HPI Check
 

As some of you are aware I recently went into business buying and selling Audis. Well, buying them anyway.... :D

As a result, I've been beavering away on all sorts of IT solutions to automate my buying process and decisions.

'HPI' checks as they are commonly referred to are provided by a number of companies now, with varying benefits but all to verify (and guarantee usually) that a car is not currently financed, stolen or written off, all of which would seriously impact its value.

Commercially, the more HPI checks I perform, the cheaper I get them, so I'm looking to open up my traders account via a portal to grant access to full, guaranteed checks via Experian, with optional valuations, mileage verifications, MOT data and Audi factory specification.

So, I'm curious as to how many folks actually perform a check on a car before they buy it ?

I did on my first S8, really to confirm what the seller had told me i.e. that it was on finance and that all needed to be settled as part of the sale.

Didn't on my more recent one, seemed pointless given its age and provenance.
Also didn't on my ex-demo dealer-supplied Volvo.

But then most of the cars I've bought over the years have been my own end-of-lease company cars (always in immaculate condition and recently serviced ;) ) so no need as they were bought directly from the leasing company.

I usually buy privately so I always prefer to check, mainly to ensure it's not stolen or written-off as I wouldn't expect much finance on a car 15+ years old, but you never know!

Mileage data can often be verified through the MOT database online nowadays so not such an issue.

When I've bought from a dealer I've always accepted at face value any HPI check performed on the vehicle as being adequate assurance, given if it turns out to be wrong you can go after the dealer in a legal sense if something comes up (and assuming the check is valid and insured, the dealer can go to HPI)

I did the full works on our 1 yr old Golf GTI as it was a private sale, especially as the order form supplied by the seller quite clearly showed finance but also included a letter from VWFS confirming it was paid off and declaring no further interest. Seemed silly not to when spending £20k+

Probably worth checking your own liability/cover for the person asking for the check? I seem to recall there's small print involved that might mean a third party doesn't benefit from the insurance of doing the check? Lots of additional details required by HPI to validate the warranty - document reference number and VIN from memory?

As you know, I think the valuation service is useful, although sometimes having CAP and Glass's makes for interesting comparisons. Neil who had the aqua FE a couple of years back had an account that gave both valuations but don't know the source

All valid points Adrian....

The service is designed for resale to third parties, to include the guarantee etc.

The actual requirements for the guarantee aren't as strict as some I'm seen, but if for example you don't provide the VIN, they can't guarantee that its not a ringer presumably, just that that VRM didn't come up as stolen, written off.

Valuations can be glasses, cap, and/or cap black book plus. At first I found the differences interesting, but then found that I was ultimately confused when two or three valuations come through at quite different values, adjusted for mileage, but having no bearing on spec - which we know can be a big factor, so I settled on just one, which is cheaper anyway.

I realised after trying to help you that I'd tied the process up very tightly only to what I immediately required, making it very hard to access other services that were available, but I had chosen not to use in the mainstream.

So, I spent most of this week rewriting my information service, and turning me into my own client who accesses a subset of the data, where the rest can be accessed element by element externally. Sounds complicated, but its great foundation for what I'm trying to do..... +++

If I buy a high value car, yes. If i buy a low value car (track, resto, etc) I don't

I only buy cheap cars so have never checked it, if it was more expensive then probably would check.

Wife's car came with HPI report and I took that at face value. Checked it afterwards and it was accurate.

I have a friend in the trade who can get them for free so I normally get them checked.

How much is a HPI these days? Retail (single) and Trade?

Its not a habit. A lot of the stuff I buy is spares or repairs so when the engine is full of shrapnel the car's history is pretty irrelevant! It might have been prudent to check the S8s, but it didn't even cross my mind tbh.

It would be useful to have documentation for the FE when it comes to sale time though, since it might provide peace of mind for any prospective buyer. Its had a couple done in the past as its had a few plate changes so an up to date one wouldn't hurt.

We did check Lucy's TT before buying that, since its a prime candidate for being stolen or accident damaged at some point and I'd spotted a wing had been painted so we wanted to make sure it was nothing major.

It may be a service I'd use occasionally when buying or selling something valuable :)

I checked the seller of the '8 that I bought pretty carefully, and I still managed to pay him twice :ROFL:

Never bothered when buying the A8 or the A4 before that. They were both 2001 so didn't see the point. Part of the check wouldn't work for us in Northern Ireland, as the full MOT history isn't available.

I "always" check mine out of habit now..... I normally have a multi check (5 car check) through the AA for £20 so they're not very expensive.

