Car-buying Victims
Real people with real horror stories
We've helped many people who have fallen foul of unprincipled sellers, who have tried to offload stolen or written–off cars or even dangerous cut and shuts (two halves of cars welded together).
Outstanding Finance
While at a filling station, Mr Stanley of London noticed a diesel estate pull up alongside with a 'For sale' sign on the rear window. He needed a car urgently and it was just what he wanted.
"The guy seemed really genuine and was asking £3,500 for the car, which was within my price bracket. I asked him what he'd take for cash and I was shocked but delighted when he said that he would drop the price by £1,000.
I told my mechanic who was immediately wary because of the large discount. He urged me to get an AA Car Data Check but I was in two minds because it meant shelling out another £35. But he said that if the car was dodgy, I'd be out of pocket for a lot more money. Put like that, I couldn't argue with the logic!
I rang up for the check and was told the car was 'clean' but that it had £4,500 of outstanding finance owing. The seller claimed he was going to pay it off with the proceeds of the sale but I couldn't take the chance."
Mr Stanley didn't buy the car and potentially saved himself the £4,500 in outstanding finance on top of the £2,500 he'd have paid for the car.
Falling Apart
An unsuspecting couple were put at risk after the husband, an AA member, innocently bought his pregnant wife a £4,000 car privately.
When it came in for service, the garage told the young family that it was a 'cut–and–shut' – halves of two different cars welded together. Even more worryingly, some of the joints were already rusting away.
An AA Car Data Check would have told the couple that the car had been written off by the insurer after it was damaged beyond repair in a crash. Less than a month later, the car was back on the road and sold on by the unscrupulous owner.
The young family had no comeback and lost £4,000, not to mention the fact that all their lives were at serious risk every time they got into the car.
Chassis Calamity
Mr Wright from Leicestershire went to see a Toyota Hi-Ace van.
"It was exactly what I wanted. It was priced at £5,750 and needed taxing so I asked the seller for the documents so I could get this done and gave him a deposit of £100 to show willing.
On the way home, I started feeling concerned about the way the whole thing had been conducted with the seller.
I put in a call to AA Car Data Check and was told that the log book (V5) number was one of a batch that had been stolen from the DVLA. and that the chassis number was registered to another stolen Hi-Ace."
Mr Wright lost the £100 deposit but if he hadn't done the check, he could have ended up buying a stolen car which would eventually have been recovered, leaving him with nothing but a large debt.