Two vans on Donedeal for sale but are in fact insurance write offs

Frowzy

I was looking for a small van this week and had provisionally chosen two that I liked. My first choice was this Citroen Nemo:
http://www.donedeal.ie/commercials-for-sale/2010-citroen-nemo-12-months-doe/6606997

I had agreed a price with the seller subject to viewing the vehicle, he then went about putting new tyres on and getting it DOE'd. I decided to do an online check on the vehicle before parting with my €5k. The check shows that this vehicle is a Category C insurance write off since an accident in the UK in late 2012. Although the ad states that there was repair done as part of a recall there was never actually a recall for the axle on this model. The vehicle check advised that this van should not be purchased as it's not road worthy. I informed the seller who told me he did not know the vehicles history so I emailed him a copy of the report, so he now knows. He has since re advertised and seemingly plans to flog it for top money to some unsuspecting buyer!!!!

I then chose this van:
http://www.donedeal.ie/commercials-for-sale/2009-renault-kangoo-85-1-5l/6559883
I spoke to the seller and arranged to view, I asked him if the van had been involved in any crashes as I intended to do an online check, I was told that it had had a dent in the rear door that was now fixed. Turns out that the van is an insurance category d write off. Again I informed the buyer who seems to have no conscience and still plans to sell it without informing the buyer!

There are a lot of UK imports on Donedeal, I wonder how many are in fact already written off. Beware folks, if these are not repaired properly they may in fact not be road worthy. Apart from losing money they may not be safe in another crash. I did buy an Irish van with full service record and history.

I have informed Donedeal who say they can't do anything that the Gardaí need to be informed to take action.

rebel.ranter

At least with the rigourous reporting in the UK you could easily find this information out.
We are not so diligent over here in ensuring all these types of records are kept & are accessible.

tomdempsey200

new DOE...

not roadworthy...

how do those 2 square up together then?

corktina

There's nothing wrong with putting CAT C and D back on the road so long as they have been properly fixed and the info is disclosed if known. Cat D could be very minor indeed, often just stolen/recovered.

jca

tomdempsey200 wrote: »

new DOE...

not roadworthy...

how do those 2 square up together then?

Ans: Ireland.

antodeco

Cat C doesn't mean not roadworthy. I bought a Cat C write off from the UK. All it means is that the damage done would be too expensive to repair (exceeds value of the vehicle). If it has a new DOE it may have been successfully repaired.

Guy:Incognito

jca wrote: »

Ans: Ireland.

:rolleyes:. Theres Cat C and D cars all over the UK back on the road with no issue.

mullingar

Cat C is just an uneconomical repair, AFAIK 100% of the pre-accident value of the car/van. If it was worth £5k before a crash, a repair of £5k would classify it as a Cat C, but most of the time its repaired for a lot less as its NOT structural damage.

Cat D is minor damage, probably a new wing or bumper, ie, just cosmetic damage

Frowzy

corktina wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with putting CAT C and D back on the road so long as they have been properly fixed and the info is disclosed if known. Cat D could be very minor indeed, often just stolen/recovered.

Exactly! As long as the info is disclosed! Both parties attempted to sell these to me without telling me. Cat C means that the vehicle has had a serious accident. There is a possibility that if you crash this again that you might not get a pay out. These risks should at least be declared and reflected in the selling price.

corktina

Cat C doesn't mean anything of the sort. It's very easy to do sufficient damage for it to be uneconomic to repair with quite minor damage. If the car needs bumper, lights, paintwork and labour , these costs will be very large. Cat A and B are seriously damaged vehicles that cannot go back on the road. I believe Cat A are hazardous and must be scrapped and Cat B are unrepairable safely but could be used for parts.

Guy:Incognito

Frowzy wrote: »

Cat C means that the vehicle has had a serious accident. .

Not really, no. The last car I brought in from the UK was a cat C in the past after it hit a badger. New bumper, grille, radiator, light and a couple of small bits. All superficial damage that's easily replaced but costly.

Bio Mech

Frowzy wrote: »

Exactly! As long as the info is disclosed! Both parties attempted to sell these to me without telling me. Cat C means that the vehicle has had a serious accident.

No it doesn't. Cat C is based purely on the cost of the repairs. For example if someone vandalised all the paint with brake fluid it could be a Cat C. Or if there was water damage.

corktina

I think water damage would be Cat A as it could be a bio hazzard

Frowzy

Bio Mech wrote: »

No it doesn't. Cat C is based purely on the cost of the repairs. For example if someone vandalised all the paint with brake fluid it could be a Cat C. Or if there was water damage.

According to the history report this vehicle was involved in a serious accident! The recommendation with the report was that this van should only be purchased if you get a full survey done on the van to ensure it's roadworthy ness.

I'm not here to defend the reports! I'm just informing people that might consider purchasing these vehicles. There is actually a legal requirement on the seller to inform buyers of any previous damage. I won't risk my life in a van that the seller can't prove was repaired properly.

