Buying used with strange history

Skilid

Skilid

Skilid

Soldato
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
2,828
Location
Hampshire
Hi all,

I’m after a cheap, reliable, automatic, small car for my partner and came across a 2008 Fabia for £3k. 67k miles, had most of its service history and had new tyres and brakes. Couldn’t find anything wrong when I test drove and I was quite happy.

However, when I got home I ran a HPI check, which came back clear apart from it had a notice saying ‘car was seen on a salvage auction site in 2019’. It didn’t have any details, so I dug a little deeper and found some photos of it with a hole in the passenger side front door. It said Cat N on the salvage website, but insurance checks come back as not written off. It was obviously repaired as there is no hole now. The current owner has only owned it 6 months and is a sole trader. His HPI check came back clear (he sent it to me) and he was very surprised when I presented him with the details I found. He was clearly unaware, was very apologetic and basically said ‘sorry for wasting your time, I had no idea’.

I have two questions;

1) Do you think it’s worth chasing this car and maybe knocking him down as it seemed in very good condition and drove perfectly. It was reported as Cat N on the salvage site and had no structural damage. It was just the door had a random hole in it.

2) How would this car have ended up on salvage without being written off by insurance? Would it be a case of the owner at the time was only third party and sold the car to auction to get rid? Never come across this situation before.

Thoughts appreciated.
 
Done some more reading and it turns out there is something called a category U.

Uncategorised or unrecorded write off. If the owner had no insurance or was only third party they could sell it to salvage without going through insurance.
 
very strange ? or perhaps qwner didnt want it back or outside possibility dont know if they still do it but a lot of large organisations police councils etc used to effectively underwrite there own insurance basically a bond so maybe one of theres they didnt want back.(possibly hmrc/social services etc) but a 2008 fabia hmm
 
So if the door has been replaced and you plan on keeping it for a while then I wouldn’t be too concerned. If it literally was just the door of course! It’s a 13 year old £3k car.
 
Skilid said:
Done some more reading and it turns out there is something called a category U.

Uncategorised or unrecorded write off. If the owner had no insurance or was only third party they could sell it to salvage without going through insurance.
Click to expand...

Sounds dodgy.

EDIT: Ok so cat U (undeclared) is when someone uninsured or only 3rd party crashes but no one else is involved. Weird. The whole insurance system is a mess tbh.
 
Last edited:
This is the damage. What do you think could have caused it? Localised to just the passenger door. No other panels were affected.

26-FEA242-3614-47-A2-8-A15-8-AF0-A8123-A40.png
 
Unfortunately the database (MIAFTR) most vehicle checking services use cannot be relied on it’s incredibly flawed. A few articles worth a read:
MIAFTR is voluntary, however the DVLA database is mandatory but no one is allowed access (!?!) MIAFTR database has no requirements for when write-offs should be recorded on it, some vehicles are logged months / years after they were subject to a claim. Most vehicle checking services, including HPI and Experian, rely solely on this database to flag write-offs. Cars being advertised as “HPI clear” mean nothing really! Some vehicle checking services, such as VCheck, go a step further and also run the VIN against online salvage auction records. This will show whether the vehicle has ever been through salvage auction and what category it was auctioned as.

As you know where the damage was on the car I would still be tempted to purchase it providing it looks to have been repaired to a good standard. You should treat it as a Cat-N vehicle though and only offer a Cat-N price for it.
 
Last edited:
Meatball said:
Unfortunately the database (MIAFR) most vehicle checking services use cannot be relied on it’s incredibly flawed. A few articles worth a read:
MIAFTR is voluntary, however the DVLA database is mandatory but no one is allowed access (!?!) MIAFTR database has no requirements for when write-offs should be recorded on it, some vehicles are logged months / years after they were subject to a claim. Most vehicle checking services, including HPI and Experian, rely solely on this database to flag write-offs. Cars being advertised as “HPI clear” mean nothing really! Some vehicle checking services, such as VCheck, go a step further and also run the VIN against online salvage auction records. This will show whether the vehicle has ever been through salvage auction and what category it was auctioned as.

As you know where the damage was on the car I would still be tempted to purchase it providing it looks to have been repaired to a good standard. You should treat it as a Cat-N vehicle though and only offer a Cat-N price for it.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I've no idea how much Cat-N would affect this price. I've heard that Cat-N cars are usually more to insure, but as this isn't technically written off I assume this doesn't have to be declared to insurance?
 
Skilid said:
This is the damage. What do you think could have caused it? Localised to just the passenger door. No other panels were affected.

26-FEA242-3614-47-A2-8-A15-8-AF0-A8123-A40.png
Click to expand...

Looks like it's been rammed with something.

That's inwards damage and in an awkward position, so hardly like the driver was able to drive/reverse into something.

Saying that, i guess it's possible they may have reversed round the corner into some low solid metal fencing - i've seen someone do that before!
 
Skilid said:
Thanks. I've no idea how much Cat-N would affect this price. I've heard that Cat-N cars are usually more to insure, but as this isn't technically written off I assume this doesn't have to be declared to insurance?
Click to expand...

Try and find similar Cat-N examples on AutoTrader to find how much they’re being advertised for. As a rough idea I think you should be aiming for about 80% of the normal price.
 
Lots of cars get minor damage and repaired off the books, but the owners should keep the paperwork to prove its been done properly.

It now a salvage car with missing history. They will probably say no to money off and sell it to some other mug though.
 
My advice with cars, go with gut feeling... always has been... the one time I didn't and I knew there was something with the car it basically blew up costing me thousands and it's my one and only mistake... there's millions of cars out there that there is no sniff of dodginess move on is what I'd do.
 
Nasher said:
Lots of cars get minor damage and repaired off the books, but the owners should keep the paperwork to prove its been done properly.

It now a salvage car with missing history. They will probably say no to money off and sell it to some other mug though.
Click to expand...
If they do, then fair enough. You need to do your research. I won't be that mug.

Interestingly there was only one HPI check website that is able to collect this kind of info. Mycarcheck came back completely clean, total car check flagged it as an issue but didn't have any details and vcheck.uk was the only one that had this info (with pictures). I'll be sure to use them in future.
 
Simply, when you mention small reliable auto, that puts anything with the lightweight 7 speed DSG out. Avoid. Get yourself a reliable torque converter.
 
This has a torque converter and drove very nicely. Unfortunately my partner, who this car is for, has decided she isn't interested any more after finding out this info. It's a shame as the car was good and they offered a bit of a discount, although not as much as I would have liked.
 
TBH i think you are over-reacting, this is a £3k car. If it looks nice now, is in good cosmetic condition, and drives well, then what does the history matter on a car at this level?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom