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Advice on selling a crash damaged car
contaminated - 1/6/12 at 08:26 AM

A friend of mine has a 2003 fiesta zetec that was involved in a shunt a while back. He repaired it himself rather than go through insurance. It needed a new inner and outer wing, steering rack, alloy wheel and a few suspension parts. A reasonable whack by my standards but a fairly easy repair too.

The car is about to go for an MOT and then he wants to sell it. He doesn't want to hide the fact that it's been in an accident for obvious reasons - but when should he declare that:

1. In the ebay/autotrader add - which clearly will put a few people off
2. In an email following a bid
3. In an email once someone has won it
4. When they come to view the car

A bit tricky. Clearly it's not an insurance rated car and it was fairly minor incident. He doesn't want to lie but doesn't want to lose too much money on it either.

Any thoughts? I think it needs to be Option 1 really but I'm not sure sure what the law says. I suspect he would have to declare it if asked, which doesn't help much.

[Edited on 1/6/12 by contaminated]

Hugh_ - 1/6/12 at 08:39 AM

Tricky one, I bet loads of cars out there on auto trader/eBay have been crashed but not written off and it's never mentioned. Agree it should be though.

contaminated - 1/6/12 at 09:23 AM

quote:
Originally posted by mangogrooveworkshop
HOW MUCH?


I suspect he'll try his luck at about £1800 and see what happens. It's a decent spec and low mileage. I'm staying out of that though. I've got no idea what it's worth. I suspect my non-crashed 2005 megane is only worth about that - but then it's a Renault!

mangogrooveworkshop - 1/6/12 at 09:25 AM

Oh thats a pity I only use french cars for rust rallys

contaminated - 1/6/12 at 09:38 AM

No disrespect to anyone that owns and likes Renaults, but I wouldn't buy another one. I suppose I did only pay £5k for it 4 or 5 years ago, but it is not a good quality car. The electrics are made of cheese as far as I can tell. The afore-mentioned Fiesta is a much better car.

maccmike - 1/6/12 at 10:04 AM

if and when they ask. then tell truth what work was carried out.

Ivan - 1/6/12 at 10:25 AM

Yup - I would wait to be asked if it had been in an accident then reply yes and the front corner was repaired - leave it to the buyer to dig deeper - it is their risk anyway.

contaminated - 1/6/12 at 10:45 AM

Thanks chaps - maybe you're right.

nick205 - 1/6/12 at 11:37 AM

Did he photograph the damage and repair? Receipts for the parts used etc?

Might be useful to assure a potential buyer if/when asked the question. Otherwise (sad to say) it's buyer beware.

Panda - 1/6/12 at 12:32 PM

If its on the register it must be declared otherwise its buyer beware

dhutch - 1/6/12 at 02:12 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Panda
If its on the register it must be declared otherwise its buyer beware

I would say, assuming its been repaired to a good quality and hence no worse for it, buyer beware. If you feel that the repair quality is such that the vehical or value is compromised but in a way thats not obvious on inpection of the car it might want mentioning, but mainly as long as your not trying to dupe anyone i think that would be fair game.

Obviously if they ask you tell the truth. At which point, the main thing, it to remember to ask when your buying!


Daniel

morcus - 1/6/12 at 04:26 PM

If your going to say, either do it in the add or wait to be asked. Don't wait for someone to decide they want it and then be like BTW It was crashed and repaired because then people will think your up to something.

If it's been propperly fixed then I don't see that it actually makes a real difference at this kind of level.

dhutch - 2/6/12 at 11:19 AM

quote:
Originally posted by morcus....Don't wait for someone to decide they want it and then be like BTW It was crashed and repaired because then people will think your up to something.

I agree with this too. Although a friend once bought a car and asked 'now ive paid for it and its mine, whats really wrong with it' which i thought was something to bear in mind if ever buying something you werent quite sure about.
Clearly you have bought it and whatever they say you then have to take on the chin, but it might stop you finding it out on the side of the motorway 6months down the line!


Daniel