Vehicle history check service, Motorcheck.ie, is warning that Irish car buyers are missing out with the announcement that Auto Trader in the UK is to put a write-off warning on all of its classified adverts, writes Trish Whelan. In contrast, Irish consumers are missing out on protection against write-offs.
With as many as 10 percent of the cars we import from the UK being former write-offs, this is crucial information for anyone thinking of buying a second hand car. Car write-offs fall into four distinct categories and Category C and D write-offs can be repaired and legally put back on the road. Categories A & B are much more serious and must be crushed, never again to appear on the road.
The initiative taken by Auto Trader in the UK will flag up a warning to anyone viewing an online advert for a car known to be previously written off. The consumer can then make an informed choice and either steer clear or investigate further.
Discovering that a vehicle is a Category C or D write off isn't necessarily the end of the road for some people. Some brave souls choose to use this information to their advantage to haggle a better deal. Motorcheck.ie say the list price of a previous Category C or D write off in the UK is typically marked down by up to 25 percent.
Once prospective buyers can reassure themselves that repairs made are to a high standard, they have little to fear and could even go one step further to obtain a certificate of roadworthiness from an Automotive Engineer. There still remains the problem, though, of unscrupulous sellers circumventing the system and trying to sell cars which have had shoddy repairs, or worse still that should never have been repaired in the first place.
Some 15,000 cars were imported into Ireland in the first quarter of this year, which means that in and around 1,500 of them were previously written-off. That translates into approximately 4,000-5,000 UK write-offs being brought to Ireland every year. The majority of those will come under Category C & D and that's fine - often vehicles can be written off simply because the cost of even a relatively minor repair can be in excess of the overall value of the vehicle. But even a handful of Category A or B write-offs slipping through the net is too many. Entire families could well be putting themselves, and other road users, at risk because they are driving a car that has previously been so seriously damaged that it was destined for the crusher.
"Analysis of our write-off data has shown that the vast majority of Category C & D write-offs are repaired and put back on the road," says Michael Rochford, Managing Director of Motorcheck.ie. "However, we were horrified to discover a small number of Category A and B write offs, which should have been destined for the crusher, have made their way back on to Irish roads," he continued.
