it out no problem. Get your insurance quote sorted prior and pay after you've purchased it, and if you can't tax it just drive it home and get it done ASAP.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
If it is SORNed then it won't be taxed by anyone. If it comes up on the system that it's untaxed and you say it is then I'll just make enquires with the DVLA. If they say it's not taxed then it can be seized.

The chance of this are unlikely but when it takes 5 mins to tax, why risk it?
Click to expand...

I think you misunderstood my post. If a person buys from a private seller, the car will most of the time be taxed, it will be under the sellers name of course before it gets transferred, but it is safe to drive it home, because the car is technically still taxed.

The SORN comment was in reference specifically to a situation of mine and I was just making the point that I never got stopped once when my car wasn't showing up as taxed on the system, so the old bill wont jump on anyone so fast and hard. If it is sorn then of course you want to tax it straight away regardless and if you do get stopped then you can just show the cops your receipt of the transaction, they can't take your car away then.

Of course if you have data plan and reception on your phone then you should just tax it straight away on your phone. I don't have data so went home and did all the tax and insurance and then collected the car in the evening as it was only 10 miles away. If it was 200miles away I would have done everything on the spot so that I was covered.
 
I bought my 18 year old boy his first car this week, it really is amazing how quickly you can do it all these days.

Compare the market 2 minutes filling out the details and whoosh fully comp insurance for a grand.
Tax in another two minutes.

I'm am not that old (39) but I remember spending whole afternoons on hold when it came to finding a decent price for insurance.

Now, literally 2 minutes from start to finish.
 
Problem with diesels is eventually you'll forget it's a diesel at some point and put some petrol in it :o

Hopefully that isn't just me? :D
 
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