Using Vehicle History Checks to avoid potential disaster.

17/10/2009

Using Vehicle History Checks to avoid potential disaster.

While most vehicles are perfectly legitimate, there are some bad eggs out there which may be a potential hazard for the prospective buyer. In particular stolen vehicles pose a significant risk, as do cars with outstanding finance. One of the ways of helping to guard against this is to commission vehicle history checks to delve into the car's past.



You may end up being liable for any outstanding finance which is on the car, which may be devastating to the new owner and significantly affect their financial situation while also being very stressful.

If you end up buying a stolen car you may also end up losing the vehicle, which may be seized by the police. Furthermore, if officers recover cash from the person who sold it to you, you may also lose the money you paid for it. Stolen cars are a real risk and can disappear underneath the radar thanks to re-sprays and other tricks.



Another risk is the potential of buying a car which has been written off in the past, ie it has been involved in a serious accident and signed off as being not worth repairing by an insurance firm. Sometimes sellers will recover these vehicles from scrap yards, make patchy and inadequate repairs and attempt to sell them off to the unsuspecting public.

Legal history checks can provide a detailed and comprehensive look at what the car has been involved with in the past. The main benefit of this is that you may end up knowing precisely the circumstances surrounding the vehicle.



Vehicle history checks may delve into the authenticity of any documents, check any details of outstanding finance, investigate whether or not it is known to or has ever been used by the police, or if it has ever been used as a taxi.

A check may also be able to tell whether or not the car has been tampered with - you may even be able to give an indication as to whether or not the car has been 'clocked' ie the mileage has been illegally altered to make the vehicle appear as though it has travelled far less than it really has - thereby allowing the clocker to sell it for more than it is worth.

When you are considering documentation which may come with a vehicle it may be worth bearing in mind the fact that a car being sold should have the vehicle registration document from the DVLA, or Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency, commonly referred to as a 'log book'.



Other things which may be worth checking include the service history. Is it complete and in order? You may want to ask further questions if the service history has gaps or if it shows major work has been done on the car in the past.

Vehicle history checks may therefore help you to avoid being sold a stolen vehicle or one that has still not even been paid for in full in relation to an outstanding finance agreement – as such they may save a significant amount of stress and hardship and prevent a dream buy turning into a nightmare.

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