RCB Wakefield Ltd

Used cars and light motor vehicles · Non-specialised wholesale

A wide canopy on steel columns standing over an empty wet forecourt at sunrise, the low sun laid out in long reflections across the slabs.
Editorial photograph of a forecourt at first light. Not this company's premises, pitch or stock.

Manchester M16 0AY Incorporated 31st August 2026 Company No. 17428885 SIC 45112 / 46900

Pre-sale inspection · four bands

Four bands, read in order, before a vehicle is offered

RCB WAKEFIELD LTD buys and sells used cars and light motor vehicles, and handles non-specialised wholesale lines through the same door. A vehicle is read in four bands — identity, paper, cold start and road, then the sheet. What follows is what would stop a sale.

Incorporated 31st August 2026 in England and Wales. The registered name carries Wakefield; the registered office is 213 Clarendon Road, Manchester, which is where correspondence reaches. No trading record stands behind that date.

A low sun crossing a car in side profile Light sweeps from left to right, lighting the nose and bonnet, front door, rear door, rear quarter and tailgate in turn, and holding a bright line on each of the four shut lines between them. bonnet front door rear door tailgate

forecourt sun-line

The sweep lights one panel at a time and holds a line on each shut it passes. A repaired panel shows at those four lines first, which is why the light is on the gaps and not the paint.
A caged inspection lamp lit on a scratched steel bench, a torque wrench lying beside it, cold window light behind.

Editorial photograph of a lit inspection lamp and a torque wrench on a bench. Not this company's workshop, tools or equipment.

Before The bench is set first

Why the four bands are read in that order

Any one band can make the next three pointless: a number that does not match is not worth a road test, and finance registered against the vehicle is not worth a compression reading.

The bench is laid out before the vehicle arrives — lamp, torque wrench, taper gauge, paint-depth meter, and a blank sheet with the date already on it. Nothing on that sheet is written up afterwards from memory.

Band 01 At the kerb

Identity: the numbers that have to agree

Nothing is driven and nothing is opened until this chain closes, in order, at the kerb.

  1. Three numbers, character by character

    The number stamped into the bodyshell, the number on the plate at the windscreen base or in a door shut, and the number on the V5C certificate. Compared character by character, not glanced at.

  2. The plate, and its rivets

    Correct characters, correct spacing, and fixings that have not been disturbed.

  3. Keys counted, second one tried

    The second key is tried on the locks and on the immobiliser, not the blade alone. The wheel-nut key is in the vehicle or written down as absent; a blank space is not an answer.

  4. The odometer, before the vehicle moves

    Photographed where it stands, before the vehicle is moved a length, so the sheet and the picture carry the same reading.

Would stop the sale

A stamped number not matching both the plate and the certificate, or a plate whose rivets have been disturbed. The vehicle is not moved onto the pitch and the discrepancy goes back to the seller in writing.

Band 02 Before the bonnet is opened

Paper before metal: keepers, mileage, finance

Documents are read before the bonnet is opened, because a finding on paper can make a mechanical check pointless. The certificate is read for the identification number, engine number, colour and keeper count. The test record is then read line by line and plotted.

A test record whose readings climb Five recorded odometer readings plotted against successive tests. Each reading stands higher than the one before it, and the line between them climbs without a break. first test latest test odometer
A record that runs. The steps between the tests are what an annual rate is read from.
The same record with one reading below the test before it The same five tests. The fourth reading sits lower than the third, so the line drops between them before climbing again, and that fourth point is ringed. first test latest test odometer
The fourth reading is lower than the third: a mileage discontinuity, not a typing error, and written on the sheet as one.

Finance and write-off markers are searched against the identification number and the registration together, because a registration can be moved between vehicles and a stamped number cannot.

Would stop the sale

Finance against the identification number the seller has not settled; an undeclared Category S or Category N marker; a mileage reading going backwards.

On the sheet, not implied

A service history is recorded as what it is — stamps, invoices, or nothing. Nothing is a condition, and it is written as nothing. This company arranges no finance; the only finance that matters here is somebody else's, registered first.

Band 03 Cold, then warm

Cold means the first turn of the key of the day.

Cold start, the road, and the ramp

A vehicle arriving warm is parked and left, and its start becomes the next morning's first job. At the self-test every lamp should light and then go out; a lamp that never lit is as much a finding as one that stays on.

The road test uses a hill start, a stretch at fifty and full lock both ways. Brakes are applied hard once, on a straight, hands loose. Tread is read at the inner, centre and outer of every tyre against the 1.6 mm legal minimum, and the week-and-year code off each sidewall: four tyres of four ages is a finding in itself. On the ramp, sill seams and jacking points come before anything mechanical.

Would stop the sale

Corrosion inside a structurally prescribed area, a brake pipe weeping over the axle, or a steering or suspension joint with movement that can be felt by hand. These are not advisories here. They end the offer.

Read first, cleared after

Stored codes are read and written down before anything is cleared. A code cleared before it was recorded cannot be put back, and whoever reads the vehicle next is entitled to know.

The sheet, and the gauge that writes on it

One sheet per vehicle, written at the vehicle, in ink, dated, with the identification number and odometer reading at the head of it.

Band 04 What leaves with it
Line on the sheetWritten as
Head Identification number, odometer reading, date, and who wrote it — at the vehicle, not afterwards.
Panel gap, near side One taper-gauge reading, entered as A.
Panel gap, off side The same shut line, entered as B. Recorded as the pair, never one alone.
A taper gauge standing in one shut line Two panel edges with a channel between them. The wedge-shaped gauge falls into the channel until its own width matches it, and the depth its tip reaches is the reading. reading near side off side
The gauge stops where its own width matches the channel; the depth it reaches is the reading.
Paint depth Every panel and the roof. A panel well away from its neighbours is recorded as a difference and nothing further.
Keys and wheel-nut key Counted, and an absence entered as an absence.
Closing line One of two sentences: the vehicle can be offered with these findings written on it, or it cannot be offered. There is no third sentence.

Would stop the sale

A finding that cannot be written in one line without an explanation. If it needs a paragraph, it does not go on the pitch.

Tool 01 Odometer against age

Mileage against age: the sanity check

A reading is high or low only against something. Put in the year of first registration, the odometer, the annual mileage you expect of that use, and the tolerance you will work to. The two figures deciding the answer are yours, so each card prints its arithmetic.

The first two come off the vehicle; the last two are yours.

Shared below

Age

11 years

2026 − 2015

Expected at that rate

88,000 mi

11 years × 8,000 mi

Band of 15%

74,800 to 101,200 mi

88,000 mi ± 13,200 mi

Reading entered

126,400 mi

+38,400 mi on expected

above the band by 25,200 mi

Guide only. The band is whatever percentage you type; it is no trade standard and this page supplies none. Above it, the service record must account for the miles; below it, the test readings are checked for a standing period rather than read as good news.

Tool 02 Miles against months

Service interval: whichever arrives first

An interval is written as a mileage or a period, whichever arrives first, so the useful question is which. The rate comes from the card above — 8,000 mi a year — and changing it there changes this.

Three come off the service record; the fourth is the date on the stamp.

On time9 of 12 months

On mileage6,000 of 10,000 mi

Mileage due
118,500 mi + 10,000 mi = 128,500 mi
Date due
January 2027, 12 months on
Months left on time
12 months − 9 months = 3 months
Months left on mileage
4,000 mi ÷ 8,000 mi/yr × 12 = 6 months

months come first, 3 months ahead of the mileage

Guide only. The mileage limit cannot be dated without an annual rate; with nought entered above, the planner reports the time limit and says so.

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