Nearly bought a crashed car

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stefg

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Hi,

I narrowly avoided buying a crashed car today. I saw the car a few weeks ago on www.carzone.ie advertised by a garage in dublin and I went to see it and test drove it... all seemed fine. However, being very cautious before dishing out the cash, I got the car checked on www.cartell.ie and then paid for an AA inspection.

It checked out with www.cartell.ie The AA inspection found that the car had been involved in a serious accident. All of the front panels and bonnet had been replaced and even the man from the AA was impressed how well the repair work had been done. Mechanically, the engine was fine but there were also stress marks on the chassis and he told me it not be worth considering buying the car. I will be getting the full report in writing in a day or two, it is being posted to me today. The garage claim they were unaware it had been crashed.

Now I'm wondering what do I do next, I'm disappointed obviously, it seemed like a great car and I paid €250 euro (AA and www.cartell.ie) researching the car, but I'm so lucky that I didn't buy it. I was tempted as the garage was offering a years guarantee and it checked out on [broken link removed]. It was a lucky escape but how can help others to avoid buying this car. Is there some way I can register the car as damaged? Is there anyway I can prevent the garage selling it on to some unknowing buyer? Should the gardai be contacted? I believe the garage were honestly unaware about the cars history so maybe involving the gardai is the wrong approach.

Anyone else had similar experiences? Any advice what I should do next?

Just on a side note, I would recommend the AA car inspection to anyone buying a car, they are really thorough. Might be a bit pricey (got AA membership discount though!!! :)) but saved me a fortune in the end!!

Thanks,
Stef
 
Its a tough one. Garages make mistakes taking in trade-ins just like customers do buying them. The garage is going to have to get their money back out of the car somehow. If the repairs are as good as you say I wouldn't be surprised if they keep it on the forecourt. If they have really strict quality standards then they might put it out to the trade but somebody is going to end up buying it, happens all the time. Nothing really you can do. I don't think SIMI could even help here. If it is still up for sale at the garage you could just tell your friends and family not to shop there in the future. There is a good chance it will give no more trouble than an un-crashed car.
 
Give a link to the car on carzone! The garage must be responsible....misrepresentation? Surely the garage should at least give you the cost of the inspection? Can you inform an insurance company of the state of the car? Maybe if they knew they would refuse to insure it?
 
Hi,

Thanks for that Liam, I 'm kinda thinking that there's not much I can do also other than tell people to avoid the dealer / that car.

Macnas,
I'm going to ask the garage owner to contact me today so I'll let you know how I get on. I emailed carzone and gave them the details and suggested that they remove the listing, however I noticed that the car was 'confirmed in stock today'. However the car only seems to be listed in the dealer specific search, it appears to have been removed from the main search.

Once I receive the written report from AA and the response from the owner of the garage will I post the details. I have all the details, and I mean ALL the details (registration details, engine number etc) , of the car so I'll post them with the link when I have the report.

Does anyone else think it's reasonable for me to ask the garage for compensation for the cost of the AA inspection. This was something that crossed my mind but I don't think the garage will be willing to do this.

A concern that I have at the moment is that the ad still states a full service history (fsh) and the garage emailed me previously stating that car had no repair done. I had asked specifically if the car had ever had any work done other than standard scheduled service and they clearly said no. Now they cannot claim to have the full service history as they don't know about the crash repairs. I'm uneasy about the fact that someone else may buy the car based on the fsh because it has logged all scheduled services were done but not the crash repairs.

Thanks,
Stef

P.S. RS2K, wasn't too convinved by www.cartell.ie, not sure if I'll them again. They give details like registration dates and if the car was ever used as a taxi etc but all the interesting stuff like outstanding finance comes with loads of small print that I understood to mean they don't guarantee anything about the finance information they give. I could be wrong on this but there's lots of small print and it all sounds negative, made me think I'd wasted €40.
 
I'd pass this by the site moderators before posting...
 
stefg said:
P.S. RS2K, wasn't too convinved by www.cartell.ie, not sure if I'll them again. They give details like registration dates and if the car was ever used as a taxi etc but all the interesting stuff like outstanding finance comes with loads of small print that I understood to mean they don't guarantee anything about the finance information they give. I could be wrong on this but there's lots of small print and it all sounds negative, made me think I'd wasted €40.
Click to expand...

I agree. I got a HPI check done on a car in the UK and they are an impressive bunch.

Cartell seems to be a complete waste of money to me.
 
I don't think the moderators would approve of naming and shaming the garage. Not that it would bother me. As for getting your money back.. If the garage is a small time independant dealer it's unlikely you will have any luck. However the likes of Nissan, Toyota and BMW dealers who claim to have "New standards for used cars" etc. should be a different story. If you don't have any joy with the dealer principal or sales manager you should let it be known that you are going to register your complaint with the main distributer (eg. Nissan Ireland or the equivalent) and also to SIMI.

I'd expect they will offer you your costs as a further discount on an identical make and model. If you don't have any confidence in the dealer anymore and don't want to do business with them, I would be surprised if they didn't give you your money back. Especially if you do make your complaints as I have outlined.
 
Have you thought about actually going through with purchasing the car? Being devils advocate here, you know the state of the car. You could get a mechanic known to you to check it out for road worthiness as well.

If you could get a deal from the garage (get car NCT'ed, a longer guarantee/warranty from them, and substantial discount because car was crashed), you could end up with a decent car that you liked, and a substantially better price.

