CUT AND SHUT ACCIDENT HORRORS

Thinking of buying an inexpensive second-hand car? Found a really cheap one? Then check it out thoroughly. A back street industry resurrecting cars from written-off wrecks is pumping a steady supply of four-wheeled 'Frankensteins' on to UK streets: you could end up behind the wheel of one.

Despite recent government improvements in the legislation concerning the disposal of written off vehicles, many dangerous reincarnations are still finding their way back onto our roads putting the lives of drivers, passengers and pedestrians at risk.

Like many other industry watchdogs, the AA believes that a code of practice on the disposal of severely damaged vehicles needs to be strengthened with compulsory safety checks of rebuilt write-offs before they are returned to the road. This would hinder the shady rebuilders who, knowing that a car is listed as written off but repairable, readily admit its write-off status to buyers but claim they have restored the vehicle to "as good as new" and offer it at a bargain price.

Write-off rebuilders can make a profit of at least double the value of the scrap sold to them. Sellers who try to hide a car's history will ask for much more. "Like most of the rebuilt write-offs our engineers find, they look superb cosmetically. However, an AA Car Data Check will often show that a car has been consigned to a scrap yard months before but that its body style may have been changed when it was rebuilt," says Kevin Cheadle, manager of AA Car Inspections. The simple fact is that once these monsters are let loose on the road, there is no way of predicting how they will react in dangerous road situations. Millions of pounds worth of safety design is compromised in an act of irresponsible gree...