Anyone currently own a Cat C or D car?

[TheLordJohn]

Hi all.

Are there any PH'ers who own a Cat C or D car?
Just been offered something for a good price. Yet to inspect it in person, but it was repaired over 2 years ago before the current owner bought it, and has passed a couple of MOT's in the meantime.
Have any PH'ers currently or recently owned a written off car and what were the pro's and con's?

Thanks in advance, Stuart.

[Merry]

The Mrs has a cat d Fiat 500. Was cheaper to buy, but then will be worth less when it comes to selling. We also got it from a known source and knew the exact damage and what had been repaired.

It's just like owning any other car really. Id suggest if it all possible look for records of what exactly the damage was before going for it.

Insurance etc is no different in our case.

[Nickyboy]

Scrapped my 850 T5 in May, that was a Cat C. Wouldn't have known if i hadn't HPI checked it. Was only a £600 snotter but drove it for 3 years without issue.

[Slashmb]

I bought a 6 year old 306 that was cat d in 2006. It was less than half the value of a non cat d car at the time. It was a poor repair really but we bought it cos it was cheap and my mate worked at Peugeot at the time so parts were cheap and labour too.

I never really trusted it and then it started to let us down by not starting. Put a new battery on it which helped a bit but then financially for us things picked up and we bought something better.

Funnily enough it's the only car I have ever made money on.

I know someone who bought an Audi S4 that was a cat C I think. It was about 2 years old so still under warranty. We all said to him it would be a lemon but Audi ended up putting a new engine and gearbox in for him so that was a win.

[sixpistons]

It's bearing in mind that Cat C or D in itself doesn't really tell you how bad the damage was.A small knock, with only cosmetic damage as opposed to structural, can write off an older car from a financial perspective; however, if a car was declared a Cat D write off at 3 months old it would have had a pretty serious shunt. In the latter case I'd probably steer clear.