Cat C Salvage Vehicle - To Buy Or Not To Buy??

BOBBIs_MUMMY

We've seen an 08 reg Renault Grand Scenic with low mileage for sale on Ebay, its near enough for us to go and have a look at but its classed as Cat "C" salvage. Its a lot of car for the money they're asking, hubby can fix it and is finding out prices of parts today - should we buy or stay well clear??

hartcjhart

go have a look then decide,if your husband is capable of reoairing it then you should have no problems

shuaibf

yeh i agree with hartcjhart need to see it properly to know what is fully wrong with it, sometimes people hide whats really wrong with it esp on ebay

Hintza

I would buy that unseen but would ask plenty of questions but obviously if close enough even better if you see it. I'm surprised it is Cat C and nt Cat D which makes me slighty suspicious.

Your biggest worry will be suspension and possible gearbox damage so check that throughly and even then it might bite you so factor a bit in just in case.

The expensive bit will be the airbags and possibly a new dash.

Do not buy parts new you will find all the parts either on Ebay or nreakers sites and you can also use find-a-part and similar.

Find out the value of the car and knock 25-5-30% off that then subtract your repair costs and if it is cheap enough then go for it.

BUT remember you will struggle if you try and sell it so if it was me I would be planning to run it for a number of years.

Looks good on the surface.

Inactive

Officer_Dibble wrote: »

If you have to ask, I'd stay clear.

Agreed, and at the end of the day you still end up with a Renault.:)

Homersimpson

Don't bother with salvage, if it was worth fixing the insurance company would have done so.

I've looked at and worked on a few salvage vehicles over the years and you always find more than you expected.

motorguy

BOBBIs_MUMMY wrote: »

We've seen an 08 reg Renault Grand Scenic with low mileage for sale on Ebay, its near enough for us to go and have a look at but its classed as Cat "C" salvage. Its a lot of car for the money they're asking, hubby can fix it and is finding out prices of parts today - should we buy or stay well clear??

If your hubby can has the ability to evalute the damage of, pull, panel and paint a car himself, then I'm surprised you're on here asking if its a good idea?

gsmmad

duplicate post by mistake

gsmmad

I have been to salvage75 before and wanted to buy a car however the car turned out to be more damaged than shown on pictures and from experience I know that there cars are overpriced.

I am a bit spectacle as to why it is a cat c, it seems very light and should be a cat D however this happens all the time especially on lower value cars but this isn't that low of a value car so be warned. I'm not sure what these cars go for normally however salvage 75 are selling it so its definitely a lot of money for that car.

Anyway from experience I would suggest a few things, one the dash will need replacement, and this can cost lots of money, the driver airbag needs changing as well and then there is a airbag ecu which needs changing as the current one will hold crash data and the airbags will not go off if this is not changed or the crash data is cleared. Also the dashboard takes a lot of labor to change.
Secondly the passenger side front wheel is bent compared to other wheels but it should just be the track rod end and it isn't a expensive repair.
Thirdly it seems as all you need is wing, bumper, headlight however be careful and make sure that the chassis has not moved as this could mean extra costs.

Overall seems like a easy repair but i would stay away because of the need to change the dash and also its salvage75, from experience I would stay away from them. They are very expensive and don't come down on price much. Carry on looking you will definitely find a bargain. Also make sure you add up costs and work out what the car is costing you in total and make sure you don't undervalue the cost of things. If the saving you are making is not more than 2 grand then do not get near it.

The main problem with a salvage is the amount of time needed to make sure the car is fine whereas you can buy a non salvage for a little bit more than the cost of the salvage. Also insurance will devalue the car by 10-20% on the payout for the car, if the car is ever written off. Also too many people buy salvage these days and the price of salvage vehicles have increased over time.

Hintza

Homersimpson wrote: »

Don't bother with salvage, if it was worth fixing the insurance company would have done so.

Not necessarily true...........have you seen the price they charge for parts and panels new....:eek:

The knack is picking up the parts second hand and having a tame body shop (i went to school with my guy

Homersimpson

Hintza wrote: »

Not necessarily true...........have you seen the price they charge for parts and panels new....:eek:

The knack is picking up the parts second hand and having a tame body shop (i went to school with my guy

Maybe so but I still stand by my view, salvage is a waste of time because the car isn't worth what a straight one would be worth and never will be. In the good old days cars used to bend around the point of impact and the damage would be failry localised, modern cars incorporate a lot more crumple zones and an impact tends to be spread further around the vehicle to cushion the blow, its not always immediatly apparent what has moved.