Any mechanics about please? Car salvage?!

[Anonymouse2019]

Been trying to sell my Hyundai, made 2020, bought 2021, one previous owner. It was pristine. Not many miles on the clock.

Come to sell it. Two companies have refused to put it on auction. One refused to say why but the second states the car has "previously been salvaged".

I declared two faults with the car when asking them to auction it: 1) rear camera works but rear parking sensor works intermittently and 2) the air conditioning unit only works on the highest setting. This occurred after I took it to the dealership who "cleaned out" the air conditioning but it always smelt really strange after, so I stopped using the AC.

I think they did something to the AC which burnt out the mechanics of it, possibly meaning it would cost more to fix than the car is worth (or otherwise too much money to warrant the cost of the car), and thus the sale has been refused.

The question is, isn't it an insurance company who has to declare salvage? Can a car sales company declare it salvage? Or doesn't it have to be officially declared salvage for a sales company to decide its just not worth it due to the amount the repairs WOULD cost?

Any advice appreciated.

If a car is written off by an insurance company it will be recorded as such.

Car insurance write-off categories explained
Category A (scrap) Your car is too damaged or old for repair. ...
Category B (break) ...
Category C (too expensive to repair) ...
Category D (total costs make it too expensive to repair) ...
Category N (non-structurally damaged repairable) ...
Category S (structurally damaged repairable)

Your insurance company should be able to tell what category your car is in but you should have been told when you bought it. It won't be because of the air conditioning.

Thank you. The insurance company have NOT written it off, hence none of this makes sense.

Stick the reg in here and pay £4 and you should see what’s held on the register:

www.mycarcheck.com

Update:

I paid for a more in-depth report which revealed the car had been purchased from a salvage company BY the forecourt who sold it to me. The report included photos of moderate damage to the rear of the vehicle which was consequently repaired. It was NEVER salvaged.

The forecourt who sold me the car did NOT disclose this information. Do I have any recourse?

The big question - is it a category car as per the PP? If so then a dealer selling it has to be upfront and declare that to you. A private seller only has to disclose it if asked.

edit - if it’s showing up on that report then I’m guessing it must be a cat car otherwise it wouldn’t be recorded.

Also, buying a car from a salvage company and repairing it is exactly what salvage is, not sure why you say it isn’t?

Okay I rephrase - it has never been written off. My question was "do I have any recourse?".

You didn’t answer my question, is it a cat car?

On your v5 (log book) front page there is a section listing previous owners. Underneath that there will be a category A, B, C, D, N or S.

There will be a category that your car has been declared under. Which one is it? It could mean that your car has been previously written off by the insurance but it was repairable, someone has bought it at auction and that repair has been done, and it has been then sold again.

All sellers of cars, including traders must declare if a car has been categorised.

All sellers of cars, including traders must declare if a car has been categorised.

Only traders have to declare it up front though, private sellers only need to disclose if asked.

As for this car, I find it hard to believe that it’s been through a salvage auction without being written off/categorised AND is being flagged on a history check.

If that is the case OP then there’s no recourse against the seller, it’s exactly the same as any other used (or indeed brand new) car that’s been damaged at some point, repaired and then sold.

It's only 4 year old car! What has happened to it!

The recourse from the dealer is debatable, but these cars arent the same as any other accident repaired car as these have been flogged via salvage auction as previous owner was paid out on insurance. They SHOULD have been categorised but slipped through the net. They are effectively unrecorded write offs. OPs car is a case in point.

What I’m wondering is if these cars can end up in salvage auctions without any insurance company involvement and hence unrecorded or if it’s just a case of an error with the insurance company? If the latter, I wonder how often that happens?

If this particular car hasn’t been written off then I can’t see much difference over any other used car which has been repaired in the past.

You dont even need to be on facebook to see Dodgy Cars who exposes them with photos. All cars sold as clean history no accidents but severley smashed up.

Yes, I already follow them.

It’s had an accident, obviously. Thousands of newish cars are badly damaged and repaired, either having been written off or repaired by insurance companies. Even brand new cars can have damage repaired at the docks before they get to the dealer.