I'm thinking of buying a stolen car.....

JennyP

OK, I know that that would be pretty stupid. But it says in the ad that the car was stolen and has now been recovered.
I quote : "[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]stolen recovered Cat C hence price"
It is a lot cheaper and it is the exact car that I want which isn't the easiest thing to find.
There is obviously a disadvantage to this though as the seller has obviously felt the need to disclose it AND reduce the price significantly. Could anyone please tell me more about this and whether I should or shouldn't go ahead?
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david29dpo

You get what you pay for. I have a cat C van. Light damage only, not stolen. Fixed it myself and now as good as new for half the price. I know selling will be a problem but the price will be less. Could have sold it 5 times over for a small profit. I would be more careful with a stolen recovered. Has it been thrashed to death? How much to fix it? Just bear in mind the low value when you sell.

zeon999

I have bought a stolen recovered before from ascrap yard and it was great, I paid like £250 for a Vauxhall Cavalier 4x4 this was a good few years ago now.

I had to replace the ignition barrel and repair the drivers door lock and that was it, it was a great buy.

Only thing that really matters is the fact that it has it on the cars history and it puts of people from buying them, so when it comes to selling it you will have a hard time. I never had this trouble as I crashed mine before I came to having to sell it.

Also as mentioned just look for any damage done from those who stole it as you know it will have been thrashed for a short period of time and normally the interior gets some abuse.

mjr600

See what your insurer says, they may not wish to insure the car without documents which indicate the extent and quality of the repairs.

Insurers like to limit risk and a poorly repaired Cat C which is damaged again may be a total write off whereas an undamaged car they may repair.

You may even find you have a higher premium, depends on how serious the original damage was.

Iamthesmartestmanalive

Make sure the seller is the legal owner

For example if the insurer have paid out and your buying from the original owner it would no longer be theres to sell regardless of documents unless they bought it back

Tucker

Unless you know a bit about accident damage and repairs, stay well clear in my book.
I would only go down that route if you knew what you were really buying, otherwise you could end up with a real lemon.

I had a Ford that was an accident repair and it was never right. Lots of problems with the electrics, fuses popping, heater wouldn't work... you name it, even though the repair looked OK.

If you are good at mechanics, then it's probably a good bet, but I wasn't and it drove me mad.

movilogo

If you have already stolen it no need to buy

On a serous note, let it go, there are plenty of other cars to choose.

boyse7en

There can be very little wrong with a Cat C car, so I wouldn't discount it completely. I bought a Cat C that had been written off after a car park 'ding' that had broken the headlamp, dented the bonnet and broken the bumper: the insurance company look at the cost of replacement parts from the manufacturer (Lamp = £175, Bonnet = £350 + £150 spraying, bumper = £250 + £150 fitting = more than the car is worth) and write it off. I got all the parts from a scrap car for £50 (in the right colour!) and fitted them myself. Then you have to have the car inspected at a VOSA centre to ensure it is safe (like a very thorough MOT).
I think the buyer has a legal obligation to disclose that the car is a Cat C, and it will lower the price you'll get when (if) you come to sell it on as people will be (like you) a bit wary.
Try and find out what had to be done to get it repaired.

gner_ex

It also will say (on every future V5) that the car was previously a write off - just so people are always honest with future buyers, which is why this guy has been honest.

As others have said, they write them off for the silliest things these days - the way I look at it is that an undamaged second hand car is possibly something that the previous owner was thinking of replacing for a while, so you can bet won't have had that much done to it, whereas a cat C could have had a brand new exhaust the day before!