Cat. D flagged up on hpi

Sarahemm

I have been to look at a car at a dealer today. It was flagged up as a cat D written off in may 2016. It's passed MOTs since then and appears to have damage on the boot area of the car. We took it for a test drive and it seemed ok, although I dunno what I'm looking of listening for. It needs an MOT and the dealer is going to get one done and a few other bits.
My question is if it's been cat D for nearly three years is there really anything I should be concerned about? I assume it's been fixed (maybe not to the manufacturer standard but I get mine fixed by polish Pete, so no different). I only insure my car's third party, fire and theft so would have no issues with it being not fixed if it smashed up.
I have very limited options as I require a 7 seater and need it now and also need to find a dealer that accepts credit card not easy.

forgotmyname

If you don't know what to look for pay someone that does to look at it.

marvin

Pay the AA etc to inspect it for you. I have a CAT D car and it has been no extra issue.

Sarahemm

Can't really afford to pay someone

Sarahemm

AA apparently won't check it and it's £183 somewhere else.

prowla

Cat D should be easily repairable/cosmetic damage.


It's typically where the insurance company thinks the cost of repairs is more than the value of the car.


It shouldn't be an issue regarding getting it insured either.


You can use it as a bargaining position when buying though...

angrycrow

Cat D marker has now been replaced by cat N. The main difference is cat N is non structural damage whilst the old cat D just meant the repair costs exceeded the value of the car less its salvage value so could include a lot of structural damage on a newer car.

So you assume the rear damage you can see is the damage that wrote the car off. It may have had another accident since.

There can be bargains had on cat D/N cars but you realy need to know what you are looking at as there is also a lot of badly repaired and borderline dangerous cars out there.

You should be paying 20% to 30% less the market value for a cat car.

Not sure I would want to be buying from a trader selling write offs but that's just me.

Sarahemm

I'm not sure he knows it's a write off as he didn't mention it, but it is priced as such.
So I shouldn't worry. I personally couldn't care less whether it's been fixed by the dodgy garage down the road. To me that means it's fixed.

arcon5

Material facts like that they have to disclose... I'd ask them why they didn't tell you and what paperwork they have to show it's been properly fixed.

Mercdriver

Sarahemm wrote: »

I'm not sure he knows it's a write off as he didn't mention it, but it is priced as such.
So I shouldn't worry. I personally couldn't care less whether it's been fixed by the dodgy garage down the road. To me that means it's fixed.

If the dealer hasn't told you something he legally has to, I would not be darkening his doors with my presence.

If he hasn't told you about something he legally has to what else will he fail to tell you?

Sarahemm

He literally just got it in so maybe hasn't done the checks yet. I've only put down a deposit so if it looks really dodgy I can always drop out. Only issue is that then I'd have to buy a crappier version of the same car that doesn't look like it's been looked after, if you go by the mot history that is. Advisories still advisories or fails the next year. Whereas this car has been pretty good in the pass rate or if failed seems to have been fixed. However, I never trust mot history that much as we have a cousin that does ours, who can be a bit more lax than he might be with other people. For example I had an issue with a window stuck closed. He said, just don't use it.