Buying a Cat C vehicle

Marktheshark

Getting it insured is the hard bit, remember insurance will be responsible for injuries of occupants if its hit again, most say no to cat C and those that do often insist on a full inspection.

Manxman_in_exile

OP - we've got "capless fuel" on our Ford. Found it a bit tricky at first but after studying the three diagrams on the inside of the access "flap" neither my wife nor I have had any problems.


I think I found the knack was to put the nozzle in as per the diagram and then remove it by reversing this.


Sorry if this sounds patronising - not intended to be! We did find it tricky the first few times we refuelled but now it's second nature.


Not a good reason to get rid of a car you like unless you really can't get the hang of it.

Marvel1

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

OP - we've got "capless fuel" on our Ford. Found it a bit tricky at first but after studying the three diagrams on the inside of the access "flap" neither my wife nor I have had any problems.


I think I found the knack was to put the nozzle in as per the diagram and then remove it by reversing this.


Sorry if this sounds patronising - not intended to be! We did find it tricky the first few times we refuelled but now it's second nature.


Not a good reason to get rid of a car you like unless you really can't get the hang of it.

I will give it another go, one morning when it's quiet and really study the diagram. As before I left house, I looked at it and I tried to pull it out by lifting it up slighty as per diagram and stuck.

I have put petrol in 6 times since having it.

I know if I can get the knack of it I will keep the car for years unti it dies. Otherwise I fear one day I'm going to get really stuck and damage yanking it out.

motorguy

prowla wrote: »

I had a Cat C repaired car and it was a very good buy; it drove perfectly but I had to do a bit of work on it to finish off the job.

(I don't believe that picture above was a Cat D, though - looks like chassis damage, which would make it a C!).

it was taken from coparts website, and was a discussion on another forum. It was definitely Cat D.

Probably wrongly so!

londonTiger

motorguy wrote: »

The risks are you have no idea what you're buying and how well it has been repaired. The ONLY way it is economically viable to put a Cat C car back on the road is by using second hand parts from a scrapper, straightening parts instead of replacing them, using spurious parts not manufacturer ones, not fixing / replacing bits you cant see, and sticking a bit of fillers in a panel that should be replaced.

The seller will tell you it was just "panel damage", but when pressed very few will be willing to show you pre accident damage.

Heres a pic of a (granted extreme) Cat D car that is no doubt back on the road by now by hook or by crook

that's a modern ish volvo. the whole car would be used to crumple and keep the cabin intact. The roof sills and floor sills will crumple at such a collision rendering the car completely useless.

Would have to be completely stupid and ruthless to try to do a chop job on this as everything apart from the rear quarter would be wrecked.

Only thing this car would be useful for is to take the seats out and resell them and perhaps some other interior bits and bobs.

bigjl

londonTiger wrote: »

that's a modern ish volvo. the whole car would be used to crumple and keep the cabin intact. The roof sills and floor sills will crumple at such a collision rendering the car completely useless.

Would have to be completely stupid and ruthless to try to do a chop job on this as everything apart from the rear quarter would be wrecked.

Only thing this car would be useful for is to take the seats out and resell them and perhaps some other interior bits and bobs.

That car could be repaired.

It would not be a simple job though and would certainly require use of a Jig i suspect, one way to assess the amount of force involved is to look at the bonded windscreen, it isn't broken that I can see in the picture which means the main bodyshell is unlikely to be severely distorted, looks like the door doesn't fit correctly but that seems to have been caused by an additional impact to the door/A Pillar rather than the frontal impact.


I think you would be surprised at just what can and can't be repaired, most people that have never worked in that section of the motor trade would be.

At my old work when the Zafiras were badly smashed up they decision on wether to reshell or not was based on if the engine and gearbox was salvageable and how many Airbags had deployed.

We had two in my area that I know had been reshelled.

Several others had been severely damaged in more than one occasion and repaired.

prowla

motorguy wrote: »

it was taken from coparts website, and was a discussion on another forum. It was definitely Cat D.

Probably wrongly so!

Crikey - if as noted above, it'll need a jig to repair (as the door being at a funny angle suggests) then surely that should be a Cat C.

Back to the Cat C question though, the RAC's definition of a Cat C is here: http://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/know-how/what-does-cat-c-car-insurance-mean

bigjl

prowla wrote: »

Crikey - if as noted above, it'll need a jig to repair (as the door being at a funny angle suggests) then surely that should be a Cat C.

Back to the Cat C question though, the RAC's definition of a Cat C is here: http://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/know-how/what-does-cat-c-car-insurance-mean

The reason for the Jig is for the front end, the chassis leg is likely bent.

The door looks like a red herring, I think that displacement of the door is caused by a side impact rather than the frontal impact causing it to push out. It could easily just need a new door with little or no damage to the A Pillar.

If the A Pillar is pushed back by a frontal impact then that would indicate a much higher impact speed.

But looking at the damage to the rear wheel t may have hit a kerb at speed or there may be some rear end damage, but at you say and Motorguy mentions it is pretty bad for a Cat D.

Though a 62 plate S60 (which I think it is) is not a cheap car, probably worth £15k retail or more? If it's a high spec low miler rather than an 60k mile fleet motor it could perhaps be worth more.

Volvos always have fairly respectable residuals.

Marvel1

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

OP - we've got "capless fuel" on our Ford. Found it a bit tricky at first but after studying the three diagrams on the inside of the access "flap" neither my wife nor I have had any problems.


I think I found the knack was to put the nozzle in as per the diagram and then remove it by reversing this.


Sorry if this sounds patronising - not intended to be! We did find it tricky the first few times we refuelled but now it's second nature.


Not a good reason to get rid of a car you like unless you really can't get the hang of it.

Does it have to be a certain angle when going in and different angle coming out? Do you put it all the way in? As looking at Youtube video from Ford and states all the way in. I'm sure on my old car (not capless) i went all the way in.

Silver-Surfer_2

londonTiger wrote: »

that's a modern ish volvo. the whole car would be used to crumple and keep the cabin intact. The roof sills and floor sills will crumple at such a collision rendering the car completely useless.

Would have to be completely stupid and ruthless to try to do a chop job on this as everything apart from the rear quarter would be wrecked.

Only thing this car would be useful for is to take the seats out and resell them and perhaps some other interior bits and bobs.

So you think it's a cat B then?