Buying, selling and ownership
Pre-purchase checks, history, warranty, insurance and running costs. ← Browse sections
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The EU Data Act and your car: who owns the data your vehicle generates
A modern car produces a continuous stream of data about how it is driven and how it is wearing. The question of who can access it has now been legislated.
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The trip computer: how accurate are its numbers
The consumption figure on the dash is a calculation, not a measurement. Where the error comes from and how to work out real consumption.
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An insurance claim: the evidence gathered at the scene, not afterwards
A settlement is decided by documents, and the documents come from what you recorded in the first minutes. What to capture and in what order.
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An imported car: what to check beyond the usual inspection
An imported car needs the same checks plus a few specific ones. What to look at in a car brought from abroad.
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A workshop quote: how to read it and where to ask questions
An unclear invoice is not always dishonesty, often just a badly written document. The structure and the questions to ask before work starts.
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The annual service: what is genuinely needed and what is sold on top
The list on a workshop invoice is usually longer than the schedule. What is mandatory, what is condition-based, and what is not needed at all.
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What to tackle yourself and what to leave alone
The line runs not through difficulty but through the consequences of getting it wrong. What is safe to do yourself and where the cost of error dwarfs the saving.
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Vehicle history: what to check before you even go to view it
Half the bad cars can be filtered out without leaving home. What a VIN reveals and what the car itself adds.
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Choosing a workshop: the signs you will be treated fairly
A good workshop is recognised not by its repairs but by how it talks about diagnosis. The signs and the questions worth asking.
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What your car knows about you: telematics, counters, and module data
A modern car records more than people assume. What is stored in the modules, who can reach it, and what that means in practice.
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A first car: a checklist for a buyer who does not yet know what to ask
The main mistake of a first purchase is choosing a car rather than a cost of ownership. The order of steps that protects against the standard traps.
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Rust underneath: where to look and what is already too late
Corrosion starts where you cannot see it. The usual places, the difference between surface and perforating rust, and what actually helps.
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Selling a car: the preparation that adds value and the kind that scares buyers off
An experienced buyer reads the traces of pre-sale preparation as a confession. What genuinely raises the price and what destroys trust.
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Service history: telling a real one from a fabricated one
A service book is the easiest document in a car to forge. What can be verified independently, and why counters inside the modules beat stamps on paper.
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Renting a car: the ten-minute inspection before you sign
The main risk of renting is not a breakdown on the road but a claim for damage you did not cause. The inspection that protects against exactly that.
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A second family car: how to choose one that does not become a second expense
A second car is usually bought on whatever is left over, and that is exactly why it costs more per mile than the first. How to do the arithmetic properly.
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High-mileage cars: what actually matters and what no longer does
Two hundred thousand miles is neither a death sentence nor a guarantee of trouble. Which components decide a car's fate at that mileage, what you can stop worrying about, and why service history beats the odometer figure.
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Ex-taxi and car-sharing vehicles: how to spot one and what it means for a buyer
Taxi mileage wears a car differently from private use: more engine hours per mile, more cycles, less warm running. The signs, and which components suffer first.
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Right to repair: why some car data is open to everyone and some only to the dealer
Standard OBD-II obliges manufacturers to expose part of the data to anyone. The rest is at their discretion. Where that line runs, why it is there, and what it means for owners and independent workshops.
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Telematics and insurance: what data your driving generates and who sees it
A modern car knows how you drive, and some of that data leaves the vehicle. What the manufacturer collects, what an insurer sees, and where the line runs between diagnostics and tracking.
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Car Repair Prices in Ukraine 2026: real-world benchmark table
Actual Ukraine repair prices (UAH) for engine, transmission, catalyst, alternator, DPF, injectors, spark plugs, sensors — compared to US benchmarks. Data from Prom.ua, Rozetka, Kyiv service stations as of July 2026.
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Odometer fraud: how OBD-II reveals rolled-back mileage when buying used
What OBD-II shows when the odometer says 50 000 mi but the real number is 150 000: ECU log audit, mismatch between ABS, ECM and cluster, motohours vs mileage, DTC history analysis.
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VIN decoder: how to read a Vehicle Identification Number and what it tells you about the car
Complete guide to reading VIN over OBD-II and decoding each of the 17 characters: manufacturer country, model, model year, engine type, trim and the check digit.