How to afford a 2nd car

Gsaver1

Have you thought about buying a Cat N car from Copart? It might just have a dent in the door or either bumper might be cracked, amongst other things. It is a non-structural repair required which the insurer has deemed to be more than the car is worth as the parts have to be new. You could get parts second hand the same colour and fix it. Or if you were not all that bothered by a dent you could just leave it as is.

magpies79

No I haven’t to be fair does that effect anything price wise when taking out insurance on a CAT N car 

Herzlos

paul_c123 said:

I'd avoid 1.0 Peugeots (just too underpowered) and the "Access" trim level - its really basic. The step up to 1.2 Active shouldn't be too much anyway. Nothing wrong with the VTi/Puretech wet belt engine so long as its been maintained properly, meaning regular oil changes with the right specification oil.

I'd have said the opposite - you want the cheapest, most basic trim you can get because there's less to go wrong and cheaper consumables like tyres. Underpowered is relative.

Gsaver1

magpies79 said:

No I haven’t to be fair does that effect anything price wise when taking out insurance on a CAT N car 

Insurance price you pay would be the same. If your car was written off again you would get paid a lower price as the car had been previously written off.

The cars I would look at would be Ibiza, Leon, Toledo, Altea, Fabia, Rapid & Yeti. 

magpies79

How would you go about knowing how bad of a CAT N is then basically just looking over the body work and that 

paul_c123

magpies79 said:

How would you go about knowing how bad of a CAT N is then basically just looking over the body work and that 

You can visit Copart sites. But, if you don't know what you're looking at, you'd not know how bad it is. And obviously you can't be removing parts, running diagnostics etc in the Copart lot.

Gsaver1

magpies79 said:

How would you go about knowing how bad of a CAT N is then basically just looking over the body work and that 

Some have fairly small imperfections. Looking at the dash and seeing if any warning lights are on. Also see what the additional information has to say about the car. You might want to see if you could get the MOT history but you would have to do the visual viewing to see if they would give you the necessary information.

Take the silver Yeti that is up for auction just now. It has a dent that has rusted on the passenger side rear door, it also has scratches on the front bumper both sides and on the wing. This looks a good Yeti imo. The road tax might be a bit steep. 

paul_c123

Gsaver1 said:

Have you thought about buying a Cat N car from Copart? It might just have a dent in the door or either bumper might be cracked, amongst other things. It is a non-structural repair required which the insurer has deemed to be more than the car is worth as the parts have to be new. You could get parts second hand the same colour and fix it. Or if you were not all that bothered by a dent you could just leave it as is.

Whilst a private buyer can't go to BCA or Manheim any more, there's still plenty of auction houses which welcome private buyers. But guess what...the cars there are trade ones! Sure, there's a trade price, but that's for a reason - because they typically either need preparing - which includes mechanically checking over the car and attending to any issues - or have been prepped already but for some reason, unsold at a dealer who has decided the car is haunted and puts it into auction (with the seller's fees and prep costs, they will ALWAYS lose money going this route - its just a case of minimising their losses).

Copart specialises in crash damage and/or mechanical defects, in addition to the fact the cars are basically trade too. In addition, a few points worth noting: the pictures are taken on the day the car arrives at Copart. It might have stood, a long time, there. And they don't treat them any better than lumps of metal - plenty of cars have flat batteries, mud in them, are disgusting inside, forklift damage etc. A trader takes a risk buying from auction but the law of averages means they are normally okay. How lucky do you feel?

magpies79

So went to look at a car today Citroen ds4 35 road tax selling it for £2,800 with 76k on it 1.6 diesel with better mpg then my Astra however checking the mot history 
rear coil spring corroded has been on the last 3 mots as has the rear service brake is this an avoid you think 

WellKnownSid

Needs rear disks and pads