Would you buy a cat-d car??

[Evil.soup]

As the title says really. I have been looking into getting a larger car for the wife, she currently has a Polo, but i only have the value of the polo in the budget 5-6k. I dont really want to step backwards in terms of spec/age if i can help it so i have been looking into cat-d cars. There are many out there and some are real bargains, below are just a few:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2010...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2010...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2010...

And one bargain buy i found while the bug had me:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2010...

Lovely!!!!!

[edo]

I personally wouldn't.

[Grey Ghost]

If I knew how the car was written off in the first place.
If the car had been repaired by a well known/recommended repair shop.
If the car has an engineers report and I could speak to the engineer to confirm this.
If I was going to keep the car for a long time as it would have minimal resale value.

Yes I would consider a Cat D.

A Cat D Porsche however is a walk away job

[Matt_N]

I personally wouldn't because I couldn't deal with the hassle come re-sale time.

[lost in espace]

I would get the porsche inspected and certainly think about it myself.

[Evil.soup]

Grey Ghost said:

If I knew how the car was written off in the first place.
If the car had been repaired by a well known/recommended repair shop.
If the car has an engineers report and I could speak to the engineer to confirm this.
If I was going to keep the car for a long time as it would have minimal resale value.

Yes I would consider a Cat D.

A Cat D Porsche however is a walk away job

Yes, all those things would be on the cards before buying, i certainly wouldnt consider something that didnt have some genuine traceable history with it and would aim to get something that was proven to have had cosmetic damage.

I have owned 2 damaged/repaired cars in the past, both damaged by myself, and always had a paranoid niggle in the back of my mind since the repair. Is it just worrying about nothing??

Is a repaired car as safe as one that hasnt been repaired i wonder?? Its easy to say it isnt but have any tests been carried out??

[5potTurbo]

One of my Mum's previous cars was a Cat D.

Bought the car for £250, bought 2 matching coloured doors from a breakers for £60 delivered, a few hours work and it was good for her for 4 years. She traded it in for £1,200!

Some Cat D's are only minor damage.

[SamPet]

Yes for a track car, No for a road car

[Evil.soup]

lost in espace said:

I would get the porsche inspected and certainly think about it myself.

The Porsche really does seem like a great buy but only really if you are going to buy it for show. I would imagine the handling would have been affected no matter how well repaired it is. I had an MR2 Roadster that had minor repairs but it was quite twitchy after that, it is possible something was missed in the repair though. Great looking piece of kit for 11k though!

[Kentish]

Some years ago now, I spent £5k on a BMW 5 series.

It was a cat D because the car was a 520i SE and had been stolen and the engine pinched.

Jaymic who are a BMW specialist subsequently dropped a straight 6 turbo diesel from an African spec 324TDi into it. It was a brilliant conversion and they even badged and re-registered it as a 524TDi.

Cat D is usually minimal damage.

I think I would do so again for the right car and repaired properly.

[andyps]

I have been driving a cat D car for the last 5 years with no issues at all. I damaged it, it was written off, I bought it back from the insurance company and had the chassis straightened professionally and then did the rest myself. It was one of those marginal cat D jobs which only went over the value because of all the extra bits and pieces which were going to be done at repair stage - almost a complete respray even though it was only front end damage for example, based on ensuring a complete match.

There have been no issues with the car, but then I know what was wrong and how it was repaired. My daughter has a Cat D car which was bought despite that after a full inspection showed there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, don't know the history but suspect it may have been a stolen recovered as there is absolutely no sign of any repair at all (and on an original Mini it would show somewhere, especially given that it was declared cat D about 15 months before we bought it. We did reject another one which was cat d however, because even though the damage hadn't been bad, the repair was.

[anonymous-user]

I've been considering this recently as there are a few cat d 3 series' around.

I think I would, but only if the car still had all its service history, had a report showing all of the work done on it and was an absolute bargain.

So far all of the cars ive seen haven't been able to fill even one of these criteria.

[anonymous-user]

The Crack Fox said:

SamPet said:

Yes for a track car, No for a road car

This.

Not saying you are wrong, but surely you drive a track car as hard as you can/want/need to, in order to get the most out of it. Do you think it might be MORE dangerous to use the car on the track, where the likelihood of much higher speeds coupled with higher stresses might cause a weakened area/member to fail?

For example, on a performance car, say a Cat D M3, driving up to and stopping from 70mph is within about 40% of the car's capabilities - it is designed to take much higher stresses than this. Same car on a track will be maxed out an awful lot, and will therefore be more likely to have a catastrophic failure (or would it?).

Would this factor come in to play? (Obviously ignoring resale issues, etc)

[honest_delboy]

Blimey, that Porsche looks like unbelievable value, would want some sort of inspection by a knowlegable person that its OK though.

[sim16v]

Do the people who say they wouldn't buy a cat D car actually know what a cat D car is?


Sometimes the damage can be virtually none!

I had a cat D golf GTI a few years ago that needed a new dashboard.

£30 and a weekend had it fixed.

No structural damage at all!

[ammaco]

Evil.soup said:

Is a repaired car as safe as one that hasnt been repaired i wonder?? Its easy to say it isnt but have any tests been carried out??

I saw a 5th Gear repeat last night and they crashed two Focuses into each other at 30mph, one was a repaired write off and one was in original condition.

The repaired car came out a lot worse, they said that the driver would probably be crippled for life as it crumpled so much more and the cabin got pushed back so much. The non repaired car's cabin was not moved at all and you could easily walk out of it if you were in the accident.

Admittedly, they did say the car had chassis damage and was badly repaired, so I guess you really need to know the history of the damage and the repair before buying.

[was8v]

Ah this old chestnut.

Lots of cars every year are repaired by insurance companies and put back on the roads.

The ones where its cheaper to pay out than repair are marked with a cat.

Any used car you buy may have suffered substantial damage - cars get crashed and put back on the road.


Cars can get a Cat D or C from a wide range of damage from major structure to panel damage. There is no way to know which it has had.


I'd only buy a CAT C or D (and I do buy them) if there was evidence of the extent of the damage (crashed picture) and an inspection reveals no other repairs. The fact it has a marker means it will be harder to sell (hence requiring pictures) - I'd also expect to pay 20% less.

I'd inspect a clear car to the same extent of course.

[was8v]

ammaco said:

Admittedly, they did say the car had chassis damage and was badly repaired, so I guess you really need to know the history of the damage and the repair before buying.

This is key. But also the public should be a aware that just because a car is cat clear, then that does not mean it hasn't ever had major repairs - inspect any used car - if you are not capable then get someone who is to inspect.

[TTwiggy]

Taking that Porsche as an example (and it is very tempting), I think you have to consider (subject to seeing evidence of damage/repair work) how long you planned to keep it for.

An equivalent 'non cat-D' model would retail for about £16-£17k. If you keep both cars for 8 years, then looking at Boxster prices, you might hope to get £8k back on the 'clear' car for a loss of £8-9k in depreciation.

Suddenly the cat-D almost makes sense, as you would still expect to see around £5k minimum on it, so you've lost less - though I accept that finding a buyer could be harder (but not THAT hard, if you're selling a £5k Boxster).

[Mr Dave]

The other arguement is that a car that isnt a cat-d could have had more damage but have been repaired without going through insurance so wouldnt have been recorded.

The only thing to worry about is resale, but there are plenty of people who will buy a cat-d as long as it is priced accordingly.