How we work through a purchase

1. 01

   The brief, before any looking

   We ask what the car is for in practical terms: the weekly distance, the longest run you do in a year, who sits behind you, what gets loaded in the boot, where it sleeps at night and what you are prepared to spend each month on keeping it. Budget comes last, deliberately. Half the readers who say their limit is R300 000 end up spending less once the brief is honest about how little the back row is used.

2. 02

   The shortlist, built on constraints

   Then we work backwards from the constraints rather than forwards from desire. Parts availability where you drive, insurance conditions for your suburb, tyre sizes you can actually buy, and ground clearance if there is a gravel approach to a farm gate in your life. You get four to six candidates and the trade-offs written out, including the ones we think you will dislike.

3. 03

   The papers, before the drive

   Nobody drives anything until the registration certificate, the title holder, the service record and any settlement figure have been read. This is the step that eliminates the most cars and costs the least money. It is also the step sellers resist, and the resistance itself is information.

4. 04

   The drive, on a route that asks questions

   A proper test drive takes forty minutes and includes a broken surface, a long climb, a stretch at open-road speed, a tight parking garage and five minutes stationary with the aircon on full. You drive, we listen and write. Forty minutes is also the shortest honest test of a seat: the shape that feels supportive in a showroom often starts pressing under one shoulder blade by the time you are past Hammanskraal. Afterwards we fill in a comfort and noise sheet while the impressions are fresh, because memory flatters cars.

5. 05

   The handover, and the first week after

   On the day we check documents against the car, confirm keys and manuals, sort out the tracking unit question and photograph everything in daylight before payment. In the first week we expect you to change the oil and filter whatever the book claims, and to drive it to the coast if you can. Faults show themselves on a long run, inside the period when the seller is still answering the phone.

We charge for steps two to five and give the first one away, because a brief written down honestly saves more money than anything else we do.