V car yes, retail no?

[metcars 397]

Whats the current thinking on retailing a car with accident history? 

[Nick M.K. 574]

Depends on the car, age, miles, condition and price point as no finance is possible. 

There is demand, cars do sell, some of them for close to normal retail money. 

[Mojo121 229]

I would retail anything with airbags deployed or nasty structural stuff as I don’t know whether it’s been thrown back together properly. So I’m probably in the Cat N only camp. But that’s only if I can see photos of the car smashed. Maybe I’m too fussy but these are big things to me.

[Contracts 68]

As above the trouble is who repaired it and how well was it done?  

Having said that there are plenty of non recorded cars out there that have suffered damage in excess of 40% PAV and been repaired on the cheap.  No points for guessing the main way they end up in he trade.  

[stockedup! 63]

I have sold plenty over the years but only ones that have been repaired and on the road a few years, but have never had a problem with them but tell them it is recorded and don't make a story up to what it had done.

Ratesetter will finance them on a PL but % can be high.

[Arfur Dealy 823]

I wouldn't buy one to retail, however I would take one as a PX as long as its a banger with a few years of recorded MOT's since the damage. I don't like the type of billy they attract.

[David Horgan 564]

Took a C30 as px on CAT d two years ago .

Sold it easy enough but they do attract dozy billys who haven't a clue what cat d means , its just people thinking oh that's cheap .

I avoid them as much as possible 

[Frankieola 22]

Took a Renault Clio in part exchange from a very respectable elderly couple a few years back. Was only when we put it through the workshop that it showed that it had had a really big whack at the front at some point and that all the airbags were missing! Loads of extra wiring in the ecu like a birds nest I expect to keep the warning lights off!! 

They had the car a good few years and I think probably never ever knew. 

We sent it to auction with the warning lights on, lost about £1200 but the right thing to do. 

[Nick M.K. 574]

In July I saw a white BMW 320D GT on a 64 plate enter the hall at Blackbushe, UK Car Group Trade. 21K miles, Cap Clean around £15K, retail around £17K, decent spec and almost as new, very nice and clean car, cat N which I hadn't heard of before but the auctioneer several times repeated non-structural and I thought I'd chance it. £9600 provisional to me, sold later in the day. Bear in mind a car like this cannot be sold on finance even though some companies are falsely advertising it. 

When it arrived our garage couldn't find the accident damage but there was a business card with a lady's name, same as the reg keeper so I called her. She told me the whole story:

Minor bump, rear bumper damaged, repaired by a "BMW Approved" third party bodyshop and her insurer DirectLine paid out. Less than £2K repairs. However immediately on collection she had problems with the rear PDC non working, electric rear spoiler and both electric windows not working. Kicked up a huge fuss, the bodyshop couldn't help, couldn't fix it, DirectLine agreed to write the car off if she paid them back the repair cost and agreed to let her keep the "salvage" (look at it!) for another £5000. Which she did and promptly sold the car to WBAC, now cat N recorded for £8000. They sent it to BCA and that was it.

A brand new control unit that was replaced by that bodyshop was not coded properly, an hour labour to fix, two new front tyres and that was it. 

Sold two months later for just under £14500. With a decent HPI Clear part ex. 

 

 

[andymc1973 199]

its hard enough selling clean cars these days 

[tradegirl 112]

1 hour ago, Nick M.K. said:

In July I saw a white BMW 320D GT on a 64 plate enter the hall at Blackbushe, UK Car Group Trade. 21K miles, Cap Clean around £15K, retail around £17K, decent spec and almost as new, very nice and clean car, cat N which I hadn't heard of before but the auctioneer several times repeated non-structural and I thought I'd chance it. £9600 provisional to me, sold later in the day. Bear in mind a car like this cannot be sold on finance even though some companies are falsely advertising it. 

