One of the most-asked questions by would-be buyers of a second-hand car is: “Has it been in an accident?”
It’s fair to say many a car salesman has answered with a “no”, or a reassuring “only a fender bender” when the truth would be: “Yes, a really bad one, you wouldn’t believe what the car looked like before it was fixed.”
Blindly trusting a commission-earning salesman, is, with respect, a silly thing to do; if you don’t do your own checks, you’re very likely to get caught in some way.
But here’s the thing, no matter how proactive you are, you have no means of finding out for sure whether a car has been in an accident; not since March 2015 when insurance claims information provider Audatex stopped making accident claim details available to credit bureau Transunion, which has an Auto Information Solutions Division.
So while Transunion’s FirstCheck app is a wonderful source of info about a car’s estimated market value and whether or not it’s been stolen and or still being financed, it cannot answer the crucial “has the car been in an accident?”.
It’s a major lapse. Here’s why: cars written off by insurers after major accidents – because the repair cost is more than 70% of the car’s market value – are then sold by those insurers to auction houses, fixed up and make their way onto showroom floors.
Prince Mashinini knows all about that. He bought a second-hand Ford Figo for R135,000 in January from AutoMax Selected Used Cars in George.
After it broke down three months later, his insurer’s assessors found it had been written off in June. “I tracked down the previous owner’s brother on social media and he told me his sister had hit a SUV head-on in the car.
“None of that was disclosed to me at the time of sale,” he said.
AutoMax owner André Fourie said he was also none the wiser.
“I bought the car from a private person in good faith,” he said. “It looked fine, and nothing flagged in any of the checks I did – Transunion, Lightstone, or the Dekra Bumper to Bumper check – the latter only ‘previous repairs noted’ which could have been referring to minor repairs.”
Fourie has since taken the car back, settled the bank and refunded Mashinini, including for the cost of fixing the car.
“Currently there is no comprehensive or central database that records the history of accident damage to vehicles,” said Ross Stewart, of Transunion Auto Information Solutions.
“That data is split between panel shops, insurers and the like, but there is no accident history database accessible to the consumer.”
Two weeks ago I went onto Auction Nation’s website and tracked its Johannesburg car auction which was on the go.
Most cars up for auction, including ones which had clearly been in severe accidents, had been sold by the insurer as Code 2s.
A Code 2, according the Code of Salvage agreed to by various stakeholders – insurance industry, police, and motor financers – is an ordinary second-hand car.
In other words, the wrecks have the same legal status as the meticulously maintained, never-been-in-an-accident car.
And Code 3 is a car so badly damaged it’s unfit for use as a motor vehicle. It may be rebuilt under stringent procedures but its Code 3 status radically reduces its value, and most insurers will not insure these.
Discovery Insure CEO Anton Ossop said: “A vast majority of cars that are written off after accidents can be repaired and remain safe to drive and roadworthy and are therefore coded as Code 2.
“Declaring that a car was previously in an accident is the responsibility of the seller of the vehicle.”
That’s where the problem comes in. It’s not happening.
What to do:
If the dealership doesn’t know the accident history of the cars they are selling – how do would-be buyers avoid buying one?
1. Get a third party inspection centre such as Dekra to look for obvious signs of major accident damage.
2. Test drive the car in a variety of conditions from low to high speeds. Look out for poor handling, alignment and obvious defects like body panels and bumpers that are not symmetrical or aligned, strange engine pitch or noise, rattles or other noises.
3. If an engine bay side wall is clean, and the opposite side wall is dirty, be suspicious.
Look for messy wiring, non-matching panels and oil on the engine cover – bad signs.
Source the car's catalogue online or at a dealership to see if the paint colour aligns with manufacturer’s colour options
4. Some cars, such as BMWs store data in the key's memory: request it be sent to a BMW dealership for a report.
CONTACT WENDY – e-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za; Twitter: @wendyknowler; Facebook: wendyknowlerconsumer..