Cat N status

aFlabbyPanda

I've been looking at a few cars recently that were imported and are flagged as CAT N via motorcheck. Some sellers claim to have had no idea as they bought them on irish plates. Is there any way to find out why the cars were classed as "Write-Off" in the UK?

Atlantic Dawn

This explains the ratings, usually bought cheap in UK and sold to unsuspecting buyers here unwilling to bankroll a €20 car history check when parting with €10k.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/consumer-news/99750/new-write-off-categories-explained-what-are-cat-n-and-cat-s-cars?amp

aFlabbyPanda

yeah I'd seen something similar but "N. Non-structurally damaged repairable" is still pretty vague. I'd never bothered doing checks before but since this car needs to be a workhorse I started doing them. Only 1 of 5 so far have come back clean, its an eye opener really.

bazz26

More profit in selling these here as they are cheaper to buy in the UK and some are poorly or cheaply repaired when they get over here. Some of the chancers selling these don't tell you up front and just claim ignorance. It's up to you whether you want to buy one or not really.

lalababa

There is a procedure in the UK something along the lines of being checked after repair by an engineer. I'd personally have no problem driving them . However the insurance companies here do have and this can cause problems re new independent engineer s report and a higher premia.

newmember2

aFlabbyPanda wrote: »

I've been looking at a few cars recently that were imported and are flagged as CAT N via motorcheck. Some sellers claim to have had no idea as they bought them on irish plates. Is there any way to find out why the cars were classed as "Write-Off" in the UK?

There's no way to know what the actual damage was unless you can trace back the history of the car and where it was repaired etc. There's no engineer report needed to put Cat N back on the road as the damage was Non-structural. It would be up to you to go over every inch of it, but even then if it's the case of a few cosmetic replacements there may be nothing to see. It's value has been lessened and should be reflected in the asking price. Irish Insurance companies will be OK once it passes an NCT.