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Loading ...How Important are provenance checks and are used customers buying online?
Its an important question and in todays market the car dealer industry need to know the latest info.
More than half of used car buyers are unconcerned whether the vehicle they are purchasing has been stolen and recovered without any major damage, according to a recent survey by Experian.
Vauxhall Network Q offers a comprehensive free used car check service
Currently, if a vehicle is stolen, recovered and returned to its owner with no major damage, the evidence of this is removed.
The survey found 46 percent of respondents would want to know whether a used car had been stolen and recovered in its history, and 30 per cent would seriously reconsider going back to the dealership in question if they found out at a later date.
Experians claims its Autocheck timeline provides information if a car has previously been stolen and recovered.
But professionals in the used car market claimed such incidences should not affect values.
“If a car is stolen and recovered and properly repatriated to its owner and there has been no real damage to it - other than say a broken window or lock which is fixed - it is our view that it does not materially affect the value of the car,” said Rob Barr, Manheim’s group communications director.
Mark Norman, Cap operational development manager, was not surprised that a majority of buyers were unconcerned. “I dont think many people would get put off buying if they knew a car had been stolen but recovered”
With used car buyers becoming increasingly savvy in the way they use the internet to compare deals and research details, successful dealers include a wealth of information with their adverisments. “Vehicle history checks are another important tool in reassuring potential purchasers about the provenance of a car,” said Angus McCarey, head of ebaymotors.co.uk. “ We’re noticing that an increasing number of dealers are running history checks on all their cars before putting them on sale.”
Whilst stolen and recovered cars can cause concern the types of drivers and cars with questionable service histories are potentially more important. This is really important information for dealers, because it suggests that while the presence of this information may have a small impact on a consumers decision to actually buy the car, the lack of it, however, would hvae a far greater impact on the reputation of the dealer.