Accident repaired cars are common in car sales. What disturbs me is that the garages are not telling the buyer even though the cars are recorded as write-offs. These cars are usually well repaired and only an expert can tell where they are damaged. Accident repaired cars may or may not be recorded, however, cars with adverse history sell in the UK for 20% to 40% of their retail value. In Ireland garages are selling them for the full retail price and when the buyer of such a car goes to sell it on he will either not be able to sell it at all or only get a fraction of its value from a garage. He may try to sell it himself on Done Deal and the next person gets a devalued, accident damaged car. I do not have a problem with accident damaged cars as long as they are repaired properly and the buyer is made aware of it.

One scam the garages pull is to sell the car to a foolish buyer who thinks because they are paying more the car is better. Take for example a car worth a retail of €10,000. The garage will offer it for sale at €11,000 or €12,000 trying to attract the foolish buyer. In reality the accident damaged car is worth 6 to 8,000 euro. The attitude of the garage is if the buyer does not take care to have the car checked then why should they.