Advice on a car exchange CAT D

Holz

Hi all,

I have my BMW 120 Diesel 2005 plate with 70k mileage up for sale at £5,999 or part ex.

I have been offered a straight exchange for a Ford Focus 1.6 2010 plate with 13k mileage, reason being it was a cat D in 2011 and has been fully repaired. I am awaiting to hear the full details of the original damage etc.

I know the Focus without cat D go on eBay for around £9k so he'd be dropping the price by £3k.

Any opinions appreciated as to whether this sounds like a good deal, depending on the original damage.:)

OddballJamie

Which spec Focus is it? £9k for a 3 year old Focus seems alot, especially a petrol.

Also Cat D at 12 months old, that must have been a lot of damage, at least £6k to the insurance.

Hintza

OddballJamie wrote: »

Also Cat D at 12 months old, that must have been a lot of damage, at least £6k to the insurance.

Not necessarily, the insurers can be funny about things and might have decided there was the possibility of hidden damage. The other thing is salvage is making good money just now which could tilt the equation.

OP get the car inspected and then decide, but remember it will always be worth less, so if you change your cars frequently then it might not be that great, but if you intend to run for a number of years it could be a bargain

Joe_Horner

Hintza wrote: »

Not necessarily, the insurers can be funny about things and might have decided there was the possibility of hidden damage. The other thing is salvage is making good money just now which could tilt the equation.

Also, cat D can be because of things not related to the level of damage. Say they needed a new bumper which wasn't available in the supply chain yet, so they were looking at a month of hire charges. That sort of thing can be enough to put the total expected cost of the claim high enough for them to write it offeven for relatively small damage.

OP, whether it's a good deal or not depends on whether you were looking for / would consider a Focus as your replacement and condition / value etc of the specific car he's offering. Check the guide price for the exact model and go from there.

OddballJamie

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Also, cat D can be because of things not related to the level of damage. Say they needed a new bumper which wasn't available in the supply chain yet, so they were looking at a month of hire charges. That sort of thing can be enough to put the total expected cost of the claim high enough for them to write it offeven for relatively small damage.

OP, whether it's a good deal or not depends on whether you were looking for / would consider a Focus as your replacement and condition / value etc of the specific car he's offering. Check the guide price for the exact model and go from there.

I doubt a year old Focus would have been written off because they couldn't find a bumper for it.

fivetide

Damage aside - be mindful that some insurers don't like written off cars or may charge more to cover them and will pay out a lot less if you do need to claim.

colino

Granted it is low mileage, probably waited a long time for salvage clearance, but there are plenty of unmarked Focuss (Foci?) around at that age for similar or less money. Don't bother unless you know your own car is a grenade.

Joe_Horner

OddballJamie wrote: »

I doubt a year old Focus would have been written off because they couldn't find a bumper for it.

Probably not, but that was just a quick example of the sort of thing that can lead to a cat D write-off (insurer chooses not to repair). It can also be things like stolen / recovered after settlement (even without any damage).

Where it's written off because of the level of damage to the car - so, the cost of the repair itself - generally cat C (uneconomic to repair) is the correct classification.

OddballJamie

Op has already said it has been fully repaired, which would lead us to believe it was damaged.

Quote from Wiki (I know most likely written by school kids)
CAT D - "This vehicle was repairable, but the repair costs were significant compared to the vehicle value. The insurer chose not to repair for economic reasons."

Usually if the insurance believe the repairs to be 50% or greater than the pre-accident value they will write it off.

One year old Focus worth about £12k ish, so I would think £6k damage would be a decent guess. It may have even got caught in the flooding couple of years ago. Won't know until the Op comes back.

As you can get 10 plate Focus Zetecs with low miles from main dealers from £7k, unless the BMW is a lemon then I would not do the part-ex.

Joe_Horner

OddballJamie wrote: »

Op has already said it has been fully repaired, which would lead us to believe it was damaged.

Quote from Wiki (I know most likely written by school kids)
CAT D - "This vehicle was repairable, but the repair costs were significant compared to the vehicle value. The insurer chose not to repair for economic reasons."

Usually if the insurance believe the repairs to be 50% or greater than the pre-accident value they will write it off.

One year old Focus worth about £12k ish, so I would think £6k damage would be a decent guess. It may have even got caught in the flooding couple of years ago. Won't know until the Op comes back.

As you can get 10 plate Focus Zetecs with low miles from main dealers from £7k, unless the BMW is a lemon then I would not do the part-ex.

But, as I was pointing out, the cost they consider is the TOTAL cost of the claim, not just the cost of repair. They'd be out of business very quickly if they didn't! They're also likely to class a stolen / recovered as cat D if they've already paid out, even if there's only minor (or even no) damage.

Without knowing exactly what it was written off for, any assumption about the level of damage it sustained is nothing but a guess.