Photos cover the obvious. Preview day is for everything else — the underside, the engine bay you couldn't see in the listing, the smell of the interior, the noise the car makes when you turn the key. If a lot is over your "I'd care if it went wrong" threshold, attending the preview day at a Copart UK yard pays for itself the first time you walk away from a bad lot you nearly bid on.
Before you go
- Confirm the preview window. Each yard has its own preview hours, typically the day before sale. Check the yard page on Copart UK.
- Bring photo ID and your buyer number. You may need to register on arrival.
- Print or save your shortlist. Lot numbers, locations within the yard, key questions per lot.
- Note the questions you couldn't answer from photos. CarMargin's "what you can't see from photos" list is the right starting point.
What to bring
- A torch. Engine bays at salvage yards are usually north of grime; a phone torch is rarely enough.
- A magnet. Old-school but effective: tells you where filler has been used over a panel.
- A pair of latex or nitrile gloves. You will be touching things you'd rather not touch.
- An OBD scanner if you have one. Read the fault codes if you can get power to the dash.
- A camera or phone. Photograph everything you find, even if it's already in the listing.
- A small notebook. The next lot won't wait for you to remember what you saw on this one.
- Layers and waterproofs. Yards are exposed.
The walk-around: outside
- Stand at each corner. Check the panel gaps. Uneven gaps tell you about prior repairs and frame work.
- Run a flat hand across each panel. Filler and bodywork wave that didn't show in photos shows up to a hand.
- Look at the wheel arch lips for paint mismatch — a different shade inside vs outside means the panel was painted off the car.
- Check the under-bonnet shut lines, slam panel, and crash bar for kink, weld evidence, or replacement.
- Look at every door's hinge area for paint over filler — common after a side-impact repair.
- Pull each wheel and look at the disc edge. Lipped, scored, or rusted-orange discs on a low-mileage car are a flag.
Underside
Most yards don't allow a buyer to put a car on a lift, but you can shine a torch underneath at most lots and look for:
- Subframe and chassis-rail straightness. Bowed or kinked rails mean structural work the listing may not have declared.
- Fresh underseal that doesn't match the rest of the underside. Patchy fresh black covers a multitude of sins.
- Catalytic converter presence. On petrol cars, theft of the cat is common at salvage; replacement is hundreds of pounds.
- Exhaust integrity. Holes, hanging, or impacts.
- Subframe / suspension bolts. Recently turned bolts have shiny edges; everything else around them is rusted.
Engine bay
- Check the engine and gearbox for visible damage, cracks, missing components.
- Look for fresh oil under the engine — sump, head gasket, rear main seal candidates.
- Check coolant level in the expansion tank. A topped-up tank with brown residue suggests a head-gasket issue.
- Look at the slam panel and inner wings. Replacement slam panels and welds-vs-bolts on inner wings are tells for major front-end work.
- Check the airbag deployment status — yellow connectors at the wheel and pillar bases tell you whether the SRS was deployed.
- Note any missing components: ECU, mass airflow sensor, alternator, headlights. These add cost.
Interior
- Look under the carpets and at the seat-rail mounts for water lines or rust. Flood damage hides here.
- Check the carpet smell. Damp musty smell is unmistakable and won't ever fully come out.
- Look at the steering wheel airbag cover. Discoloured or with the SRS module visible behind it tells you the bag has been removed or deployed.
- Check the dashboard for missing infotainment, blown speaker grilles, ripped trim.
- Look at seat belts — a deployed seatbelt pretensioner is a one-time fire and the belt has to be replaced.
- Check the headliner for staining and the sunroof drain for blockage / water marks.
- If the keys are present, try them. The "no keys" state on the listing should be confirmed; sometimes keys turn up on preview day.
If the car can be started
Some yards permit starting at the buyer's own risk. If so:
- Listen for the cold-start. Top-end rattle, low oil pressure light staying on, hesitation — all live signals you can't get from photos.
- Watch the exhaust for smoke. Blue = oil burn, white that doesn't clear = head gasket, black = injector or fuel issue.
- Watch the dash. Active warning lights stay on after the bulb-test self-clear; that's where ABS, airbag, ESP, and engine-management faults show.
- If gear engagement is allowed, listen and feel for clutch judder, gearbox knock, or rear-end whine.
After the visit
Update your CarMargin lot note with what you found. The note survives the auction-end sweep, so even if you don't bid this time, you'll have a record next time a similar lot comes up. Update your max bid if anything you saw materially changed the picture — a freshly-undersealed chassis or a missing catalytic converter is a hundreds-of-pounds adjustment.
If you're using CarMargin, the chat's inspection-plan generator produces a lot-specific version of this checklist tuned to the damage and risks the analysis already identified. It's worth printing per-lot rather than relying on a generic walk-around.