One of YouTube’s most popular motoring experts has revealed how he got scammed buying a cheap used car that turned out to be seriously damaged.
Alex Kersten is the host of the popular Autoalex Cars YouTube channel, with over half a million people subscribing to see his adventures in a variety of interesting cars.
However, in a recent video, Alex tries to find a used car for sale that has a hidden history, using the vehicle history checker CarVertical.
He said: “Are we ready to see the report? Woah, damage. We’ve got crash pictures of front-end damage. And it’s done 176,000 miles, there are a lot of advisories too. It was exported, I wasn’t expecting that, and damage was detected in January of this year.
“So, I’ll be interested to see if he [the seller] admits that it’s been damaged or if it was even damaged in his time, he might not even know.”
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Alex and his friends were all surprised at how quickly they were able to find a previously damaged vehicle for sale by using platforms such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace.
However, to see if the car had been properly repaired, they visited the seller with a view to buy it and give the model a close inspection.
Whilst the front end had been repaired, Alex noticed that there were significant gaps between the bonnet, bumper, and front wings, whilst parts of the car were badly resprayed.
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Later in the video, Alex revealed that they managed to buy the damaged car for £500 so his friend and former AA employee Taylor Hetherington could show viewers some of the signs that it had previously been in an accident.
Taylor advised: “This looks weird, this turbo hose is very soft. There’s a bit of a gearbox oil leak as well, the undertray is missing. There’s corrosion on the rear subframe, and if you look here this part of the subframe has completely come away. That is actually quite dangerous.
“On the other side, there’s a bit of yellow paint where they advised it on the last MOT. This side has almost completely come away up here, I can pretty much see the [suspension] bush all the way down which means that subframe is almost [rotten] the whole way through. If this was to hit a big enough hole it could potentially move backwards and the subframe will actually come out of that slot.”
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Whilst Alex and his friends gave the damaged car a good send off by rallying it around a private dirt track, CarVertical warned just how easy it is for a motorist to unwittingly buy a damaged car.
The company advised all drivers thinking about buying a used car to check the number plate on their website to see if the model has been in an accident, stolen or previously written off.
CarVertical has one of the largest online databases of used cars, making it one of the most comprehensive ways to look into a car’s past.
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