I've put quotation marks on always as the exceptions over the past few years have been on cars provided by my mechanic which are usually very cheap and just to keep me on the road between cars.

Buying private, I check
Buying independent dealer, if no HPI provided, I check
Buying Franchised agent, I don't check
Buying cheap stuff, I don't check

Insufficient options in that survey

When I was buying and selling a lot, I stuck with CAP Black Book. Classes and CAP did things differently to each other, and I found it easier to stick to one and understand how to read what it was saying against what I was looking at

High value - yes.
Low value - no.

Yes if buying Private or Independent Trader.
No from a Main Dealer but would ask them to provide a copy of report for peace of mind.

Aye but he was "proper dodgy" was he not:ROFL:

HPI check is ok, the National Mileage Register is a load of bull****.

I currently have my X5 for sale, and lost a buyer this week because "my HPI check revealed the mileage has been tampered with"

Reason: in October last year, some idiot at the dealer where it was being serviced entered 27,000 instead of 37,000 miles, then IMMEDIATELY on the same day corrected it to 37,000, but the initial input stood and this put my buyer off.

Now, I have cleared this up with HPI/NMR, but it has still left a very unpleasant taste in my mouth as my 'buyer' is no longer interested as he feels there must be something dodgy going on.

I am not a happy bunny, partly because the buyer is just being an idiot (he also said there was an alert due to a number plate change - well done Sherlock, it has my plate on it!) but if HPI are going to record this information then they must do more to validate its authenticity rather than ruining people's chances of selling privately through nothing other than a data input error.:(

Sarg,
Gwen & I both feel for you.
I might be an old gullible soft touch but I use a number of criteria whenever dealing with strangers, including my "gut feeling". ;):D

Better luck with your next catch.

I had a similar thing with a previous car - when it had been through auction a few years prior it had what looked like a few HPI checks the same day, one with an extra one in the mileage - flagged on the NMR, just no common sense to their logic. Luckily for me, the buyer had some common sense (Lee "Mechcanico Lee").

How easy would it be to actually scupper someones sale, just run a HPI check and enter a million miles on someone else's car and then it will forever flag on the NMR :mad:

Such is my boredom of entering and viewing vrms, vins and mileages unless there are any objections I'll pick a handful of you off this thread and email you some free vouchers to try out a beta version of the service I've put together.

I'm interested in any glaring technical, grammatical or spelling errors. It really is a V1.0 but hopefully might be useful, if not pretty.

The checks are from live data, but the guarantees behind the data are not valid in this instance, so don't make any real life purchase decisions based on it ! [/disclaimer over]

I would advise you check your own car first, to get a feel for what the data should look like, then try some others off your favourite car buying site.....

Anyone that is particularly interested, response, and likewise I'll make sure you get some... +++

Beta test of "HPI" service
 

Hi Ian,

You are welcome to try on my car, reg no in pictures from Castle Combe. It has had at least 4 reg nos and mileage has risen progressively until 2 years ago. VIN is WAUZZZ4EX7N002808. As a fellow IT person and long term S8 owner happy to help launch a new product/service.

Cheers

Richard

Feel free to use mine,

I did a full HPI check when I bought it 3.5 years ago with VIN etc, it was clean then.

However I have since found a small mileage discrepancy at the second MOT, almost 10 years ago where it seems the testing station entered the wrong figure but I cannot back that up. If you plot the MOT history on mine as a graph then apart from a small dip at the second MOT its consistent the whole way through. Would be interesting to see the take on how that pans out on a fresh check.

It's had several plate changes over the years, let me know what you need.

Same here for mine, I know its had plate changes, quite a few owners before me and that mileage wise, I have done the most out of all of them

You can use mine as well, as that will test what information can be picked up from DVLA and DVLNI. Most online sources only give MOT history whilst registered with DVLA. VIN number is WAUZZZ4D92N002072 and reg is LV51MWJ.

Hi Ian,
Mine is available if you wish.
Note that there will be a mileage discrepancy 'cos I changed the display.

VIN: WAUZZZ4E14N025504 License Plate: KR04 AUD

Thanks all - I generated a handful of vouchers yesterday to those that expressed interest and they should have emailed themselves out to folks so you can try it yourself.

Click the voucher code on the email, and it will take you straight through authentication and onto entering in a License plate to check.

Its free for you to play with right now, but the despite what the automated email 'expiry date' says, the test vouchers will be voided once I go live..., sorry ! +++

Always checked car purchases this way (since I've been aware of such a thing existing). The recent exception of my latest purchase, with it being new of course!