Outstanding finance is the main provenance concern for car dealers acquiring new stock
14 per cent more Autochecks carried out in Q1 2012 than 2011
Nottingham, 29 June 2012 — Experian®, the global information services company, today revealed that outstanding finance was by far the most prevalent risk car dealers faced when buying and selling used vehicles from January to March 2012.
More than three million used vehicles were checked by motor retailers using provenance tool Experian Autocheck [1] between January and March 2012; an increase of 14 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Of the total number of vehicles checked by automotive trade companies, more than 800,000 (27 per cent) were identified as ‘having outstanding finance,’ 4.8 per cent more than the same period in 2011.
Comparatively, just under 0.3 per cent cars were reported as stolen and less than three per cent came back as having been previously written off by insurance companies. Interestingly this was not the case with AutoChecks carried out by the public buying second hand cars privately. A recent analysis [2] on all the AutoCheck reports purchased by consumers in 2011, found that 13.5 per cent of used cars checked were registered as insurance write offs.
Alistair Scullion, Managing Director of Experian Automotive in the UK and Ireland said: “It is encouraging to see the industry continuing to proactively tackle the issue and investing time and resources in provenance checking. Being able to identify the most prevalent risk factor when acquiring trade-in and used vehicle stock is crucial for car dealers and their customers. In the current climate, acquiring and selling a vehicle with outstanding finance could have dramatic consequences both for their dealership and the car buyer. Whilst systematic checks evidently enable motor retailers to take the right decisions and avoid high risk-deals it also benefits the automotive industry as a whole by reducing the number of fraudulent vehicles penetrating the market.”
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About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients around the world. The Group helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2012 was US$4.5 billion. Experian employs approximately 17,000 people in 44 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.
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http://www.experianplc.com
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[1] Experian Autocheck conducts checks for businesses and consumers to reveal any hidden history including active finance, whether a car has been written off, stolen, imported and exported or of any colour, plate and keeper changes.
[2] Experian AutoCheck’ examined the results of all the vehicle history reports conducted by the public in 2011 and found that almost nine in 10 (88%) used cars checked were found to have some form of hidden history which may significantly affect a used car’s current and future value.