There are many ways to buy cars. If you want to buy a used car, you can go abroad to buy it yourself, on your own or as part of a special tourist group. With less hassle, you can buy a car through a newspaper ad or through friends, as well as in car dealerships and car markets. Each of these methods has its own characteristics, but the following recommendations are similar for each of them.
So, before legally formalizing the purchase of a car, it is necessary to check the availability of all the relevant documents. In this case, it is advisable to use such a service as checking a car for theft. These services now exist not only in the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate departments, but also in many car shops and large car markets. When buying a car with foreign numbers, in particular from the Baltic countries, a fairly significant amount should be added to the asking price for its customs clearance. When buying a car from the Kaliningrad region, pay attention to the customs mark in the registration certificate, which may be valid both for Russia and only for the Kaliningrad region. In the latter case, you will have to clear the car through customs.
The main document for a car is the vehicle passport. Issuance of technical passports and technical coupons of the old model (approved by order of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs No.370 dated 15.10.82) ceased on January 1, 1994. Previously issued passports are considered valid. But this year alone, our experts have encountered three cases where old-style passports, allegedly issued in 1995-1996, were presented for cars offered for sale. We advise you to refrain from purchasing cars with such documentation. Buying cars whose registration certificates contain entries such as no (no number) or n/a (not installed), is also undesirable.
The procedure for filling in technical passports is defined by the "Instructions for filling in vehicle passports". We present from it, in our opinion, the most necessary information.
First of all, this is the decoding of the identification number (VIN).
The first part of the VIN code consists of 3 numbers or letters indicating the geographic area, country code and vehicle manufacturer code.
The second part of the VIN code consists of 6 digits or letters that identify the vehicle according to the design documentation.
The third part of the VIN code consists of 8 digits or letters indicating the serial number of the vehicle. The first character, consisting of a Latin letter, indicates the year of production of the vehicle.
For example, the identification number of the VAZ-21013 car has the following designation: XTA 210130D00000002, where X is the geographic area (Russia), T is the manufacturer's code (A - VAZ, B - AZLK, etc.), 210130 is the model or modification, D is the year of manufacture (1983), 00000002 is the serial production number.
The following letters are used to indicate the year of production of vehicles: D – 1983, E – 1984, F – 1985, G – 1986, H – 1987, J – 1988, K – 1989, L – 1990, M – 1991–1992, P – 1993, R – 1994, S – 1995, T – 1996, V – 997, W – 1998, X – 1999, Y – 2000.
The line in the technical passport "Body (cabin) color" indicates the visually identifiable color in which the vehicle is painted: white, red, yellow, green, blue, brown, black, multi-color, etc.
In the line "full name of the body (cabin) color" the name of the enamel is indicated according to the marking of the manufacturer.
When the color of a vehicle changes, a corresponding entry is made in the passport.
There are many ways to falsify and forge documents. In practice, they are interrupted (and accordingly enter it into the document), as a rule, one digit in the number. But it seems inappropriate to talk about the intricacies of the technology on the pages of a mass publication. And it is unlikely that a person who has picked up a document for the first time will be able to detect a forgery and pay attention to discrepancies. Therefore, it seems most reasonable to check a car for theft in the State Traffic Inspectorate not only by comparing the numbers with the computer data, but also by checking the documents. And yet, when visually inspecting the numbers on the car and the documents, we advise you to pay attention to:
- matching fonts and their slants;
- correspondence and order of terms and dates in records;
- no erasures or breaches of the safety net;
- legibility of seal impressions.
This issue is especially acute with regard to documents for cars arriving from Poland and the Baltic States.