A car is a necessity when working in the private investigation industry. Investigators are assigned to lots of different jobs in any given year. Some jobs require them to travel long distances to cases that may be far away from where they are based. Whilst other assignments require lots of little journeys, such as tailing an individual around for a week or two, or travelling between places gathering evidence. So as you can tell cars are extremely important for them.

So how should they go about choosing their car as it is needed for so many different types of jobs?

• The first thing a private investigator should do when picking a car is narrow down the search to common cars. When trying to carry out a surveillance operation an investigator does not want to blow their cover by parking outside in a flashy car that is painted a unique colour as this will draw attention to themselves.

• Investigators should bare in mind that although purchasing a new car would be good, as the chances of it breaking down whilst on a job would be very slim. Having a new car would also draw attention to themselves.

• The size of the vehicle is important for a private investigator as well. If they opt for a small car then they will have difficulty when following someone as their view may be blocked by cars in front of them. Whilst a big car would stick out like a sore thumb.

• Is the vehicle comfortable? As private investigators will spend a large amount of the time in their cars, this question is of high importance.

• Any individual looking for a car not just private investigators should check how great the fuel efficiency of a car is. The number that the car manufacturer gives should never be taken as gospel. Read around online and find out what owners of that car say.

• People think that all private investigators must have tinted windows on their car. Yet this isn’t the case, tinted windows aren’t common so don’t help PI’s to blend in. Also the laws on how tinted a window can vary by location.  This is a problem as investigators do a lot of travelling around so may get pulled due to their tinted windows. If this happened everywhere they went, it would be pretty embarrassing for them and would affect how well they could perform their job.

Following these steps will help you pick the ideal car if you are deciding to move into the private investigator sector or you are a private investigator considering a new car. A couple of the tips are universal to all car owners which makes them pretty handy as well.

This is a guest post by Sam Taylor. Occasional guest blogger on asset searches and full time private investigation. Sam currently represents Beacon Investigation Solutions a private investigation company licensed in 45 states across the US.

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