Yea, I always HPI a car before I view it so I know the history, even if they have had it checked :)
 
History checks are very unreliable though - they will only tell you if it's been an insurance loss

What about cars sold as salvage, but not claimed on insurance (such as self insuring company cars, ex fleet, hire cars)

Eyes wide open, but a cat D car, should still be worth about 66% of an otherwise normal example

That said - this one just looks dodgey! far too much spent in a year.