Lo all,
For those of you who don't know, in April '09 my father purchased a 55 plate BMW E60 530d Msport with 50k miles for £14.5k from an independent dealer in Cornwall.
Due to my mother's job, both of my parents moved to Boston Massachusetts in January of this year and I managed to convince them to let me 'look after' the car so I've been using it for 8 months now.
After he bought it, I noticed that the rear bumper had been resprayed and asked Dad about it. He said that the dealer had told him it had been in a shunt but Dad was happy enough with the repair work and had bought it anyway. I should also point out that the car did not include a full service history and I did ask him if he had HPI checked it etc, but he assured me everything was kosher.
Over the last few weeks I've become increasingly concerned about the history of the car which has resulted in me HPI checking it myself and I've now found out it was previously a CAT D write off.
It was first registered in September 2005 and it was written off in April 2006 so one can assume that the damage was pretty substantial to warrant a CAT D after only 6/7 months.
I've contacted my father and he doesn't seem too concerned about it. He said he's not fussed about the reselling issues because he plans to run it into the ground and he's not angry at the dealer because they told him it had been in a shunt.
However, I feel pretty angry on his behalf and I wonder if there's anything that can be done about it. I appreciate it's probably too late because it was purchased over a year ago but does the dealer not have some obligation to declare if a car they are selling was previously written off?
I know how this will go down in Motors and believe me, I share your face-palms but I also feel really sorry for my Dad.
I guess this explains why it was so *relatively* cheap and why the rear wheels aren't staggered on an Msport model (thanks for alerting me to this Fox).
I realise that for most people in Motors this will be teaching you to suck eggs but always get an HPI check on any car you're considering buying even if it's from a dealer.
Commence the expected *and deserved* thrashing.
For those of you who don't know, in April '09 my father purchased a 55 plate BMW E60 530d Msport with 50k miles for £14.5k from an independent dealer in Cornwall.
Due to my mother's job, both of my parents moved to Boston Massachusetts in January of this year and I managed to convince them to let me 'look after' the car so I've been using it for 8 months now.
After he bought it, I noticed that the rear bumper had been resprayed and asked Dad about it. He said that the dealer had told him it had been in a shunt but Dad was happy enough with the repair work and had bought it anyway. I should also point out that the car did not include a full service history and I did ask him if he had HPI checked it etc, but he assured me everything was kosher.
Over the last few weeks I've become increasingly concerned about the history of the car which has resulted in me HPI checking it myself and I've now found out it was previously a CAT D write off.
It was first registered in September 2005 and it was written off in April 2006 so one can assume that the damage was pretty substantial to warrant a CAT D after only 6/7 months.
I've contacted my father and he doesn't seem too concerned about it. He said he's not fussed about the reselling issues because he plans to run it into the ground and he's not angry at the dealer because they told him it had been in a shunt.
However, I feel pretty angry on his behalf and I wonder if there's anything that can be done about it. I appreciate it's probably too late because it was purchased over a year ago but does the dealer not have some obligation to declare if a car they are selling was previously written off?
I know how this will go down in Motors and believe me, I share your face-palms but I also feel really sorry for my Dad.
I guess this explains why it was so *relatively* cheap and why the rear wheels aren't staggered on an Msport model (thanks for alerting me to this Fox).
I realise that for most people in Motors this will be teaching you to suck eggs but always get an HPI check on any car you're considering buying even if it's from a dealer.
Commence the expected *and deserved* thrashing.
Thanks for letting me know. 
