CDL owned vehicle provenance website, MyCarCheck.com has published the results of a survey showing that 21% of car buyers would consider buying a previously written-off vehicle, which is just as well given that their figures also show that 17.37% of all cars on UK roads have been previously written-off.

Of the cars which have been written off, some 448,307 fall in to the most severe category of Category A, where vehicles are said to have suffered extreme damage and shouldn't be back on the road.

Commenting on the findings, Roger Powell, Divisional Head at CDL Vehicle Information Services, said, "According to our data, 17.37% of the Total Vehicle Pool are previous write-offs. That is one in every six vehicles on our roads, higher than the one in seven ratio which is often reported. If you add in 'outstanding theft' categories, the number of vehicles with some sort of insurance marker against them leaps to around one in four. Previous accident damage is one of the fundamental things that used car buyers are concerned about, so spending just a few pounds with MyCarCheck.com is a wise investment. You can confirm in seconds whether your potential pride and joy has ever been stolen, written-off, scrapped, exported, had a plate or colour change, the number of former keepers and more. It is great value. Even when money is tight, safety should always be the primary concern. Some write-offs can be repaired to their pre-crash condition but Thatcham has demonstrated the frightening difference between a good and bad repair (see the video at www.thatcham.org/kitemark/index.jsp?page=1057). Car buyers must consider the implications of being involved in an accident in a car that has already been structurally weakened."

Using information from Police National Computer, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the Association of British Insurers and major finance houses including Lloyds TSB, CDL performs over 1m vehicle data checks a day for companies including AutoExpress, CompareTheMarket, Tesco Bank and WhatCar.