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Would you bother with an HPI check on a £4k car?
MikeRJ - 30/7/09 at 08:25 PM

Someone who deals with cars as a sideline reckons that virtualy no-one bothers with an HPI check for a £4k-£5k car, which I find very surprising. I reckon this is a significant amount of money for most people, which would make the £5-10 for an HPI check very worthwhile.


mistergrumpy - 30/7/09 at 08:41 PM

I've never paid for a HPI check simply because when buying cars around that price I was just too skint to shell out any more than absolutely necessary.


MikeRJ - 30/7/09 at 09:08 PM

I find this odd, since the extra fiver could mean the difference between keeping the car or losing everything if the car has outstanding finance.


flak monkey - 30/7/09 at 09:32 PM

Do what I do and ask the seller to provide one.

David


MikeR - 30/7/09 at 10:31 PM

I would - as for the reasons stated above, like flaks idea tho


Peteff - 31/7/09 at 08:28 AM

If you are keeping it and running it into the ground it doesn't matter if it's been written off before as long as you check the repair work but if you might be selling it on you don't want to pay full price then have trouble getting what you want later if the next buyer does a HPI check.


Snuggs - 31/7/09 at 01:16 PM

Any dealer that told me that a HPI check was not worth it on a 4k car would be talking to the back of my head before he had finished the sentence


iank - 31/7/09 at 02:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Snuggs
Any dealer that told me that a HPI check was not worth it on a 4k car would be talking to the back of my head before he had finished the sentence


That's not quite what the OP is saying. That suggests a car dealer says that his customers don't bother getting an HPI for mid priced cars, but presumably do for cars costing north of £5k.

For the cost it doesn't seem to make sense, but people are strange and I'm sure there's some interesting psycology going on (maybe people deep down don't want to know if their new car is a bit dodgy, or possibly they don't think loan companies will bother with them for a cheap car they won't be able to sell for much and will chase the original owner instead (ha!))


MikeRJ - 31/7/09 at 03:11 PM

quote:
Originally posted by iank
For the cost it doesn't seem to make sense, but people are strange and I'm sure there's some interesting psycology going on (maybe people deep down don't want to know if their new car is a bit dodgy, or possibly they don't think loan companies will bother with them for a cheap car they won't be able to sell for much and will chase the original owner instead (ha!))


This may very well be true, perhaps I am over estimating the common sense of the British public

The insurance history of a car is generally of less importance (to me) than it's finance history to be honest. I don't change cars very often, and the value when I do pass them on is such that a Cat D history isn't really significant. With finance the amount owing on the car is often way more than the car is actually worth, so you may as well have burnt your money in these cases.

[Edited on 31/7/09 by MikeRJ]