Discussion
dark stranger said:
ok thanks i wont bother to look if its gonna be a pain to insure.....10k is my top whack so ill keep looking
Check with your insurers 1st, is £10k your max budget with a slush fund ??
I.E Will you have spare cash for when work needs doing, and sometimes they do need work doing
It'd be worth checking to see exactly what damage caused it to be a Cat D. If it was body panels only, ie/ no chassis or suspension damage then it may be worth looking at. The bodywork on these cars is very expensive to have repaired so it may just have been too costly for the insurance compnay to authorise repairs on.
Remember that a car can be written off as CAT D if its stolen and recovered as well as crashed.
I'd also bear in mind that it will be harder to sell on as any prospective buyer will also be put off by this. You'd also likely stand a good chance of bartering the price down even further because of this and so end up with a bit of a bargain.
Remember that a car can be written off as CAT D if its stolen and recovered as well as crashed.
I'd also bear in mind that it will be harder to sell on as any prospective buyer will also be put off by this. You'd also likely stand a good chance of bartering the price down even further because of this and so end up with a bit of a bargain.
This is an example of a good cat D repair done by Incorrigable:
www.pistonheads.co.uk/members/showCar.asp?carId=2737
With Cat D you just have to bear in mind that your car could have looked like the early photo's here, before being restored to glory.
www.pistonheads.co.uk/members/showCar.asp?carId=2737
With Cat D you just have to bear in mind that your car could have looked like the early photo's here, before being restored to glory.
IMHO a Cat D car that has been correctly repaired could prove to be a real bargin.
Given the value of older Chimaera now, even a modest bump could result in a Cat D designation. If the pre-accident condition of the car was good, and the repairs have been correctly done, it may actually be a better buy.
You only have to read these forums regularly to see that accidents happen, the occasional spin on a wet road, the 'he drove into the back of me' reports, etc to see that their are a significant number of damaged TVR's out their, most too good to scrap.
The older cars will be 10 years old now, most will have needed part re-sprays due to stone chips, parking knocks etc, so why be put off because the insurance company has chosen to off load the car because a replacement front end / back end was too costly.
These cars would also be needing new wishbones at this age, so to see that new ones have been fitted after a bump, could also be seen as advantagous.
Notwithstanding any of the above, i would take to a dealer for checking before buying to make sure it's safe, and accept that if it was bought cheaply, it's not going to be worth as much when you come to sell it.
Given the value of older Chimaera now, even a modest bump could result in a Cat D designation. If the pre-accident condition of the car was good, and the repairs have been correctly done, it may actually be a better buy.
You only have to read these forums regularly to see that accidents happen, the occasional spin on a wet road, the 'he drove into the back of me' reports, etc to see that their are a significant number of damaged TVR's out their, most too good to scrap.
The older cars will be 10 years old now, most will have needed part re-sprays due to stone chips, parking knocks etc, so why be put off because the insurance company has chosen to off load the car because a replacement front end / back end was too costly.
These cars would also be needing new wishbones at this age, so to see that new ones have been fitted after a bump, could also be seen as advantagous.
Notwithstanding any of the above, i would take to a dealer for checking before buying to make sure it's safe, and accept that if it was bought cheaply, it's not going to be worth as much when you come to sell it.
My car was a cat D, i paid 8.9k for it and the only trouble i have had was a faulty air flow meter. Took me a while to work out that it was the meter that was broke, and had to replace the rear pads!!!
I have done approx 3.5k miles since buying it and have had no running / handling problems.
But like the pictures m@h showed the car can look a mess but if it is repaired properly, whats the problem???
I have done approx 3.5k miles since buying it and have had no running / handling problems.
But like the pictures m@h showed the car can look a mess but if it is repaired properly, whats the problem???
I bought a repaired cat d car that had sustained frontal damage and had a new front corner fitted it had no chassis damage and drives perfectly having only done 25k, only niggle was some of the trim was poorly re-fitted.I paid £7500 for it and sorting it cost a couple of hundred. Its insured with classicline insurance on a Q plate (so they know its cat d)for £351 fully comp. So as long as its mechanically good I'd say go for it.
Don't let category 'D' or even 'C' put you off, necessarily. A common misconception is that the car should not be back on the road, whereas in reality the decision that put it 'on the register' was a financial one made by an insurer. Six years ago I bought a badly damaged Mondeo, a year old with 8500 miles on it. It cost me just £1700 to repair. Last year I sold it with 107500 miles on it. Nobody who saw it was any the wiser, including the Ford dealer who serviced it ten times.
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