Buying used car, cat D

hemophobic

I am posting this on behalf of my brother. He has been looking for a car for a while now and found this which is local to us:

Vauxhall Corsa

£ 1,395


VAUXHALL CORSA V reg, 16" alloys, PAS, tinted windows, clean & tidy, 2 dr, lowered. Long MoT, 90K miles £1,395 ono (trade seller)


We are going to look at it tomorrow but I have a few questions:

1. It says it is lowered, does this affect insurance cost?
2. We did a HPI check and it came up as Cat D, this happened in 2005. Will this affect insurance also?
3. Do you think it is overpriced (i do)?

I forgotten the other questions I wanted to ask :S

Oh, and one other thing, when my brother phoned up and asked about service history he said something about he had only just got the car and was waiting for the documents in the post??
The car comes with new MOT and 6 months tax.

Sorry for asking too many questions but it's a lot of help on here

Anything we should look out for when we inspect it?

Zeitgeist

In reply to your questions:
(1) This means the car is different from the manufacturer's specification and so insurance will be higher when you tell them it's been modified.
(2) Not sure about the Cat D thing.
(3) I think it's a bit on the high side, yes.

Lack of service history due to the post seems a little odd.

dacouch

1) Definately (Get a quote first so you know of any possible increase in premium). It's also likely to have other modifications which it would be best to find out about.
2) It can with some Insurers, again get quotes before you buy
3) Not my field but I would add that modifications have a habit of actually reducing the value of a car as it limits the amount of people who will want to buy the car.

Make sure your son keeps the Insurers informed of any future modifications he does

Hintza

Hugely over priced in my view.

goldspanners

lowered stiffer suspension on a car this age could also mean everything rattles and creaks.
for this kind of money i would normally be expecting something a bit newer with out being a write off.
you cant be struggling to find corsas surely? there will be better out there.

dont be tempted by the tinted windows and alloys,these can be added cheaply later if he wants them.

hemophobic

Thankyou for the replies after reading and do more research he decided he should carry on looking.

Zombies

£500

I would steer clear, why

Corsa = lowered = kid = not looked after

along with Cat D

Cat D on any car can be ok but not this one

leave it

but do let us know

Premier_2

hemophobic wrote: »

... he said something about he had only just got the car ...

So the person selling it is a dealer. That would explain the high price.

Has the seller disclosed they are a dealer? If not, contact Trading Standards through Consumer Direct

hartcjhart

Premier wrote: »

So the person selling it is a dealer. That would explain the high price.

Has the seller disclosed they are a dealer? If not, contact Trading Standards through Consumer Direct

strange question?