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Beauty may be only skin deep
Page 68
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continued certification which will, if granted, be for from 1 to 5 years, depending on the condition. It is normal after that period, when a machine is 12 years• old, that certification would be made yearly--if continued at all.
So, if the vehicle has, let us say, three years left on its first certificate it is most likely that it will be able to operate for this period with little. outlay. Obtaining the second certificate will usually incur quite major mechanical overhaul. As the purchase price of a vehicle "out of ticket" will be considerably lower than one with even a one-year "ticket", an operator with adequate repair facilities could easily pick up a bargain. If an operator does not have his own repair facilities, however, and has to contract his repair work out, then my advice is, leave unticketed machines off the list.
Many vehicles are offered with numerous extras. Some of these are useful and worth the higher cost, others are sheer gimmickry and in my book not worth very much. Among those I would gladly pay for I include a retarder of one sort or another, adequate heaters and, dependent on the sort of work to be tackled, perhaps extra luggage space.
As I suggested above, one way of being pretty sure of getting a sound deal is to go to a reputable coach dealer. Not only is such a person concerned to protect his reputation but he may well have the facilities to vet every vehicle thoroughly. This is certainly true of Yeates of Loughborough, which I visited recently to view several vehicles offered for sale and to see just what can be done to refurbish a used coach.
Yeates makes a start by thoroughly cleaning a vehicle—a process which in itself can be very revealing about basic condition. From there it can undertake whatever mechanical or bodywork repairs or replacements are deemed necessary to put the vehicle in a thoroughly roadworthy and saleable condition.
Some operators, however, prefer to "go it alone" and shop around. That there is plenty of choice is confirmed by the fact that every week about four pages of CM's classified advertisement section are devoted solely to used coaches and buses. The range of prices is wide, too. Scanning a recent issue, I found £5,350 asked for a 1969 Bedford VAM /Duple Viceroy 45-seater and £350 for a 1956 Commer / Duple 41-seater with TS3 engine and a certificate until 1971. Very different prospects, certainly, but both could, on inspection, prove to be just the job for a particular requirement—which is where we came in.
If a prospective purchaser of a used passenger vehicle uses the sort of commonsense approach I have outlined, he need have little fear these days of buying a pup. He needs to know what he wants, refuse to be over-influenced by sales talk or preconceived notions of a vehicle's worth, and view vehicles with a critical, but understanding, eye.