This question probably has a really obvious answer, I know, but can anyone tell me what v-car means?
Thanks!
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VCAR is exactly where your car is going. VCAR short for the Vehicle Condition Alert Register, so a car on it has been written off and the damage has presumably been repaired.
These cars are invariably worth much less (typically 25%) than an equivalent car that has not been written off.
Any car that is on VCAR can be discarded for comparative valuation purposes, unless yours was already on it when you bought the car.
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Thanks for that - I found the answer almost as soon as I'd posted the question!
Assuming my Polo is written off (and I'll find that out tomorrow I think), I'll be needing a replacement for the next year. After that, I will have qualified and got a decent job, so will probably be buying a *nice* car.
Question is though, if I buy one of these v-cars, assuming it's been repaired properly and re-MOTed, is it actually that much of a bad thing? Will it be more to insure, more of a risk etc? Will I always have to declare that it was once written off, even though it is now fixed? Presumably that will affect any Part ex deal that I attempt to do.
Thanks again
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If it's been properly inspected, in theory the car is perfectly safe.
However, dealers and punters alike are very risk averse and if you're not careful, you can easily lose on resale any saving you've made up front, especially if you only plan to keep it a year. You're not obliged to declare that it has been written off (though you can't lie if asked) but HPI checks that look into that status are routine in the trade and fairly common for private buyers.
Insurance shouldn't be any different, but of course you'd get less as a payout as long as you were aware up front that the car had already been written off once before.
Of course, if a car has had a serious knock, there is no guarantee that the suspension won't be permanently out of alignment or that the structure won't somehow have been compromised. Longer term, a car might easily rust more, depending on the standard of repair. Don't forget that this car wasn't economical to repair at the bodyshop's standard rates using approved parts. An engineer should spot these things, but you're putting a lot of faith in that inspection.
I can't see how this would be any less risky (though it might be cheaper) than buying back the salvage of your own car and having it repaired yourself.
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I once owned a VCAR'd Fiesta (G943 YRY) and did almost 80000 miles in it, with no problems, after I purchased it.
They're a good bua as long as a) you can be sure that they have had a top-notch repair and b) they are rock-bottom price.
Otherwise I wouldn't bother.
I would add that there are a LOT more rebuilt written-off cars on the road than you might think...
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