Buying a USED CAR in Poland, my personal experiences and TRAPS to avoid !!

Can anyone give me advice about taking 6-10 mot failure / old cars from the Uk to Poland?
Maybe to go to Belarus?

Hell no. Please do not bring your rubbish here.

Can anyone tell me how one goes about getting an Hpi check done on a polish registered vehicle? I.e to find out if it has been stolen, written off, etc?

I am looking at a polish vehicle for sale in UK and want to know what it's history is.
Thanks for any help...

Please never I repeat NEVER buy a second hand Polish car unless it is from a credible MAIN dealer, or at least have a full AA or RAC report done , as for HPI stolen etc, I don't think that any system like that is available in Poland , I await being corrected by my fellow forum posters.

Hi Dolnoslask
Thanks for your reply.
I appreciate your honesty a lot, but would you explain why?
The vehicle seems really solid and reliable and the guy selling this vehicle seems honest and down to earth and with a good reason for selling it. I also met his young son and wife and they had kind faces(!)

Thanks a lot

I may be generalizing, but my experience here in Poland is that anything with a motor in it, is only sold if it becomes a problem, all the second hand dealers here have a machine that measures the thickness of the paint to verify if the car has been repaired (Respray repair cut and shut German salvage imports), you may be on to a good one at the least get the RAC or AA to check it.

Sorry I see the nice faces everyday, but I always check things out.

Out of interest why would you want to buy a LHD in the UK.

Thanks so much for your help!
The reason I am happy to have a LHD is because I spend a lot of time driving in France and Belgium. This paint tester is a good idea. Maybe I can get a very good inspection.

The guy selling it is a polish resident in UK - he said it was his dad's but his dad died. It is now registered in his mothers name in Poland. He drove it back from Poland with his wife and son also to transport a very old motorbike from his grandfather which I have seen in the back of the van.

Understand the LHD now, Yea it is worth paying some extra money for the peace of mind (You might negotiate this in the price), Happy motoring.

I still don't have any info on HPI etc, was hoping someone would dive in on the forum to help you with that one.

If that was me I would defo get an RAC report done, I would for any car used car, other than one from a reputable car dealer who gives a warranty. Peace of mind and worth the money in the long run.

dolnoslask, i appreciate your bad experience, yet you talk a lot of rubbish.

yes, there are cheats in PL, but that is not as common as say 15yrs ago, and most non-luxury cars from average/reliable people will be OK, as long as you look for the obvious signs of potential 'not right' hints as you would do anywhere.

History of vehicles can be checked for free here (note this is a .gov site):
historiapojazdu.gov.pl/strona-glowna

Toti " not as common as say 15yrs ago" says it all really., thanks for the gov site info.

There may be some truth in that, but I find that asking the owner what's wrong with the car usually elicits an honest response. I've bought four cars in Poland, and have always asked the question. Every time (except once, when there really was nothing wrong) the owner has told me the truth, and I've been able to get the price down accordingly.

Thank you so much guys! I can't tell you how glad I am to have some concrete advice on this stuff and I was searching everywhere to find a government website that was doing that!

I am just waiting for the copy of the vehicle documents (and vin) so I can verify the history.

If the history is clean, can someone tell me exactly what else I need to do to be extra safe? For example is there a way of verifying the mileage by accessing previous "mot" dates and corresponding miles?

The van comes with two keys, handbook and first service stamp, as well as i think I recall it's previous MOT from Poland but not much else.

Obviously the more I can find out the better!

Not so. Poles buy cheap, sell high. Don't you?

I would have to be an idiot to buy a second hand car from a Pole, and I am many things but not that. Next!


Old thread.

Fair play to you Roger. My reasons against:

1. (Some) Poles race through the gearbox, and ride the clutch to spin the wheels.
2. Salt on road corrodes
3. Driven on Polish roads. A MAJOR no-no.
4. Poor economy. Not sold to "Get rid", but as a financial transaction (which is fair enough, but prices are often plain daft)
5. My general dislike of beating down a ridiculous price. If the price is stupid, I would rather go the pub.
6. Lack of clarity with the cars' history (How many owners etc)

Germany or Holland every time for me secondhand. Holland less so as the Dutch are tight wads and don't understand realities either. Thank God for the Krauts - normal people.

Well maybe I was being a bit harsh because of where I live (Just on the German border) one of the main occupations around here is importing car parts and damaged cars from Germany. I regularly see my neighbours advertising car parts and cars "recently imported from Germany" I , see these cars in peoples front gardens, they start off as accident damaged, front or rear end then over a couple of weeks you see a shiny complete car, one guy who lives in the village has a hydraulic car ram in his front garden, not even under cover.

Well, go to Germany and get your own. It's not difficult. If I can do it, anyone could:) Still running a beaut 4 years later, if slightly thirsty on the oil. Never on Polish roads you see....until the last 4 years that is ....:(

I haven't been up north for a while, Doug. Are the roads still that bad? Where I live the main roads are very good. And I keep hearing that I live in something called Polska B, where polar bears walk down the street and everyone is a poor farmer with one cow. This afternoon we went out for a spin on road 19, which passes our village, and the surface was as good as anything in western Europe. No kidding.

Dougpo Second hand German cars are very good, I was referring to the import and repair of accident damaged cars from Germany.

As for Polish roads (lower Silesia) , My last MOT in England highlighted sump guard and under tray damage, I never drive off road In Poland, and I'm no boy racer.

Some of the roads in Dolnoslaskie are horrific, agreed. I don't know what it's like now, but the DK36 from Rawicz to Lubin was in a shocking state a couple of years ago. Likewise, the DK35 from the Czech border to Swidnica is also in very, very poor shape.

It's odd, because many roads in "Polska B" are in fantastic shape, not only the DK roads.

Delph I am new to the forum and not familiar with Polska B could you explain that for me?

But I have noticed that year on year the roads are slowly improving, maybe the quality of used cars will also improve, less wear on suspension etc.

Freezing weather is a massive factor for road conditions, even in the UK following big freezes you witness an unusual amount of pot holes suddenly appearing.

Yes Roger, the roads in Tri-City are in a shocking state. To their credit the council have lashed out on public transport with the new tram and suburban train network and rolling stock, which is newly completed and on a par with the best in Europe.

But the roads are fine for the millionaires with their SUVS. Others beware!

It's basically a term used to describe the poorer eastern provinces as opposed to the wealthier northern/western ones. Podlasie, Podkarpackie, Świętokrzyskie and Lubelskie are usually the ones included, with the rest being a matter of debate. It's also a way to describe conservative leaning provinces as opposed to liberal learning ones.

aha thanks delph

It is a derogatory term used by a handfull on here who like to think they are superior.

Talking of traps they've just announced that an average speed trap comes online tomorrow on my way to work. The cameras are 4 km apart, so easy enough to slow down. Anyone else got these?

Noooooooooooooooo.

I despise them - they cause people to sit watching the speedo rather than the road, and they also don't take into account real world conditions such as having to overtake the muppet doing 35km/h in a 50km/h.

I possibly got caught by one in Austria in summer, but no fine ever came through.

Yes - those are positively dangerous and banned in Germany (as they lead to irregular traffic flow) if I remember rightly.

Dougpol1 "I would have to be an idiot to buy a second hand car from a Pole"

Well, making sweeping statements like that only confirms you are probably not very close to being labelled level headed, either... ;-)

Out of interest we now in our village we have our first UK RHD car that has been registered in Poland, it took a few mods , headlamps and fog lamp plus import tax and 500zl future scrap fee.