Sold Cat D car by dealer

khcomp

My last insurer just knocked 25% off the value of my car as it had been a cat D at six months old (repaired at a main dealer for less than £1,000) - a car may be a cat D write off for alarmingly minor issues; most insurers will now replace a car for a brand new one up to a certain number of months from registration, this is what may have happened to your Z4. The suggestion of flood damage is also a good possibility - many insurers will now automatically write off a flood damaged car as they are prone to developing electrical & corrosion issues months, or years, after the flood.
The car should have been a lot cheaper than a 'clear' car at the time, but differences will be less now, NOT more as someone has suggested assuming the car is in otherwise good condition, as there is a healthy demand for 'cheap' Z cars.

Herzlos

Yeah, I'd assume something that was a cat D 6 years ago, but with a full service history since and in good condition will put a lot of peoples mind at ease.

Your only real option is to try and claim the difference between what you sell it for, and what you think it'd be worth if it wasn't a cat D, and see how you get on.

Rain_Shadow

Davidtomdavid wrote: »

Hi, some advice please.

Bought a 2006 Z4 from a dealer in 2008, and now whilst trying to sell it, a HPI check has shown that the car is Cat D & was written off in 2007.

.

I thought CatD and CatC were recorded on the V5?

khcomp

'I thought CatD and CatC were recorded on the V5?'
It should be written in the 'Special notes' (section 3) on the front page of the V5. This applies for a Cat C car, but not sure about a Cat D, and can't find any clarification.

BeenThroughItAll

khcomp wrote: »

'I thought CatD and CatC were recorded on the V5?'
It should be written in the 'Special notes' (section 3) on the front page of the V5. This applies for a Cat C car, but not sure about a Cat D, and can't find any clarification.

Cat D is not recorded on the V5.

AdrianC

daveyjp wrote: »

The other thought is flood damage.

If it'd been flooded, it'd be CatB or even A. It wouldn't be D.

AdrianC

Rain_Shadow wrote: »

I'm intrigued to know what sort of damage to a one year old Z4 caused it to be written off as a Cat D. That's an awful lot of repair costs. Could it have been a stolen recovered that had been paid out on before it was found?

Possible. Or it could have been delays in parts availability, so they cut their losses on the hire car costs.

khcomp

Could have also been stolen / recovered - even with keys and undamaged, it will be recorded as a 'total loss' by insurers. The car may never have had any damage of any sort.

Nobbie1967

The only loss here is the difference in the current value between a 10 year old Z4 and a 10 year old Cat C Z4. That's about £1k as Cat D cars are usually about 10-20% cheaper. I don't think you can claim for a potential loss from 8 years ago that wasn't crystallised at the time.

Try getting a quote from WBAC or similar outfits with and without declaring Cat C and see the figures it comes up with.

bigjl

Davidtomdavid wrote: »

The write off was about 15 months before I bought the car from the dealer, so surely the HPI database would have been updated in that timeframe?

Also, the BMW dealer had no interest in buying my car due to its age and mileage, so not sure why they would lie with their 50% estimate.

Because they are BMW dealer and have no interest in old BMWs anyway.

But they were also priming you for a possible trade in deal in future, there would have been a que of staff wanting to buy it for half price if you did trade it in.

What has the Dealer you bought it from said? Only they can actually answer these kinds of questions. And potentially be able to prove they did a HPi check and it was clear.

There is no way a Dealer selling nearly new BMWs didn't do a HPi check, none whatsoever.

Even if they bought it from Auction it would have been HPi checked prior to them buying it.