Evening all,

I just wanted to see what everyones opinion was with buying cars that are classified as cat d by insurers. My understanding is that cat d is where the cost of the repair may not be economical to fix and therefore write the car off.

My question is would you still buy a vehicle that is listed as a cat d?

Thanks

 

Cat D is only damage to panels not to the actual structure of the car itself, these days you could damage your bonnet and wing and some insurers may even right thAt off lol Cat C I wouldnt touch really.

The only thing is whatever category it is, majority of people will still get put off when you come to sell.. So may drop the value. Unless you can get it cheap enough to begin with! :-)

 

cat D wouldn't put me off if the price was right. Id prefer it if i saw some pics of the damaged car before repair. Ive read some insurance companys will not insure cat D cars so worth checking first.

 

Any CAT car will be worth significantly less than a non CAT car.
A CAT D car wouldn't put me off as long as it was cheap, you need to bare in mind that it won't be worth what a non CAT car is when you come to sell it.

 

thanks kaz....ive seen a 2005 plate wrx with PPP fitted for £4k with under 50k on the clock, service history etc and thought it sounded like a bargain! and then i read the description and noticed it was a cat d. im looking for wrx blob at the moment and this seemed to fit the bill. A little drive from somerrrrrrset and just wondered whether it was worth it.

 

Thanks chopper, Matt,

I thought that would be the case.....i wouldnt plan on changing it for sometime but is worth bearing in mind.

 

Not this one by any chance,think there is more to it as the o/p f that thread found out

if not,ignore me LOL

https://www.scoobynet.com/scoobynet-...-thoughts.html

 

If you were going to make a track slag or do some tasty mods and ultimately keep the car I would but if you were to try and sell it you would struggle to sell it on.

 

just read the thread above....not what its made out to be by the looks of it...my search shall continue....lol

 

Umm, after reading that id assume it has no service history. Alarm bells ringing for me but still might be worth a look if the price is right. Maybe worth paying a mechanic who knows scoobys to give it an examination before parting with your cash.

 

Thanks chopper...it would be a long drive from Somerset to Chester and there aren't really any Subaru specialists in my area so probably too much of a risk :-( it's certainly a shame

 

a cat d damaged car can have far far worse damage than a cat c.

 

Cat B is write off sold to trade only to be broken up and is Cat A stolen?

 

How stringent is the actual test for getting a cat D car back on the road again ??

 

Cat B i thought was sold to trade for parts to be stripped
Cat A was total mullerd to be crushed no matter what

 

There is another for stolen and recovered , I think the letter is near the end of alphabet.

 

If a Cat D accident is, as some people think, 'not that bad', then why is is law that this is stated when selling the car?

Do I really want to put myself and my family in a car that's had a major accident?

Definitely not. (Even if the car is cheap....my life is worth more than a few quid)

 

isnt cat d bought back for about 10% of acutal car value, if so i would want it significantly cheaper than standard car, the resale value would suffer greatly even if fixed

 

Belive that it does not have to be legally shown as such if sold by a private seller .. could be wrong but thats what I was told .. anyone ??

 

^^^cat d is not printed on the v5 , there is no check to put it back on the road.......simple repair in your back garden and off for mot , job done


^^^cat c is listed on the v5 , vic check is a piece of pi55 ,

Btw.....I've seen cat d cars in worse nick than c's

Every car on the list is different some have good repairs......others are done in Bradford

I've owned plenty on the list , just make sure they are straight, and drive straight

 

Yeah looked into this before and came to conclusion of not buying a cat d simply due to resale value and time to sell.

A real bargain can be had if you get it cheap enough tho.

Think most wont touch them because of resale value or superstition of driving a previously smashed car

As for service history, dont the insurance companies take all sh and receipts if the car is written off? (They need to confirm sh for valuation etc?)

Just every time i have checked a car and its been cat c or d the owner seems to have ''lost all receipts and history''

 

Mine was written off 5 weeks ago and insurance only wanted V5, I still have service history and receipts. They then send you an acknowledgement letter stating you no longer own the vehicle...simples

 

Cat d - light to meduim damage
Cat c - meduim to heavy damage
Cat b - breaker only
Cat a - must be destroyed

Minimum:
Cat d - deduct 10%
Cat c - deduct a further 10%

Imho if its cheap and the repiair is of a high standard go for it

 

remember also with a cat d if you are involved in an accident or the car is stolen you will not get the true value of the car you will get a lot less because they look at it as they have paid out on it once. This is why a lot of people are put off a cat d, i had one dropped on me i know i should of hpi ed it but at the time i didnt think, i went to insure it and they said it was a cat d!!! you should disclose it when you advertise it i tried not to and sold it 3 times but as soon as they left they hpi ed it phoned me and said they didnt want the car!!! hence been stuck with it for months then i found someone who would px it on his car. With what i know now i would not touch another cat d unless it was to keep for a long time.

 

As for service history, dont the insurance companies take all sh and receipts if the car is written off? (They need to confirm sh for valuation etc?)

Just every time i have checked a car and its been cat c or d the owner seems to have ''lost all receipts and history''

****

Would certainly be very interested to here if indeed this is the case as would certainly tie in with the story regards the above car with all the all important documents going astray !!!!

why would the online vehicle check I done on the above car comes back with two entries for cat d ??

quote "

This registration was recorded as a Category D write-off on 6 Jan 2007.
This registration was recorded as a Category D write-off on 2 Oct 2007

 

my Sti was wrote off in september as cat d it had a cracked headlight,dent in the bumper and about 1" of the bonnet and Wing were bent over all I replaced was the Wing as easier/cheaper than repair there was no inner damage so very minor I never had to send any history logbook of etc when I bought it back just a copy of the mot/logbook re sale will be less but can save alot buying them so long as repaired properly take someone with you if your unsure