HPI check?

emski1234

Hi all. We have been looking for a used car for a while. Finally found one that we like and within budge and are going to have a look tomorrow. It is at a dealership, and they have asked if we want a HPI guarantee for £99 which covers us if anything turns out to be wrong with it ie mechanically, financially etc.
Now I do know a little bit about HPIs, and my OH has been paying the £7 here and there to get a check on a few cars he's been interested in in the past. Looking at the HPI website, you can pay £25ish for a HPI guarantee which covers you for 2 years up to £30,000 value of the car. Is this right?
I guess what I'm asking is, is this the same thing as what the dealer is offering, and so should we just do it ourselves? You can't get the full HPI guarantee without the VIN number, so until we look at / have bought the car we can't check properly (just by reg no).
What have other people done HPI wise?
Thanks loads in advance.

motorguy

emski1234 wrote: »

Hi all. We have been looking for a used car for a while. Finally found one that we like and within budge and are going to have a look tomorrow. It is at a dealership, and they have asked if we want a HPI guarantee for £99 which covers us if anything turns out to be wrong with it ie mechanically, financially etc.
Now I do know a little bit about HPIs, and my OH has been paying the £7 here and there to get a check on a few cars he's been interested in in the past. Looking at the HPI website, you can pay £25ish for a HPI guarantee which covers you for 2 years up to £30,000 value of the car. Is this right?
I guess what I'm asking is, is this the same thing as what the dealer is offering, and so should we just do it ourselves? You can't get the full HPI guarantee without the VIN number, so until we look at / have bought the car we can't check properly (just by reg no).
What have other people done HPI wise?
Thanks loads in advance.

Its a con to make more money off you from the dealership. Ask them do they not HPI check their cars before they sell them and if not, why are they making you pay for it?

hartcjhart

as above, if the dealership is not prepared to do the HPI themselves (depending on car price)walk away

emski1234

Oh right, thanks for the advice. So a HPI guarantee is no different from just having a HPI check? I've been looking here for info: http://www.hpicheck.com/furniture/guarantee.html
So just having a HPI check is a guarantee in itself? Sorry, getting confused!

RaCinG_SnAkE_3

An HPI check won't cover you mechanically, ie it's not a warranty.

What it does do is provide assurance that the car is not stolen, written off, have outstanding finance on it, or has problems with its identity (eg cloned).

It seems to me that the garage want to charge you £99 for the same check you can do for £20.50.

Personally, I would go direct to HPI.

Even though you are buying a car through a dealership, for the sake of £20 I would get one done myself.

Be aware that you need to do the HPI check BEFORE you buy the car, so you will need the reg and VIN. Shouldn't be too hard though if you're going to look at the car. Ask for the V5 at the same time and make sure everything tallies up.

Inactive

I would walk away anyway, any dealer that tries that one on, isn't worth dealing with.

Flyboy152

emski1234 wrote: »

Hi all. We have been looking for a used car for a while. Finally found one that we like and within budge and are going to have a look tomorrow. It is at a dealership, and they have asked if we want a HPI guarantee for £99 which covers us if anything turns out to be wrong with it ie mechanically, financially etc.
Now I do know a little bit about HPIs, and my OH has been paying the £7 here and there to get a check on a few cars he's been interested in in the past. Looking at the HPI website, you can pay £25ish for a HPI guarantee which covers you for 2 years up to £30,000 value of the car. Is this right?
I guess what I'm asking is, is this the same thing as what the dealer is offering, and so should we just do it ourselves? You can't get the full HPI guarantee without the VIN number, so until we look at / have bought the car we can't check properly (just by reg no).
What have other people done HPI wise?
Thanks loads in advance.

Although the dealer will have done a HPI check, there different several levels of insured checks, which has corresponding costs. However, It does not cost a hundred pounds, in fact it costs the dealer about three pounds to do a basic check and about seven pounds for an insured check. The HPI will not cover you for mechanical breakdown, that is what a warranty os.

With all of that said, I think you need to clarify with the dealer what the charge covers. If it does cover you for mechanical breakdown etc., it may be a sales package you are being offered, which includes several components, such as warranty and protected HPI check and anything else.