Cat C Write Off - Keep car???

scotgirl

Hi all

Our 54 plate Ford Ka had a car port fall on top of it under the weight of snow! The car amazingly came off ok, broken wing mirror, snapped ariel and lots of surface stratches and one dent in the roof but because of the value of the car -v- repairs they have offered to write it off with a buy back price if we want.

Can anyone give me the low down on how it would work if we keep the car? I have found varying info on the net, am unsure if it would need an MOT again? We are currently driving it with no problem and have beens since the accident in December. This is our only car which we rely on so I would like to know if we need to stop driving it as soon as it is written off?

Also, if we keep the car how does insurance work in the future?

Thanks:beer:

rev_henry

That's a really bizarre situation in that you're driving around in what's going to be written off! If they cat c write it off and you buy it back, it will need an MOT and a VIC (vehicle identity check) before it goes back on the road. You could try asking the insurers to write it off as a cat d as then you don't need to VIC it, just MOT it (I think).

In future if you write it off again the insurers will reduce the payout in the event of an accident as its now worth less than a similar car that hasn't previously been written off. On that note, if/when you come to sell it it'll be worth a bit less than an unwritten off car, and you should state that its been written off when selling. Many people won't touch a write off so you may have less interest when selling it. But if you want to keep it and run it till it dies this isn't an issue.

vaio

Cat C needs VIC, cat D doesn't.

Other than that it needs normal tax & MOT (but previous ones are valid until their normal expiry). With Cat C you can't re tax it until you have the VIC done (which, depending on dates can be a problem as VIC can have long waiting list)

scotgirl

vaio wrote: »

Cat C needs VIC, cat D doesn't.

Other than that it needs normal tax & MOT (but previous ones are valid until their normal expiry). With Cat C you can't re tax it until you have the VIC done (which, depending on dates can be a problem as VIC can have long waiting list)

Thanks for the reply

You say the MOT and tax are valid until their normal expiry, the car has:

Tax - until end March 2011
MOT - until September 2011

So does that mean we can take the write off cash and continue to drive it until March when we do the VIC before re-taxing. Then continue to drive as normal until we get the MOT done in September? Obviously outwith any unrelated issues.

Or have I picked that up wrong?

Thanks for your help

vaio

yep, but don't get caught out by the VIC waiting list. You also can't get a new logbook pre VIC so hang on to the original.