Is your second hand car safe?
A recent survey by car insurers More Than has revealed that thousands of drivers may have bought cars that are unsafe. As many as one in three second hand cars which are bought privately in the UK could have adverse histories that render them worthless. At present there are roughly 2.9m cars traded each year, making the number affected in the region of 1m.
The most common problem is outstanding finance agreements which means that the buyer is not actually purchasing the legal title to the car so it can be repossessed at any time, leaving the buyer with no way to get their money back.
Other problems include stolen cars, ‘cut and shuts’ - where two damaged vehicles are welded together to make an apparently undamaged car - or vehicles which have been declared unfit for repair following previous accidents.
Here at GalsCarGuide we really don’t want you to buy one of these cars! The ’shady past’ and ‘is the car safe’ sections of the site are crammed with information about how to avoid this.
Most importantly is buying from a seller which carries out independent inspections, by someone like the RAC and also HPI history checks on all their cars. If a car is HPI history cleared then you can guarantee that it has never been stolen, tampered with or has any outstanding finance. All of the cars listed on GalsCarGuide are HPI history cleared so there is no reason to worry.
And that means there is no reason to hold back..go on..get shopping!
Have you ever had any car buying nightmares? If so let us know and share your story here.
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May 23rd, 2007 at 12:33 pm
as a woman, i am unable to drive, but my husband wants a fast car, which one is right for him?
June 7th, 2007 at 8:53 am
Well Janet…if your husband wants a fast sports car there are loads of RAC inspected cars at wholesale prices on offer at our sister site http://www.carsite.co.uk. Happy Browsing!