Category D write off - worth buying

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Sat 4 Dec 2004 18:17
Category D write off - worth buying - The Idle Bean
Assuming that a Cat D vehicle has been properly repaired and reclassified as "damaged and repaired" after an Autolign (or similar) report, what are the downsides of buying one? I'm concerned about a) insurance costs and b) resale value and would be grateful for anyone's views.
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Sat 4 Dec 2004 18:21
Category D write off - worth buying - trancer
Call for quotes on the car you are interested in and see what difference there is in price. Personally I wouldn't buy the car unless I knew the condition prior to repair and it was so cheap or I intended to keep it for so long that resale value would not be an issue.
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Sat 4 Dec 2004 21:55
Category D write off - worth buying - martint123
I didn't think there was a category "damaged and repaired". ISTR that it will always show up as a Cat D write off.

Insurance costs - mine didn't make any difference, ask them. What would be the position if you bought it without knowing it was in this state.

Resale value - you're getting it cheap presumably - much like any purchaser down the line would expect. Half to two thirds of normal value as a guideline??

Martin
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Sun 5 Dec 2004 09:47
Category D write off - worth buying - The Idle Bean
According to HJ's FAQ's - www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/faq.htm?id=33 there is this ability to update the register to "damaged and repaired" - I assume it keeps the original category ref. as well?

This BMW 330d Sport is being offered at 67-70% of Parkers 'good' book value so that sounds to be in the right ball park.
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Sun 5 Dec 2004 10:00
Category D write off - worth buying - blue_haddock
I've bought a few Cat D write offs but they've been in the bangernomics cost range so were cheap enough not to be able to lose too much on them.

one was a pug 309 GTI Goodwood that had been stolen and had the leather interior stolen, the cost of a new interior was too expensive so car written off, i bought the car, located an interior from a scrap yard and the car was good as new.

Second was a Rover Metro GTI that had someone had attempted to break into, cost from a bodyshop to repair damage was higher than the few hundred pounds the car was worth so again written off as a cat D but doing the work myself it made for a nice cheap little runaround.

I would not value the car based on parkers good book value as parkers are not as accurate values as Cap/Glass's. I would work off the poor value guide as due to it's unknown history it can never again be classed as good.
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