Should i buy a Cat s or Cat N

motorguy

yanbear wrote: »

I have a limited budget and wanted the newest car I could get and ideally the lowest mileage. Or the best looked after one.
I have had previous rep vehicles and found they were always well serviced so seemed to be more mechanically sound

I wouldnt ge focusing on newest and lowest mileage and thus be gravitating to a written off car as you're no assurance that its been well looked after or how well its been repaired.

Also 2010-2012 1.6 TDI VW engines are prime candidates for EGR valve failure which is a big big job to replace, and they're also prone to DPF failures.

Whats your budget by the way?

motorguy

yanbear wrote: »

My Dad was a mechanic and my mate does body work so i'd imagine that would be an advantage when viewing. This has ment that i get cheap servicing etc.
Just a bit dubious on a Cat S, does it have to be assessed before its allowed back on the road?

As Adrian has suggested, consider buying a damaged car and repairing it yourselves.

Most damaged / repaired cars are done by people who want to make a quick buck and they can make the most money by cutting corners on the repairs. At least by doing it yourselves you know exactly what you've got, and you've made the decisions on what to repair and what to replace.

yanbear

motorguy wrote: »

I wouldnt ge focusing on newest and lowest mileage and thus be gravitating to a written off car as you're no assurance that its been well looked after or how well its been repaired.

Also 2010-2012 1.6 TDI VW engines are prime candidates for EGR valve failure which is a big big job to replace, and they're also prone to DPF failures.

Whats your budget by the way?

I had looked at Golfs, but did hear about those problems.

Looking at between £2500 and £3000

motorguy

yanbear wrote: »

I had looked at Golfs, but did hear about those problems.

Looking at between £2500 and £3000

The EGR valve itself seems prone to failure, but on top of that its a real PITA to get at. I think theres something like 5 hours engine stripping to be done to get at it. And its all horrible work to do. Nothing pleasant about it.

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/165065-Another-1-6TDi-EGR-Valve-Failure

edde

I'd have no problem buying a write off but make sure you see before after photos etc. People always want a straight non cat but often don't know the straight cars history I know a few non cat cars which have been rebuilt after damage which should have wrote them off but not did not want to claim so have been done cheap and bits bent back etc. On the other hand I've seen accident damaged cheap cars repaired with second hand bits in garages which look and are the same as an non cat car.

mierzwin

edde wrote: »

I'd have no problem buying a write off but make sure you see before after photos etc. People always want a straight non cat but often don't know the straight cars history I know a few non cat cars which have been rebuilt after damage which should have wrote them off but not did not want to claim so have been done cheap and bits bent back etc. On the other hand I've seen accident damaged cheap cars repaired with second hand bits in garages which look and are the same as an non cat car.

There is relatively new HPI style car checking site but what they offer is also pictures of cars if it went via salvage auction Their website states they currently have access to 1.5 million records from last 3 years.

There is a lot of cars going as Unrecorded and by going just on copart.co.uk you can search for Unrecorded and some of the examples there should be at least classified as Cat S, and you can buy those later as HPI Clear.

What you can do for free you can put any reg and after you hit search they will tell you straight away if they have any salvage records for this single VRM. Check their site and see sample report which shows how they present pictures and full car history - vcheck.uk

Their FB is interesting where they name and shame dishonest sellers who claim damage was a lot lot less than in real life

Arklight

AdrianC wrote: »

Then they're the people to talk to. Start looking at unrepaired damaged cars on Copart. No point in paying for somebody else's unknown-quality repairs.

<points up>

Like this one?

https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/22491718/Photos

Does put it in perspective a bit...

AdrianC

Arklight wrote: »

Like this one?

https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/22491718/Photos

Does put it in perspective a bit...

It's a cosmetic mess, but I don't think there's a lot of properly structural damage there. Should tweak fairly easily.

mierzwin

This one wil come up on HPI, find some on copart which are UNRECORDED and there are badly damaged ones and will be clean as should on HPI.

Joe_Horner

AdrianC wrote: »

It's a cosmetic mess, but I don't think there's a lot of properly structural damage there. Should tweak fairly easily.

Hard to say from photos, but the steering wheel cowling popping doesn't bode well - something's moved the column quite a bit to do that.