Category D write off

Bride to be

Hi all,

Just wondering if you would consider a category D write off on a 2013 (2) vehicle? The garage selling tell me they don't know what damage and repairs were done. Is there anyway of finding this out?

Cheers!

James Bond Junior

Bride to be wrote: »

Hi all,

Just wondering if you would consider a category D write off on a 2013 (2) vehicle? The garage selling tell me they don't know what damage and repairs were done. Is there anyway of finding this out?

Cheers!

If they are fobbing you off on unknown damage I would take for granted it was in a flood or worse. Don't bother, I've heard of issues insuring CAT D cars. Plenty more cars out there to choose from.

mickdw

Firstly cat d cars in UK sell for 75 percent of value of undamaged car and that is for a perfectly repaired car.
Those savings don't seem to exist here. At the right price and if you plan to keep a car for a good while, a cat d could be a smart buy but you need to know history and have inspected. A 5 year old car can be cat d for very little sometimes.

bazz26

You can be sure traders importing wrote off cars have a fair idea what sort of damage or repair they have had otherwise they wouldn't be risk paying over the odds for them.

You need the car to be a good bit cheaper than a non Cat D car too as when you go to sell it on you won't get the same money as a non Cat D car and a lot of buyers will just shy away from it when mentioned even if the original damage was small and it was repaired to a very high standard.

racso1975

AFAIK with cat d there has to be an engineer report done to say the car is road worthy again. Insurance company would presumably want that. If the garage can't give you that then you'll have to pay for it. Ask them can they supply it. Out of interest do you know when car was written off and repaired even?

Bride to be

racso1975 wrote: »

AFAIK with cat d there has to be an engineer report done to say the car is road worthy again. Insurance company would presumably want that. If the garage can't give you that then you'll have to pay for it. Ask them can they supply it. Out of interest do you know when car was written off and repaired even?

Hi Racso,

No I have none of that information yet. We are planning on viewing it on Saturday but the garage didn't seem to have the information when I called. Also it appears to be only approx €2k cheaper than a non cat d version (albeit the more expensive one has slightly higher mileage). My insurance company don't appear to have an issue insuring it (might be more expensive though). The more I think of it the less likely I am to purchase it.

Cheers!

rob316

Its north worth it and if you plan on selling it you wont get 75% of the market value.
My first car was a CAT D my uncle fixed up after his daughter in law wrote it off, it was a great car to be fair but I never sold it I passed it onto my sister and then brother when they started driving. Unless your planning on driving it into the ground I wouldn't bother.

keano25

I bought a CAT D car from the UK a few years back.

The damage? Drivers side door mirror had be blown off.

bennyc

A bit long winded but don't bother with it IMHO unless you are getting a really good deal and are happy to hold it for the long term.
I had a CAT D Vectra , it was a cat d in the UK I saw the car before the repair in the north which was very little , bumper and a wing replacement , was able to see it with the panels removed and the damage was cosmetic. Had it here a few months and then the young lad rear ended someone in a new focus. Had no option but to go down the insurance route , didnt think there was much damage on my car as all it needed was a bumper and two headlamps. The focus was about 3500 in the end. Didn't have the cash at the time so had to let insurance handle it.

Here is where the fun started, I got a call from insurance assessor and they asked where I bought the car, I was naive enough to say done deal so they took the average price of a second hand car on donedeal as the main value. Then as the car was a Cat D they took a further 20% off the value , another 15% due to my young lad was under 21, excess and the car was now worth 2800, I wanted to fix the car so they were able to tell me a breaker was willing to pay 1000 for it so i got a cheque for 1800 and kept the car.
Since then I wanted to give the car to the young lad but other insurance companies will only insure Cat Ds if they put it back on the road and couldn't get him insured with Allianz.

So if your car is a 13 , consider this , if someone hits you and you claim off their insurance , you will get a valuation -20% off the average price of the same car. It will always be a CAT D so you will have to be willing now to hold it for the long term as you are going to have issues selling it on. It will be hard to get any sort of value as a trade in and possible get a loading charge from insurance when declaring it written off, even if it was only a wing mirror which it may well have been.

liam7831

Go for it, prob scratched bumper or something small if it was anything major wouldn't be Cat D

Henry Ford III

If the seller can't tell you the nature of the repair the risk is too high. It wasn't a write off for no reason.

