Advice on Cat D car

Aretnap

altin wrote: »

Read on CAB that "If the car was a write off and hasn't been properly repaired, the dealer may have committed a criminal offence".

That would apply if the car had been left in a dangerous condition by completely cowboy repairs - most infamously if it was a cut and shut, ie two half-cars crudely welded together. He wouldn't necessarily be committing an offence just by selling a car which still had a few niggles - many used cars have a few niggles, even ones which haven't been written off.

Netwizard

Well in terms of the warranty, its only a 3 year warranty on new VX cars anyway (They do a lifetime one, but only applies to the first owner of the car, which you are not), so you have lost 12 months or so?

You can get after market warranties, but whether these cover CAT D cars or not, I'm afraid I don't know. A lot of warranties are not worth the paper they are written on anyway (apart from manafacturer ones of course)

I guess the thing to do would be to get a quote from various different places for fixing it. Get Vauxhall to check it over, get a good independant local garage to check it over, and then see how much it costs.

It sounds like the dealer who sold you the car doesn't want any further dealings with this, so pointless asking if he would contribute to the costs. It seems you are on your own here.

Assuming you saved around £1k over buying a non cat D car, even if it cost you £600 or so at a main dealer to get it fixed, life could be worse. It's a pain in the butt, but a lesson learned also, and lets face it, most cars have "history" at some point in its life. OK its annoying on such a new car, but if you can get it to Vauxhall, get a quote for repairs and get it fixed up for a 3 figure sum, then I'd do that and chalk it up to experience.

At least when its fixed, If you don't want the car anymore, you can sell it on, but bare in mind you will have to declare its cat D status

colino

OP, if they did actually tell you it was Cat D, they've done their bit. As they now appear to be making it up to spec, that should be the end of it. Find a friendly, local, independent garage to give it a bumper to bumper check (dashboard airbags are expensive to replace properly if they've fired) and use that info. to get the remedial work completed.
There are plenty of shiny cars around that have been revived from major crashes, as it's a Corsa, a heavy blow would be pretty evident throughout the shell.

colino

Sorry, forgot to add, if you sell it in the future, there is no obligation for you as a private seller to volunteer its history, however if a potential buyer asks, you cannot lie.

Netwizard

colino wrote: »

Sorry, forgot to add, if you sell it in the future, there is no obligation for you as a private seller to volunteer its history, however if a potential buyer asks, you cannot lie.

Any private buyer is likely to HPI it before they part with any cash though. Even though your not obliged to put it in the advert, I would do.

If you hide it inititally and i found out later when HPIing it, I would wonder what else you are hiding. Be upfront and honest about it when selling imo else you will have more posts on this forum stating "Bought second hand car off private buyer and they didn't say it was a cat D"

It avoids lots of potential problems.

altin_2

you will have more posts on this forum stating "Bought second hand car off private buyer and they didn't say it was a cat D"

So true.

For this amount of time my wife been driving kids to/from school, and shopping here and there...she seems quite happy.

(should I thank again....? Yes, does no harm and show appreciation).

Thank you for your comments.

altin_2

Hmmm, just crossed my mind...
Do I need to tell my insurance about written-offs?

Netwizard

altin wrote: »

Hmmm, just crossed my mind...
Do I need to tell my insurance about written-offs?

A lot of insurance companies do not ask, I certainly have never been asked and the online comparison sites do not refer to insuring write off's, however, depending on your insurance company, some will say its not a problem, some will not insure it.

I guess the only right answer here is Yes you are supposed to tell them.

But if they don't ask......

Aretnap

If your insurer asks, you have to tell them. If they don't ask, you don't. Simple as that. Read the questions carefully, and check the assumptions don't include a statement like "the vehicle has not been previously declared an insurance write off".

If you do write it off again, they can reduce the value they put on your car to reflect the fact that a previously written off car is worth a bit less than one which hasn't previously been written off. They shouldn't normally knock off more than about 20% of the value for this - see here. It sounds like that roughly corresponds with the reduced price you paid for it.

fivetide

Some can have issues (insurance). I would check if it is a problem (read your T's and C's) before actually saying anything specific about this car.

If you ever need to claim, keep in mind that you've paid less for the car and any payout will also be reduced in value. Possibly by a fair chunk. I'm not suggesting insurance companies can be slippery but they can be - hence you don't want them moaning about it being Cat D if you ever need to claim off them.