Damaged Repairable Car

Gavin G · April 18, 2004

Hi all

I have been on the lookout for a damaged repairable Renault Clio dci for my g/f this past while and we think we may have found a suitable one.

We made a two hour drive to Belfast to view it today and it seems ok and it was as described over the phone. Just for info, it needs a passenger side door and quarter panel. However the car was written off by an insurance company (I presume) and there is NO V5 for it at the moment. The guy said that when we had it repaired all we had to do was take it to an MOT centre to get some sort of certificate/paperwork and then we could get a new V5 again from this. From what I could tell, this certificate certifies that the cars VIN, engine number etc. haven't been tampered with and its to prevent fraud, ringing etc.

He said that this was standard procedure with a car like this and there would be no problems as he deals in cars like this. I really don't know enough about this myself so I was wondering if anyone here can clarify this as we really need to know before we buy to avoid problems later.

I assume that the mainland would have the same rules as over here in N. Ireland?

Any help/advice much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Gavin :)

nickmoul · April 18, 2004

I know nothing about this but found this link

http://www.carworldhq.com/salvage.htm

which seems to confirm what you have been told. It lloks like you need to take all the vehicle details and do a VIC (Vehicle Identity Check) with the DVLA (or whatever they're called now).

Other obvious one is to check under the car and to ensure its not twisted. Also, try and find out why it was written off by the Insurance Company. Are you SURE you can get all the bits you need to repair it.

Oh and as its been written off its on some kind of register which means it could be hard to get insurance on it AFAIK. Check - using the actual reg no - by asking for an insurance quote from say Norwich Union Direct. This also means any car on this register is usually much cheaper than exactly the same vehicle not on the register. A quick chat to any used car dealer should put you right.

Lastly, because its in NI, be aware that all sorts of strange stuff including to do with EU borders with Eire could have gone on.

But, it just could be the greatest deal on earth :)

Best of luck

Nick

Bazza · April 18, 2004

if its been formally written off it will need to be re-registered

this can be done at certain dvla centres

where they will inspect it rather thoroughly

pretty sure the MOT is not as strict in the uk as it is in ireland

mudzs · April 18, 2004

You do not have to reregister it ,and the mot is only nessacary if car is more than three years old.you just send of for the log book as usual .i would hpi it and find out what cat write of it is A is total loss and not deemed as repairable ,b not so bad and so on .you never know might be unrecorded .as for insurance you have to inform them it is a write of that has been repaired and all it will affect is the amount they payout if nicked or total loss again.Also if you sell it you have to tell the new owner of its past and it will afect the price you get for it.

Gavin G · April 19, 2004

The car is Nov 2001 and cars don't need to be MOT'd in N. Ireland until they are 4 years old.

As for the category, I didn't ask the guy but I can find out. However he did say that the car was recorded.

Like I said the guy has no V5 for it so all we would get from him is a receipt I presume.

Having looked on the DVLA NI website it seems the car would need to go through a VIC (Vehicle Identity Check) in order to get a new V5. I don't think it has to be re-registered.

I think I will find out what category of damage the car is and take things from there

Thanks guys for the replies and to Nick for that link ;)

Gavin :)

Fmrl · April 19, 2004

I find it interesting that a car that's not even three years old has been written off due to what sounds like only quite superficial damage. If I were you I'd get the car thoroughly checked out just in case there's other problems with it or it's had a questionable past.