There was a time when, if you didn’t buy a popular mainstream model as a used car, then you were likely taking a step into the unknown when it came to what could possibly go wrong.
At Auto Express we can lend a helping hand with our used car buyer’s guides, but even we can’t comprehensively dive into what to look for on every single car ever sold. Let alone one that wasn’t even offered for sale in the UK.
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But the one place where you can find this info is on the Internet. I’m not talking about a Google search – the hallucinations that its Gemini AI function comes up with can be pure fantasy or total gobbledegook – but rather the hundreds of owners’ forums that have been set up by dedicated fans and could help you in your time of need.
Forums have been a resource that I’ve used many times in the past to help pinpoint and remedy different issues. Where can I get the odd fuses that were fitted to a mid-nineties Mazda 323F?
A forum helped me to find that out (Answer: an eBay seller). How common is it for Volkswagen’s 1.2 TSI petrol to suffer turbo failure, and where can I get it repaired cheaply? A quick search of various VW, Skoda and SEAT owners’ sites returned the answers I was looking for (A: not massively common). Is a grounding kit a worthwhile addition to a Nissan 350Z? Again, a forum came up trumps (A: it probably wouldn’t hurt).