Bought undeclared Cat N car is there anything I can do?

SonicSW20 said:
Fair!

Do not buy a car from list for me:
Bradford
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Wish I knew this a few years ago. Went to view a Hyundai Coupe at a "trader". He insisted on doing the test drive, then proceeded to drive around 30mph local roads at 80mph+. When we got out I wanted to check the clutch, and did so. Pulled the handbrake up just before I was going to turn off the car and it snapped. Now bearing in mind I've been driving for 10 years and never snapped another handbrake and pulled this one exactly the same as I always do, it was a crap handbrake. We argued whos fault it was and I saw his mechanic walk very quickly to get in the car right next to the entrance where he sat ready to block us in if we tried to leave. The arguments got more and more bitter and I could see which way it was headed. Neither me or my friend are particular hard men so we basically got robbed of £40. I should have really phoned the police but I was getting quite panicked at the time because I've never been in a situation like that.

On the upside, later that day we did manage to find a much better condition Coupe in another city, sold by a nice old man who was getting to old to get in and out of it anymore. I got my £40 back from the friend who we'd gone up to buy the car for too.
 
MrRockliffe said:
That’s not how consumer law works; he’s in breach of contract, and is fully entitled to take him to court, even if it is a private sale.
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Not sure where you've read that, but everything i've seen about the consumer rights act stipulates that it does not apply to private sales.

Your only get-out in a private sale is if you have proof (by way of advert or otherwise) of a fact that then turns out to be untrue. For example if a seller says the car has never been written off, and after purchasing, it turns out that it had indeed been written off. That's why the general advice when selling cars privately is to keep details short but factual - you're not opening yourself up to any liabilities then.

@SquirrelMadness you trying to pursue a claim against the garage who sold it to your seller isn't going to work, you weren't the injured party in that transaction, and i'm sure your seller has better things to do than to pursue it. You've got very little proof that your seller knew about the cat status, and in a small claims court it works on balance of probabilities, and even then i'm sure a judge would say it's highly probable that the seller didn't know about the cat status.
 
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MrRockliffe said:
That’s not how consumer law works; he’s in breach of contract, and is fully entitled to take him to court, even if it is a private sale.

Having read the thread, OP has made some other critical errors that would go against him in a court of law, however.
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No.



Problems with used cars bought privately
Buying privately is one of the riskiest ways of buying a car. If something goes wrong with it you don’t have as much legal protection as you would if you’d bought the car from a dealer.

The car must match the seller’s description, be roadworthy and the seller must have the legal right to sell it to you.

In other words, the car must work, meet the legal requirements for being driven on public roads, and be owned by the seller.

But you are responsible for ensuring the car is “of satisfactory quality’’ and “fit for purpose” before you buy it.

Watch out for any unscrupulous sellers pretending to be private owners so they can offload faulty or stolen cars.
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https://www.moneyadviceservice.org....-car#problems-with-used-cars-bought-privately
 
Cba to read all of, but you ****** up. Should have done the check before hand.

Star it out please, don't just move a few letters around
 
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You seem to have paid about the right kind of money for the car. I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape as long as the car is generally in good shape.
I would climb all over it, but I’d have done that anyway before buying. Being a cat N isn’t going to have much impact on the cars value.
 
SquirrelMadness said:
Is it a bad idea to get the car valued at a garage or will that make me more angry?

HPI valued it at £2,460 trade-in and £3,360 private but "This valuation does not take into account any damage history this vehicle may have."
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I'll do it for you! It's worth £1360 as a trade as a CAT N.

Source - This is literally my job.

Are you angry?
 
Probably a dumb question but is it worth doing an hpi check after buying a car from a dealer? Mine was bought on a credit card so not worried about repurcussions par se, more just to check its not been missold!

The dealer (arnold clark) did send me an hpi check but it seemed rather brief. It was a 2 year old car/10k miles (and normal price) in good nick so i guess i dont have much to worry about...

Some of those example pics are eye opening tho! :eek:
 
The Craig said:
Probably a dumb question but is it worth doing an hpi check after buying a car from a dealer? Mine was bought on a credit card so not worried about repurcussions par se, more just to check its not been missold!

The dealer (arnold clark) did send me an hpi check but it seemed rather brief. It was a 2 year old car/10k miles (and normal price) in good nick so i guess i dont have much to worry about...

Some of those example pics are eye opening tho! :eek:
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Only for peace of mind - some have a guarantee against incorrect data but not sure if it is valid to claim on it after buying. The dealer HPI check though brief should have showed up anything of concern aside from the salvage/auction stuff mentioned in this thread which is unlikely to be the story in most cases.
 
I thought, in the case of ringing, if you purchased such a car from a dealer (who didn't know), the dealer would not be liable for your potential loss, if it were discovered and re-assigned to the original owner.... how do you protect yourself ?
 
That's the problem today. People have become so reliant on databases which were never originally intended for this purpose.

An expensive car can also have a lot of damage and still be economically repairable whilst a cheap car with superficial damage gets written off.

You also can't really force insurance companies to do things on a database they originally created for themselves (MIAFTR).

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/03/20/1553063452000/The-UK-s-used-car-write-off-conundrum/
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