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Bit of a strange one this, bought a little Fiat 500 multijet from Manheim B'ham on jan 4th.Sorted quite a few jobs,seat repair,clutch master cylinder,hatch handle etc. Car at auction was declared not on Vcar. Now its got a fresh clean ticket I put it into AT portal for a price guide, todays retail is around £3600. Once i click next, up pops Cat N! I have had a good look around the car and there is nothing obvious with the panels as to why its Cat N,every panel looks original and there is no filler in them.

Called Manheim yesterday and they see it is on their Experian as Cat N and they will look into it and call me back. Well they have rang today to say it was entered into their auction on the 3rd and was not on Vcar then,I bought it on the 4th. The car was entered on the Vcar on the 11th of Jan. They are going to get back to me tomorrow when they have had a chat with the vendor. To be fair to Manheim B'ham the girls in the office are really good.

As it stands the car plus tip was nearly £2200 and I have spent around £200 prepping it. I was going to retail it for around £3300 for a quick sale and have a margin of about £900. But as its Cat N that's kind of out the window now. So I assume that they are going to offer to buy back the car, or give a discount off the car tomorrow.

I just wondered what would you  guys do in this situation? My thoughts are .....                                                                                                                                                                                       1) just hand the car back as its Cat N and may be tricky to sell. Would they then give me my money back for parts/mot as I have upgraded it?                                                                                   2) Ask for a hefty discount as its a Cat N, maybe 1/2 cap clean valuation and sell it as a Cat N. If i got it for say £1400 with tip plus £200 refurb I am in it for £1600 total and selling it for £2500 would give me a similar margin as if it wasn't a Cat N car, i.e. £900.

Any help/ideas appreciated.

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Send it back,you need a full refund plus all your costs and rising on a daily basis like storage fees.Alternatively try and negotiate  a full refund plus a favour from the auction.Stand your ground,be prepared for bullshit.

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I was thinking just get shot of it back to them. but with the sniff of a decent profit i think it went to my head! Hopefully they will reimburse me for the costs i have incurred to prep it, cheers tv. I'm wondering if the last owner pulled a fast one and got shot of it before it hit the register.

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2 hours ago, trade vet said:

Send it back,you need a full refund plus all your costs and rising on a daily basis like storage fees.Alternatively try and negotiate  a full refund plus a favour from the auction.Stand your ground,be prepared for bullshit.

Agree with this

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I did think when it popped up on Autotrader as Cat N, have i fooked up and not noticed the car was on vcar. Glad its their problem to sort!

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didnt know about that website. tapped in reg and vin, says ' No salvage records found for this vehicle!  '. wonder if its still not on at all registry places. Or maybe the marker has been put on by mistake

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1 hour ago, Mistermuttley said:

didnt know about that website. tapped in reg and vin, says ' No salvage records found for this vehicle!  '. wonder if its still not on at all registry places. Or maybe the marker has been put on by mistake

The website only lists cars that were at a salvage auction.

You have 2 issues

1) Manheim isn't salvage auction

2) The vehicle was entered on the database after auction.

But 1 supercedes the lot as the website clearly says "vehicles that have been at a salvage auction"

 

Checked some of my own ones and the one that had been to salvage auction comes up and ones that didnt dont come up.

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3 hours ago, ExCouncilJobsworth said:

The website only lists cars that were at a salvage auction.

You have 2 issues

1) Manheim isn't salvage auction

2) The vehicle was entered on the database after auction.

But 1 supercedes the lot as the website clearly says "vehicles that have been at a salvage auction"

 

Checked some of my own ones and the one that had been to salvage auction comes up and ones that didnt dont come up.

that makes sense then. cheers 

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Do yourself a favour and if they agree to take your car back plus betterment, let them.

They take forever to shift, even the straight well priced ones.

Definately on my will never buy again list.

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35 minutes ago, Mark101 said:

 

Definately on my will never buy again list.

Absolutely! Horrible horrible horrible cheap nasty cars. 

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Mmmm i do pick em! Think i might just look for subaru estates. The interest i had in one of those was ridiculous.

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Money back on the car. Explain you appreciate them handling it promptly. Free hammer fee on 2 future purchases. Save it for a nice chunky car with a big fee 

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4 hours ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Absolutely! Horrible horrible horrible cheap nasty cars. 

Could not agree more.. bugger to shift even a nice one!

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4 hours ago, Mistermuttley said:

Mmmm i do pick em! Think i might just look for subaru estates. The interest i had in one of those was ridiculous.

Wrx? Or standard petrol/ diesel?

