What are your views on this? Im looking at a car that has been damaged in the past and repaired. I emailed the seller to find out the details of the damage. This was his reply:
'It was driven up a kerb (hence new wheels), all the parts that were replaced were genuine brand new renault parts and were a new front bumper and some parts underneath. It was then put on a geometry machine to check it was all straight.
It has been proved by the fact that after 10k miles there is no uneven wear on the tyres.'
It doesn't sound too bad to be but he has no photos of the car when it was damaged so there's no way of seeing the extent of the damage.
For a car like this what would you consider to be an appropriate saving on the price. The car is priced at £5495 and would normally sell for about £8000. Would close to £3k (after haggling) be an appropriate saving? How hard is this car going to be to sell on in the future?
What do you guys think?
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John - I think you have implied answers to your own questions. Aren't there any slightly older examples of the same model in one piece for a similar price?
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sounds ok...maybe worth a aa inspection or similar. its not gona be an easy one to sell on though,but if its what you want go for it
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Andrew, the car is a Clio 172 so there are no older examples than 2000V. This one is a 2001, 27k miles, FRSH in black. I was thinking of maybe keeping it for 6 months or so and then selling, in theory, for not a lot less than i paid for it.
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The 'in theory' bit is key.
Obviously if the car is in good condition, it may be a bargain but only if you plan on keeping it a long time. On selling it, the percentage reduction in value will be the same, but of a much smaller amount. After six months, you'll lose more or less the same as you would with a full-priced car.
Having said that, £2.5k will buy a lot of repairs, should it need them, assuming the car checks out with a professional inspection - and it's a very good saving. Often it's more like £1,500 at this kind of money. It's also probably been thrashed in general given the kind of damage it sustained.
If it's not on any register though (but I assume it must be) then jump at it. You are under no obligation to declare its status but on a register, it almost certainly will be found out, not forgetting of course that it's a criminal offence to sell an unroadworthy vehicle.
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Something strikes me as being a bit odd about this car. If the vehicle is being sold for around £2500 less than it would normally be worth, then like DavidHM also said I would assume it must be listed as an insurance write off.
No-one in their right mind would advertise a car and then openly declare and sell it as having had a bit of an accident and also be prepared to lose £2500 on it, unless it was listed on a register as such.
Which brings me on to the point I am trying to make: If the car has been written off in the past it means that the cost of the repair would have exceeded around 80% of the pre-accident value of the car. (The exact percentage varies from insurer to insurer). But the pre-accident value of the car must have been somewhere looking up towards £10000 and thus if it had been written off it must have been quite badly damaged, and not just in need of "a new front bumper and some parts underneath".
I'm not trying to put you off, but do be sure exactly what you are buying into.
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not forgetting of course that it's a criminal offence to sell an unroadworthy vehicle.>>
Does anyone know if a private seller has ever been done for selling an unroadworthy car? How long after selling it does the seller have a legal responsibility for?
Jonathan
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If it is a performance car then driven up the kerb will translate into lost it big time and hurtled into the scenery :-) I'd be wary with the 'parts underneath' comment and ask whether the damage occurred during a theft or was done by the owner (or one of owner's friends). Would the seller offer you a copy of the repair invoice which will show exactly what was replaced? It would also depend on the quality of the repair itself too. Unless you can get it properly inspected then I wouldn't risk it.
teabelly
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Was this a write off? If it was the damage was considerably more than has been described. I assume it was written off or the seller probably wouldnt have mentioned it.
If it wasnt written off the seller had no obligation to tell you and you in turn have no obligation to tell anyone you sell it to.
It may not have been thrashed, its very easy to cause considerable suspension damage if the wheels understeer into a high kerb and strike at the wrong angle. Pound to a penny its been hammered tho.
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Start with the HPI check and see what this tells you. After that if you're still interested get an AA inspection.
Hugo
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You may well get an account of the damage, but I doubt that you would feel happy inside, whatever it is. But I suppose the more the car changes hands, the fuzzier the history gets?
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Thanks for all the advice guys. The car has sold though so someone has taken the gamble. It had only been on the market for less than 24 hours aswell!
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.. so presumably the seller knew what he was doing ..
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Walk. There's lots of other cars out there. If that's what your budget is, then buy an older car that's done more gentle motorway miles that don't wear the car out.
Remember, if you don't trust it (as you obviously don't) then there's always another second hand car.
If you're suspicious, say thank you and go away.
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