Looking to buy a used car this afternoon and obviously want to do a HPI / stolen check on it before I buy it. I've seen my car check for 3 or 4 quid but that's way cheaper than all the others which makes me wary. Anyone know of a good value but reliable checking provider? RAC do them at 15 quid per check...

 

Dont use the cheaper ones. I alomst got done using them. Did 3 on a car I was going to buy and just out of interest the day before I went to get it I did the full HPI check from HPI.com.

This revealed the car had outstanding finance on it which the owner had not declared. I asked him about it and he admitted it, so contacted the finance company. He eventually sold the car to someone else who did not do the same HPI.com check (but had done another hpi check instead). The car had £12.5k outstanding on it and there has since been a lengthy court battle to try and gain ownership of the car.

Not good. Always always do the full hpi check before buying a car! The cheaper ones will not tell you everything. I was just very lucky indeed.

Good luck!

 

Should correct that, meant www.hpicheck.com

Others do not tell you outstanding finance and some history.

 

I used this a month or so ago when I bought my Impreza -

http://www.autocheck.co.uk/ (won Auto Express magazine award - google it)

with

http://www.hotukdeals.com/merchant/a...erian/vouchers

 

I used this too and just like you it showed finance owed that the dealer hadn't noticed.

It comes back with quite a lot of interesting info too.

Mine was a VERY well spent £19.99!

 

I agree, I would only use hpicheck.com now.

The guy that bought the dodgy car I nearly bought rang me for a chat after I contacted him. He gave his car + £7k cash for a £10k car and ended up owing the finance company £12.5k on top of that. He owed £22k in total as they threatened to take his car away as legally the finance company still owned the car.

If a car has finanace on it the registered keeper of the car is NOT the owner of the car. The finanace company OWNS the car and the keeper is forbidden by law to sell the car. This didn't stop the guy that nearly fooled me.

£19.99 is well worth the money. I wouldn't use anything else!

 

Cheers for the heads up guys, you see it advertised on the tv for a car check txted to your mobile for 3£, but i take it there will be stuff these checks miss. From now on i will only use the hpicheck.com .