Talking of Insurance .....

Messages
1,687
Happened to trip over this article, when I was looking for an insurance company name.
That name was Adrian Flux, whom I've found competitive and very easy to deal with over the past year
of insuring a range of vehicles from the GT to SUVs. Worth a phone call to compare. After optimising the answers that determine your quote.
This is the article. (below) Must admit. I'd never heard of https://www.vcheck.uk/ before now.
AntoExpress Hope this is helpful.
 

lifes2short

Member
Messages
5,821
just read the autoexpress thing and that is shocking, so in effect there are people out there driving around in repaired written off cars that neither they, hpi and Experian are awrare of, wtf
 
Messages
1,687
just read the autoexpress thing and that is shocking, so in effect there are people out there driving around in repaired written off cars that neither they, hpi and Experian are awrare of, wtf
Not only that. It seems to me that there are a lot more of these cars out there than you might assume.
Being curious and industrious, if there's a way to 'play' a system, then we humans will usually discover it.
As usual, consumers are the last to hear about it.
Strikes me as akin to something a very expert and experienced manager said to me once, after we'd
just jointly reviewed one of his subordinate's quarterly performance.
In almost every team there is a team member kept around mainly for sh*ts and giggles. Or more politely,
for morale purposes. The team clown as it were.
If you don't know who the team clown is in your team, then its you. I'm sure that this is the way most of
the motor trade regards it's customers.
 

Arnie

Forum Sponsor
Messages
39
Apologies for coming uninvited but the company which AutoExpress mentioned in their article is my creation. I am a consumer and trust me once we discovered the amount of fraud in the industry we couldn't leave it like that. Only thing is why on earth no one before tried to pull salvage records and match them with official data provided by HPI/Experian?

We have seen everything now from £500 shed to £200k Ferraris which were subject to huge accidents, were sold with insurance write-off classification by salvage companies, yet still, they are completely clear on all car checking sites.

I don't want to advertise and will not mention the site name myself as this will get deleted promptly but by putting a reg on the main page you get FREE check straightaway, no payment or registration required. It does only check current valid number plate so in case of private plate changes, unfortunately, payment will be required but for peace of mind, you can just do a simple search with no commitment.

Any questions do let me know, as this big scam is public now I can discuss it in more detail here.
 

lifes2short

Member
Messages
5,821
mot check wont reveal repaired written off cars, the cars may well be properly repaired and pose no threat, however, the point is that a buyer would be paying full price not knowing it was a write off and lose thousands if and when it comes to light at a later stage, repaired write offs are generally worth 25% less than market value and there's always a stigma attached to them as well
 

MrPea

Member
Messages
3,012
Apologies for coming uninvited but the company which AutoExpress mentioned in their article is my creation. I am a consumer and trust me once we discovered the amount of fraud in the industry we couldn't leave it like that. Only thing is why on earth no one before tried to pull salvage records and match them with official data provided by HPI/Experian?

We have seen everything now from £500 shed to £200k Ferraris which were subject to huge accidents, were sold with insurance write-off classification by salvage companies, yet still, they are completely clear on all car checking sites.

I don't want to advertise and will not mention the site name myself as this will get deleted promptly but by putting a reg on the main page you get FREE check straightaway, no payment or registration required. It does only check current valid number plate so in case of private plate changes, unfortunately, payment will be required but for peace of mind, you can just do a simple search with no commitment.

Any questions do let me know, as this big scam is public now I can discuss it in more detail here.
I don't think you need apologise. It's rather helpful having you join in... sharing knowledge and expertise and all that!
 

Arnie

Forum Sponsor
Messages
39
I don't think you need apologise. It's rather helpful having you join in... sharing knowledge and expertise and all that!

Trust me I am not really welcome on each forum ;) Most of the time people delete my posts, due to "advertising" when I am only giving examples and showing what the issue is. I am a regular consumer who was subject to fraud and this is how my site got created to protect others from what happened to me. I did not know the full extent of the issues until I got everything up and running but once the site went live, and some people discovered they have perfectly "clear" cars but still red flagged on my site for being on salvage and damaged, we found many more. Skip until now and press got interested and above article created.

If admins are happy they can contact me and I can give 10% discount code to all members here as well, but I can't post it myself due to forum rules I suspect.
 

lifes2short

Member
Messages
5,821
Trust me I am not really welcome on each forum ;) Most of the time people delete my posts, due to "advertising" when I am only giving examples and showing what the issue is. I am a regular consumer who was subject to fraud and this is how my site got created to protect others from what happened to me. I did not know the full extent of the issues until I got everything up and running but once the site went live, and some people discovered they have perfectly "clear" cars but still red flagged on my site for being on salvage and damaged, we found many more. Skip until now and press got interested and above article created.

