SCANDALOUS Rip Off affecting UK Motorists buying Used Cars - YouTube

i promise you this video is not clickbait  but please please watch it through to the  

end and don't buy a used car again until you've  watched this video i'm going to explain to you  

and give you real live examples right now of how  your hpi check can come through completely clear  

and hide the secret past of your vehicle and there  are cars on sale right now with small dealers  

with main dealers that have been written off in  the past that will come through clear on an hpi  

check and i'm going to show you how you  can avoid falling into the same trap as  

countless thousands of others  already have keep watching

so are you familiar with the term unregistered  write-off or unrecorded write-off i've heard it  

before i've never given it too much consideration  really and i certainly didn't know how rife it is  

and how much of a potential issue it might  be for you so in a moment i'm going to go  

through a number of examples that are cars that  are currently listed for sale with reputable  

dealers in some cases small dealers and others  and it shows us hpi clear on autotrader via  

their checking system but if you run it through  a different check system obviously i use vcheck  

if you run it through vcheck for example  you'll find some secret hidden history  

with pictures and evidence so we're  going to go through those in a sec  

all this really came to public attention in  2019 following an article that auto express did  

and in that article which i'm going to put link  to in the video description they explain that  

there are two different databases basically dvla  have a database but also my after have a database  

my after is the insurance companies database it's  the one where the insurance companies go in and  

log the car has been written off or salvaged or  stolen and it's not compulsory for them to do so  

so every year there are potentially hundreds of  thousands of vehicles that are written off or  

stolen or whatever it is and not registered  and they're then sold at salvage auctions  

so your car that you're paying top dollar for  could be a category s and as you saw in a recent  

video i did where i looked at category s and n  cars which i'll put link to up there as you saw  

in that video if you're buying a category car  i.e a car that's previously been written off  

and then repaired and got back on the road you  should be getting a significant discount for it  

and also a number of people just don't fancy it  regardless of the price regardless of how good the  

repair work may or may not have been done a lot of  people just don't want a car that's been in a big  

accident previously so this is hidden from you as  the consumer even if you're doing something like  

an hpi check now i was made aware of this by  vcheck the company that i use for my vehicle  

check-in and obviously i promote them on my  channel because i've used them for a long time  

and i like them i think i mentioned in the video  where i bought my four series i think i showed you  

the report for that full series as it came up  and it showed outstanding finance and all that  

kind of stuff and also if it had ever been in  an accident v check they've explained to me how  

they've been trying to work with several people  and even with some tv shows and tv companies  

to get this message out because they want the  problem to be fixed because thousands of people  

are effectively buying something that they think  is something else and they're doing it every year  

now v check do give you this extra information  which we'll see in these examples that i've got  

coming up and um i've already recorded those and  honestly some of them have blown my mind really  

a v check give you that extra information and  possibly one or two other companies do but lots  

of companies don't and some of the big ones don't  so you need to be very very careful and make sure  

you know what you're buying and if you've recently  bought a car maybe run the check on it and see if  

it has got a hidden past and if it has and you're  not happy about it take it up with the dealer when  

a professional dealer sells a car they have to  go through a certain number of checks to make  

sure that car's roadworthy and everything else  i think they should have to go through and check  

if it's possibly an unrecorded write-off i'm sure  they do hpi checks but if you do the one that only  

shows the registered ones and you're not actually  looking any further than that are you really doing  

enough uh v check because they want to support  this video and make sure people see how much of an  

issue this is have given me a load of checks for  free for this video so thanks very much to them  

and thanks for actually trying to do something  good and get this message out there just like v  

check i'm equally keen for this message to go as  far and wide as possible so it's really important  

that you give this video a thumbs up and please  share it with your friends on your social media  

anywhere you can there's nothing wrong with buying  those cars if they've been well repaired but you  

should know about it and you should pay a hell of  a lot less for it so let's get on to the examples  

so check this out you're going to be blown  away by this i'm completely shocked by it  

now this is a mercedes-benz glc a 2016 model of  for 26 700 quid priced a bit below market average  

uh it's on with the big motoring world not picking  on any of these companies by the way because they  

might not be aware of it themselves but these are  cars that are currently listed for sale you can  

see here full history check passed on autotrader  so not recorded as stolen not recorded scrap not  

recorded as insurance write off blah blah blah all  green ticks fantastic lovely stuff 26 000 miles  

lovely jubbly love that so i'm going to do the  most basic check now on v check here we go oh dear  

issues found right let's have a look at this road  tax check okay has it got road tax salvage history  

right we've got an exclamation mark there so you  can obviously purchase these add-ons this is just  

the two pound 99 check i'm doing at the moment  but the full 10 pound check you get all this stuff  

but let's see what we find just on this cheap one  uh oh dear salvage history found click to view  

see here this one's gone through as a sale  on the 14th of jan 2021 okay and that's had  

a bit of a knock and that ladies and gents  these are this is all the pre-accident damage  

shots of the car which don't forget has passed  the hpi check check that out so if you bought that  

thinking that was completely hpi clear and then  you found this out because if you just go by what  

you see on autotrader absolutely fine no problems  with that i mean the airbags even gone off  

i mean that's had a proper battering  that's obviously gone back into the trade  

and here it is now looks great doesn't it it looks  like they've done a really good job on the repairs  

but the point is if that's a cat s or a cat end  and you know it's a cat s or a cat in it ain't 26  

and a half grand i typically find a cat s knocks  about 30 off the of the full price this one's  

obviously a little bit below market average  but there you go it says passes everything  

through here there's absolutely nothing to  say that car's been written off previously  

that's just one do you want to see  another one right this is bmw one series  

uh gx 70k nj 28 grand this one good prices  listed at 28 grand good price on that car  

it's not cheap it's not expensive it's sort of  bang on where it should be for market average  

