If you think you have ever had any nightmares in buying a car then read on.
I saw an S4 Avant on Autotrader in November last year which was advertised as Salvage and 'kerbed'.On the advert was the URL for the sellers company site which I then went to to get more details on the car
and look at the photographs. There was some text describing the car as kerbed and unrecorded. There was also some photographs showing the damage to the car which looked like it had been severely kerbed. I thought it could be repaired quite effectively by a specialist so got a friend who owns a very high quality automatibve repair centre to call the seller to go through what might need doing and what actual damage there was to the car which may not have been visible on the photographs.
He duly did this and the seller told him there was not too much non-visible
damage and the repairs would be fairly straight forward.
So I then phoned the seller and agreed a price for the car.I also asked the seller at this point to confirm that the car was unrecorded because I was buying this for my wife and I did not want her driving around in a Cat D car.I asked him if this was unrecorded three times during this conversation. He confirmed it was. I then organised with the seller the transportation of the car to Surrey where the work on the car would be carried out. The car was delivered to Surrey on the 28th November (My birthday) and as soon as it came off the transporter in Surrey my friend (repair specialist) called me to say that the car has far more damage underneath then the seller had described and urged me to do an HPI check almost immediately.
I did an HPI Check instantly and and to my HORROR it came back with outstanding finance against a private plate that had been on the car AND was a Category D Insurance write off. I instantly telephoned the seller who said that the HPI report was wrong and that they were 'trying to sort
things out' with the Insurance company.
Anway after many phone calls the sellers attitude changed very quickly to
"we look forward to hearing from your lawyer."
I then phoned the police in Sheffield (where the seller is located) to report this as fraudulent trading. I also did this with the Consumer Direct (Trading Standards) . With both the police and Consumer Direct I may as well have phoned the Julie Andrews appreciation society because they would have probably have been more concerned.
I have decided not to go down the litigation route because of the time scales involved and because I run a very busy company.
So if you ever think of buying any kind of salvage car get it HPI checked before you do anything and do not believe a word that the seller says.
I have an Audi S4 Avant (04 reg with 30,000 miles) on it sitting in Haslemere,Surrey at the moment.The outstanding finance has been removed but it is Category D.
It will be going on Autotrader soon as very accurately described salvage.
Final point, do not what ever you do go anywhere near this company:
Carwood Auto Salavge as you might be posting the same kind of
thread as me.
I saw an S4 Avant on Autotrader in November last year which was advertised as Salvage and 'kerbed'.On the advert was the URL for the sellers company site which I then went to to get more details on the car
and look at the photographs. There was some text describing the car as kerbed and unrecorded. There was also some photographs showing the damage to the car which looked like it had been severely kerbed. I thought it could be repaired quite effectively by a specialist so got a friend who owns a very high quality automatibve repair centre to call the seller to go through what might need doing and what actual damage there was to the car which may not have been visible on the photographs.
He duly did this and the seller told him there was not too much non-visible
damage and the repairs would be fairly straight forward.
So I then phoned the seller and agreed a price for the car.I also asked the seller at this point to confirm that the car was unrecorded because I was buying this for my wife and I did not want her driving around in a Cat D car.I asked him if this was unrecorded three times during this conversation. He confirmed it was. I then organised with the seller the transportation of the car to Surrey where the work on the car would be carried out. The car was delivered to Surrey on the 28th November (My birthday) and as soon as it came off the transporter in Surrey my friend (repair specialist) called me to say that the car has far more damage underneath then the seller had described and urged me to do an HPI check almost immediately.
I did an HPI Check instantly and and to my HORROR it came back with outstanding finance against a private plate that had been on the car AND was a Category D Insurance write off. I instantly telephoned the seller who said that the HPI report was wrong and that they were 'trying to sort
things out' with the Insurance company.
Anway after many phone calls the sellers attitude changed very quickly to
"we look forward to hearing from your lawyer."
I then phoned the police in Sheffield (where the seller is located) to report this as fraudulent trading. I also did this with the Consumer Direct (Trading Standards) . With both the police and Consumer Direct I may as well have phoned the Julie Andrews appreciation society because they would have probably have been more concerned.
I have decided not to go down the litigation route because of the time scales involved and because I run a very busy company.
So if you ever think of buying any kind of salvage car get it HPI checked before you do anything and do not believe a word that the seller says.
I have an Audi S4 Avant (04 reg with 30,000 miles) on it sitting in Haslemere,Surrey at the moment.The outstanding finance has been removed but it is Category D.
It will be going on Autotrader soon as very accurately described salvage.
Final point, do not what ever you do go anywhere near this company:
Carwood Auto Salavge as you might be posting the same kind of
thread as me.