If admins are happy they can contact me and I can give 10% discount code to all members here as well, but I can't post it myself due to forum rules I suspect.

well done and cheers for bringing this to light, tell me something, are these unrecorded cars being bought by bodyshops/repairers who then sell them to the general public without disclosure or then sold to unsuspecting traders/dealers who unknowingly sell them to the public or is deeper with collusion between repairers and dealers not disclosing things, I thought a dealer/trader had a duty to disclose such things, or am I wrong
 

Arnie

Forum Sponsor
Messages
39
well done and cheers for bringing this to light, tell me something, are these unrecorded cars being bought by bodyshops/repairers who then sell them to the general public without disclosure or then sold to unsuspecting traders/dealers who unknowingly sell them to the public or is deeper with collusion between repairers and dealers not disclosing things, I thought a dealer/trader had a duty to disclose such things, or am I wrong

We have evidence of traders/dealers who post cars on sale within 2 weeks of salvage auction. Sometimes on the day car is won on Copart or such site, trader posts advert online with "coming soon" image. You would expect they are doing valet or something but the story is completely different.

The reason for this quick action is many cars do get updated on MIAFTR as AutoExpress explained, but with many months delay, so traders try to beat this time and make the profit. By the time you realize 1-2 years later when you want to sell it that it is actually writeoff, the trader may not exists anymore.

Then you get the different type of cars classified as "USED UNRECORDED" which range from mechanical issues via flood damage to full front impact accidents but for many reasons people did not have fully comp policy or it was a fleet car and they get put on salvage auction. In those cases there is nothing wrong with being HPI Clear as nobody ever claimed on them, still, they were badly damaged and new owners should know.

The most extreme case was a conversation with the seller when asked if the car was in an accident, the reply was "Yes it is HPI Clear", then he was asked again if any accidents, and explained nobody asked of HPI status. In reply, it was received that "Yes no accidents". Then he was sent a report and he replied back "Oh yes it had an accident, bit not recorded" This is the car below:


s-l1600.jpg


55484


55485



c3db9526-6da3-4f36-980a-9d272bd6d6d9.JPG



Another type of thing is people misdescribe real damage to cars even which are recorded on HPI:



s-l1600.jpg


55486



55487

55488




I got an endless list of examples, just not enough time in life to post them all, but you get an idea. It is across the board, all types of cars, all locations in UK, all price bands same frauds.
 

lifes2short

Member
Messages
5,821
that's some great info on the dodgy dealings and many thanks for sharing your knowledge Arnie, I for one will dig a tad deeper in future and not simply rely on hpi reports
 
Messages
1,687
Welcome to the forum Arnie. Tis a small world and getting smaller by the day ;)
Congrats on seeing a problem and creating a solution to it. I really hope you can monetise successfully.
Obviously forum members here could be buying anything from a cheapish daily driver, to a five, six or seven figure adrenaline machine.
Seeking to close as many loopholes as possible before we buy, I'd hope that you get nothing but a universally warm welcome here.
Appreciate the discount code also. I'm looking for a daily driver right now, so will definitely be using your website shortly.
Mike :)
 

safrane

Member
Messages
16,746
Just checked the family fleet and thankfully all clear.

Thanks for posting and certainly no request for baring from me.
 

Scaf

Member
Messages
6,512
I am obviously missing something.
The free check says it covers MOT TAX and mileage, to get a check covering accident history you pay ?
 

Arnie

Forum Sponsor
Messages
39
I am obviously missing something.
The free check says it covers MOT TAX and mileage, to get a check covering accident history you pay ?

To get free salvage check you only need to put reg number in. On the second page, you will get either a green or red bar on top which will tell you straight away.

Examples:

Salvaged Car: https://www.vcheck.uk/search/LG60YLP/
Clean Car: https://www.vcheck.uk/search/AN07NAN/

This is the fastest way to check for salvage

After that, you can select different products inc Free Report which is MOT, Road Tax basic car details and again info about salvage or any paid reports which will show you all HPI data + salvage report inc location, salvage auction link + pictures.

Exmaple: https://www.vcheck.uk/report/L3CMY-LPWEUX88I/

I hope this makes sense now ;)
 

rockits

Member
Messages
9,167
Thanks for your time to post and make people aware of these issues. Only people with things to hide will find this an issue. Of course genuine people could be caught in this and might have a car subject to this which is of course hard and unfortunate. However it doesn't change the cars history.

I've never bought a CAT car not because I wouldn't but as I often found them to not be cheap enough to warrant the risk of the unknowns when you have no real details just someone's words.

When you can see the previous damage and the repair cost or works detailed that really helps and it should be mandatory that this information is with the car throughout the rest of its life.
 

mjheathcote

Centenary Club
Messages
9,033
Great thanks, will be my go to site for vehicle checks.
Checking my vehicles, no site including the governments own site, have grasped the historic vehicle 40 year no MOT requirement and flags up as a warning.
 

lifes2short

Member
Messages
5,821
Great thanks, will be my go to site for vehicle checks.
Checking my vehicles, no site including the governments own site, have grasped the historic vehicle 40 year no MOT requirement and flags up as a warning.

is that right?, I did the the free tax on one of mine on line recently and there is a box there that you click to say the car has not been substantially altered from original spec and therefore no mot required, does the system not update itself, I do know that the police get somewhat confused when it flags with no mot and the advise is to have a copy of the DVLA signed form in the glovebox should you be pulled by them