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Does anyone have any experience of suing an inspection service provider? My inspector didn't report that there were signs of major accident repairs and also missed other defects. If you have sued what was the outcome?
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you SHOULD have a report from the inspector saying what defects the car has, if it doesnt say anything about the damage, then you have a case, because he should have spotted these things. also see if he charged for an HPI check, because alot of inspectors do these (ABS inspectors, and RAC, AA), if the HPI check says its clear of damage, then you have a very strong case, but the inspector might argue, saying that the damage was done AFTER the inspection.
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Actually, the question is could you have reasonably expected this damage to be detected, given the time the inspeciton took and the amount of money you paid ?
In addition, how do the disclaimers read ?
Finally, Chris is wrong. Your case would be stronger if he charged for an HPI check and the check said it was *not* clear of damage.
Also, see if you can check through the previous owners and find out when, and under what circumstances, the damge was done.
M.
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I bought privately from the previous owner and he lied to me! He mentioned a minor bump which meant one wing was resprayed. The truth was that £12,000 of repairs were carried out and the car was worth circa £10000 to £11000! The HPI checked revealed nothing adverse.
If the action fails against the inspection service providers I haven't closed the door to suing the previous owner.
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Andrew, let us know which company; AA? I am arranging one early next year when I look at a purchase from a remote Landrover dealer.
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I fear it's a bit tricky naming names just yet as strictly speaking their negligence has not yet been proved. My case wont come up untill well into the new year.
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Andrew,
If the car is HPI clear and repaired to a good standard is there really a problem?
Not being difficult, just wondering.
David
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Yeah, would YOU give me full market price if I told you it has just had more spent on it than it was worth, or would you be cautious at least or more like find one without a history? It was a major accident, there could be all sorts of latent defects waiting to rear their ugly heads. The vendor didn't PX against his new one, probably because he was offered peanuts for it. My servicing garage have said they wouldn't take it off me in PX because of the history.
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You're bound to be cross about this but I was really trying to understand more about the particular case of yours.
Two examples to compare.....
1. A customer arrived here one day with their new car I'd not seen before. Purchased for £6K (this is three years ago) and from a main dealer. As it arrived I just "knew" it was a wrong 'un. Close inspection revealed every item of the interior had been removed (from chewed self tappers and other marks), the o/s front wing and drivers door were second hand replacements.....worse of all the main pillar that the rear door hinges on was cut from another car and roughly welded in. On top of that the pre-sale service had not included oil/filter and the air filter was filthy. A right dog. Armed with this information they hit the garage after the weekend and were given a full refund from the grovelling sales manager.
2. Another customer had a no-fault hard frontal in a desireable sports hatch where the bodywork was wrapped round the engine. They expected it to be written off but it was repaired by insurance at a cost of £3.5K by a VAG bodyshop to all the proper standards. Shortly after the customer sold this car privately for its full value (about £4K) without mentioning the damage at all. And why should they. There was no reason why they should suffer any loss from the accident and to mention the repairs could have reduced the cars value by £1000.
I wonder which camp yours fits into? If the second example had been pre-purchase inspected by anyone I doubt the repairs would have been discovered. However when servicing it up on the ramps then I think you might have twigged.
Then there's a dilemma, do you tell the customer and spoil their enjoyment of the car setting all the doubts in place you have now?
As I said Andrew not trying to wind you up, just expand the discussion.
David
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A while back somebody asked the question "why does anybody buy a new car?". This pretty much gives your answer. If you buy a car from new then you know every detail of its history.
When I bought my last car I was a little shocked that all the front suspension had to be replaced a couple of weeks after I bought it (at 30k miles). At the time I wanted to just get rid of it but it has since proved ok over the following year. This is the gamble you take with a second hand car.
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i would rather buy a £500 car instead of buying a £10,000 car, and have to worry about depreciation.
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Actually it's the inbetween cars that are a problem. Spend 10k on a car and all will probably be well. Spend £500 on a car and you can take everything as it comes if anything expensive happens you can just scrap it. If you spend somewhere inbetween then you can get all sorts of niggles and you're not sure whether it's worth sorting them out.
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Am I right in thinking that if a car is properly repaired and inspected it is then REMOVED from the HPI register? (i.e. it will show up as clear, and not that it has had an accident?
