Unknowingly bought a CAT N car, how much value lost?

beckyjones86

Long story short, in April this year I bought a 2010 Ford KA Zetec from a garage which had 76,000 miles on the clock, really good condition for its age. Bought for £2,150 (A good price I thought at the time).

I've recently found out it's previously been written off and repaired. It is a CAT N and was registered as this in December 2017. After many many phone calls to Citizens advice, HPI and the Motor insurance database I've found out that legally there isn't anything I can do to get a refund. The garage flat refuse to give me a refund or any money back for that matter, they claim that they ran an HPI check through Gumtree when advertising and it didn't flag anything up. They say the didn't knowingly sell me a CAT N car.

They admitted they didn't run a full independent HPI check, so by playing dumb they are covering themselves, If they knew they were selling a CAT N car and lying that would be a different matter but I can't prove they did or didn't do know.

So after a lot of research and phone calls, I've decided to cut my losses and sell it on as CAT N, my question is how much value has it lost? I've read on forums here that it drops by anything between 20-50%. Any price recommendations would be great, it has 77,000 miles on now.

Thanks for any advice, please don't tell me I should have ran my own HPI check, I have forever learnt my lesson and will never buy another car without doing one first.

foxy-stoat

If its from a motor trader they cannot plead ignorance and play dumb - they are experts in the eyes of a Judge and should of known better than to run a hpi check through a third party (they are probably lying though).

If you feel that your only recourse is to reject it then prepare yourself for a wait to get your money back. Reject it formally, park it back at their premises and buy yourself another car.

Good luck

foxy-stoat

if you want to sell as a CAT N they just look on autotrader at similar cars and price it accordingly.

NCC-1707

Why not just keep it and run it until it expires?

AdrianC

Cat N last year on something of that value will be really minor - nobody would bother repairing anything major. Bumper, maybe a front wing. Add in some hire car, and it simply wasn't worth the insurer repairing it, so they did the quick and easy thing, and paid out. Why on earth would you drop it and run on the basis of that?



At that end of the market, I would not worry one bit about it. The loss in value is minimal.


And remember, the dealer is not the only person who didn't HPI it...

beckyjones86

My husband was working in a different city, we are now working in the same city so only need 1 car. I took it to Arnold Clark to get a price from them which is when they informed me it was CAT N

beckyjones86

Obviously with hindsight I would have HPI checked it, but it's not helping my situation now.

The reason I want to sell it is because we only need 1 car and would rather keep our other car which has never been involved in an accident and has less miles.

sleepymans

beckyjones86 wrote: »

Obviously with hindsight I would have HPI checked it, but it's not helping my situation now.

The reason I want to sell it is because we only need 1 car and would rather keep our other car which has never been involved in an accident and has less miles.

Your choice.....do what you want....learn a valuable lesson....suck it up

forgotmyname

You bought it at a good price. How much did you save?? Its worth that much less than a non CAT N car.

motorguy

beckyjones86 wrote: »

My husband was working in a different city, we are now working in the same city so only need 1 car. I took it to Arnold Clark to get a price from them which is when they informed me it was CAT N

A dealer will be using the fact it is Cat N to try and get it at a cheap price off you.

Its worth a few hundred less at most and dont let the dealer tell you otherwise.

At worst, stick on autotrader / gumtree / facebook for £1995 - the cheapest Cat S (structural damage :eek:) KA (that isnt a stupid colour) is this one at £1980

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201803305070264?advertising-location=at_cars&model=KA&sort=price-asc&year-from=2010&make=FORD&radius=1500&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&postcode=bt622hb&page=1