I vaguely know somebody who bought a written off two yo car, repaired it himself ( no idea how, as I thought that normally they were so twisted they heeded a jig thing) and is now considering trying to sell it for a profit.
Personally i wouldn't , especially from a private 'repairer'.
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I assume it had to have an enhanced MOT before the 'cat D' could be lifted? Assuming it did, and passed, I wouldn't object to buying such a vehicle.
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You'd have to know why it had been written off. Insurance companies are peculiar and write off cars capable of being properly repaired.
To put it another way, a car can be worth more to someone than its cash value, so to speak.
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Someone on here had a car written off for a damaged interior, istr. Replace interior from scrapyard, car is as good as new. I would have no problem buying such a vehicle.
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If you're referring to Smokie's car and spilt Creosote or similar.... not sure a cheap new interior would have sorted that.
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>>Would you buy a Cat D?
Yup, wouldn't bother me in the least. I rarely plan to sell cars, which is where any problems might bite.
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>> >>Would you buy a Cat D?
>>
>> Yup, wouldn't bother me in the least. I rarely plan to sell cars, which is
>> where any problems might bite.
Indeed, but when buying a Cat D the first question is "How Much" - I would but I want it cheap. You have the seller by the balls.
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Cat C and Cat D can be relatively simple to repair, it depends on the damage and the value of the car.
Insurers write things off because of the cost of repair versus the value of the vehicle.
E.g. my old Triumph 2000 was hit in the side when it was 20 years old. Both nearside doors were damaged and there was a scrape to the N/S/R wing. Both doors opened and closed, no glass was broken, it would have passed an MOT...ins co. wanted to write it off as being uneconomic to repair...yet two doors from a scrappy and some deep scratches attended to on the wing would have instantly cured it....(in the end I negotiated a settlement that didn't write it off).
I'd suggest a new car written off would be a different proposition to an older one, but even then, when my Jag S Type was 4 years old... a lorry hit it when parked and did the N/S/F wing and door, punctured a tyre and damaged a wheel as well as ripping the front bumper off... the bill for that lot from a central London insurance approved repairer and a Mercedes courtesy car for a month was absolutely unreal...something over £6000...yet look at the car after repair and you'd never know. It wasn't written off, because the car was worth about £18K to £20K then, but a few years later when it was worth £10K it would have been cheerio.
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My Passat wasn't written off but the repairs were costly. The car was about 2 years old when the accident occurred. Had it been older and therefore worth less it would have been a write-off.
That car is now over 14 years old and still on the road today.
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The right car with the right reasons for the Cat D record, at the right price, yes.
But it would have to be very cheap.
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My mate used to have a cat C Fiesta. Although it obviously passed an enhanced MOT, it never seemed to drive in a straight line properly and just some how didn't feel right.
The other issue is technically you're supposed to tell your insurance company, and that can put up the premiums. I am always concerned with crumple zones when a car has had a front end smash. A could could end up being too rigid.
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My 53 reg Vectra-C is still on the road, despite it being a CAT C write off after I t-boned a Passat with it.
A bloke bought it off my insurance company and did all the necessary work to put it back on the road. The worst damage being the nearside chassis leg. Cut out and replaced with a 2nd hand one from another Vectra that had been rear end shunted, and some body panels from another one that had been flood damaged.
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>> put it back on the road. The worst damage being the nearside chassis leg. Cut
>> out and replaced with a 2nd hand one from another Vectra that had been rear
>> end shunted, and some body panels from another one that had been flood damaged.
I always knew the Vectra was a dog - its a mongrel.
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There is no such thing as an enhanced MOT!!!
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Rightly or wrongly, I wouldn't buy anything which had been in crash. Might be cheaper but I'd not want it.
I tend to keep my cars long term so I'd want to know it was as good as it could be from the outset.
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>> Rightly or wrongly, I wouldn't buy anything which had been in crash. Might be cheaper but I'd not want it.
You won't want to hear that a fair majority of brand new cars have had some bodywork repairs and full or part resprays before being sold to the great unwashed then.
e.g. the ones that get damaged en route to the showrooms on the back of car transporters by trees and the like. Not to mention the ones that fail PDI due to poor paint finishes such as orange peel.
In other words a brand new car isn't always what it appears to be.
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Aye, but one that's been in a proper crash would be more of a risk. They have these "legs" y'see, sticking out from the bulkhead and if they get damaged... ach well, never mind...
;-))
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>> There is no such thing as an enhanced MOT!!!
I presume the term 'enhanced MoT' is a misnomer for the VIC check:
www.gov.uk/vehicle-identity-check/overview
It's not an MoT though and is concerned with vehicle's bona fides i/d wise rather than the efficacy of repairds carried out. The tester can issue a prohibition though if vehicle is unsafe,
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Yes (to the original question).
Some years ago I bought an H reg cat D MX5 for £3000, ran it for 10 years and px'd it for £2000.
Written off for damaged front and rear bumpers and a dented sill.
OEM F/R bumpers + paint made it uneconomical to repair, but a heat gun and some fibreglass mat fixed them both.
I'd bought it as a project when I chucked in working for a living, but it didn't end up being much of a project other than an excuse to buy a nice compressor and paint gun to teach myself spraying. (cost more in wet&dry than in paint!).
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This particular one was a Cayman S. As stated, 2yo. 16k miles, written off by the insurer after front NS damage. Repaired privately at a cost of £15k, with some parts imported from the USA.
Purchased for £12k.
Therefore total cost £27k...and no I would not buy it, even if offered it at that price. Although to my untutored eye it looks fine.
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A bit of a risk to take that on with repairs costing £15k. For not much more you'd get a car not written off.
Further risk is selling on... it's still Cat D isn't it?
I am surprised US was the place to import the parts from too.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 24 Nov 14 at 23:25
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Would you buy a Cat D? - Alastairw
