Category D Ferrari
Discussion
There is a Ferrari for sale on here at the moment, a F355 spider which is cat D but has been tested and certified as being fine again - the pictures look great.
I'm just wondering what peoples opinion of this is? I am only 22 and looking to get rid of my Noble to maybe move up to it and this would be the only way I could afford to own a 355.
What are your opinions on buying a Cat D Ferrari? Does anyone know the car? The history? As much information as possible would be of great use to me as I know that the damage would have been over 60% the value of the car. I spoken to the gentleman and he is very nice and open about the car but maybe I'm missing the bigger picture with the whole thing
Thanks in advance
I'm just wondering what peoples opinion of this is? I am only 22 and looking to get rid of my Noble to maybe move up to it and this would be the only way I could afford to own a 355.
What are your opinions on buying a Cat D Ferrari? Does anyone know the car? The history? As much information as possible would be of great use to me as I know that the damage would have been over 60% the value of the car. I spoken to the gentleman and he is very nice and open about the car but maybe I'm missing the bigger picture with the whole thing
Thanks in advance
buy it and see what happens 
Cat Ds should be no problem to the owner as long as you have a certificate from somewhere like Autolign that says the car is all as it should be. It should also be tagged on the HPi register as Cat D but certified repaired.
The only problem will be when you come to sell. Rule of thumb is market value less 20%. I bought my Griff on this basis and sold it on the same basis. A Ferrari with history however will be harder to move because of the nature of the beast. I would expect the discount off market price to be more like 25%.
If it has been fixed correctly though, you could have yourself one hell of a car and if you keep it a few years the Cat D v normal depreciation will be less obvious.
Good luck
The only problem will be when you come to sell. Rule of thumb is market value less 20%. I bought my Griff on this basis and sold it on the same basis. A Ferrari with history however will be harder to move because of the nature of the beast. I would expect the discount off market price to be more like 25%.
If it has been fixed correctly though, you could have yourself one hell of a car and if you keep it a few years the Cat D v normal depreciation will be less obvious.
Good luck
Stevef is right, insurance companies write off cars for 1 reason, what it's going to cost them to settle claim which includes repair of car, storage costs, any third party costs, parts, materials, rental of hire car during repair period. Storage and hire car costs can be quite considerable when you have to wait many weeks for specialised parts. So what appears to be a low cost repair to the car can balloon easily to a high cost settlement for the insurance company. Often with high end cars like fezza's and the like it's easier to settle a claim on the car rather than repair from a commercial point of view.
Bearing this in mind a Cat-D can be an astute purchase if the extent of the damage is known and documented and the repair has been carried out to a high standard then it's a cost effective way into ownership.
Bearing this in mind a Cat-D can be an astute purchase if the extent of the damage is known and documented and the repair has been carried out to a high standard then it's a cost effective way into ownership.
Remember they are written off against the price of fixing them against brand new Ferrari Supplied parts and expensive labour. I don't think it would take that much damage these days to write off a £35k F355. If it was written off early in it's life (say when it was worth £90k) then it would take far more damage for it to be written off. Find out when it was damaged is my advice.
zazwaldo said:
Stevef is right, insurance companies write off cars for 1 reason, what it's going to cost them to settle claim which includes repair of car, storage costs, any third party costs, parts, materials, rental of hire car during repair period.
I don't think that was his point. I think Stevef was saying that it was probably handed to the repairer in a bag to fix. But then again the cost of repairing a Ferrari isn't cheap. I'm assuming that the car was worth say £50k - >60% = £30k to fix. See I reckon that if you took the side and front off one it could easily be £30k without doing any terminal damage
Is there any way to obtain the report that the assessor made when they looked at the damaged car? That could reveal quite a lot... as could a list from the repairer of everything they replaced/repaired. I'm sure there must be a way of distinguising between a CatD that isn't worth touching and a CatD that represents good value.
Edited by MitchT on Wednesday 22 November 12:48
gtoblue said:
There is a Ferrari for sale on here at the moment, a F355 spider which is cat D but has been tested and certified as being fine again - the pictures look great.
I'm just wondering what peoples opinion of this is? I am only 22 and looking to get rid of my Noble to maybe move up to it and this would be the only way I could afford to own a 355.
What are your opinions on buying a Cat D Ferrari? Does anyone know the car? The history? As much information as possible would be of great use to me as I know that the damage would have been over 60% the value of the car. I spoken to the gentleman and he is very nice and open about the car but maybe I'm missing the bigger picture with the whole thing
Thanks in advance
I'm just wondering what peoples opinion of this is? I am only 22 and looking to get rid of my Noble to maybe move up to it and this would be the only way I could afford to own a 355.
What are your opinions on buying a Cat D Ferrari? Does anyone know the car? The history? As much information as possible would be of great use to me as I know that the damage would have been over 60% the value of the car. I spoken to the gentleman and he is very nice and open about the car but maybe I'm missing the bigger picture with the whole thing
Thanks in advance
GTOBLUE - you won't be moving "up" to a 355 - you might get more teenage girls offering to go out with you but the cars do not compare.
tomtom said:
Obviously your circumstances may provide the answer, but how easy is it going to be to find insurance on a 355 at 22, let alone a category D car?
Well, he's found insurance on a Noble!
My advice to gtoblue is to join the Prancing Horse Register. This is a section of the Ferrari Owners' Club for non-owner Ferrari enthusiasts. You'll meet many people via the PHR who can advise and help you as to whether the car is worth the risk or not and which avenues to explore for your ideal Ferrari if this particular one is a no-go.
MitchT said:
tomtom said:
Obviously your circumstances may provide the answer, but how easy is it going to be to find insurance on a 355 at 22, let alone a category D car?
Well, he's found insurance on a Noble!
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