A car bought at distance, driven on North Downs hills
Being at the southern edge of Greater London has an effect on car buying. The A23 runs straight down past Farthing Way towards Hooley and the motorways, so the natural search radius stretches well into Surrey and Sussex, and plenty of people here buy a car they have travelled an hour or more to see. Travel invests you in the outcome. By the time you are standing on a stranger's drive after a long drive down the A23, walking away over a noise you are not sure about takes more resolve than it should.
The car then has to live on the North Downs. Many local roads are steep hills, including the climbs up to Old Coulsdon and the downland lanes, and the junction of Farthing Way with Lion Green Road backs up at peak times, so the car gets hill starts and stop-start work in equal measure. That puts the clutch and flywheel, the automatic's condition, and the brake discs and pads near the top of the list, which is exactly what the road test and the measured pad and disc figures are there for.
The underside matters too. On the ramp we look at sills, jacking points, floor pans, subframe mountings and suspension turrets, because a car that has spent winters on salted hill roads shows its age underneath long before it shows it in the paint. Fresh underseal in one area is a question rather than a reassurance, and we will say where it is and what we think is behind it. Everything significant is photographed so you can see what we saw.
Getting the car here is Smitham Downs Road to Smitham Bottom Lane, then simply north on the A237 through Woodcote and Wallington, about 17 minutes. Hold the car on a refundable deposit with the sale conditional on the report, and ask the seller to leave it cold. If you are under pressure from a seller's deadline, we normally report by phone the same day and follow with the written version.