What is the general opinion of stolen/recovered and salvage cars? Are there any circumstances under which they make a good buy for the average private buyer, e.g. if a car with 'light panel damage' was bought, repaired and run until the end of its useful life (thereby avoiding a difficult resale)? Or is it better to just steer clear?
Mike
|
Older cars with light panel damage can be a good buy. Insurers will often write off a car for fairly trivial damage. But you need to inspect very carefully. Modern cars are designed to absorb the force of an impact by transmitting it through the bodyshell, and you can find that an apparently minor knock causes distortion quite some distance from the impact point. With the number of old cars out there for little money, I would only buy a salvage vehicle if it was in exceptional pre-accident condition, requires only bolt on panels and components (lights, doors), and is very, very cheap. Basically, if the panel gaps are at all uneven, if any of the doors are difficult to open, if there is damage to the sills, or if there is any suspicion of impact damage to wheels or suspension, don't touch it with a bargepole.
I bought a lovely low mileage Citroen AX with a dented door and rear quarter panel, ran it for a year and sold it for the same as I paid, so it can be done, but I inspected and rejected a lot of cars before I found that one.
|
|
For smaller cars that are popular with joyriders (corsas etc) it is almost impossible to source locks and ignition barrels from a scrapper. Take a good look along & across the roof preferably on a sunny day as even minor damage can give the roof a slight buckle. Not all stolen cars will be damaged, if they are recoverd > 6 weeks after they were knicked the insurane company may ( In an ideal world !!) have paid out, and therefore they need to dispose of the car even though the car is not damaged.
|
Vern
nice picture.
"there is, you will agree a certain je ne sais quoi, un so very special about a firm young carrot!"
"As a youth I used to weep in butchers shops."
By the way, he had a very nice RR (motoring link).
Jonathan
|
|
|
|
|
You tend to also find that the salvage/insurance companies are quite cute on how much money they can make on a car with relatively minor damage and thus the prices of such vehicles make it hardly worthwhile doing.
|
|
|
Agree with you Simon.
The prices asked for damaged cars are too high.
Better off buying good clean car at auction or privately.
|
I wish insurance companies wouldnt bother selling on (badly) crash damaged cars. It would prevent sooooo many wrecks being poorly repaired and sold on to some poor mug.
The insurance companies will also not pay out the full amount if they are aware that the car has been in an accident previously, and you need to claim at a later date.
Perhaps the cars should be sold on for spare parts only, thus giving the insurance companies some money back. This should limit the increase in premium resulting from the loss of revenue from selling on the wrecks.
Or am I being to idealistic?
Its just really difficult to find a used car that has not been accident repaired, even fairly new ones.
|
|
The problem with buying a previously stolen car is that the people who borrowed it will probably have tested it's ability to rev through the gears in a rather enthusiastic manner. I once had a Capri stolen and when I got it back the oil light would not go out and it sounded like an explosion in a nail factory.
|
Older light damage cars at the salvage auctions are dirt cheap. Perfectly good 1990s runners with perhaps just a wing and bumper to do.....£5 - £75.
David
|
|
|
|
