Car vertical check

[Stellartois]

After seeing them plugged by loads of YouTubers I thought I'd give Car Vertical a go for a check on a car I'm toying with getting. It's on ebay and needs a bit of work, to say the least. The check, which was about £40, came back saying the car had been involved in an insurance claim back in May 2025 with a repair estimate of £5,000 - 10,000. Clearly this work has been carried out because the car was up for sale with Better Performance in Cardiff in December however it is currently on ebay for sale with heavy front end damage and a nice Cat S marker against it.
I emailed Car Vertical to say I was not happy woth the check as it failed to show up the damage and marker but all they did was offer me another check, saying they can't always be accurate due ti several reasons, blah, blah, blah.
For such a well plugged service they were absolutely rubbish today, good luck to the poor soul who buys this 'unregistered' car once it's been repaired. Again..

[Stellartois]

[Stellartois]

[p4cks]

If something was that good it wouldn’t need incessant pushing upon us. See also Jehovah’s witnesses and women’s football.

[loskie]

[Stellartois]

p4cks said:

If something was that good it wouldn t need incessant pushing upon us. See also Jehovah s witnesses and women s football.

Just for you

[WelshPetrolhead]

£40!!

Didn't you use one of the many discount codes?

A hpi check is about a tenner.

[Stellartois]

Yes I did use a code but got a package for a couple of checks, I know there are plenty of cheaper ones available but tried these guys as I was specifically hoping to get some info on the latest damage, perhaps dates and more pics of the damage

Edited by Stellartois on Wednesday 6th May 22:01

[loskie]

The fact that they spell things with a Z instead of an S is enough to put me right off.

[Decky_Q]

Did one with a discount code for around £10, I knew the car was damaged/repaired but wanted to see if I could get photos of the extent of the damage before viewing so I would know where to look for cut corners.

It worked for me, I got photos and spotted that the bonnet had been repaired rather than replaced and bumper was from a lower trim model so didnt purchase.

[ZX10R NIN]

I've found Vcheck better & it's cheaper too.

[kharma45]

WelshPetrolhead said:

£40!!

Didn't you use one of the many discount codes?

A hpi check is about a tenner.

HPI isn't infallable https://www.am-online.com/news/market-insight/2021...

ZX10R NIN said:

I've found Vcheck better & it's cheaper too.

Agree, vcheck is the one.

[SteBrown91]

All of the checks are only as good as the databases they check.

If the databases havent been updated then the checking service can't help you.

Carvertical is good for exotic cars as it covers international databases (so ideal if a cars been imported from another country) but for run of the mill cars vcheck is more than good enough.

[Dave.]

Vcheck didn’t find anything on a car I nearly bought, carvertical found £5k-£10k damage 12months prior.

No system is infallible, but I won’t buy another car without doing a cv check first.

[Dave.]

Stellartois said:

…stuff…

The eBay listing is by a private seller, not a salvage auction house, I guess cv can’t scrape every eBay ad of private sellers, unfortunately.

[Matt_T]

Who has a legal obligation to inform the DVLA of a CAT S or a potential CAT S? Is it only the garage that undertakes the repair?

So in a hypothetical scenario where my car is crashed into and has structural damage, the other party pays me cash settlement to avoid insurance and I then sell the damaged car on Facebook to a random dude, it can get repaired without any CAT marker or any history for HPI /Car Vertical / V-Check to find.

In the above scenario, should I phone DVLA to tell them that it is damaged and sold? Am I legally obliged to?