Cat D

[rabbit82 0]

If a car is a cat D write of is it best to stay clear or still be interested just be thorough in my checks of the chassis etc

 

Cheers jamie

[seanl82 23]

If you can find out what damage was caused, and when it was it declared cat D that would help. On older cars, cat D will likely be bodywork damaged therefore uneconomical to repair. This should be reflected in the price as many will be put off by it. If you know the extent of the damage then you can assess if it's worth considering. Unless I knew, I wouldn't buy one personally as there could be damage that wasnt noticed but could affect the structure and therefore handling of the car.

[kdub 10]

To give you an example. 2 years ago my misses's car was written off 53 plate golf v6 due to a white van man scraping down the side of the car. It required a new wing, door and rear quarter repaired and 1 alloy wheel replaced. Car valued at 4200 and the insurance wrote it off as an uneconomical repair. Even though the 3 quotes using genuine parts was 22-2600 pounds.

 

We took the money, and it was sold at auction. The guy that bought it got in touch. Long story short he repaired it for 1200 as it was an immaculate low mileage car with full history.

[rabbit82 0]

so still worht a look then but get some money off, ive just always given cars a miss when they have been cat d'd etc and was just curious to see what people thought but pretty much conforms what i alredy though

 

thanks

Edited September 10, 2014 by rabbit82

[emu 0]

I had both cat D and cat C cars. All depends where was the damage and more important how it was repaired, especially cat C cars.

 

Honestly, cat D - I would go for that if price is cheap. Cat C - I'd only go for it after very good checks on the ramp because mine wasn't repaired to good standard and somehow it passed through VOSA checks with crocked frame. Cat c is usually good to brake it on parts as I tripled my money breaking it after finding that chassis was not straight.

[rabbit82 0]

i would definitly not buy a cat c to use, but as said a cat d can be anything from a rear end do someone keying the car down one side, is there any way at all of finding out why it was wrote off?

[Dox 22]

As the insurance co decide what's cat C or D themselves (and cat D has a higher resale value for themselves so there's financial incentive to declare any damaged car cat D) often the damage is very similar for either, insurance cos never play fair do they?

 

Take any 20 year old car on its merits, buyer beware

[rabbit82 0]

good advice and will do, im gonna get the v5 reference number to check previous mot's as far back as can to see if anything is mentioned and check underneath thoroughly and in boot etc

[kdub 10]

good advice and will do, im gonna get the v5 reference number to check previous mot's as far back as can to see if anything is mentioned and check underneath thoroughly and in boot etc

When the car has been declared cat d. There should be an engineers report stating all repairs required to get it straight again. Check those parts plus the rest of the car for previous damage.

 

Remember insurance can be higher with a written off car as well

[chubbybrown 0]

Vosa dont inspect quality of repair, they only check to see if chassis numbers etc tie up with what they should be.

My car was Cat d after driving it into deep water and the insurance thought I had hydrolocked the engine, I hadnt, emptied airpipes, blew water out of glow plugs and off it went.

Bought it back and its still in use with me today.

Insurance write things off easy as its all about risk and any potential future probs like for me damp wiring etc although they didnt know water hadnt touched any of it.

Edited September 11, 2014 by chubbybrown
Addition

[Kevin Bacon 5]

To give you an example. 2 years ago my misses's car was written off 53 plate golf v6 due to a white van man scraping down the side of the car. It required a new wing, door and rear quarter repaired and 1 alloy wheel replaced. Car valued at 4200 and the insurance wrote it off as an uneconomical repair. Even though the 3 quotes using genuine parts was 22-2600 pounds.

 

We took the money, and it was sold at auction. The guy that bought it got in touch. Long story short he repaired it for 1200 as it was an immaculate low mileage car with full history.

 

How much did the insurance company give you?

 

It's all a big scam. They want older cars off the road to force you to buy something new. Insurance companies, body shops & car makers, they're all in it together. A lot of body shops will only take on easy work now and I've noticed standards of repair slipping badly in recent years, especially with paint blending. The amount of silver and grey metallic cars I see these days, with very obvious colour mismatching is a joke.

 

TBH I think I would rather take the money and run rather than let some incompetent buffoon make a patchwork quilt of my car.