You've paid for it at the auction office, by cash, bankers draft, building society cheque or by switch. Have a good look at the documents to make sure they're in order. Now is the time to test a car which you've bought 'All Good' and 'With a Trial'. You usually have an hour. If you can arrange for a local mechanic to check the car on short notice, all the better. If not, the first job is to do a compression test with your compression tester. Remove the spark plugs and test each cylinder as you turn the engine over. The readings should all be nice and high, and within 10lb of each other. If they're not, get the auction engineer in now.

Does it jump out of gear?…

Are the brakes up to the job?…