Bought a car & now find out its a Cat D write-off!

olly300

OP if the car is Cat D like you say then all it means that the insurance company decided the cost to put it right is more than what the car is worth, and the damage to the car isn't that serious.

Therefore the car can be repaired and put back on the road once it's passed it's MOT.

In your case your major complaints are the parking sensors and the air bags. It's still legal to have cars that don't have these on the road i.e. older cars. And the cars are still perfectly safe.

As already said Trading Standards won't be interested if the guy isn't a dealer. You can read on what Consumer Direct states on buying a car privately here: http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/before_you_buy/thinking_about/cars/private

You best course of action is to follow Hammyman advice.

bigjl

Another bargain hunter has had their trousers pulled down, because they think they know better, and can get a better deal.

After all buying and selling cars is easy, anybody can do it.

Well anybody can do it and get their fingers burned.

Anybody that buys without an HPi check is a fool, anybody that buys a secondhand car from a private sale and doesn't know how to check one out properly, who then decides not to get an AA or RAC check done is also a fool.

This may sound harsh, but lets be honest, the OP couildn't have done it worse if he had bought blind of eBay with no pictures in the listing, paid with a bank transfer and asked for it to be delivered when he was at work and the keys posted through the door.

Trading standards are uninterested because the buyer has no legal protection, the fact that he states the seller said it had not been in an accident doesn't get him any protection or legal recourse.

The seller just has to say that he told him it was a Cat D, and if the car was worth about £3000 then it could have been written off for as little a two bumpers and a headlight.

Nice to see the OP has learned a lesson and is now letting a garage pull his trousers down aswell.

property.advert

Hammyman wrote: »

The law says that if you're asked a question about an item for sale, you have to answer it truthfully however you do not have to disclose information voluntarily. The OP asked about it being a write off and was lied to. The law says absolutely nothing about there being enough adverts about HPI checks.

That is the law and I'd follow up on it. However, if I was buying privately, I'd check the buyer lived where he said he did, I'd ask for council tax bills and ID as well and then check if he owned his property. I'd also ask him to sign a declaration backing up the questions I'd asked. If he didn't want to do that, then he'd not get a sale.

Of course, HPI and similar are an absolute must.

Inactive

Hammyman wrote: »

The law says that if you're asked a question about an item for sale, you have to answer it truthfully however you do not have to disclose information voluntarily. The OP asked about it being a write off and was lied to. The law says absolutely nothing about there being enough adverts about HPI checks.

How do you know that?, the owner may well have been unaware of the cars history.

It was up to the buyer to HPI check the car, he/she didn't ( until after the sale ).


Tough.

bigjl

property.advert wrote: »

That is the law and I'd follow up on it. However, if I was buying privately, I'd check the buyer lived where he said he did, I'd ask for council tax bills and ID as well and then check if he owned his property. I'd also ask him to sign a declaration backing up the questions I'd asked. If he didn't want to do that, then he'd not get a sale.

Of course, HPI and similar are an absolute must.

I would think that in law something like, he said, she said would be treated as heresay.

It's all very well checking that the buyer lived there, but the most you can expect is to make sure the address in the logbook was the place where you are buying from.

As far as asking for ID, that would be reasonable.

But as far as checking if he was on the council tax or owned his property then to sign a declaration about things he has said about the car, unless I was selling an Aston Martin or a Bentley worth £50k or £100k then the buyer would be told to sod off.

Buying a car isn't complicated, but some on these forums seem to make it out to something akin to open heart surgery.

Hintza

Far easier buying Cat D striaght from the salvage yard saves the hassle of dodgy HPI checks ...........:rotfl:

Inactive

Hintza wrote: »

Far easier buying Cat D striaght from the salvage yard saves the hassle of dodgy HPI checks ...........:rotfl:

..or not buying one at all.;)

iconic944ss

I really wasnt going to bother posting a reply due to some of the smart, sanctimonious, keyboard warrior type replies on here but just in case its of use to some other poor soul who gets duped in the same way, then I will reply.

I apologise for being a trusting person who was taken in by a con-man!

We now have a series of evidence to show that the seller is a trader (probably unregistered) who is selling multiple vehicles, turns out he has 3 for sale on Ebay at the moment.

The car I bought was originally advertised on Ebay, I did bid, but lost as the car sold at a higher valve - just over £5000

About a week later the seller phoned me to say the winner did not pay and he was calling those who had contacted him to offer the car. We came to an agreement and I bought the car for £5000.

If only I'd looked at Ebay once more I'd of seen that the buyer in actual fact left a negative stating that "THE CAR WAS A CAT-D WRITE OFF THAT THE SELLER DID NOT DISCLOSE".

It was NOT shown as Cat-D on the Ebay auction and neither the winner or myself were told it was a Cat-D.

Trading standards have been informed and said it might well go to a small claims court and to try and ask for my money back if thats what I want, which I do.

Turning to the garage I took the car to.
I used a local main dealer for the car, not a back street shop - they only charged a nominal £60 for the diagnostic check. The service manager took me through most of the visible faults. To summarise, in his opinion - Major front and minor rear impact.
However, the diag shows many faults in the wiring system, multiple low voltages & sensors bypassed.
My worry here is not only that the airbags might not deploy but how would the car withstand any other major impact in the event of an accident?

I visited the very nice man who surprising enough turned into a thug when I asked for a full refund.

Turns out he gave me a false name, but I've been able to find out his real name and the multiple addresses he is registered at.

I cant help but think this is the tip of a local iceberg of a ring who are selling cars on.

Sadly, the police do not appear to be interested as in their opinion nothing criminal has happened, yet, so I'll be back onto trading standards to update them as soon as poss.

I know I'm now in for a long haul & yes, I know that ALL of this could have been prevented by a simple HPI check (now) even via Ebay. But isnt it a sad indication of modern times when all the onus make checks appears to lay with a buyer?

CAN ANY MORE REPLIES PLEASE BE KEPT TO HELPFUL OR CONSTRUCTIVE ONES RATHER THAN WHAT I SHOULD OF DONE.

THANK YOU.

Inactive

iconic944ss wrote: »

CAN ANY MORE REPLIES PLEASE BE KEPT TO HELPFUL OR CONSTRUCTIVE ONES RATHER THAN WHAT I SHOULD OF DONE.

THANK YOU.

No need to shout.


Sorry, you do not get to choose the replies you get on a forum.

Have you contacted eBay with the above information, or did you buy the car outside of eBay?

hethmar

Have you taken a screen shot and printed the original ebay listing - you will need that.