Are insurance write off cars unlucky?

red_eye

Yeah the cost and and time sitting on it put me right off. Another source is dealers they might let a few go since it saves them hassle of auction obviously they will keep the best cars but could be worth it for parts. Gone are the days of spares and repairs in the papers so all you have short of hanging around mot stations is Facebook 

red_eye

In this game it’s always handy to have friends in the trade for cheap mots, good labour rates and maybe a source of cars

Berke

red_eye said:

In this game it’s always handy to have friends in the trade for cheap mots, good labour rates and maybe a source of cars

What about cat u, hpi clear cars? or would you prefer 2015-2016 Cat N car cheaper than the average market by %15-%20?

red_eye

Berke said:

red_eye said:

In this game it’s always handy to have friends in the trade for cheap mots, good labour rates and maybe a source of cars

What about cat u, hpi clear cars? or would you prefer 2015-2016 Cat N car cheaper than the average market by %15-%20?

I’m not too clued up with these new cats  I lost interest in write off many many years ago. I didt think it was worth it as I was planning on buying, fixing and using before selling. But if your buying a load of cars you could throw in a cat or two at least you’ll have an income when waiting to sell. 

The problem is when you buy a cat car and throw a load of money at it it’s still worth less than a non cat car plus it won’t sell straight away might be worth trying your luck at auction

The_Rainmaker

red_eye said: I didt think it was worth it as I was planning on buying, fixing and using before selling. 

As a buyer of almost exclusively salvage (personal use) that is why I work on the premise that I run them until they die.

eamon

There are numerous Youtube channels with this business model. From what I can understand its a case of not overpaying in the 1st place and knowing that you will be selling for less than an undamaged/repaired vehicle and hence trade in a slightly different market. You have to know your acceptable profit margin (your wages essentially) to start with, cost of vehicle & cost of repair. Add the three together and if that is a good bit less than retail then in theory you should be good to go (restaurants call this the rule of thirds).

Arklight

It probably depends more on your friend than the cars. If he develops a rock solid reputation for selling cheap, previously-written-off, but fully restored cars, that he stands behind 100% with a AAA gold plated after care service; then he could do quite well. 

Whether he can do well enough out of this to make a living is another matter, I suppose.

Jumblebumble

It scares me that you are naive enough to believe that  an MOT is going to prove in any meaningful way that a CAT U car has been properly repaired
Do you understand the scope of an MOT Test ?
MOT test will not detect alignment issues or even if the car drives properly on the road

facade

Jumblebumble said:

MOT test will not detect alignment issues or even if the car drives properly on the road

In The Olden Days I was the minimum wage odd-job boy at an Arthur Daley bombsite car sales*. We had this one car that went for MOT at our usual friendly  MOT station. Even they wouldn't pass it because under heavy braking with the tapley tester the thing turned round and faced the other way.

We'd already serviced the brakes (and had a good idea what was wrong with it), so they sent me off in this deathtrap to take it to the posh MOT station in town that had one of those new fangled roller testers, at which it passed with flying colours. The brakes were fine- we put it down to the chassis being distorted from an accident.

* we really did use filler & polythene bags and put gear oil in rattly engines- this was over 40 years ago though.

scaredofdebt

I had a CAT D Mondeo that was one of the best cars I owned.  It cost me £1,500 and then another £1,500 to get it on the road, mainly cosmetic issues, needed a new bonnet, wings etc.

It was an 04 plate 2.0 TDCi Ghia, lovely car, got it with 90k on the clock, once fixed it looked like a 5 year old car (which it was, my point is you wouldn't suspect its history.)

I ran that car for 5 years eventually putting over 100k on it, it died at 205k when the fuel pump went, having had new DMF and a couple of injectors on it along the way, other than that pretty much no trouble, returned over 55 MPG.

Would definitely have another Mondeo and another CAT D, I saved ~£2k by getting that rather than one with a clear history.

Would I pay over £10k for a Cat D/C - probably not.