More and more Ukrainians, before ordering a turnkey car from Europe, first check its history by VIN code. Services that provide similar services are also increasing, as are, unfortunately, scams on this topic. We recommend using a proven and reliable one by the CEBIA service, which truly owns millions of car records, and payment for its reports should only be made after receiving complete information about the car — a format not offered by any other platform.
This time we will again show several examples that at first looked like very attractive offers of "fresh" cars from Europe, but their history turned out to be not so "fresh". In the end, you yourself will be able to answer the question whether one of the following cars would interest you, even after repair, but at the market price, as they are usually offered.
The first example is the Mercedes-Benz E-Class 2016 model year. Such cars in Ukraine cost from $25,000, at the "top of the market" they can reach $80,000. This is a fairly new and well-equipped model with an attractive design. However, this very specimen, which was offered at one of the European "auto commissions" among ordinary cars without any mention of the received "injuries", remained in the sellerʼs parking lot, because the customer, who was interested in it and learned the whole truth thanks to CEBIA, refused shopping.
The reason is that the front part of the car is not only "cosmetics" in the form of a bumper or wings, the space under the hood of such cars is densely saturated with various systems and elements, wiring, sensors, radiators, etc. In fact, everything under the hood can make up half of the carʼs value. It is unlikely that those who "restored" this Mercedes used appropriate new parts and replaced everything that was damaged. And even if so, it will be extremely difficult to find the next buyer in a few years, who will also find out about such serious damage.
Skoda Octavia is a popular car in many markets. Especially if it is a sports version of the RS. The owner of such a "family" car actually gets a fairly powerful sports car, although (and this applies to all sports cars) it is much more difficult to drive it than the usual "civilian" version, because excess power increases the risk of losing control of the car.
When you are interested in such powerful cars, know that they are among the first in the risk group, because not every driver has the appropriate skills to drive such cars. It is quite likely that something similar happened with this Octavia, where in the first photo it is difficult to tell what make and model it is. CEBIA showed archival photos of this car before the accident, and the potential buyer of the changes can avoid buying an "unbeaten" car.
The third example in this selection is another Skoda Octavia, in the very popular restyling body of the third generation, which went on sale in 2017. The average price of these on the Ukrainian market is about $15,000. Photos from the CEBIA archives say more than words can say: the condition of the car "before" would surely surprise any auto mechanic who has dealt with hundreds of "batteries" during his work.
The body is deformed here, including the roof, suspension, engine compartment, doors, glass... Someone still managed to "restore" this car and put it up for sale, and is it necessary to buy it, knowing what condition it was in after being hit in a road accident Also, there could be people inside, and it is not known how this journey ended for them.
Therefore, the words of the seller "unbeaten and unpainted" have weight only when they are documented, from reliable sources, among which we recommend using CEBIA.
