Hi I'm thinking of buying a car today and need a rather quick answer to this question please
Its a fiesta sport that I can get for £250 but here is my question the ad says its ON THE V CAR REGISTER ( FULL HPI REPORT FROM EQUIFAX) IN JULY 1996.
What does this mean?
And would it be a bad move to purchase this car??
Thanx in advance
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As I understand it the V car register means the car has been registered at some time in its history as a total loss. In insurance terms (and Mark B is our resident expert here) that could be anything from a bent wing on a £250 banger to a really serious bending job on an £8000+ motor.
Whether it would be a bad move to buy it is up to you. After all it's only £250 on the line but that is more significant to some people than others. If it were me risking my life in it I'd want to know the nature of the damage and, if necessary, to have professional confirmation that all repairs had been competently and correctly carried out.
Terry :o)
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Assuming Terry is correct and that is what it means...
Then one of the important questions is when was it written off.
i.e. a year ago a bent wing could have written it off, but years before it would have been major.
From your insurance point of view you may have problems. I had left the job before this registration came in, but we used to deal with cars which were written off by us, and then repaired with the owner and reinsured with us - I'd guess the process is much the same.
And our answer was "full engineers report or no insurance". And that will bump up the cost - these days it must cost 50 to 100 quid for such a thing.
If you do not tell them, and you have a serious accident, they will find out and you will be in more trouble than you ever wanted to think about.
All in all, I wouldn't touch it. Others here know much more about the price of cars than I do, but unless you are getting a really special bargain, there must be a better deal out there.
However, its your choice...........
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Based on fairly recent experience, a particular insurer only required a new MOT certificate to re-cover a vehicle on which they paid out as beyond economic repair. New bonnet and wing rad from scrap, back on road for £30. Despite insurer estimate of >£1000.
There are several categories of HPI write off. I do not have details to hand but I guess you can find on their web site.
Go to HPI.com follow to Jargon Buster ( Something in my browser stops me from viewing properly but I think the info is there.)
pmh (was peter)
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>>Based on fairly recent experience.......
And that would certainly be more relevant that the stuff I was talking about.
Not sure I'd buy it, even so.
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Sorry should read hpicheck.com
Brain ahead of the fingers again.
pmh (was peter)
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Got it from this machine...
But it does not classify V!
The Write-off
A 'write off' is a colloquial term for a vehicle which has been declared a total loss by an insurer, either following accident damage or theft. There are some 450,000 accident-related write-offs every year and another 150,000 insurance thefts, many of which are subsequently recovered damaged and re-classified. Many write-offs are legitimately allowed back on the roads following a repair; the safest ones to buy are those which have passed an independent vehicle inspection, such as those on HPI's Condition Inspected register. However, almost half of all write-offs are so badly damaged that qualified insurance inspectors determine that they should never go back on the road. To assist the industry and the used car buyer, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has since 1997 provided the following classification of damage to vehicles that have been deemed an insurance write-off:
o Category A:
Scrap only - this vehicle should have been crushed. It should never reappear on the road and there are no economically salvageable parts. It is of value only for scrap metal - e.g. a totally burnt-out vehicle.
o Category B:
The bodyshell should have been crushed. The vehicle should never reappear on the road, but it can be broken for spare parts plus any residual scrap metal.
o Category C:
Vehicle extensively damaged and insurer has decided not to repair.
o Category D:
Vehicle damaged and insurer has decided not to repair.
o Category F:
Vehicle damaged by fire and insurer has decided not to repair.
pmh (was peter)
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On a fiesta, one of the more likely scenarios is that it could be stolen/recovered, and written off because of this. Fiesta MK1's, MK2's & MK3's are up there with the easiest/most popular cars to nick and are not that difficult to repair any theft damage, especially if you are doing it for yourself rather than having an insurance repair which will probably write a car like this off.
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