Bride to be

bennyc wrote: »

A bit long winded but don't bother with it IMHO unless you are getting a really good deal and are happy to hold it for the long term.
I had a CAT D Vectra , it was a cat d in the UK I saw the car before the repair in the north which was very little , bumper and a wing replacement , was able to see it with the panels removed and the damage was cosmetic. Had it here a few months and then the young lad rear ended someone in a new focus. Had no option but to go down the insurance route , didnt think there was much damage on my car as all it needed was a bumper and two headlamps. The focus was about 3500 in the end. Didn't have the cash at the time so had to let insurance handle it.

Here is where the fun started, I got a call from insurance assessor and they asked where I bought the car, I was naive enough to say done deal so they took the average price of a second hand car on donedeal as the main value. Then as the car was a Cat D they took a further 20% off the value , another 15% due to my young lad was under 21, excess and the car was now worth 2800, I wanted to fix the car so they were able to tell me a breaker was willing to pay 1000 for it so i got a cheque for 1800 and kept the car.
Since then I wanted to give the car to the young lad but other insurance companies will only insure Cat Ds if they put it back on the road and couldn't get him insured with Allianz.

So if your car is a 13 , consider this , if someone hits you and you claim off their insurance , you will get a valuation -20% off the average price of the same car. It will always be a CAT D so you will have to be willing now to hold it for the long term as you are going to have issues selling it on. It will be hard to get any sort of value as a trade in and possible get a loading charge from insurance when declaring it written off, even if it was only a wing mirror which it may well have been.

Thanks a lot for the info! Much appreciated

Dravokivich

liam7831 wrote: »

Go for it, prob scratched bumper or something small if it was anything major wouldn't be Cat D

The difference between C and D is a matter of cost. One should still rightly expect to know what the issue was and what was done to remedy it. I had a 407 that was a cat C after an accident because repairs were twice the value on the policy. If it was valued over 6k, it would have been cat D and written off due to rarity of parts.

Op when buying a car the advice shared here is often to be informed as much as you possibly can. The information you need isn't presented to you, doesnt matter why that's the case, you shouldn't be focusing on it being a '13 car. It's either what you want and you're happy to get it, or you're not.

Bride to be

Dravokivich wrote: »

The difference between C and D is a matter of cost. One should still rightly expect to know what the issue was and what was done to remedy it. I had a 407 that was a cat C after an accident because repairs were twice the value on the policy. If it was valued over 6k, it would have been cat D and written off due to rarity of parts.

Op when buying a car the advice shared here is often to be informed as much as you possibly can. The information you need isn't presented to you, doesnt matter why that's the case, you shouldn't be focusing on it being a '13 car. It's either what you want and you're happy to get it, or you're not.

Thanks! The reason why I mentioned it was a 2013 was because I thought if it is a newer car it would still be worth fixing whereas if it was a 2003 I would understand why it wouldn't be economical to fix.

colm_mcm

rob316 wrote: »

Its north worth it and if you plan on selling it you wont get 75% of the market value..

That’s actually untrue, Cat D doesn’t affect the value that much in Ireland. It’s still not good obviously, but the 25% thing just doesn’t happen here.

mickdw

colm_mcm wrote: »

rob316 wrote: »

Its north worth it and if you plan on selling it you wont get 75% of the market value..

That’s actually untrue, Cat D doesn’t affect the value that much in Ireland. It’s still not good obviously, but the 25% thing just doesn’t happen here.

That just reinforces the shambles that is the market here, so full of unknown history cars and unknown cat d that prices are just muddled.
You won't get the true value of your 1 owner full history, minded car here because people will foolishly go for the cheapest one on donedeal purposely turning a blind eye to history.
On the other hand, you will likely get too much for a high mile cat d stuck up on done deal for reasons mentioned above.
Is it any wonder that there is a brisk trade in bringing in high mile write offs.