I did a HPI check today on Total Car Check.co.uk for a car i was curious about.

It was only a £1.89 check, so not sure how reliable - but its come up stolen in 2015.

The original color was yellow, and this one has recently been painted..

However, the seller says the V5 is in is name/address (although, come to think of it, its in his brothers name)

Maybe im being naive, but is it likely someone is blatantly selling a nicked car on the internet these days? What about the V5?

It seems to say 'Police - No' so maybe it wasn't reported to the Police and was just an insurance scam?

Or are these HPI checkers just unreliable?


Overview
Result
Fail

Information
Significant issues found
Completed Checks
Stolen - Police
No
Stolen - Insurance
Reported stolen on: 09 March 2015
Written off
Not Written Off
Exported
Not Exported
Imported
Not Imported
Scrapped
Not Scrapped
Unscrapped
Not Unscrapped
VIC Inspected
Not VIC Inspected
Colour Changes
No Colour Changes
Plate Changes
No Plate Changes

[Edited on 31/8/16 by Banana]

Best guess... previously reported stolen and recovered before a claim was paid out?

Get a proper HPI check or walk away.

Had a similar experience with my Escort Cossy.

I'm the guy that buys a car and HPI's it on the way home after I've bought it because i get far too excited about buying it.

Anyway I bought a 500bhp Escort Cossy from a petrol station in Gretna at 2am (i drove down from Inverness) it was a beautiful car, pretty much perfect, all the history, solid underneath bla bla bla

I was to pre occupied with the fact I was going to be owning a mega Escort Cosworth on my 26th birthday, anyway I handed over the cash and off i went into the sunrise.

Got a few hours up the road and stopped off to rest my ears and decided to do an text HPI and it came back with

CAT C
Stolen/Recovered

I was gutted, i had just haded over a stupid amount of cash and stupidly never checked it out.

Got home and called the HPI folk in the morning.

The car had a private plate on it which was previously on an Evo which was a cat c then put back on the road and stolen. Thank fuck

Took the plate off it and put the car back on the original, spoke to the insurance company who paid out on the private plate and they removed the marker from the cars history.

Long story short, give them a call as there will be an explanation usually.

Years ago i was on the verge of buying a CBR 600, but found out it was a CAT D so decided against it.

I then found a Zx6R at a local Kwak dealer, being sold by one of the employees...

Naively i thought this would be an honest bike due to him being something to do with the dealership, so i didnt do any checks.

When i sold it a year later, it turned out the frame was bent and had been written off..

Not sure what the moral of that story is - but the cat D one would have probably been fine.


Anyway, i will text the seller of the kit car and see if he knows/has a story...

[Edited on 31/8/16 by Banana]

Could it be a finance issue? I've heard of people buying cars that the registered keeper doesn't own but has actually stolen from a finance company (Or just secured loans against and defaulted). Remember being on the V5 doesn't make them the owner.

Bought a Volvo demo from the dealers and when I came to trade it in 4 years later the engine number came up as belonging to a stolen Ford Truck - never did find out what happened as I traded it to the dealer I bought it from and told them it was their problem.