Would you buy a previously wrecked car?

kris · #1 03-03-2002, 02:25 PM

Well, like I previously said, I found me a very nice SVT Contour. The miles are low, and overall, it looks, and runs great. It is being sold by a small dealer here in town. I was talking to them for a little bit about buying the car. I told them that I wanted to have it checked out by the Ford dealer. They agreed, and setup a time where I could take it down to be looked over, which was yesterday. Well, when I picked up the car. The news wasn't good news. The car had been in a pretty good front end accident. Everything up front had been replaced. The work obviously wasn't perfect, or the dealer would not have been able to find it out. But I ran a carfax report on the car, and it came up clean. So that means the accident wasn't reported. So, I don't think the dealer that is selling it really knows about the wreck. But, what would you do? Would you get the car, knowing it has been wrecked? To me, this is different then a wrecked $2,000, 12 year old Civic. So, what do you all think?

ragt20 · #2 03-03-2002, 06:20 PM

I can totally see what you mean here, I am currently looking for a car as well (for my mum) and the ones I have seen so far, just make me

at people for false advertising.........went to see a car about 4 weeks ago, I asked the owner on the phone if it had been in any accidents or anything and he says no, the price was just under book price @ £4800, so I pay the guy a visit...what a waste of time that was...b4 he has even got the car out of his garage I can (a) smell something funny and (B) something doesn't look right.....so once he has got the car out of the garage, U can see all the tell tale signs of a car that has been extensively rebuilt......I mean under the wheel arches you can see overspray on the mud, under the hood there is panit on the radiator where the grill has been resprayed, and then I figure out what the funny smell is, paint fumes

the guy has obviously had it resprayed and then put it straight in his garage, giving no chance for the smell of the paint fumes to go...so at this point me and my cuz don't know wether to laugh or get angry at the bloke, who still doesn't admit that the car has been fixed big time......

and the story has been the same or very similar with the other 5 cars I have seen..again in all their adverts they say mint condition no dents etc...but when U go and see the car it is a big dissappointment.....why can't peeps just be honest for once......sorry for the ranting

anyway kbs to answer your question I have to go along with if it is a $2000 car then I would consider it but when spending big money on it and not even knowing exactly what has happened to the car b4, it is asking for trouble.......

primera man · #3 03-03-2002, 07:08 PM

I'd forget about it. There are to many bad stories about cars being repaired and not being up to a good standard of repair. Here in NZ people have been caught out by buying a new car only to find out later on that its two cars welded together

.
If you do go ahead and get one i'd be getting some REALLY good reports from lots of other places like chassis/suspension/panel beaters etc. If there is any dought, id flag it.
If i was forking out good money i'd expect the car to be perfect....having a car thats been in a good smash doesnt appeal to me.

speediva · #4 03-03-2002, 08:45 PM

I did. My car has a CARFAX verified R-title. We got the paperwork from the DOT on its repair, and everything seems to be fine. The car was re-built using an alignment rack, but luckily mine was hit from the rear.

As for your specific situation, I'd pass, though. The dealer who sold me my baby told me up-front that the title was damaged. If they are playing shady about this accident then I'd walk away. Additionally, if they are trying to down-play this accident record, I'd be making a call to the local BBB (better business bureau) to see if they have any other complaints against them for similar issues.

Good Luck!

Gonthrax · #5 03-03-2002, 08:57 PM

Well, I've always thought that once a car was wrecked, it'll never be the same. So I guess you just have to decide how bad it is and how much more money it would cost to get somthing not wrecked.
I donno man, I guess just use your best judgment

taranaki · #6 03-04-2002, 01:12 AM

The last time I spent over $10,000 dollars on a low-mileage ,one owner car,I had owned it for 2 years before I found out that it had been heavily repaired at the front....When I took it in for a routine windshield replacement,the glass man commented on the screen not being original,and showed me the tell-tale mis-aligned body panels...virtually perfect until they were pointed out to me.I kept the car for 5 more years,thanks to the children draining my wallet

,but never had any problems at all with any aspect of the car.