Something to remember/consider would be how long you intend keeping the car for, and how much you might actually get for the car when you intend to get rid of it down the road.

I was in a similar situation. Found car I liked which was crashed and repaired, also done very well. Once I'd the car checked out by "my" mechanic, he said that the car was roadworthy, and would most likely not give me any problems.

I got the car at a discount from garage, got a 2 1/2 year guarantee from him, and he's agreed to purchase it back from me when I'm done with it. Realistically, when I do get rid of it, given the amount I paid for it, the use I've gotten from it, and it's age when I do get rid (> 7 years), I'm not going to mind not getting that much back on it anyway.

Car was 3 years old when I bought it 3 years ago, and I haven't had any problems since. Passed 2 NCTs since, and has done a significant amount of mileage.

Just something worth considering.
 
Hi,

Good News!! :D The dealer agreed to give a refund for the AA inspection if I give him a copy of the AA report. He told me that he intends to take legal action against the company that sold him the car (a sort of used car wholesaler by the sound of it) if they refuse to refund him for the car.

As for posting the details, yeah, I agree that naming and shaming is not a good idea, especially as I do believe that the dealer was unaware of the cars history. My aim by posting details of the car was to prevent someone buying the car unknowingly.

I'll have a look at the AA detailed report before I make any decisions about whether the car is still worth looking at.

Stef
 
CCOVICH said:
That's interesting-did you get this in writing?
Click to expand...

Nope, but I take the man for his word (unusually I know in this world as we know it).

TBH, AFAIK, whenever I come to get rid of my car (probably February next year), the car will be a 7 year old crash-repaired car which I'll have had for 4 years and 90k miles.

I won't be expecting a whole lot anyway, so as long as he takes it off my hands and I don't have to stick a for sale poster in the back window, I'll be happy.
 
ronan_d_john said:
Nope, but I take the man for his word (unusually I know in this world as we know it).

TBH, AFAIK, whenever I come to get rid of my car (probably February next year), the car will be a 7 year old crash-repaired car which I'll have had for 4 years and 90k miles.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

ronan_d_john said:
I won't be expecting a whole lot anyway, so as long as he takes it off my hands and I don't have to stick a for sale poster in the back window, I'll be happy.
Click to expand...

Why-do you want to organise a race?;)
 
stefg said:
Any advice what I should do next?
Click to expand...

Yeah, walk away. Simple as that. Plenty of other cars around. I know you are at a loss of a small amount of cash, but im certain you saved yourself from that particular car breaking your heart in the long run.

Buyers market out there at moment, so go shopping:)
 
liamwoods said:
Garages make mistakes taking in trade-ins just like customers do buying them.
Click to expand...

Why did the AA inspector find out that the car was crashed and not the Garage Mechanic before the car was put on the yard? surely the Garage Mechanic should have done a full check on the car before it was put up for sale? I wonder how many other crashed cars out there are selling in Dealers as perfect cars?
 
Lots. Very few garages have a mechanic examine every potential trade in. It's hard to arrange. And most garages are going to have at least one new sales-guy who don't know squat.
 
I sold a car a couple of years ago privately and an AA guy came to give it the once over.

He was extemely thorough, and knew exactly what he was looking for. The inspection took a couple of hours.

The car was perfect, and the sale went through fine.
 
I bought a car recently and found out the car has been crashed , the garage only told me because i told them i was getting it checked out by the AA, also had the car back in the garage five times with different problems and kept beening fobbed of by them they told me firstly that the bodyshop said it had never been crashed and let me take it out of the garage what should i do as they are quiet a big named garage.

I narrowly avoided buying a crashed car today. I saw the car a few weeks ago on www.carzone.ie advertised by a garage in dublin and I went to see it and test drove it... all seemed fine. However, being very cautious before dishing out the cash, I got the car checked on www.cartell.ie and then paid for an AA inspection.

It checked out with www.cartell.ie The AA inspection found that the car had been involved in a serious accident. All of the front panels and bonnet had been replaced and even the man from the AA was impressed how well the repair work had been done. Mechanically, the engine was fine but there were also stress marks on the chassis and he told me it not be worth considering buying the car. I will be getting the full report in writing in a day or two, it is being posted to me today. The garage claim they were unaware it had been crashed.

Now I'm wondering what do I do next, I'm disappointed obviously, it seemed like a great car and I paid €250 euro (AA and www.cartell.ie) researching the car, but I'm so lucky that I didn't buy it. I was tempted as the garage was offering a years guarantee and it checked out on [broken link removed]. It was a lucky escape but how can help others to avoid buying this car. Is there some way I can register the car as damaged? Is there anyway I can prevent the garage selling it on to some unknowing buyer? Should the gardai be contacted? I believe the garage were honestly unaware about the cars history so maybe involving the gardai is the wrong approach.

Anyone else had similar experiences? Any advice what I should do next?

Just on a side note, I would recommend the AA car inspection to anyone buying a car, they are really thorough. Might be a bit pricey (got AA membership discount though!!! :)) but saved me a fortune in the end!!

Thanks,
Stef[/quote]
 
TBH with the number of iffy motors going around I'd get a AA check on any car regardless if from a main dealer, dealer or private sale. I'd even consider doing it on a new one. I've heard horror stories about those too.
 
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