Feeling ripped off by aggressive seller

Hintza

ukdrummajor wrote:

if he`s a dealer and you have been mis-sold a car then go to local papers. They lap this sort of thing up. Give him notice that your going to local press, see if he pays up, then report him anyway if he`s selling dodgy cars.

Please note, i said if he has mis-sold and if he is a dealer.

That is fine...but it was an auction!!

Bubble16

Hi All, Thanks once again for the information. I am aware that I messed up in (a) buying a car on ebay and (b) not checking the car out independently before hand which the seller not so politely has also told me. The car is roadworthy, and i can continue to drive it, the only reason I looked at having it fixed was because the exhaust is knocking and I was told the only way to stop this was to sort the back end out. I was more concerned with the aggressiveness of the seller and his threat of "aggressively fighting" negative feedback and what this meant. My question has been answered and i am going to continue to drive my 'shed' which I am growing quite attached to, just needs a new stereo and speakers to block out the knocking noise and everyone will be happy!!

MyUserNamesTaken

pgilc1 wrote:

Out of curiosity, why bother fixing it? ok, so it has a ding at the rear, which looks pretty minor in the photos. But we are talking about a £900 car here.

Just because its 'uneconomical to repair' doesn't make it a write off, or unroadworthy for that matter.

A Cat C vehicle needs to have a new MOT before being taken back on the road. A Cat D. vehicle doesn't. My S reg TD was a Cat D write off (after I bought it, someone hit me). The damage wasn't bad, but it would have cose more than half the value of the car to repair (back quarter panel and wing damage). Due to this, the insurance company said it was uneconomical to repair and put it as a Cat D (total loss). I sold it for £250 due to it being a Cat D. write off. It was roadworthy, by the way - even the insurance assessor said the damage didn't make it unroadworthy.

Personally, if a car is classed as uneconomical to repair, this should be reflected in the price. I think the fact that the seller failed to disclose this information (and he would have known, as he's a dealer - he can see with his own eyes that the damage to the car is quite substantial) could play in the buyer's favour. After all, the man's a car dealer. You can see from the photos that the boot doesn't appear to line up properly, etc, etc. Unless you know someone who is a bodyshop repair person, or is able to do the work themselves, it's not worth paying out to get the repairs done. The fact that the bloke is a car dealer makes a big difference, by the way.

MyUserNamesTaken

pgilc1 wrote:

Who mentioned insurance assessments?

You're right in that if an insurance company were having to pay out on the car after an accident then the insurance company would 'write the car off' as a total loss if it was beyond economic repair to them, ie it would be cheaper to give the insured the value of replacing the car, rather than repair it. The car then is assigned one of four insurance categories for disposal, CAT A - CAT D.

However, thats not what happened here, the OP got a quote to repair it from a body shop, therefore its up to the person spending the money (in this case NOT the insurance company but the OP) as to whether or not they want to repair it. That has nothing to do with writing a car off as a total loss.

Therefore the car is NOT a write off.

For example, the side of my £600 peugeot could do with being fixed and resprayed - there are a couple of nasty dings and some rust. It could cost £1000 to fix it, but that doesn't mean its a write off does it?

If an insurance claim has been made in relation to the damage to the car, then the car is a write off, regardless of who now owns the car. If it's a Cat C., this will show up on the V5, as it has to be registered with the DVLC and requires a VIC before being put back on the road. A Cat D. doesn't need to be registered, but it is still a write off. It makes no difference if someone then decides to buy the car and try to repair the car - the car will always be classed as a write off, in terms of insurance. A vehicle that has been classed as a write off by an insurance company will be worth far less than a vehicle that has not been written off by an insurance company. As a dealer, the seller should have told the buyer that the car had been the subject of an insurance claim which put the car as a total loss. It should have been in the auction description. As a dealer, the seller would have had a good idea that the damage to the rear of the car made the car uneconomical to repair and should have told potential buyers this.

motorguy

MyUserNamesTaken wrote:

As a dealer, the seller should have told the buyer that the car had been the subject of an insurance claim which put the car as a total loss. It should have been in the auction description.

you have made a huge assumption that the car was subject to an insurance claim and had been written off by the insurer, where does the OP say that??

The car could very easily have been damaged by its owner, who subsequently sold it without bothering to have it fixed. exactly the situation with the peugeot i bought, and very common on older cheaper cars.

MyUserNamesTaken

pgilc1 wrote:

you have made a huge assumption that the car was subject to an insurance claim and had been written off by the insurer, where does the OP say that??

The car could very easily have been damaged by its owner, who subsequently sold it without bothering to have it fixed. exactly the situation with the peugeot i bought, and very common on older cheaper cars.

Oh, I'd say it's not a huge assumption. I would say that it's highly likely that on a £2,800 car, the previous owner would have claimed on the insurance when the damage was caused. After all, a total loss would have meant he'd have had the value of his car back from the insurance company. A £2,800 car is likely to have been insured fully comprehensive, so even if it was the owner's fault, loss of no claims isn't likely to cost him anywhere near as much as repairing the damage to the car himself. There's a big difference between your £600 Pug and a £2,800 Vauxhall TDi.

motorguy

I think we previously established that a 1998 Vectra isn't worth £2800, or anywhere near it

Currently on autotraders website there are 50+ 1998 vectras under £1000.

I think there is very little difference between this £900 car (a 1998 Vectra) and my £670 car (a 1997 406) - both were cheap because of some damage that the previous owner didnt have repaired. Both have long mots and both are road legal. mine has a deep score along a wing and a door.

I just don't feel you should be making assumptions when there is no evidence that the car was an insurance write off

Hintza

But it is something the buyer might like to check as that would make a material difference. The seller should declare if it has been an insurance write off and failure to disclose that would in my view be fraudulent.

The more I have read this thread the more I wonder if the seller has pulled a flanker and done a bosh repair to sell it on at minimum expense?

motorguy

Hintza wrote:

But it is something the buyer might like to check as that would make a material difference. The seller should declare if it has been an insurance write off and failure to disclose that would in my view be fraudulent.

The more I have read this thread the more I wonder if the seller has pulled a flanker and done a bosh repair to sell it on at minimum expense?

when you read the listing, there is no evidence that the seller has attempted to repair the car - he is quite explicit about the damage the car has.

"some paint loss & poor fitting to osr edge of front bumper where it meets osf wheelarch, some paint loss to extreme front edge of airdam, a couple of tiny rust bubbles on extremen rear edges of both wheelarch lips. NSR hub centre cap not fitted - in boot. The nsr corner has taken a knock which has resulted in a misaligned and damaged (just above the exhaust) rear bumper, put a dink in the bootlid, and rendered the panel gaps between bootlid, nsr wing, and bumper inaccurate. Bootlid still works fine though. Parking scuff to osr bumper corner"

Interestingly he even put in the auction ... "Under auction rules you are welcome, indeed expected, to come & inspect the vehicle (or have it independently inspected) at any time before close of auction, or emails with questions will be answered. Or you can ring me on XXXX XXXXX"

So its not as if he was going out of his way to hide the damage

To me, it looks more like its been a trade in and he has just been selling it on.