how do i find out about a previous accident?

awman

To cut a long story short, found out the car i currently own was in a fairly bad accident before i bought it (wasnt informed of how badly crashed it was when i bought it, was just told it had been in "a little tip" and only had light body work repaired i.e. font passenger side wing replaced).

Basically had car assessed by an automotive engineer and he did up report saying car was in a heavy impact crash and that car is unsafe and unfit to be on the road (problems with steering etc, car tends to go where it wants to on road, not where i want it to go). Anyway, We suspended the insurance on the car straight away and parked it up.

Basically what i'm trying to find out is the details of that crash. Rang insurance company, solicitor, the guards, motor insurance bureaux and nobody can tell me anything about it (something to do with Data Protection Act), I know it was definately in a bad crash but cant get my hands on any info. We did 2 or 3 of them online car checks and although it showed up that car wasnt taxed for roughly two years, it didnt show up anything about an accident.

I'm just finding it so frustrating that i know this car was in an accident and that obviously there must be records of it somewhere but nobody can give me any info. There must be some way of finding out things like this, what a bloody joke! :mad:

smash

Did you notice anything wrong with the car when you test drove it?

EPM

Did you buy from a garage or private seller?

If it was a garage I'd imagine you have some comeback

langdang

It's not a MINI convertible is it?

either way, I don't know if there is any official way to find out. If you have a contact who could do it off-the-record, it still won't help you with a legal case, you'd just be getting someone in trouble.

Any chance under a "freedom of information" application that you could get info?

biko

I guess cartell.ie can tell you whether it was written off.

langdang

biko wrote: »

I guess cartell.ie can tell you whether it was written off.

There's a lot cartell or any of the others can't tell you. If insurance hasn't been claimed on it as a write off then there's a whole range from "it'll buff out" to "potentially lethal" that won't show up. Garda database, or insurance company's, would show the details if they had been present/notified, but if they were never involved then a car could be seriously damaged and fixed up without anyone but the garage that repaired it knowing (until NCT or proper inspection)

Mary-Ellen

Did you get previous NCT details from the garage/private seller?
These have the previous owners name and address.

If you have them, you could try contact the previous owner to see if they owned the car when it was crashed.

awman

bought car through a garage. foolishly traded in a very good car against it. didnt notice anything wrong when we test drove it, wouldnt have bought it had we known what damage was done to it.

got previous owners details. contacted them and were given the run around. basically were told by this person also that it was only a very light crash and that no claim was made against insurance etc. This person seems to have traded it into a garage, then it seemed to go from that garage straight to the garage we bought if from (found this out from tax office records)

Anyway we subsequently found out "off the record" through a "contact" that there was an insurance claim and that crash was alot more serious than garage and previous owner were leading us to believe. BUT as we got this information "off the record" we cannot use it.

What i'm trying to find out is how do we get this information formally? Asked solicitor but insurance companies wont give out any information. Guards wont either. There must be some way of doing it. god its so frustrating!

smash

Why not just go back to the garage with the engineer's report?

h3000

langdang wrote: »

It's not a MINI convertible is it?

Was just going to ask the same thing.

MarkN

Bring it back to garage, drop the keys at the owner/manager's desk and say give me my money back please.

langdang

steve06 wrote: »

Why not just go back to the garage with the engineer's report?

This is about all you can do OP - your case is with the garage, not the previous owner(s). The garage must have some duty not to sell dangerous crocks to the public.

dermothickey

best of my understanding you have a good case against the garage as they told you it was in a light crash. From your engineer's report this is not the case. Inform the garage about the report and insist on your money back straight away.

awman

was just looking through my old threads and came across this one from when we had serious trouble with our car. So I just want to say one thing... buyers beware!!!
We had so much trouble trying to find out what happened to this car. Its sorted now, thank god, but god it was really hard to get to the bottom of it. Like I said above, we had the car looked at by automotive engineer, he confirmed car was unroadworthy and we took it off the road. We went back to the garage with this information and they just kept fobbing us off. We ended up having to go to a solicitor. It went on for months. Found out so much stuff about the car it was unreal. The things that go on with these garages you wouldnt believe. Plus... when you're buying a car from a garage and you sign the SIMI form and think that its in your favour... in my opinion it's not in your favour. If we had not signed that SIMI form we could have brought the garage straight to court (cause they sold us a death trap)... but because we had signed it... it would have to go to Arbitration which is a total joke (solicitor told us it could take up to 2 years to finalise if it went to arbitration) and we were without a car while all this was going on. After months and months of correspondence between our solicitor and the garages solicitor we finally did a deal without going to Arbitration. We got money for the car and the garage took the car back. We were happy to be rid of it and have enough money to get a different car. but.. wait till you hear the best part... maybe bout 2 months later while driving past the garage.... what did we see on the forecourt as we drove past... the car for sale again!!! so there you have it... buyers beware! One thing is for sure i'll never again sign one of those SIMI agreements when i'm buying a car and I'll never again buy a car without checking the history of it with a fine tooth comb.

smalltalker

awman wrote: »

wait till you hear the best part... maybe bout 2 months later while driving past the garage.... what did we see on the forecourt as we drove past... the car for sale again!!!

O. M. G.

As a clueless prospective buyer can I just say you have put the heart crossways on me.

Never mind Brown Thomas, car buying is one area of life where a personal shopper service would be worth every penny...:P