Car dealers .
03 March 2004, 07:38 PM
#1
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Car dealers .
My brother purchased a 52 plate fiesta zetec s about a month ago from a garage.
When we first went to see the car it was imacaulate and very low milage (7000 miles ) and 1 previous owner .We noticed that the passenger door was slightly off but thought it was just ford excellent craftsmanship .
Any way within the past week he has been thinking that it might have been in a smash so he decided to call the previous owner to ask them . Their answer was "NO" ! Still not a 100% he took the car to a body shop to ask their advice and they said that the car had been in a front end smash and that the whole chassie was off . So with this he phoned me and we took a trip out to the garage to see what they had to say about it . Their reply was "Blah,blah,blah we did our HPI check and it came back saming that it had not been involved in an accident and we asked the previous owner and they said that the car had never been in an accident so what do you want us to do. My brother told him that he wanted his money back because the car was a bucket of $hi+ .
We were then told he did not want to talk to us anymore and come back when we had it in writting from an insurance approved bodyshop that the car had been in a smash .
What do you think his chances is of getting his money back when he gets it in writting ?
How accurate are these HPI checks ?
When we first went to see the car it was imacaulate and very low milage (7000 miles ) and 1 previous owner .We noticed that the passenger door was slightly off but thought it was just ford excellent craftsmanship .
Any way within the past week he has been thinking that it might have been in a smash so he decided to call the previous owner to ask them . Their answer was "NO" ! Still not a 100% he took the car to a body shop to ask their advice and they said that the car had been in a front end smash and that the whole chassie was off . So with this he phoned me and we took a trip out to the garage to see what they had to say about it . Their reply was "Blah,blah,blah we did our HPI check and it came back saming that it had not been involved in an accident and we asked the previous owner and they said that the car had never been in an accident so what do you want us to do. My brother told him that he wanted his money back because the car was a bucket of $hi+ .
We were then told he did not want to talk to us anymore and come back when we had it in writting from an insurance approved bodyshop that the car had been in a smash .
What do you think his chances is of getting his money back when he gets it in writting ?
How accurate are these HPI checks ?
03 March 2004, 07:56 PM
#2
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As far as I am aware an HPI check will only reveal if a car has ever been writen off, not if it has been repaired after an accident.
I was in this exact same situation when I bought a car about 7 years ago. Strangely enough my friend made a comment about the gap between the door and the front wing but I too put it down to build quality.
Anyway a week later I was washing the car and started to notice a few other things that were not quite right. After some more investigation I noticed overspray in the engine bay and the car had obviously been involved in a front end crash at some point in it's life.
Got the same response from the garage as you have got and in the end I just gave up and lived with it, even though it p!ssed me off everytime I looked at the car.
My advice is go with your gut instinct and insist on looking at everything when you look at a car. If the dealer can't find the logbook to show you how many owners it has had or can't find the service history then walk away. All car dealers are dodgy and will stop at nothing to pull the wool over your eyes when buying a secondhand car.
I was in this exact same situation when I bought a car about 7 years ago. Strangely enough my friend made a comment about the gap between the door and the front wing but I too put it down to build quality.
Anyway a week later I was washing the car and started to notice a few other things that were not quite right. After some more investigation I noticed overspray in the engine bay and the car had obviously been involved in a front end crash at some point in it's life.
Got the same response from the garage as you have got and in the end I just gave up and lived with it, even though it p!ssed me off everytime I looked at the car.
My advice is go with your gut instinct and insist on looking at everything when you look at a car. If the dealer can't find the logbook to show you how many owners it has had or can't find the service history then walk away. All car dealers are dodgy and will stop at nothing to pull the wool over your eyes when buying a secondhand car.
03 March 2004, 11:23 PM
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If your brother paid for an HPI check it it did make flag up as having an accident I am sure HPI will reimburse you of your fee as well as compensation.
Speak to them, also get it checked out by an "insurance approved bodyshop" and then go back to the dealer, get your brothers money back for the car and then get the money from him that it cost you to get it checked over.
Darren
Speak to them, also get it checked out by an "insurance approved bodyshop" and then go back to the dealer, get your brothers money back for the car and then get the money from him that it cost you to get it checked over.
Darren
Last edited by darlodge; 03 March 2004 at 11:26 PM.
03 March 2004, 11:26 PM
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go to http://www.hpicheck.com/ and click on HPI guarantee oon the left.
Subject to the HPI Guarantee Terms & Conditions, the HPI Guarantee provides up to £10,000 reimbursement of financial losses you suffer arising from inaccurate or incomplete information we supply to you as part of the HPI Check. And as you'd expect from HPI, the cover is more comprehensive than anyone else in the industry offers.
04 March 2004, 01:20 AM
#5
You really need to get the car checked over by a qualified engineer and get an independent report on how bad the damage is.
Also, speak to trading standards and see where you stand if the repair to the car wasnt properly carried out.
As a dealer, my personal opinion would be, if the repair was sufficient and the condition is still good then its unfortunate. Theres only so many checks dealers can make, HPI, National Mileage Checks, previous owners, etc. If the repair was not done properly and the condition is poor, you may be offered a refund or the necessary work to be done.
Taking the previous owners word for it may be a mistake, i doubt he would admit to repairing the car even if it had been in a smash, just incase it cause problems for him somehow.
Also, speak to trading standards and see where you stand if the repair to the car wasnt properly carried out.
As a dealer, my personal opinion would be, if the repair was sufficient and the condition is still good then its unfortunate. Theres only so many checks dealers can make, HPI, National Mileage Checks, previous owners, etc. If the repair was not done properly and the condition is poor, you may be offered a refund or the necessary work to be done.
Taking the previous owners word for it may be a mistake, i doubt he would admit to repairing the car even if it had been in a smash, just incase it cause problems for him somehow.
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