Buying a Damaged Repairable Vehicle

1. DO buy your damaged repairable or stolen recovered vehicle from a well established, professional motor vehicle recycling specialist. Take time to check out the business and ask to speak to previous customers.

2. DO be patient, it may take several weeks to find the right vehicle, with the correct specification. Take your time it will be worth it. Be careful not to get carried away with the first vehicle you see.

3. DO thoroughly inspect the vehicle before you buy, be careful about buying a vehicle from a photo or a web site. Leave that to the experts who can take a risk. Be very careful of web site auctions it is easy to get carried away.

4. DO bring along a motor vehicle expert with you to inspect the vehicle, this may be your mechanic or car body repairer. Ask them to confirm the repair costing.

5. DO make sure that you receive an accurate cost of the repairs before you buy.

6. DO make sure that you have a Hire Purchase Investigation (HPI) check carried out on the vehicle before you buy in order to confirm the vehicle is a category C or D.

7. DO choose your motor body repairer carefully.

8. DO get the vehicle properly inspected after the repairs have been carried out by an official MOT station.

9. DO take photos of the vehicle, before, during and after repair, and keep all receipts and records of any work carried out. They will be of value when you sell the vehicle.

10. DO be upfront about the history of your vehicle when you sell it. It will cause fewer problems in the long run.

11. DO your homework carefully, try not to let your heart rule your head, no matter how much you want the vehicle take your time and be thorough in your research.

Categorisation of Motor Vehicle Salvage.

The categories are as follows:

• Category A. The vehicles under this category are extensively damaged vehicles such as those destroyed by fire, with no salvageable parts and vehicles which can never be re-registered to return to the road.

• Category B. Category B vehicles are vehicles which are extensively damaged but which do have some parts with value, these vehicles can also never be re-registered and returned to road use, or vehicles which require a complete new body shell.

• Category C. Category C vehicles are vehicles where the repair cost exceeds the value of the vehicle, however the extent of the damage is such that the vehicle can be repaired by the use of recycled parts or by using other cost saving measures. With a category C vehicle the buyer needs to apply to the DVLA for a Vehicle Registration Document (VRD) what used to be called a ‘Log Book’

• Category D. Vehicles which fall within D category are vehicles where the cost of repair is less than the value of the vehicle, however for a number of reasons it may not be economically viable to repair the vehicle. This could be for a number of reasons

Un-recorded Vehicle Salvage.

Unrecorded Vehicle Salvage is exactly as it reads : Vehicles that have been involved in a total loss incident whether stolen / recovered , accident damaged etc and are not registered as so with insurance companies / Hpi alert register. This can often be the case with many vehicles, however, this does not remove the onus on the seller of the vehicle to 'hide' the true history of the vehicle to any potential buyers. The true history of any vehicle should be disclosed to any potential buyer of a non recorded salvage vehicle.

 

When you buy from Capital Auto Salvage you can be:

• Confident in the quality of the information you are given.
• Confident in the quality if the service you receive.
• Confident in the quality of the product you buy.