Almost 25% of all used cars in London have been previously written off, according to My Car Check.
The British online used car checker compared write-off data for the UK’s major cities and found that in London 24.7% of all pre-owned cars checked last year had once been written off.
Birmingham came a close second, with My Car Check reporting that 23.8% of used cars in the city had been found to have been written off between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016.
Glasgow, which came tenth, had 13.7% of cars previously written off, over 10% lower than London.
Roger Powell, head of My Car Check, expressed surprise at the range in the results, and argued that they were not necessarily down to differences in population size.
He said: “This theory doesn’t hold up. For example, the risk of buying a write-off is 3% higher in Liverpool, which has a population of around half a million, than in nearby Manchester, which has a population of 2.5 million.”
Powell also stated that there remained some confusion among consumers regarding the legality of written-off vehicles.
Powell added: “It is incredible that so many people still don’t realise it is legal for certain write-offs to return to the road.
“In this day and age, vehicles can be repaired to a high standard, but a My Car Check customer survey a couple of years ago found that 79% wouldn’t buy a write-off.”
