Bought Category S Car

Rundle123

Hello guys I recently bought a Ford Fiesta, it was a Category S, I bought it privately off someone who fixes cars and sells them, basically the car was vandalised and had been written off by the insurance company, the boot had been caved in from the top possibly by a bat or large hammer and the driver side door had been possibly booted, as well as the wing mirror was hit and the bonnet had small dents in. Now I’ve had the car since July this year it drives perfectly and it’s MOT is due soon but when I try to find out what comes under Cat S does all this count as structural damage?

Car_54

According to Autotrader "Category S — Cat S, for short — is a description used by insurance companies to describe the level of damage to a vehicle they have written off. A Cat S vehicle has specifically suffered damage to its structural frame including its chassis, probably in an accident."


BTW this forum is not a substitute for Google.

Rundle123

Car_54 wrote: »

According to Autotrader "Category S — Cat S, for short — is a description used by insurance companies to describe the level of damage to a vehicle they have written off. A Cat S vehicle has specifically suffered damage to its structural frame including its chassis, probably in an accident."


BTW this forum is not a substitute for Google.

Just wanted to see if anybody had any other info or are more knowledgeable than me

AdrianC

Rundle123 wrote: »

Hello guys I recently bought a Ford Fiesta, it was a Category S, I bought it privately off someone who fixes cars and sells them, basically the car was vandalised and had been written off by the insurance company, the boot had been caved in from the top possibly by a bat or large hammer and the driver side door had been possibly booted, as well as the wing mirror was hit and the bonnet had small dents in. Now I’ve had the car since July this year it drives perfectly and it’s MOT is due soon but when I try to find out what comes under Cat S does all this count as structural damage?

Sounds too trivial for S-for-Structural damage.

Perhaps there was also roof skin damage? Or you aren't being told the truth...

Rundle123

AdrianC wrote: »

Sounds too trivial for S-for-Structural damage.

Perhaps there was also roof skin damage? Or you aren't being told the truth...

I think there was roof damage too that was sort of connected to the boot damage, is there a way to add photos on here? My descriptions weren’t the best would be easy to see the photos of it

AdrianC

Ah, that makes sense. The proper roof fix would have involved cutting the skin off, and may have revealed damage to the supporting frame - hence they've just shrugged and written it off instead. Cat S instead of N because if it gets salvaged and bought and there turns out to be structural damage, people complain...

You'll need to put the pics on some hosting space somewhere, then link them. But because you've not posted many times, you can't just post links... Obscure them a little bit, and we'll figure it out from there...

https://imgbb.com/ is as good as any, I believe.

Rundle123

AdrianC wrote: »

Ah, that makes sense. The proper roof fix would have involved cutting the skin off, and may have revealed damage to the supporting frame - hence they've just shrugged and written it off instead. Cat S instead of N because if it gets salvaged and bought and there turns out to be structural damage, people complain...

You'll need to put the pics on some hosting space somewhere, then link them. But because you've not posted many times, you can't just post links... Obscure them a little bit, and we'll figure it out from there...

is as good as any, I believe.

I see, so you think the frame is potentially damaged? I managed to have a look on the web and found the same one you just suggested thanks!

Hope these work

https:// ibb.co/mT2Nn50

https:// ibb.co/yP93kMJ

https:// ibb.co/dLcG8QS

Sorry I don’t think they work just tried and like you said wasn’t letting me post the links, tried spacing them out

AdrianC

That's yer money shot!

Impossible to see from that angle whether there's any actual damage or not to the aperture and the rear framework under the skin - it may well look a lot worse than it is, due to the above-window cosmetic spoiler on the tailgate.

Metallic paint, quite a few panels, £4.5k or so value before the damage - it was always going to be a write-off, the only question was which side of the S/N line. They erred on the side of caution.

Rundle123

AdrianC wrote: »

[
That's yer money shot!

Impossible to see from that angle whether there's any actual damage or not to the aperture and the rear framework under the skin - it may well look a lot worse than it is, due to the above-window cosmetic spoiler on the tailgate.

Metallic paint, quite a few panels, £4.5k or so value before the damage - it was always going to be a write-off, the only question was which side of the S/N line. They erred on the side of caution.

Ah right okay that’s good news actually(I hope lol)because the guy did fit a new boot and it if I were to show you the car now you wouldn’t think that was the car in the above photo. I thought the same too, like you said on the side of caution

EdGasketTheSecond

Doesn't a cat S have to be structurally checked before being allowed back on the road? Has that been done OP?

Rundle123

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

Doesn't a cat S have to be structurally checked before being allowed back on the road? Has that been done OP?

I’m not actually sure On that one I don’t think it legally has to, the seller has done previous cat s cars and sold them so I took his word it was structurally sound I was originally unsure about Category S specifically to my car which I’m guessing is the boot being how it was giving it the category S