Would you buy a Cat D car?

[andy97]

I think I have missed the bottom of the market and Elise' appear to be rising in value!

Thinking of a weekend car but can't afford/ justify current prices, but spotted a couple of Cat D cars for sale. This one seems to be the cheapest around:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-LOTUS-ELISE-1-8-SAL...

A bit leggy, too.

Would you?

Is it an easy repair?

Same dealer has another one at 10,450 with a side scrape and no mileage info.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2002-LOTUS-ELISE-1-8-SAL...

A Cat D car will always be worth less re-sale but that might not matter if you intend to keep it a while, and I have owned a Cat D Porsche 944 before so that wasn't an issue.

Still seems a bit high priced with those miles?

Thoughts?

Edited by andy97 on Thursday 28th September 07:05

[andy97]

tharriso said:

I dont even need to click on those ebay links to know who the seller is and you should run a mile. There will be more than meets the eye with those cars.

I would not be put off generally by cat c/d though.

Interesting, many thanks!

As I said, i have had a Cat D 944 before but I knew the car and the dealer well.....

[andy97]

kambites said:

Yes I'd buy a cat-D, but those both look significantly over-priced to me. In both cases you'd be looking at replacement body panels; unless you're capable of doing paintwork yourself, it's not going to be cheap to repair.

Agree with that. I seem to remember reading somewhere that a Cat c/d car was usually worth 20-30% less than if not damaged.

The 100k miler would be worth, what, 11-12k if it was in decent condition and had a FSH?

Let's call it 11k and take 20% off, and it's worth 8800 AFTER repair. Well, that's my maths anyway

ETA, just done a "webuyanycar" valuation on that very car and they have it at 6k. Now i do realise that they give low valuations based on easy options for people to sell quickly, and perhaps not relevant on rarer cars, but I find it an interesting barometer. I assume that they know that it's cat d. Maybe my £8800 view isnt far out.

Edited by andy97 on Thursday 28th September 18:40

[andy97]

The Bandit said:

Am I missing something here as you can buy a newer non Cat registered 111S with the 156bhp VVC engine from a well respected dealer for another grand with some haggling(basically the cost of the repairs to the linked car)?
https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

No you are not missing anything! The point was 2 fold, 1) to see what people's views were on a cat c/ d Elise and whether it was a big risk, and 2) to discuss the pricing of these ones. I think we all agree that these are well over priced and your link proves it. I still think the first one I linked to is worth circa £9k after it has been properly repaired.