buying used car privately, advice

[SalBySea]

hi

I have never owned a car (sad at my age I know but lived in London for years so never needed to in the past)

an apparent bargain has come up at DH's work, colleague returning to their home country selling an X reg ford focus for £2,400 (54,000 miles)

What do I do. How do I test drive if they are only insured for named people to drive it. How do I find a good mechanic to check it over.

Am pretty clueless about cars in general and buying them so need a "for dummies" crash course on how to go about it

DH is not a car person and none of our friends or family members who have any expertise in cars live near

so I am just supposed to leave the bankers draft with them in good faith that they will give me the documents and car later? Dont like the sound of that

Do private sellers usually change to 3rd party insurance when they are trying to sell to allow for test drives as these people dont and wont. They said they'd put my name on but that seems silly, what if I'm the first of 10 people to test drive?

they seller wouldn't let me test drive it, i had to sit in the back paid cold hard cash too and paid when i took the car away, after arranging insurance etc.

call up your insurer and ask them? they're usually quite helpful and maybe could insure you for the day

Don't know much about this, but I think a building society cheque is also guaranteed - they won't issue a cheque unless you have cleared funds. Obviously only helps if you have a building society account!