Cat "N" write off car, what was the damage?
Discussion
Could be anything, especially if the car has reached the age when the estimate from a passer-by just looking at it funny will easily outstrip the book value. Could be just a scratch, with London body shop labour rates. Worth remembering too that if the owner bought it back from the insurers it won't have seen a Copart auction and bought be bought to patch up and sell on. But, whatever it was, it won't have been structural with a Cat N. If you know the date it was declared Cat N, I'd look at what it would have been worth at the time to decide if I should automatically be worried or not.
Cat N can be so trivial on an older car I'd not worry about it in itself, more about people being put off when you come to sell. Keep in mind that when the car was newly-new a substantial quote would have been approved and no Cat marker recorded, simply because the car's then book value was higher. The ABI's Cat S/N system is there for the insurance industry's benefit, so they don't have to pay out full value on a car more than once, not to help us buyers detect cars that have been in accidents. We just don't have anything else to go on.
Cat N can be so trivial on an older car I'd not worry about it in itself, more about people being put off when you come to sell. Keep in mind that when the car was newly-new a substantial quote would have been approved and no Cat marker recorded, simply because the car's then book value was higher. The ABI's Cat S/N system is there for the insurance industry's benefit, so they don't have to pay out full value on a car more than once, not to help us buyers detect cars that have been in accidents. We just don't have anything else to go on.
Edited by SixPotBelly on Friday 11th November 17:03
SixPotBelly said:
Could be anything, especially if the car has reached the age when the estimate from a passer-by just looking at it funny will easily outstrip the book value. Could be just a scratch, with London body shop labour rates. Worth remembering too that if the owner bought it back from the insurers it won't have seen a Copart auction and bought be bought to patch up and sell on. But, whatever it was, it won't have been structural with a Cat N. If you know the date it was declared Cat N, I'd look at what it would have been worth at the time to decide if I should automatically be worried or not.
Cat N can be so trivial on an older car I'd not worry about it in itself, more about people being put off when you come to sell. Keep in mind that when the car was newly-new a substantial quote would have been approved and no Cat marker recorded, simply because the car's then book value was higher. The ABI's Cat S/N system is there for the insurance industry's benefit, so they don't have to pay out full value on a car more than once, not to help us buyers detect cars that have been in accidents. We just don't have anything else to go on.
Its a DS3 1.6 THP 2013, but with 30k miles and £2000 cheaper than its similar mile non Cat N brothers.Cat N can be so trivial on an older car I'd not worry about it in itself, more about people being put off when you come to sell. Keep in mind that when the car was newly-new a substantial quote would have been approved and no Cat marker recorded, simply because the car's then book value was higher. The ABI's Cat S/N system is there for the insurance industry's benefit, so they don't have to pay out full value on a car more than once, not to help us buyers detect cars that have been in accidents. We just don't have anything else to go on.
Edited by SixPotBelly on Friday 11th November 17:03
Edited by cirian75 on Friday 11th November 17:58
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