It pays to be very suspicious of late-model,low-mileage cars,especially those sold by dealers.It is very rare for somebody to part with an almost new major puchase without very good reason.

As has been said,there are some very shoddy repaired vehicles on the market.There are also some very good ones.The lesson here is to do EXACTLY WHAT KBS DID.Get an expert to check out any secondhand car before you buy.And if you are not comfortable with the expert opinion,don't buy it.

Heep · #7 03-04-2002, 10:35 AM

Get the body shop manager or mechanic foreman at the Ford dealer you took it to to thoroughly check it over, then ask them if they'd drive it

They should know more about how well the repair job was done and how critical or not the repair imperfections are than anyone...

KatWoman · #8 03-04-2002, 10:47 AM

I probably would not buy a car that had been wrecked because you never know what the car really went thru except for what dealers, repairmen, or the owner trying to sell tells you. When I bought my 93 Escort, the guy selling it told me that it had a small rear end accident and that the bumper had to be replaced. Other than a few missing decorative pieces (which I didn't know at the time should have been my hints) the car was perfect, drove straight etc. 4 months later I was rearended at 45 mph by a 73 Ford pick up. My left quarter panel had all these cracks in it...kinda looked like a shattered windshield effect. When the body shop took it apart for repairs it was literally a bondo sculpture. The car had been wrecked much worse than the guy told me. Then when I did a search on my title found out it was a salvage vehicle and the title info had been falsified.

So that is my "live n learn" story for used cars.

Now as for my car I have now....I had a nasty front end collision with it almost 4 years ago. The whole front end was replaced (motor, tranny and suspension were ok) and repainted. When I go to sell my car I will probably have a harder time selling it, but I am going to be honest with my potential buyer and let them know what happened, and show them pics and the repair bill and let them decide. It looks real good but I am sure a professional can point out every last thing that tells you it was wrecked. If I was in the buyer's shoes I would probably move on to the next car.

And by the way KB, if the title came up clean on carfax, I think that's because it only gets reported when the title is changed to a new owner or to a salvage title. I ran my VIN on carfax and the only thing that shows up is the first lien (loan) on the car and then when I took out a big loan to pay off the car and some other stuff the second lien showed up also. No accident data is on it.

Rich · #9 03-04-2002, 11:10 AM

I agree with what has been said here for the most part. My opinion would be to forget about that car. I dont think that a car is ever the same once it has been in an accident, and the fact that the dealer selling it didnt come clean about it right away scares me.

Id keep looking. Better to wait a while longer and be satisfied then to buy something now and end up regretting it in a while.

DMC12 · #10 03-04-2002, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by saturntangerine
... We got the paperwork from the DOT on its repair, and everything seems to be fine...

How do you go about getting papers from the DOT? I'd like to do the same for my car.

speediva · #11 03-04-2002, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DMC12

How do you go about getting papers from the DOT? I'd like to do the same for my car.

From what I recall (my dad did all the REAL research on it...) but he just called up the number for PennDOT (Pennsylvania's DOT) and asked for the papers to get a Damage Disclosure released. We filled out all the info, got it notorized, and sent it back. Just about a month later we got a thick envelope filled with the larger majority of repair papers concerning this particular crash.

Hope I helped! PM me if you need more details.

gang$tarr · #12 03-05-2002, 06:36 PM

i would never, ever buy a wrecked car......

just because of the problems that could come up

Jay! · #13 03-05-2002, 08:55 PM

I think I would pass on it. It would be one thing if it was in a wreck and you could get all the details and repair records, but a "mystery wreck" sounds like a big no-no to me.

Dustin_S · #14 03-05-2002, 10:55 PM

My stealth was actually driven through a riot. I swear!

you can see where someone took either an axe or a ballpoint hammer to it just about the right rear wheel. My dad and I didn't like the looks of that, even though the guy said it was fine. so my dad, being the greatest dad in existance, actually trapped the guy into signing a contract that he would pay to have the car fixed if anything went wrong in the first 12 months...My dad is so smart.

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