Yes, the car is much less likely to have been off-roaded if sourced from someone who owned it in the south.

‘VAT qualifying’ doesn't help you. What it means is that the vehicle has previously been owned by a leasing or a rental fleet who reclaimed the purchase VAT. When the car was re-sold, a retailer or a lease/rental fleet could also reclaim the VAT element of the price, then charge VAT on whatever price it eventually sold the car for and pay that VAT to HMRC. You cannot reclaim it in the same way as you could for a van or for a pick-up that you legitimately needed to run your VAT registered business.