Nearly a third of the population would seriously consider never going back to a used car dealer if they discovered that certain information relating to the history of the car they had bought had not been revealed, even if this history did not affect the value or the safety of the car.

A recent survey by Experian found that 46 per cent would want to know whether a used car had ever been stolen and recovered in its history, even if there had been no damage to it, and 30 per cent would seriously reconsider ever going back to the dealer in question if they found out at a later date.  

All major provenance service providers give dealers a range of information relating to the ‘current’ status of a used car.  This includes alerting dealers to vehicles that are registered as stolen.  However, if a vehicle that had been stolen was then recovered and returned to its owner, the evidence of it ever having been stolen is removed. 

At present, Experian is the only major provider of vehicle status checks that highlights cars that have previously been stolen and recovered, with its recently launched AutoCheck Timeline.  Other service providers do not include this information, because it does not affect the value or the safety of the car once it has been recovered and so is not considered a risk for the purchaser.   

Kirk Fletcher, Managing Director of Experian’s Automotive division, said, “The survey found that 43 per cent of the population expects a dealer to know whether a car had ever been stolen then recovered and with almost half the population wanting to have this information before making a decision, it is something dealers really do need to consider.

“It was particularly interesting to see that for 79 per cent of the population, the knowledge that a car had been stolen and recovered in the past would not completely deter them from buying it nor would they expect to pay less for a car that had previously been stolen.