After approximately two months of searching, an ad popped up on Gumtree for a 2001 Renault Kangoo with 5 doors and with windows. The van only had 70k miles so I assumed it was mainly used by a private.  It looked quite good from the pictures so I’ve decided to arrange a view the morning after.

After finding online that private buyers have basically no protection (aka it’s your own business if you get tricked into buying an old jalopy) I’ve decided to run some quick checks online.

First I wanted to check how many owners the car had (a lot bad, a few good), whether or not it was stolen an whether it had any outstanding finance.

With just the n plate you can run a check online to find all of this. This site charges £8.99 for a history check. I know, it’s a pain to pay 9 quid for every van you go and see, but better safe than sorry!

The check gives you comprehensive information on the vehicle, including vehicle description, vehicle ownership, vehicle first registration and fuel consumption.

I spent sometime watching at youtube videos on “what to check when buying an used vehicle” ( here here and here )and at researching the most common problems with Kangoos. As I mentioned, I had no clue on how cars work, and I was quite nervous at the prospect of buying one.

Before the visit I’ve also printed this list out, as I knew I would forget most of it.

When I went to see the van the day after, everything looked too good to be true, so I was very suspicious. I run all the checks and there were no apparent major issues other than a little rattling of the exhaust. The van stunk of cigarettes and the was full of mud, but other than that it looked perfect! The owner had all of the papers and was wanting to sell it as he had bought a new car.

He looked like he really wanted to get the deal done and was a bit pushy, so after we took the van for a drive I went to have a coffee to think things through.

I was not planning to buy as after all this was my first van visit!

After some thinking i concluded that this was too much of a good deal to let it go and I thought that if I changed my mind I could always sell it again.

I meet the guy again, paid him in cash (he insisted for cash, I know dodgy!!)  and filled in the V5C (make sure that you get part 10. New keepers details piece as that’s the only proof you’ve got that you bought and not stole the vehicle).

And there you are, I had a van!

In the first day as  a van owner, I had to refrain myself from sleeping in it, eating in it and reading books in it I was just soooo excited at the thought of having a little moving can!

  -A ridiculous amount of coffee has been sacrificed to write this blog post so if you are feeling particularly generous, you can buy me one HERE   -