Does ‘HPI clear’ really mean anything anymore?
Have you ever seen the term 'HPI Clear' in car listings and wondered what it means?
Most people assume it means that there's no outstanding finance and the car has never been subject of an insurance write-off, and it does…kind of.
The term HPI Clear means that a car has passed an HPI Check, this is a generic term used for a car history check. The check should show if the car has outstanding finance, has been recorded as stolen or has been recorded as an insurance write-off. Category S & N Cars (formerly Cat C & D) are allowed to be repaired and put back onto the road, whereas Category A & B vehicles are not. Unfortunately, ‘HPI Clear’ is not as all-encompassing as it may seem with many insurance write-offs completely undetectable by these standards; let’s look at the reasons why and what you can do to ensure your car has a completely clear history.
Thousands of cars are bought and sold each year as ‘HPI Clear’ that are actually unrecorded write-offs
Sites like Auto Trader and eBay offer free history checks as part of their customer journey and some very large reputable companies offer paid services that do the same but did you know there are thousands of 'HPI Clear' cars for sale in the UK right now that have been written off? (including ‘Cat S’ cars with structural damage) that are legally being sold as 'HPI Clear'?
Here's why: many history checks search the DVLA and MIAFTR databases (MIAFTR is an insurance database containing records of written-off and stolen vehicles). At first glance, it looks fine, but did you know that insurance companies are not legally required to enter written-off vehicles into this database? and that many of these vehicles then go into salvage auctions - get fixed and end up on car dealership a forecourt again?
In the UK today there are hundreds of live listings on very reputable websites with green checkmarks next to them for cars being sold at the regular retail price despite the fact that they were once subject of an insurance write-off.
This is a scandalous situation, but there is a quick and easy fix. If your vehicle has already passed the 'HPI' style check, go ahead and get a VCheck, VCheck provides details of vehicles put up for salvage auction and may also show photos of the car in pre-repair/post-accident condition - some of the biggest names in the history check business are unable to do this but VCheck can.
This will help determine the extent of the damage and check the quality of the repair. It can also be used as a powerful negotiation tool with sellers! Note that registered depreciation, once repaired, often sells for 25-30% less than the normal retail price. VCheck costs less than a coffee by the way!