When it arrived our garage couldn't find the accident damage but there was a business card with a lady's name, same as the reg keeper so I called her. She told me the whole story:

Minor bump, rear bumper damaged, repaired by a "BMW Approved" third party bodyshop and her insurer DirectLine paid out. Less than £2K repairs. However immediately on collection she had problems with the rear PDC non working, electric rear spoiler and both electric windows not working. Kicked up a huge fuss, the bodyshop couldn't help, couldn't fix it, DirectLine agreed to write the car off if she paid them back the repair cost and agreed to let her keep the "salvage" (look at it!) for another £5000. Which she did and promptly sold the car to WBAC, now cat N recorded for £8000. They sent it to BCA and that was it.

A brand new control unit that was replaced by that bodyshop was not coded properly, an hour labour to fix, two new front tyres and that was it. 

Sold two months later for just under £14500. With a decent HPI Clear part ex. 

 

 

That's a beautiful story, and a beautiful car!

[tradegirl 112]

I don't mind them as long as they're CAT N, obviously depending on the vehicle. The change in category name has thrown a few people though, as they don't know quite what it means.

I wouldn't buy one without seeing it in person though.

[JimmyGlen 13]

One '99V Reg BMW 323i that had been in the same family from new and had 1200 worth of 'insurance approved body repairs' required which duly wrote the old thing off. The family bought the car back and repaired for less than 400 and kept the old thing until it was traded into BMW. At the time, we were buying form said dealership (sadly lost them last year after 25years :'( ) and were offered the old thing complete with 'damage' photos. It was nothing, but scanned all the images into the advert so everyone knew it was very minor damage and only written off as it was an old car with little value. 

Apart from that, we dont get involved. 

The price I see accident damaged stuff for sale on AT leaves me wide-eyed at times, it really does. I love it when customers tell me about a 'V-Car' car they've just seen, 'it was like brand new!!', they tell me. Of course it bloody is, half of it it has just been replaced/repainted!! 

 

[metcars 397]

I guess an insurance buy back is the worst of both worlds if the owner either didn't bother to repair or just did a 'belt and braces' job to keep the thing roadworthy?

[Ccstew 2]

I have had a few in the past with no issues.

The problem now is they are not cheap, use to be a time when they were half price as is expected, but now they are the same price as non damaged cars so why bother.

One thing I have noticed is that less and less people are declaring them, two privates I was working on acquiring this month have come up damaged repaired, why not just put it up save us all time and hassle. No wonder they were cheaper.

Did you see the watchdog thing on this the other week? It wasn’t exactly fair but who cares  about that these days.  It has probably scared half of joe public away from anything accident damaged. 

[BHM 994]

15 hours ago, andymc1973 said:

its hard enough selling clean cars these days 

I accidentally bought one at the block a few months ago - I thought it was cheap when the hammer dropped . Anyhow, 2009 (I think) black Focus Estate, decent spec, lovely condition & loads of interest.

A really nice old bloke bought it, came 250 miles on the train, looked like Santa but filthy clothing & stinking of b.o. - glad I wasn’t sat next to him on the train. Oh bugger! I thought when I bought but it was a nice little deal in the end, if I remember correctly, driven out for £850ish & left me at £2200.

[Tom 164]

Is Cat N basically Cat D? 

[Ocsltd 133]

3 minutes ago, Tom said:

Is Cat N basically Cat D? 

Yeah, and I think Cat S in the old Cat C.

[Mark101 536]

2 hours ago, Tom said:

Is Cat N basically Cat D? 

Correct

2 hours ago, Ocsltd said:

Yeah, and I think Cat S in the old Cat C.

Correct

[NOACROSS 414]

Had a deal scuppered today when I hpi'd the chopper- Cat S.  Punter said she wasn't aware and had paid nine gran for it 6 months ago retail!  Cat S. 

(*grand) no edit button :0(

[Arfur Dealy 823]

S = Structural..... N = Non Structural  

[Tom 164]

2 minutes ago, Arfur Dealy said:

S = Structural..... N = Non Structural  

Thats makes sense