previous owner/ accident damage history?

albertbrennan

Hi,
I am in Dublin Ireland and was purchasing a 2006 Toyota Celica which was imported here from the UK.I ran a history check on it and discovered that it had a `category D insurance loss- insurer decided not to repair ` listing. The car looks and drives perfect so basically I need to know if there is any way that I can find out exactly what damage was done to the car or is there any way to contact the original owner? the UK registration was ML06HXM.
Any help would be very welcome as I`d hate to lose a good car if it was minor damage.

Regards..Al.

Conor_3

Sadly, no. Cat D is pretty much anything from "missing for more than 6 months, recovered with no damage" to stuff like broken locks, glass etc. It won't be anything structural.

harveybobbles

HPI Check Question
What do the catagories mean when is a car written off?

Answer:
Category A: Total burnout. No value left in the vehicle
Category B: Break only. Value lies in salvage
Category C: Damage to car is more than total value of car
Category D: Repair would cost almost as much as the vehicle is worth. Better to write off than repair. No comebacks for the insurers

So a 2006 Celica that's a Cat D is a bit naughty...

Conor_3

Your post with explanations is a bit simplistic, harveybobbles. Cat D just means the insurer decided not to repair it, not that it wasn't economical to. That could mean something that would cost as little as 50% of the value of a vehicle which, for a car worth £6k could easily be just an engine that ended up being blown up. Insurers decide its not worth repairing as its £2000 for a new engine plus £600+ in labour so sell it. Bloke buys it, gets a second hand engine for £200 and fits it himself.

Theo_Cupier

Are there any risks to buying a vehicle second hand where it is listed as having been subject to a Category D accident but then properly fixed?

I am looking at a vehicle which has this in its description. I'd say the price of this car (£6.5K) is probably £1K - £1.5K under what I'd expect an undamaged sample to go for.

I'm just trying to understand if this makes the car a genuine bargain, or if there is a good reason why it's cheaper, in terms of the risk I'd be taking on...

Any advice welcomed.

vikingaero

Conor wrote: »

Your post with explanations is a bit simplistic, harveybobbles. Cat D just means the insurer decided not to repair it, not that it wasn't economical to. That could mean something that would cost as little as 50% of the value of a vehicle which, for a car worth £6k could easily be just an engine that ended up being blown up. Insurers decide its not worth repairing as its £2000 for a new engine plus £600+ in labour so sell it. Bloke buys it, gets a second hand engine for £200 and fits it himself.

It's not always about repair costs. Sometimes Insurers factor in hire/loan car costs which often tip the balance and make a car a write off.

ashleyk

I went to look at a car last night but my warning antenna said something was wrong and I walked away. There was some odd looking paint inside the engine bay, so I asked if it had ever been in a prang and he denied it. He also claimed the previous owner had lost all the service history.

Now today I saw his advert on eBay and traced the feedback to when he bought the car from eBay a few weeks ago. It turns out it had been involved in a category D accident and also mentions the existance of the log book, so I am glad I walked away. Incidentally he is sticking to his ficticious story on eBay without mentioning the accident and the claims about the missing service history. Is that legal?

Keith

Log Book and Service History are not the same thing.

Can't remember the law about declaring accident damage, I think a dealer if he knows has to declare it but as a private buyer I believe it is up to you to discover it...

ashleyk

I just asked a friend who used to be a Toyota dealer and he said:

"In fact, the same rules about mis-representation apply to private individuals as well as dealers under the Sale of Goods Act. A lot of people don't know that private sellers have similar obligations. Trading Standards would be interested, but as it stands, his advert is ambiguous."

jonathon

thats wrong. see here

http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/Images/CA04_tcm2-35739.pdf


Private sales When you buy goods from a private individual, you don't have the same rights as when buying from a trader. The legal principle of caveat emptor, or ‘buyer beware’, operates. You have no rights to expect that goods be of satisfactory quality or fit for their purpose, but there is a requirement that they should be ‘as described’. You should check goods thoroughly before you buy them.

ashleyk

From that PDF it states:

"You have no rights to expect that
goods be of satisfactory quality or fit for their purpose, but there is a
requirement that they should be ‘as described’. You should check goods
thoroughly before you buy them."

In this case he denied that the car had been in an accident though he was perfectly aware this was not the case. I think the seller still has a responsibility to accurately describe the product being sold. Were you to be involved in a subsequent accident not only would you likely face greater risk of injury but may also discover that insurers would not pay out because the car was previously listed as having been written off.