Car Vertical report showed body damaged so I walked away.
Discussion
I had made arrangements to view a vehicle today but last night did a Car Vertical report and to my surprise it threw up two "damage issues", see screen shots. I contacted the dealership and advised them of my findings and informed them that I was no longer interested in the vehicle.
The dealer replied, concluding that I had used CV and stated things like:
“The data is pulled from Audatex/Autodata, it’s a quotation usually at main dealer body shops”
“The reports are usually inaccurate as that is an estimate cost of repair, could be a front end respray to get rid of stone chips not necessarily accident damage, or a quote for a full respray.”
“It’s also not necessarily for this car either as I know exactly where the data is taken from and anyone can type a reg in on that system, I could type your current vehicles reg into that database and say it needed 20k worth or repairs and the marker would stick even if it never had it, so the system is flawed.”
Well, I did a CV report on my current car before I bought it 2 years back and it was absolutely fine.
Having read a few other posts about CV, mention has been made of a similar, cheaper platform namely vcheck.uk. So I did one of their 5.00 reports and there was no mention of damage.
So my questions are:
- Are Car Vertical reports to be trusted? And yes I do know many YouTubers promote them which is how I found about them back in the day.
- Was I right to walk away from the prospective car today?
Many thanks.
The dealer replied, concluding that I had used CV and stated things like:
“The data is pulled from Audatex/Autodata, it’s a quotation usually at main dealer body shops”
“The reports are usually inaccurate as that is an estimate cost of repair, could be a front end respray to get rid of stone chips not necessarily accident damage, or a quote for a full respray.”
“It’s also not necessarily for this car either as I know exactly where the data is taken from and anyone can type a reg in on that system, I could type your current vehicles reg into that database and say it needed 20k worth or repairs and the marker would stick even if it never had it, so the system is flawed.”
Well, I did a CV report on my current car before I bought it 2 years back and it was absolutely fine.
Having read a few other posts about CV, mention has been made of a similar, cheaper platform namely vcheck.uk. So I did one of their 5.00 reports and there was no mention of damage.
So my questions are:
- Are Car Vertical reports to be trusted? And yes I do know many YouTubers promote them which is how I found about them back in the day.
- Was I right to walk away from the prospective car today?
Many thanks.
CV is expensive but does what it says. You can see damage to cars and details of mileage etc. from other sources. CV now also show any assessment of damage even if it did not catagorise the car. Looking at your report, the rear damage is indicative only. Tells you to check as its likely the rear has had paint. The front damage is listed as significant. Had the car been old it would have been catagorised. A reason to walk away. That said a lot of cars have minor bumps and if of low value or rare can be written off for insignificant damage. The data provided is great, it tells you where to look and an idea of what damage was done. It gives you leverage on value of the vehicle. Just because a car has had a crash does not mean it is any more likely to have issues etc. if the repair was carried out well. We put too much faith in insurance write off data, as some Utubers have shown the cat system is not accurate and often wrong.
Ive been through this process. When dealers prep a car for sale they 'tick' a list of panels , screens, lights etc which need attention. It might just be T-cutting, polishing or fix a small crack in lights. Those ticked panels are just valued by CarVertical so the damage is not really damage and the cost is the retail value of the panels not the work taken place to repair would could be just a blemish.
Carvertical is promoted by a load of daft youtubers. Probably the worst one is Calvin 'David Walliams' Car Diary who if you did a CV on all his stock would find loads of some sort of CV report.
As a used car dealer if I did a CV on every car I tried to buy I would have an empty pitch.
Second hand cars have had paint in a lot of cases. Was it because it was on its roof at the nurburging or was it because it had a bumper corner scuff.
Personally I use HPI and Motorcheck (Dealer version of VCheck) on all our stock to ensure nothing is unrecorded.
I've had someone bring a car vertical report to us for a front end on an X5 and it had nothing on the car. Didn't include the rear bumper I had painted for sale because it was scuffed. Really flawed.
A lot of these reports need to be taken with context. A dealer can use a bit of context. A common cause for concern is a security watch marker on HPI most members of public would s
t it. But when you do enough HPI reports you realise one finance company add it to nearly every single one of their deals so therefore take with a pinch of salt.
As a used car dealer if I did a CV on every car I tried to buy I would have an empty pitch.
Second hand cars have had paint in a lot of cases. Was it because it was on its roof at the nurburging or was it because it had a bumper corner scuff.
Personally I use HPI and Motorcheck (Dealer version of VCheck) on all our stock to ensure nothing is unrecorded.
I've had someone bring a car vertical report to us for a front end on an X5 and it had nothing on the car. Didn't include the rear bumper I had painted for sale because it was scuffed. Really flawed.
A lot of these reports need to be taken with context. A dealer can use a bit of context. A common cause for concern is a security watch marker on HPI most members of public would s
t it. But when you do enough HPI reports you realise one finance company add it to nearly every single one of their deals so therefore take with a pinch of salt.Glade said:
My car got smashed up and had a bit of work done by the insurance. Later I had a spare car vertical report (I think I got a deal for more than one when I was checking out another car?) and checked it and it came back clean.
So... I wouldn't completely trust those kind of reports.
My current car has had three repairs after bumps through the insurance in it's 13 year life (all with me). Two slow speed rear-enders, one needed a new boot lid the other a bumper and towbar, and a windscreen after a sign fell on it in a car park. Car Vertical shows it as completely clean. One of the cheap text your reg checks shows it had had 2 repairs so I take all of the check companies with a level of scepticism.So... I wouldn't completely trust those kind of reports.
JimmyConwayNW said:
Carvertical is promoted by a load of daft youtubers. Probably the worst one is Calvin 'David Walliams' Car Diary who if you did a CV on all his stock would find loads of some sort of CV report.
As a used car dealer if I did a CV on every car I tried to buy I would have an empty pitch.
Second hand cars have had paint in a lot of cases. Was it because it was on its roof at the nurburging or was it because it had a bumper corner scuff.
Personally I use HPI and Motorcheck (Dealer version of VCheck) on all our stock to ensure nothing is unrecorded.
I've had someone bring a car vertical report to us for a front end on an X5 and it had nothing on the car. Didn't include the rear bumper I had painted for sale because it was scuffed. Really flawed.
A lot of these reports need to be taken with context. A dealer can use a bit of context. A common cause for concern is a security watch marker on HPI most members of public would st it. But when you do enough HPI reports you realise one finance company add it to nearly every single one of their deals so therefore take with a pinch of salt.
Funnily enough I watched a CCD video this morning, him buying a BMW M135 from a customer and he said himself (despite being sponsored by Car Vertical) that the car vertical reports are getting silly now for reports of body damage and the prices quoted on there and he would be making the point going forward on future videos. As a used car dealer if I did a CV on every car I tried to buy I would have an empty pitch.
Second hand cars have had paint in a lot of cases. Was it because it was on its roof at the nurburging or was it because it had a bumper corner scuff.
Personally I use HPI and Motorcheck (Dealer version of VCheck) on all our stock to ensure nothing is unrecorded.
I've had someone bring a car vertical report to us for a front end on an X5 and it had nothing on the car. Didn't include the rear bumper I had painted for sale because it was scuffed. Really flawed.
A lot of these reports need to be taken with context. A dealer can use a bit of context. A common cause for concern is a security watch marker on HPI most members of public would s
t it. But when you do enough HPI reports you realise one finance company add it to nearly every single one of their deals so therefore take with a pinch of salt.Maybe the constant pushing of Car Vertical is now coming back to bite him on the sales side.
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