I bought a VW 'approved used' R prefix passat which came with (I think) an HPI certificate, yet my local main agent (sorry guys, serviced to maintain the warranty) told me it had had a major frontal at some stage....
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When I bought my first VW Golf around 3.5 years ago my number one candidate was revealed to have been a write off at some stage by an HPI check (shows how good I was at spotting one). I told the vendor this & he seemed genuinely ignorant of the history, in fact the story he told me of how he acquired the car seemed to back him up. At the time I looked into having it inspected & then taken off the condition alert register, which can be done if a car is inspected by an HPI approved inspector - subject to their report HPI will remove the car from the condition alert register. The vendor wasn't particularly interested in paying for this to be done & all the advice I got (not from particularly knowledgeable people) was "Don't buy a write off" so I didn't.
So you can do it. Of course when I crashed it I would have much rather had the car repaired than it be declared a total loss, which just goes to show that I would have happily driven round in a car that I'd crashed & had repaired but not one that someone else had crashed & had repaired.
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How did you find out about the damage and the cost of repairs ?
From the information you have given this all sounds a bit dodgy.
Who would pay £ 12000 for repairs on a car which is worth £ 11000 ?
Have you checked all of the security markings VIN tag/chassis stamp/engine no/window etching and plastic components( for approx manufacture date.)
I recently sold a car privately which the vendor had inspected by the AA. The inspector did not even look at the paperwork - V5/MOT/service history --so i would not assume basic security checks have been carried out.
Hope i this does'nt alarm you !
I can understand just how pissed off you must be. It seems various people in this forum have a very typical british attitude (you know--dont make a fuss) but you valued and purchased a car based on the expert advice of a inspector. If that inspector missed major accident damage -which seriously effects the resell value of this car you are entitled to compensation.
Best of luck
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Steve,
Matt sums it up perfectly...
......."Of course when I crashed it I would have much rather had the car repaired than it be declared a total loss, which just goes to show that I would have happily driven round in a car that I'd crashed & had repaired but not one that someone else had crashed & had repaired."
There are folks all over (knowingly and unknowingly) driving about cars that have been properly repaired after major shunts and they can be fine. It seems that knowing about it is more important than the reality of the repair quality.
The example I gave of the sports hatch with £3.5K of front end repairs was the point I was making, it had been done properly so there was virtually no evidence to find for a roadside buyers inspection. The inspector couldn't be blamed for not sussing it. But get the car in the service bay and on ramps for a couple of hours and odd things would come to your attention to give you a few clues.
Isn't that what happened with Andrews so perhaps his is properly repaired and not a huge cause for concern.
David
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Thank you for your support! Unlike most of the other respondents you appreciate that I did not want a crash repaired vehicle and chose to pay for a service. The service I paid for was not delivered. Not only did the inspector fail to follow a trail of indicators to lead him to conclude that there was a previous accident but also missed other defects that were easily within the scope of the inspection. About 75% of the car was resprayed. I've had motors resprayed in the past and they look great just after the job is done but go down hill very fast after that. I didn't want to buy a car like this and paid someone to tell me about the condition but he failed.
I'd really like to know if there are any cases like this that have gone to court and what was the outcome.
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Gentlemen, this has been all very educational but I suggest you check out the email address of the thread originator.
I hope I am wrong but then again.....................
watson@awatson.fsnet.co.uk hmmmmm????
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Sorry , but am i missing something here Stuart B ?
Why do you question the originators email address ?
Seems a genuine question ?
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certain things about the thread question and subsequent responses don't hang together like as you yourself point out paying £12,000 repairs for an £11,000 car. Then I look at the address which seems to contain a lot of watsons.
I consider its a wind up. That is my opinion and I am entitled to express it.
No doubt I will get another load of garbage e mail from some little t*sser who would be better off doing his geography homework.
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I'm sorry you think it's all a wind up. I wish it was. The only thing dodgy about all this is my motor!
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Andrew's standard of spelling, grammar, use of punctuation and - critically - his ability to use the Shift key accurately - bears no comparison with t'other watson. So I believe him!
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hOO ISS THIZ OTHRE wATOSN ANYWAY?
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