Bought a car last year, now found out it was a Cat D write off

jenuk1985

mb101 wrote: »

I'm curious, are you calling it a wreck just because it's Cat D? Still, £750 seems a good result so doesn't really matter!

Nah, there were countless other things wrong with it, hence we've ended up spending over £1000 on repairs over the last year. We had chalked that up to experience and being rubbish at buying cars - if we'd have done proper checks and had it checked out by a mechanic, would have never bought the car, but we took the dealer at face value.

But when we found out that it was Cat D, that was the final straw considering we had specifically asked the dealer about it's history. Since at that point he failed to tell us about the Cat D, he effectively mis-sold it, we would have run a mile from a write off (I appreciate that Cat D isn't that bad, but to an inexperienced buyer, it's a warning sign)

The whole thing is in the past now, lessons have been learnt and we have re-couped some of the costs. We've opted to buy a brand new car to avoid the pitfalls of buying second hand if you're inexperienced (and, with the deal that we've got from Ford, 1-2 year old similar cars worked out more expensive on finance)

AdrianC

Like I said above, and you don't appear to have replied to, do you understand what Cat D actually means?

jenuk1985

Some of the replies on here have been very non-constructive though, along the lines of "it's only Cat D, get over it, should have done checks" - that's not the point. We specifically asked about it's history and they said nothing - can someone, preferably xHannahx, please explain how that isn't mis-selling?

When I took the car back today, they did not even attempt to say that they did not know anything about it, they were just very quick to want to "close the case"

jenuk1985

AdrianC wrote: »

Like I said above, and you don't appear to have replied to, do you understand what Cat D actually means?

Yes, it has been written off by the insurers as a repair that, while it would cost less than the value of the car to repair, it's not in their interests to finance the repair and it's associated costs.

Regardless of that knowledge, we still would have not bought the car if it was *any* category of write off, because as we have learnt it does make it more difficult to sell on.

AdrianC

jenuk1985 wrote: »

Yes, it has been written off by the insurers as a repair that, while it would cost less than the value of the car to repair, it's not in their interests to finance the repair and it's associated costs.

Regardless of that knowledge, we still would have not bought the car if it was *any* category of write off, because as we have learnt it does make it more difficult to sell on.

OK, so you do understand that it is purely an administrative flag placed against the car because of a simple decision on paper by somebody who may not even have seen it?

And that, as a result, you really can't draw any inferences about the condition of the vehicle from it?

jenuk1985

AdrianC wrote: »

OK, so you do understand that it is purely an administrative flag placed against the car because of a simple decision on paper by somebody who may not even have seen it?

And that, as a result, you really can't draw any inferences about the condition of the vehicle from it?

Is it not my prerogative as a buyer to not buy a car because of a flag placed on it that does affect it's resale value and makes it more difficult to resell, no matter how administrative that flag is?

facade

I had a car that had been written off once, found out when I traded it in against a newer one. (The dealer wouldn't touch it)
I contacted the dealer who sold it to me, and they bought it back off me, for the trade price of one that wasn't written off, so I didn't lose anything, in fact I gained, as I got the "new" car slightly cheaper without the trade-in.

AdrianC

jenuk1985 wrote: »

Is it not my prerogative as a buyer to not buy a car because of a flag placed on it that does affect it's resale value and makes it more difficult to resell, no matter how administrative that flag is?

So how much do you think you would have got for a "wreck" of a 12yo Fiesta without that mark against it?

motorguy

jenuk1985 wrote: »

Well I took the car back to the garage, long story short, he bought the car back for £750 and I got the impression that it happened a lot, he was also saying that he was going to wind the company up tomorrow because of things like this, I suspect he was saying that to put pressure on to get me to accept the offer, though he probably didn't realise that while I asked for £1000, I'd have accepted anything £500+ (and was only expecting something in that region)!

Fully appreciate that if I'd have been prepared to fight, could have got more, but also could have got considerably less, so £750 in our pockets and one wreck of a car off our hands, can't really argue with.

A small victory, but I count it as a victory nonetheless .

Result all round then.

I personally wouldnt have bothered, but fair play to you and a hassle free outcome too.

The dealer will probably £995 it and take a quick couple of hundred profit to move it on again.

jenuk1985

motorguy wrote: »

Result all round then.

I personally wouldnt have bothered, but fair play to you and a hassle free outcome too.

The dealer will probably £995 it and take a quick couple of hundred profit to move it on again.

We originally settled on £850, but he wanted to pay by cheque. Given that he had volunteered the information that he was going to wind up the company tomorrow (again, I don't know how much truth is in that), I had strong suspicions that said cheque might be made out of rubber, and I didn't want all the hassle of potentially dealing with that, so I accepted £750 cash just to put everything behind us.

I am a bit concerned that he'll do the same to the next person. Is it worth just giving Trading Standards a heads up, telling them which car it is and suggest they send someone to ask a few questions about it when it goes back up for sale, to see if they try the same tactics? Or is it not my place anymore and I should just leave it be?