Is it worth buying a Cat D car?

ralphy

Hi there

I'm in the market to buy a second hand car, maybe a Fiesta or Audi A3 around 4-5 yrs old tops.

I've seen some reasonably priced but are Cat D and just wandered if they are worth looking at to purchase or to be avoided?

Plus, will my insurance company increase my premium due to it being a Cat D?

Any advice would be great thank you

foxy-stoat

Speak to your insurers about covering a cat D. The purchase price wants to be at least 25% cheaper than a clean car for me to consider buying one.

If you can see photos before and after and check the repair it would be best.

wrightk

I purchased a cat d ford focus in 2007 (2002 model). But i purchased it requiring the work so i could see what it needed/what damage was done and was prepared for any other issues that cropped up in the future.Kept it for 3 years then sold it on for £100 less than i paid,still going strong now at 200k

They are no more or less reliable than any other car on the road today providing the work has been done to a good standard and nothing has been missed.

Insurance wise i didnt notice a massive increase

Resale value will obviously be much lower than a non cat d if you want to resell but if you can stomach that, i dont see why you shouldn't have a look

WellKnownSid

A Cat D on something older might not be too bad - the accident will have been much smaller to justify being written off, and less to lose overall.

The only observation I'd make is the sheer number of Cat C's and D's you see in adverts... Plus, given the propensity for owners and traders to play down issues, you're really on your own when you buy one. Might be lucky, might not.

Hintza

I only buy Cat D and Cs just now. But with the work requiring done and then run them in to the ground therefore no resale issues.

I know what I am looking for and I know what I want to avoid.

For example if air bags have gone off I'm interested; hard hit, expensive to sort and can be a pain.

forgotmyname

Do you know howto check the vehicle properly? Don't just assume it was a little scratch or scuff.

Some CAT D cars can have a large amount of damage.

Some dodgy owners have been known to accidently have a little scrape and claim on the insurance after finding out their car needs a lot of work.

almillar

You should only buy a repaired car (that's what a Cat-C or Cat D car is) if you're fit to inspect the repair and judge its quality. Depending how big the fault was, that may involve delving deep.

DigForVictory

I wasn't going to touch one with a stick until I'd (a) had what Cat D mean explained to me & (b) the promise of a mechanical engineer with his own business helping me sort the sheep from the goats.
The current vehicle has an innocent past but I was able to get two possibles vetted & thumbs-down-for-that-money-ed. Worth every penny for the peace of mind!

Herzlos

I wouldn't rule it out if:

1. I was planning to keep it a long time (harder to resell)
2. They had full details of the damage and repair (I'd want to know *what* was damaged)
3. It passed an independent inspection by a garage of my choice (I'd want to know it was repaired properly).
4. It was much cheaper than a clean car of a similar condition.

If it was structural/chassis damage, I'd walk away. If it was cosmetic damage you could get a bargain.

Bear in mind that cat D means the damage was less than the value, but the insurer decided not to repair - so on a £5k car the damage could be quite major. Alternatively, there's some sort of parts shortage and the courtesy car costs puts it over the threshold (I knew someone had to wait about 8 weeks for a new roof for a Smart Roadster).

BeenThroughItAll

Hintza wrote: »

I only buy Cat D and Cs just now. But with the work requiring done and then run them in to the ground therefore no resale issues.

I know what I am looking for and I know what I want to avoid.

For example if air bags have gone off I'm interested; hard hit, expensive to sort and can be a pain.

Presumably, you mean not interested?

s_b

categorisation means nothing now since the vic check abandoned ie cat c or cat d
all insurers are financial institutions so at salvage a cat d is still worth more than a cat c so they will classify it as such ,the newer the car the situation gets worse
dont even get me started on non abi listed self insured car hire companies selling wrecks to traders to nail back together history clean