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Buy a Cat D car - any advice

Hi, I've seen a 2009 Corsa 1.2i SXi for sale which has been marked as a Cat D. It has 20k miles and they are asking £4295 for it. Should everything check out fine what is a reasonable price I should offer for the car?

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  • Posts: 3,292 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    have a look here
    http://www.parkers.co.uk/
    The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work unless it’s open.:o

    A winner listens, a loser just waits until it is their turn to talk:)
  • Posts: 2,660 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    A brand new one is a smidge over twice that so I wouldn't be paying anywhere near that price (personally I wouldn't even consider spending even a quarter of that money on a written off car).
    You can none damaged cars around that price so why bother taking the risk.

    I'm assuming it's this one http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201308278489684
    If so, it looks like it's spent most of it's life sideways or parked up in McDonalds car park (explains the mileage, the previous hoody couldn'y afford the petrol), leave it well alone and find a nice well looked after one and then paint the wheels black and tint the windows if that's your thing.
  • Posts: 374 Forumite
    I wouldn't be worried about a Cat D car; sometimes they can be bargains.

    Try and find out what the damage was. Most of the time it was either panel damage or the owner had driven the car through a flood and wrecked the engine and it had to be replaced.
  • Posts: 2,660 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    SLITHER99 wrote: »
    I wouldn't be worried about a Cat D car; sometimes they can be bargains.

    Try and find out what the damage was. Most of the time it was either panel damage or the owner had driven the car through a flood and wrecked the engine and it had to be replaced.

    If I had to guess from the photos, I'd say front end collision as the bumper is a different shade to the car and no longer sits right where it meets the wheel arch.
    http://pictures2.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=25f875a59f91f40ecca343254addd96f&width=1024&height=768
  • Posts: 5,059 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Silver is a tricky colour to match and as you can see from that awful attempt, they haven't come close. It's had work front and rear and the low mileage is probably due to the time haggling over to crush it or otherwise. There are plenty of clean cars around for that budget.
  • Posts: 1,006 Forumite
    Nothing wrong with cat d cars but expect em to be cheaper and have the reduced resale avalue AND buyer appeal. This dont tick the cheaper box.
  • Posts: 12,287 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    yep, assuming it checks out re the repairs then I'd say it needs to be 20 or 30% cheaper.
  • Posts: 2,660 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    goonarmy wrote: »
    Nothing wrong with cat d cars but expect em to be cheaper and have the reduced resale avalue AND buyer appeal. This dont tick the cheaper box.

    Depends if they have been bodged on the cheap, sticking a bumper from a scrap yard on to hide the untold horrors that lurk beneath.

    Older and much cheaper Cat D cars aren't so bad as they could've just had a parking scrape or lost a wing mirror for the insurance to write it off. But newer ones would've had something more serious happen.

    Also worth bearing in mind if you write it off or it gets stolen your insurance may pay out about 30% below market value of a non accident car.
  • Posts: 5,836 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 6 October 2013 at 11:34AM
    How did they get away with Cat D ?
    Have you seen the gap around the top of the door.
    Look at the A post near the mirror, on the seam the gap is wider at the bottom than the top and the whole joint is also wide.
    When a car hits something, the gaps around the door are designed to open up so the doors can be opened and you can get out.
    The door gap is pinched small where it meets the wing as well .
    The bumper no longer aligns with the front corner, which tells me this car should have been placed on a jig.
    These gaps and seams should be even and equal.
    I am astounding it is only a cat D write off ?


    This is part of the crumple zone .
    IMO, this car has had a right crack, its safety shell is already weakened and I would not want to be sitting in it when or if it happened again.

    You can pick up a straight example of this with full service from an auction on a 09 plate for £2700-£3200 all day long as it falls in the ex-lease renewal stock area and auction centres will be awash with 09 cars as September is change over month.

    This is only my advice, but as "deals" go, this is an absolute stinker, it is well overpriced for a mint car, this has had a front end clout.

    Walk, in fact run.
    Be happy...;)
  • Posts: 374 Forumite
    edited 6 October 2013 at 12:00PM
    spacey2012 wrote: »
    <snip>...Walk, in fact run.

    I can only agree with all of this. To add to that, look at the black trimming on the doors. Neither side lines up with the rest of the car.

    Look at the engine bay photo. Now, call me paranoid, but some of the black plastics look newer than some of the others i.e. compare the rocker cover with the fuse box cover and even the air filter housing cover. I'm no crash repair expert, but I've owned a few cars and from what I remember, black plastics usually age in a similar way.

    Looking at the nearside shot, I'd bet a dollar that the bumper, front wing and door are from three different vehicles. None of them seem to either line up or appear the right shade.

    I'd pass on this one, mate. At any price! I'd further the theory that this was at one point light panel damage and Cat. D recorded. Then the owner had another smack, didn't go via insurance and now someone's fixed it up and put it back on the road. Totally speculation, but I agree. I cannot see how this made it to Cat. D.

    FWIW, I had a bump in a 3 year old Fiesta many moons ago. It was a front wing and my insurance called it a Cat. C! I did leave it go (shouldn't have done), but if my car was a Cat. C, with how much has been swapped out on this car, I am suspicious all over the shop!

    Actually sure fire way... phone them up and ask them how many keys it comes with. I'd bet another dollar he says only one key!
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