This report is inspired by Stephen (right) who contacted me via the website: He’s thinking of buying a 2014 Kia Rio that’s a repaired write-off - effectively 40 per cent below fair market value for the equivalent used car. So: it’s above board - but is it a good idea?
A repaired write off is the six million dollar man of used cars. Only it’s not better, stronger or faster. The best you can hope for is that it’s almost as good, and a lot cheaper. So here’s how to make sure you get what you actually pay for.
Repairable write-offs happen when insurance companies declare a vehicle uneconomical to repair. This might be following a crash, or some other insurance event like a flood, or severe hail. The owner cops a cash payout or a new replacement vehicle - whatever the policy stipulates - and the wreck is generally sold at auction.
Depending on how crappy the condition, that wreck might go to a wrecker - who strips it and sells the parts. But if it’s only partly crappy it might end up repaired, inspected, re-registered and re-sold.
Because YouTube is a global platform, and I live in Australia (the perfect environment for the descendent of a British bread-stealing criminal) you should be aware I can only comment on the repairable write-off situation down here, where the coriolis acceleration of the earth turns hurricanes into cyclones by forcing them to rotate in the other direction.
Nothing is intrinsically wrong with repaired write-offs, provided the repairs are done to a professional standard. But I wouldn’t be paying the full freight for one. I’d want a discount for the abuse it’s suffered in the past. It's only fair.
There are scumbags out there, with the underlying ethics of a death adder, who routinely attempt to pass off these repaired write-offs as run-of-the-mill used cars - at the full market price. So you have to protect yourself from inheriting one of these without the appropriate discount. We’ll get to that.
In Australia, there are essentially two categories of written-off cars: Repairable write-offs and statutory write-offs. Statutory write-offs are the ones that, by law, must never be repaired. They’re usually badly damaged, and they can only be sold legally for spare parts. (Although there is an even lower class of bottom-feeding scumbag who will repair and attempt sell you a statutory write-off, purporting to be a high-quality used car.)
Here in NSW, which is where Sydney is (if you're reading this from overseas) the state government made it illegal in 2011 to re-register any repaired write-off. Here, they can only be scrapped and sold for parts. That was done in an attempt to reduce re-birthing.
If you haven’t yet got your PhD from Criminal University, re-birthing is where you steal a car, you park it somewhere unobtrusive and then you buy a wreck of the same make and model. Then you transfer the wreck’s identity to the stolen car and attempt to sell it as if it’s above-board. Whole new identity. Jason Bourne … without Treadstone. Re-birthing is just like the automotive equivalent of cloning … if it were the Armenian mob doing the science … as opposed to actual geneticists.
This set of ‘zero tolerance’ write-off repair rules only applies to NSW. Other Australian states still allow you to repair and re-register repairable write-offs. There’s even an official inspection process to get them re-registered and back on the road. But the unique laws in NSW mean legally repaired and re-registered write-offs from other states can’t be transferred to a NSW registration. So bad luck if you plan on moving here with one of those.
Most people buying a used car in Australia do a REVS check, which reveals financial encumberance. It’s bad to buy a vehicle used as the security over a car loan - because it can be repossessed if the loan isn’t discharged with the sale proceeds. But a REVS check won’t identify repaired write-offs.
In Australia there’s an official Written-off Vehicle Register. And the best way for you to access the data on that register is to drop $37 online and get an official Car History Report. In addition to the financial liability check from REVS, a Car History Report will also give you the vehicle’s full insurance claim history, it’ll tell you if it’s ever been stolen or written off, you’ll also get a valuation and the registration details, plus a bunch of other sundry information. It could just be the best $37 insurance policy of all time.