and let's have a look at the history check on  this again green ticks all the way fantastic  

looks a nice car doesn't it gx70 knj right here  we go gx70 knj uh-oh issues found our checks show  

that your car is a hidden history that you may  not know about we're partnered with reject my car  

experts in dealing with situations like this fill  in the form below for no obligation call back okay

click to view salvage history  so car's got hidden history  

here we go let's have a look at that one  crikey i mean that's had a full-on front ender  

uh what else have we got what was the date of  this by the way 15th of november category used  

unrecorded so it's an unrecorded write-off  they're buying it as an unrecorded write-off

and look at that i mean that's that's had a proper  knock and again if it's been put back to a really  

really good standard sort of pre-accident standard  then maybe you could get yourself a bargain  

but you shouldn't be paying full retail on that  car should you without a doubt you should not  

be paying full retail on that car and let's  just remember that's a 28 000 pound car and um  

as i said i usually think it's about 30 less as a  general rule of thumb so that would make that car  

probably just under not just under 20 grand maybe  19 and a half grand if you were to buy it as a cat  

s that's scandalous and that it really really  is scandalous and look here hpi clear hpi clear  

it may be right let's have a look at this one so  this is citroen c4 cactus it's from a citra main  

dealer this one a case from charles hurst belfast  main citroen dealer it's past the basic hpi check  

so all good wonderful uh 22 000 miles 12 and a  half grand 265 quid below market average so it's  

around about where it should be price wise let's  have a look at the check on that oh dear oh dear  

what have we found here let's have a look this  was a cat s so they even got it listed as a ks  

in the sale and back ends pushed in bumpers  pushed in so you can see there that's a that's  

a structural point there that's the back end of  the of the car that's been pushed in uh the body  

panel there's been pushed in the boot so that's  a cat ass so that's a structural write-off okay  

not economic to repair i just had a little smack  in the front as well probably got pushed into  

the back of somewhere else but that's had a  decent knock and that's a cat s now that's  

been sold by a citroen main dealer as hpi clear  and technically it is hpi clear however however  

if you do a proper car history check on it you may  find something else okay so just one final one to  

have a look at this is bmw 5 series it's a 530d  m sport auto 90 000 miles on it and once again  

basic history check has passed and within that  base street basic history check not recorded as  

scrapped not an insurance write-off the check  shows if a vehicle has been recorded as written  

off or total loss by an insurance company and  that's very important what they're saying there is  

like it's it's asking if it's been recorded all  right so they're using their words quite wisely  

doesn't mean it hasn't been saying it hasn't  been recorded as okay says the initial check  

issues found salvage history and mileage  records let's just go the mileage again  

uh it's gone backwards by 500 miles in a couple  of weeks so probably something in nothing  

oh dear oh dear oh dear cat s structural  right says had a proper proper bangness  

as you can see there dear oh dear look  it's actually lifted the bonnet off  

stove the front in there taking that wing  in take the headlight out bumper's obviously  

gone i'm guessing it's it's um damage  to the chassis just there on that corner  

the windscreen's broken as well it might  be that the bonnet popped up and broke that  

it's difficult to tell really  curtin airbags have gone off

steering wheel airbags gone off my question to you  really is if you bought this as a perfectly good  

car with that's passed its hpi check would you  be happy to find out that actually it was a cat  

s i wouldn't and that's 14 grand so it's 1300 quid  below market average so if market average on that  

then 15 grand that should be being sold for 10  if it's a ks and it's not it's been sold for 14.  

so what do you think of that i mean i've  got probably another 10 here that i could  

go through but i'm not going to because why just  keep repeating the same thing time and time again  

but do you see the problem and you see why this  needs to be addressed to the best of my knowledge  

the dvla and department for transport have been  aware of this problem now for quite some time  

and the fact that there are loads of cars  dropping through this gap and not being  

registered as write-offs which means consumers  can end up with them in their hands again  

and not knowing their past and they've known  there's this gap there and as far as i'm aware  

they're not interested in doing anything about  it if they do have any interest in it that's  

fine they haven't done anything about it  because it's still happening right now  

so hopefully this will spur a few people on  to um maybe make a complaint maybe check their  

own car out and find that that's actually  got issues that they weren't informed about  

obviously in some of those listings the dealers  are even putting hpi clear which factually is  

correct it is hpi clear because if at the hpi  check doesn't show that information it's clear  

don't look at us not our fault it is hpi clear  but ethically just think about that word for a  

second ethically is it the right way for  it to be done no it's ripping people off  

so there you go they're the facts look  into it for yourself have a go yourself  

check out a few cars find some for yourself i i  think it's a shocking and scandalous situation  

and i for one hope that department for  transport and the dvla does something about it  

right folks now the content on my channel is not  usually as serious as this really it's usually  

slightly more light-hearted i do a lot of stuff on  used cards like best buys i do stuff on new cars  

and reviews and things like that i do a lot of  um sort of car finance comparisons i'm not a car  

finance professional and i would always suggest  that you seek advice from a finance professional  

but it's good to go into these things kind of  slightly better informed so you can make a buying  

decision that benefits you rather than the finance  company that's it but if you like this video  

and you think you might like some of the other  stuff on my channel please give it a thumbs up  

and please subscribe if you haven't already done  so as i say for this particular video the thumbs  

up and the shares and the likes and everything  else matter more than ever because i just want  

this one to be seen so please please promote it as  much as you can so mentioned earlier in the video  

that i've done a video previously about buying a  category s or cadre end vehicle there it is over  

there so if you'd like to go and check that one  out please do i don't mention this unrecorded  

write-off thing in that at all because i've  literally just become aware of it so it at least  

tells you a bit more about what a cat s and a cat  end really is thanks for watching guys take care