Thread: Buying a used car - Some examples of the liars, cheats, the lazy and stupid

Originally Posted by d2dave

What happened to the other two?





My sons car was stolen a while back. He purchased it back from the insurance company. It is now on the write register as a repairable write off.

The only damage to the vehicle was the front door trims were damaged as to steal the speakers, they just ripped them out. Cost him $10 each from a wrecker.

The only other thing wrong, which was not damage was the mags were stolen and standard wheels with bald tyres put on it.

So a car can have very minimal damage and still be on the register.

Sounds like one of my workmates cars. He had an old commodore v8 that he was going to do up, he had stripped the paint and just put on some new alloy wheels and tyres, which he listed on his insurance , it got stolen, ( broken rear 1/4 window)parked in an industrial area with 4 bald tyres and steel wheels. Repairable write off as wheels and tyres worth more than the car.

I understand that a car can be an economic write off for good reasons but the seller should say so up front, or at the very least come clean with a plausible explanation when challenged.

In the example I gave to start this thread the seller implies that the front bumper and head light were replaced and were the reason for the write off of the $13k, "immaculate" car.

yeah....right.

Originally Posted by d2dave

What happened to the other two?





My sons car was stolen a while back. He purchased it back from the insurance company. It is now on the write register as a repairable write off.

The only damage to the vehicle was the front door trims were damaged as to steal the speakers, they just ripped them out. Cost him $10 each from a wrecker.

The only other thing wrong, which was not damage was the mags were stolen and standard wheels with bald tyres put on it.

So a car can have very minimal damage and still be on the register.

This is a bit misleading though. An example is a 85 VK Commodore could be written off for a broken window and a set of wheels. Steel or otherwise.
A 2007 Discovery as an example, is unlikely to be written off for a light and bumper.
I think they should disclose the reason for write off and repair.
Cheers
Nino.

I might be wrong here but here is what I thought happens. Car gets stolen. After an agreed time(in policy)if not recovered insurance is paid out.

Car is later recovered with minor damage and is now the property of the insurance company. It then goes to auction so they can recover some coin.

Regardless of the value of the car, I thought it went on the repairable write off register. This is to stop someone stealing a car for parts to repair.

In my sons case all he had to do was 4 wheels and tyres, which he still had the old ones when he fitted mags and two $10 door trims. This car was not an economic write off, just listed as one.

Brand new hail damaged cares were registered as write offs. They are still roadworthy and if you were happy with the hail damage didn't need to fix it.

As a side note, a hail damaged car should get better fuel economy than an undamaged one.

Originally Posted by d2dave

As a side note, a hail damaged car should get better fuel economy than an undamaged one.

You play golf Dave?