Buying a family car for the Wallington school run
A lot of the buying around here is driven by school logistics. With several large schools including the grammars, plenty of households are looking for something bigger: an estate, an MPV or a seven-seater that can manage drop-off, pick-up and a boot full of kit. Those cars take a particular kind of punishment. Rear seats are folded and unfolded thousands of times, tailgate struts weaken, sliding door mechanisms on people carriers wear, and rear suspension spends its life carrying more weight than the front.
So on a larger family car we add a few things to the standard list. Every seat is folded, latched and checked, including the third row and its belts and anchorages, the tailgate or sliding doors are operated, and we look at rear spring and bush condition and at the ride height left to right. Air conditioning and rear blowers get checked, because a car used for children in summer traffic without working rear air is a complaint you will hear about daily. All of it goes in the report with photographs.
Underneath and under the bonnet it is the usual thorough pass: VIN and paperwork against the gov.uk MOT history, a cold start listened to properly, paint depth panel by panel, sills, floor pans and subframe mountings inspected on the ramp, measured brake and tyre figures including the spare, fluids tested and every module scanned. Then the road test, where a heavy family car tells you the most about its brakes, bearings and whether it tracks straight.
Logistics could hardly be simpler: Woodcote Road north past the station, onto Manor Road, across the A232 at Wallington Green and straight up London Road. Many buyers walk back into town while we work. Agree the inspection with the seller first, hold the car on a refundable deposit with the sale conditional on the report, and ask for it cold so we hear the first start of the day.