Data from used car website My Car Check has revealed that 24 per cent of people that use the site’s used car checker function subsequently discover that their potential purchase has been written off.
The My Car Check website allows used car buyers to do a background check on potential acquisitions. An analysis of the data has revealed that nearly a quarter of those that use this tool are later informed that the car they are looking at has been previously written off.
The data also revealed what cars are most likely to return a shrouded history, with the Peugeot 208 Active model being the most popular, with a huge 48.65 per cent of those searched being either category C or D.
Which used cars are most likely to be write-offs?
Other popular write-off models include superminis like the Ford Fiesta Edge 60 (48.57 per cent) and the Vauxhall Corsa Limited Edition (40.6 per cent).
What is perhaps most shocking of all is that some potential used car buyers are known to use a car’s CAT C or D history as a bargaining tool to haggle for a better price, as opposed to questioning its safety and looking elsewhere.
Head of My Car Check, Roger Powell, said: “Any previously written-off vehicle must be viewed with caution, especially when inspecting the quality of repairs. The implications of being involved in a further accident in a car which has not been properly repaired don’t bear thinking about.
“In a survey a couple of years ago, 79 per cent of My Car Check customers said they wouldn’t buy one. The flipside is that some buyers are happy to look at category C or D write-offs and use the data to push for a price reduction.”
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