Bio Mech

Frowzy wrote: »

According to the history report this vehicle was involved in a serious accident! The recommendation with the report was that this van should only be purchased if you get a full survey done on the van to ensure it's roadworthy ness.

I'm not here to defend the reports! I'm just informing people that might consider purchasing these vehicles. There is actually a legal requirement on the seller to inform buyers of any previous damage. I won't risk my life in a van that the seller can't prove was repaired properly.

That's just this case though. Your original email made it seem like you meant all Cat Cs were in serious accidents.

Frowzy

Bio Mech wrote: »

That's just this case though. Your original email made it seem like you meant all Cat Cs were in serious accidents.

Read it again, any chance you jumped to that conclusion? My post was about that particular van and the recommendation of the report....

Am I on trial?

jca

corktina wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with putting CAT C and D back on the road so long as they have been properly fixed and the info is disclosed if known. Cat D could be very minor indeed, often just stolen/recovered.

It wasn't being disclosed I think that's the op's major grievance.

galwaytt

corktina wrote: »

Cat C doesn't mean anything of the sort. It's very easy to do sufficient damage for it to be uneconomic to repair with quite minor damage. If the car needs bumper, lights, paintwork and labour , these costs will be very large. Cat A and B are seriously damaged vehicles that cannot go back on the road. I believe Cat A are hazardous and must be scrapped and Cat B are unrepairable safely but could be used for parts.

Exactly. I know a guy who bought a Cat D Porsche from eBay in the UK for £1600 because it was written off over...........a dent in the door. Local bodyshop cured it, et voilà - sorted.

Bargain if you know how tbh.

corktina

They didn't necessarily know, lots of people buy without investigating too far

Frowzy

galwaytt wrote: »

Exactly. I know a guy who bought a Cat D Porsche from eBay in the UK for £1600 because it was written off over...........a dent in the door. Local bodyshop cured it, et voilà - sorted.

Bargain if you know how tbh.

It was disclosed and priced accordingly. No problem here!!!

Frowzy

corktina wrote: »

They didn't necessarily know, lots of people buy without investigating too far

The Nemo seller knows since I sent him the report on Tuesday, he has since re advertised with no mention....

corktina

He doesn't have to put it in the ad! He is trying to sell it, and hopefully he will show the report to the next punter.

jca

Frowzy wrote: »

The Nemo seller knows since I sent him the report on Tuesday, he has since re advertised with no mention....

Did you use the Irish reg no to do the check?
How did you check the other van did the seller give you the reg number?
It's a bloody minefield out there:mad:

Bio Mech

Frowzy wrote: »

Read it again, any chance you jumped to that conclusion? My post was about that particular van and the recommendation of the report....

Am I on trial?

I read it several times. This is a pointless argument but anyway..you said

"Cat C means that the vehicle has had a serious accident"

You did say "this vehicle" or "in this case" so it sounded like a general point. It might be true in this case but it isn't always the case.

Trial concluded. . Bangs gavel.

randy hickey

OP, just in case you, or anybody else reading this thread in future, think that you are better off buying an Irish van (or car, for that matter) from the point of view of vehicle history, I'd like to point out a few things:


1. There is no system in place in Ireland whereby the various insurance companies share details of recorded damage to vehicles with the private vehicle history check companies.There is in the UK.

2. There is no system in place where officially recorded odometer readings (at NCT) are shared with private vehicle history check companies. They are in the UK.


The horrible irony here is that, if you really want to be sure about a vehicle's history, you are better off buying a UK vehicle.And before some anonymous vested interest jumps down my throat, I think the situation is crazy myself.

How hard can it be for the boffins in the DoT to set up a website where, for a fiver, you could log in and get the last recorded mileage of a vehicle at NCT and the periods it had been SORN'd, if any?
It would also take a bit of political pressure to knock heads together in the insurance industry and sort that end of it out.

We've really got to get past this Data Protection nonsense in this country though, for this to work.

Frowzy

Bio Mech wrote: »

I read it several times. This is a pointless argument but anyway..you said

"Cat C means that the vehicle has had a serious accident"

You did say "this vehicle" or "in this case" so it sounded like a general point. It might be true in this case but it isn't always the case.

Trial concluded. . Bangs gavel.

Ok Mr Pedantic:
Your clarification referred to my original email (I assume you meant post), what you're quoting above does not refer to my original post where I was specifically referring to these two vans in particular! While I accept that my subsequent post may have given the impression that I was talking about all vans I am not in a position to comment on all vehicles as I only have history reports on these two!

Frowzy

jca wrote: »

Did you use the Irish reg no to do the check?
How did you check the other van did the seller give you the reg number?
It's a bloody minefield out there:mad:

Yes I used the Irish reg for the check and it also brought up the UK history.
The seller of the Kangoo gave me the reg number of the van as I asked for it!
If anyone wants a copy of the reports to see the level of information contained just PM your email address.