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2 hours ago, ExCouncilJobsworth said:

Wrx? Or standard petrol/ diesel?

Just a Legacy 2.0 GL estate, 2003 ,needed a bit of work,paint on a couple of panels and an exhaust ,but once advertised everybody wanted it. a guy came from wales for it and checked the body for rust thoroughly, the body for its age was mint. He reckoned loads are shot at this age but mine was solid. A big 4wd estate for a good price fills a niche and I guess there is  more demand for them than supply.

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7 hours ago, Rory RSC said:

Money back on the car. Explain you appreciate them handling it promptly. Free hammer fee on 2 future purchases. Save it for a nice chunky car with a big fee 

Latest update for this is, have spoken to a manager called Dale. Dealt with him before ,decent fair bloke. He as said Arnold Clarkes office girls are looking into it and if it is Cat N then they will do a refund. I have mentioned the cost to me of parts/repairs which stand around £200 and he did say it was only policy to return the purchase/bid fees but talk to him about it once Arnold Clarke have done their investigation and he would see what he could do. If he doesn't suggest a couple of free hammer fees I might suggest it to him,its a decent idea that. Heres what it looks like now finished, but still glad to get shot of it if its Cat N.

_Wqx25mwOu1OBEV6gy_sIg2090SygAXXcCEUUtAz

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1 hour ago, Mistermuttley said:

Latest update for this is, have spoken to a manager called Dale. Dealt with him before ,decent fair bloke. He as said Arnold Clarkes office girls are looking into it and if it is Cat N then they will do a refund. I have mentioned the cost to me of parts/repairs which stand around £200 and he did say it was only policy to return the purchase/bid fees but talk to him about it once Arnold Clarke have done their investigation and he would see what he could do. If he doesn't suggest a couple of free hammer fees I might suggest it to him,its a decent idea that. Heres what it looks like now finished, but still glad to get shot of it if its Cat N.

_Wqx25mwOu1OBEV6gy_sIg2090SygAXXcCEUUtAz

They are all nice guys but they have to ‘toe the company line ‘ You have to present them with an invoice for your time and expenditure so far.Include copies of any prep bills you have.You need to be compensated.

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12 hours ago, trade vet said:

They are all nice guys but they have to ‘toe the company line ‘ You have to present them with an invoice for your time and expenditure so far.Include copies of any prep bills you have.You need to be compensated.

Easiest way is to get hammer fees or delivery etc if you want a cheque your making life hard for yourself. Saved up a free hammer fee for a £30k car I bought - Came out ahead with that one.

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5 minutes ago, Rory RSC said:

Easiest way is to get hammer fees or delivery etc if you want a cheque your making life hard for yourself. Saved up a free hammer fee for a £30k car I bought - Came out ahead with that one.

Good advice

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Bit of an update. On a chance i sent a letter to the last owner asking if she had been involved in an accident as it was  Cat N but i can't see any bodywork issues. She has been good enough to call me today and let me know in her 3 years of ownership she has never had an accident in it. She did say though that her insurance company had been contacted by LV regarding a bump in which her car was involved,apparently during a 3 point turn! She said that was not her and when querying it, LV had realised they had got the wrong car. Even the letter she received from her insurance company showed the right Reg' but a different name of owner. 

So it appears that LV have put it on the register wrongfully and haven't bothered to remove it. Will contact Manheim tommorrow and fingers crossed it will be relatively painless to resolve. 

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4 minutes ago, Mistermuttley said:

 

So it appears that LV have put it on the register wrongfully and haven't bothered to remove it. Will contact Manheim tommorrow and fingers crossed it will be relatively painless to resolve. 

no

for it to be removed a representative of the insurance company has to confirm this car was not subject to this classification ie an insurance assesor ,unfortunately lv dont have any of these as its all done by photos and reports sent by bodyshops so car would need to go to lv approved bodyshop for inspection

they send this information to the dvla and also hpi if agreed mistake made

it can take 6 to 8 weeks to get the marker removed 

thats assuming everyone puts their gearsticks in drive

i have nothing but praise for lv but you doing this work will only give you a car parked up and constantly checking the hpi register

keep gob shut go for reimbursement on the terms i told you,getting extra is a bonus from auction house

 

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And there i was thinking as it was just a stupid error it would be an easy fix. Not the cars fault ,but Fiat 500's are definitely marmite and i think I'm going off marmite!

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8 hours ago, boring dave said:

keep gob shut go for reimbursement on the terms i told you,getting extra is a bonus from auction house

 

Definitely 

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