Just what do you mean by write-off?

By CHRIS DANIELS

Three weeks after Earl McIntosh's four-wheel-drive was swamped in seawater off the Coromandel Coast, he found it offered for sale in a Kumeu car yard.

Mr McIntosh was trying to tow his boat out of the sea at Kennedy Bay on March 10 when the Isuzu Bighorn bogged down in the water for nearly 15 minutes.

But just two weeks after being paid $20,000 by his insurance company and the vehicle written off, Mr McIntosh saw a curious advertisement in the newspaper.

Same number of kilometres, same type and size of vehicle, but selling for only $16,000.

His interest piqued, Mr McIntosh took a trip to Norris Farrow Motorcycles in Kumeu, where, sure enough, his once-waterlogged wagon was up for sale.

Mr McIntosh said he asked the dealer why the vehicle, now reregistered with new licence plates, was so cheap.

The salesman did not tell him it had been in the sea just three weeks earlier.

There was also no mention of the recent saltwater dip on the window sticker.

Car-yard owner Graeme Giles said yesterday that he would always tell a genuine customer this fact, but his weekend visitor (Mr McIntosh) had not been genuinely interested in it.

Mr Giles said he was told the vehicle had been in seawater when he bought it from Turners Car Auctions, but felt his visitor was a troublemaker.

"I can tell genuine people when I see them and we had a turkey in on the weekend. I felt very suspicious over him so I didn't tell him anything.

"Because of his attitude I told him nothing because I knew he was just here to be a problem to me," said Mr Giles.

"He was the sort of man I would tell nothing to because he is not a genuine buyer."

The vehicle was a four-wheel-drive, designed to go through water anyway, and the wiring had not been affected, he said.

"Any vehicle that has any history like that, we have to reveal it, so that's not a problem. That is the reason it is at that price."

Land Transport Safety Authority spokesman Craig Dowling said if a vehicle had been deregistered, it needed to go through a rigorous inspection to prove it was safe.