Board logo

Buying and ex irish car
swanny - 30/9/22 at 07:36 PM

Hello,

I'm looking at a car which started out its life in Ireland. It came over to the England this year and had an MOT in february. When i checked on the .gov site this is the only MOT listed.

is there a free way to check mileage etc on ex irish cars? Its quite low mileage and it just worries me a little.

I can only seem to find a service that tells me if there is a discrepancy (ie you put in current mileage and it tells you if it has a higher recorded one) and i cant seem to see a way to get previous MOT history like in england either



thanks

paul

Rallychris - 30/9/22 at 09:12 PM

Not for free, it in your position I would try something like Carvertical for a vehicle history check, using the car’s VIN number. This will at least give a check if the car was previously damaged or stolen before it acquired its (current) UK registration number. It might even have access to the equivalent Irish mileage data.

Are you sure the car was ‘born’ in Ireland or just that it has been imported recently from Ireland? I was told a few years ago that Ireland has in the past been a stopping off point for UK cars to be re-registered after repairs dolling a write off, with then re-import to the UK for a fresh identity without the CAT marker.

SteveWalker - 1/10/22 at 12:33 AM

I must say that the CAT marker can be an irritation, while being useless. My wife's car was recently written off, but returned to us, repaired and put back on the road. The CAT marker will now follow it and reduce its resale value - the only damage was the plastic rear bumper being pulled off, flexing the bumper, flaking the paint, snapping the plastic clips and snapping the fog-light bulb-holder clips. There was no damage to any metal or paint on the metal. A replacement bumper and clips, plus a replacement fog light bulb holder means that it is now at least as good as it was before the damage ... why on earth should such minor and easily repairable damage even be recorded?

swanny - 1/10/22 at 06:15 AM

thanks,

had an evening online and turned up quite a tale.

turned out it was dodgy. not even sure the dealer knew (who knows)

looks like it used to be in ireland, then had a private plate in the uk.

it then had an accident (seen it on co-part but i cant even see the damage)

it then had the private plate removed. at this point it seems that DVLA have failed to merge the two records. if you look up its current plate it has one visible MOT. if you look up the private one it has four or five.

crucially under the private plate it shoes 129,000 miles!!!! (not 30,000)

Looks like whoever bought it from co-part realised that dvla hadnt merged the records and took he opportunity to wipe 100,000 miles off it and its write off past.


massive thanks to the dodgy cars facebook group who it turns out featured this car back in feb when it was for sale at a ford main dealer. (at 30,000)

I wonder of they simply chucked it back in the auction when they were told about it all?

https://www.facebook.com/102698181561295/posts/pfbid022KMubZragX6udFhQqUfdbvx4r8j7P3ovJtXQFFc4NJxX7bMGDwW8nS6pxNh1mZ4Ll/?d=n

the dealer that currently had it seemed shocked saying that when he bought it had a verified mileage check.

however the verification of mileage and any guarantees those firms offer only extends to their own actions. its doesnt cover you if the government data is incorrect!

bullet dodged.

anyone got a nice low mileage avensis estate for 10k? :-)

Rallychris - 1/10/22 at 09:17 AM

Well done unpicking that mess!!

Simon - 1/10/22 at 09:50 AM

quote:
Originally posted by SteveWalker
I must say that the CAT marker can be an irritation, while being useless. My wife's car was recently written off, but returned to us, repaired and put back on the road. The CAT marker will now follow it and reduce its resale value - the only damage was the plastic rear bumper being pulled off, flexing the bumper, flaking the paint, snapping the plastic clips and snapping the fog-light bulb-holder clips. There was no damage to any metal or paint on the metal. A replacement bumper and clips, plus a replacement fog light bulb holder means that it is now at least as good as it was before the damage ... why on earth should such minor and easily repairable damage even be recorded?


Conversely, my dad had a Sierra in 1990ish that was involved in an accident (not his fault) and nearly every panel had damage. Not written off, insurer repaired and no marker. Seems to be an insurer scam

obfripper - 1/10/22 at 11:16 AM

The private plate will only turn up mot history for the most recent car it has been mot'd upon, so may not be the car you are looking at, in this case it does look correct as the plate is currently on a hyundai that has never been mot'd.

As a tester, i can do a duplicate of an mot by vin number (but only 18 months back, not whole history), but the mot history lookup system will only give an mot history for a registration, and does not support looking up a vin number, i have encountered several vehicles with more than one mot history on the same plate due to incorrect details being used on previous tests.

Category markers only get applied to vehicles that have been through the insurance system, some uninsured/self insured writeoffs & stolen recovered vehicles may get marked cat u or x but this will not show up with an hpi check and is only mentioned when going through the salvage system.


Dave

coyoteboy - 4/10/22 at 09:46 AM

quote:
Originally posted by SteveWalker
I must say that the CAT marker can be an irritation, while being useless. My wife's car was recently written off, but returned to us, repaired and put back on the road. The CAT marker will now follow it and reduce its resale value - the only damage was the plastic rear bumper being pulled off, flexing the bumper, flaking the paint, snapping the plastic clips and snapping the fog-light bulb-holder clips. There was no damage to any metal or paint on the metal. A replacement bumper and clips, plus a replacement fog light bulb holder means that it is now at least as good as it was before the damage ... why on earth should such minor and easily repairable damage even be recorded?


Why would they return the vehicle to you if it was written off? Unless you bought it back.

SteveWalker - 4/10/22 at 10:49 AM

The car was valued by the other driver's insurance (our car was parked at the time) at £1677. I knew I could fix it myself, so we asked how much they'd retain if we had the car back and they said 20 to 28%. Our own insurer valued the car at £1580 and when I asked, they said they wouldn't retain anything (presumably as the other insurer would be paying for it anyway), so went with our own insurer, were paid £1580 and they gave us the car back.

All that had happened was that a builder's van on the other side of the road had parked too close and a passing truck struggled to squeeze through. One of his side marker lights (on a rubber stalk), hooked into the rear wheel arch and slowly pulled the end of the plastic bumper backwards, snapping the plastic clips, pulling on the fog-light wires so that the bulb holder clips broke and creasing the end of the bumper so that the paint flaked off.

You can buy the bumpers (painted to match) for £200, the fog light is £25 and it takes less than 15 minutes to remove the old bumper and light and fasten the new ones on. Why they did not repair it rather than paying out the car's value I do not know.

cliftyhanger - 8/10/22 at 07:59 AM

quote:
Originally posted by SteveWalker
You can buy the bumpers (painted to match) for £200, the fog light is £25 and it takes less than 15 minutes to remove the old bumper and light and fasten the new ones on. Why they did not repair it rather than paying out the car's value I do not know.


I think it is cheaper for them. Usually no hire cars involved, so long drawn out negotiations. Plus pop it into a body shop and it would probably cost £1000?
(wife reversed her MX5 into a car, little bumper damage and the quotes were £850+VAT from the insurance approved repairer. We took £850 and I heated the bumper and pushed it back into shape, a £12 can of paint, and good enough)

Anything under £2k or so I expect automatically gets written off. My 05 Jazz is a similar story to yours, but theuy gave cat S as it was covid times, although just a tailgate and bumper. I got about £1450, spend £80- so far but need to paint the bumper. Oh, I had to put it through an MoT to get it fully insured. Another £40.