Anyone bought a car without a V5?

jyonda

Yes I know the one BIG rule of used car buying is never , ever, EVER , buy a used car without a V5 logbook present but has anyone here actually done it and if so what were the circumstances and how did it turn out for you? I can't believe I'm really thinking of doing this.......

marksward

Don't do it. If you insist at least pay to get a full history check done on it.

pinkfluffybabe

Might be an auction - when I bought a car at auction before, there were many called out that had no V5 and people had to apply to the DVLA for one.

Volcano

Yep, I did it once. Wasn't too fussed as I bought it privately, went into their house so at least I knew where they lived. The car wasn't worth much so probably helped me take the risk. Applied to DVLA, got the V5 a couple of weeks later, no probs.

dabaker

jyonda wrote:

Yes I know the one BIG rule of used car buying is never , ever, EVER , buy a used car without a V5 logbook present but has anyone here actually done it and if so what were the circumstances and how did it turn out for you? I can't believe I'm really thinking of doing this.......

Hi i recently bought a car without any documentation whotsoever and i would not recommend it to anyone,i paid £9000 cash to a major car retailer and when i went from my home town to stoke to collect the car they told me that they would forward the v5,service history etc in a day or two, 3 weeks later and loads of calls and emails later,they still had not sent them and stopped returning my calls,this put me in a position that the vechicle had no worth as service history is everything when buying a car .I Tried to trace the vechicle history myself and got nowhere at all.luckily for me i went to the c.a.b they wrote to the company concerned a letter,and all the paperwork eventually turned up 5 months after buying the car,my advice is dont do it....

wazza

if you were buying from a private seller then DON'T. Even if you go to their house how do you know it's their home?

if from an auction house then ask what are the rules. i believe it is harder to get a V5 nowadays.

Hintza

Yes I have. I bought written off Panda (cat D) and have just sent of the form and £19 for a replacement. This was only done last week I don't forsee any problems but watch this space I would hope to have it back within 10 days.

spacenase

Yes, I bought a car for £8,500 from a used car dealer without a V5. Scared the life out of me!!! _pale_

The reason was that the car had been on a private reg with the previous owner and the V5 was at the DVLA being updated. I checked the service history out with a couple of dealers and the registration check contained the private reg and the original reg that it was reverting too. I also confirmed everything with the previous owner.

The scariest part was that the tax disc had the private reg on it whilst the reg plates had the replacement reg. For a while I expected to get pulled over every time I passed a police car! :eek: I'm still not convinced that the dealer should have changed the reg plates until the new tax disc came through, but I survived it!

reduceditem

Private sales...always remember to ask about the log book straight away if you are making an initial call about a car and always ask if the vehicle is in the name of the person who is selling it. Only ever view a car at the house of the registered keeper and verify that the registered keeper is present. There are plenty of reasons way a seller may not have all of the V5 (particuarly traders), but in general I would suggest walking away.
One thing you can do if you're tempted to proceed is call the DVLA. They can't tell you over the phone who the registered keeper is but they can CONFIRM the current details if you tell them what you think they are. In other words if a guy is telling you 'well its reg'd in the missus name but we've lost it' or 'i sent it off weeks ago but its not come back yet' ...get him to write down the name and address then phone the DVLA and ask for confirmation. Another thing they can tell you is if the POLICE are currently interested in the vehicle...very useful. Its possible they might even reveal the number of previous owners if you ask them nicely (better to just suddenly say 'and its got 5 previous owners right?' ) Other than the cost of the call this DVLA service is free.

jyonda

Thanks everyone,

It's on Ebay, they didn't fill in the bit that said 'V5 present' but then the listing didn't say anything about not having it either. The vendors story is that he just bought it but has to leave the country at the end of the month and his paperwork has not arrived yet. I've said I'm happy to wait and even after he has gone a friend or relative could sell it for him. I've done a check with experian autocheck and it's not reported stolen or anything but maybe someone lent him a car and he's selling it before he does a runner? Anyway it's highly dodgey and I'm not risking the money for some bad feedback.
I did speak to DVLA who couldn't tell me the details but I did not try telling them and get them to confirm so I might try this.
Cheers again, there's no thanks button currently but I'll be back later.