I was wondering what anybody thinks about this.
I have the chance to buy a nearly new BMW motorcycle which has category D insurance history. The definition of category D insurance is;
"Category D - Repairable. Probably non-structural damage. May have been economic to repair, but insurer doesn't want to."
The bike is still in its damaged state, and I would be repairing it. If the repair was done properly (which it would be), would this put you off as a buyer? The reason I am asking the question is, I would be buying with the intention to sell on either straight away or next year after I had had some use out of it, so do you think that will I have trouble selling this as I will have to declare it as a Cat D vehicle.
I have to say that when I have ever seen Cat C, or cat D damaged, it has always put me off because I always wonder if I am missing something and about to be ripped off. If I do go ahead, even after repair, the total cost would be way under list price, and obviously this would be reflected to some extent in the price I would be asking for it.
So would YOU buy it, if you wanted one?
Reggie
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>>So would YOU buy it, if you wanted one?
Yes, if;
1) Either it was silly cheap or
2) photographs of the damaged vehicle, receipts for all replaced parts, and an engineers report were all available.
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> buy a nearly new BMW motorcycle
not from a certain beach in devon is it?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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So would YOU buy it, if you wanted one?
if it was a car and the price was right - yes
As its a bike and anything that goes wrong with it could spread me down the road like raspberry jam, - NOt a hope
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I'd buy it to keep, but not to do up and sell.
As our insurance whizz said - lots of pictures of the 'before' damage to show it in it's true light.
If it's only plastic fairings and the like damaged then these can be hugely expensive and often the reason for an insurance writeoff.
It's not unknown for a sportsbike to have just fallen over off it's sidestand to be written off due to the cost of replacement parts.
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TVM, no it is not from a Devon beach, unless the salt water caused the engine to seize and therefore crash! I'll check for salt water damage!
It is a good idea to take photographic proof that the bike was not a total wreck prior to rebuild. I hadn't thought of that. Thank you.
The bike in question is a BMW 1200 GS about 6 months old and with 1,300 miles on the clock. I have looked at the damage, and apart from damage to the l/h rocker box, all of the other damage appears to be panels and light units. I estimate that the total cost including purchase and repair to be 6K to 6.5K, and these bikes retail at about 9.5K I believe. This is of course as long as there are no nasty surprises to say the frame or telelever suspension, or even to the engine.
I have previously owned an R1150 GS, and a nice bike it was too, it's just that I already own a Honda Pan 1300 and a Norton Commando that I have just rebuilt, and don't really need another large capacity motorcycle, which is why I would probably not keep it for very long, it's just that I am tempted to do it because it's there but wouldn't want to find I couldn't sell it, hence I have sought the views of the back room, just to level my head as it were.
Thanks for your replys,
Reggie
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Well at least have some idea of the costs involved. What you need to establish is how much less than retail it will be worth with its Cat D history. There is little point in buying the bike and repairing it for little or no reward, especially when there is the risk that their could be other costly damage that you haven't factored in. If you were buying it to keep then I would say go for it, but buying it to sell could just be a mistake if things don't go in your favour.
One other point that no-one else has raised is why has it been written off by the insurance company? We are talking about a six month old bike that you reckon can be put back on the road for 6K to 6.5K, yet as a repaired bike by the insurance would still be worth around 9.5K. Are you sure that you have estimated the extent of the damage fully because I think that there must be a reason why the insurance have chosen to write it off rather than repair it. Even if the insurance stipulate that once the repairs exceed 75% of the bikes current market value they will write it off, that still gives them £7125 worth of repairs, and you can do a lot of repair work for that kind of money.
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One other point that no-one else has raised is why has it been written off by the insurance company? We are talking about a six month old bike that you reckon can be put back on the road for 6K to 6.5K, yet as a repaired bike by the insurance would still be worth around 9.5K. Are you sure that you have estimated the extent of the damage fully because I think that there must be a reason why the insurance have chosen to write it off rather than repair it.
A very good point.
Never underestimate the cost of motorcycle parts. One of the bike mags worked out that to build an £8000 Suzuki GSX-R out of spares would cost over £30,000!
Even used parts in bike breakers cost more than most new equivalents for cars. Scrappies know what they cost new!
Cheers
DP
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as the bike is less than one year old it probably has a new for old policy on it?
i wouldnt touch this bike
maximum all up spend should be £4000>
this figure also allowes for unseen continguencies
and also so you dont have to pitch at normal retail to move it on
its stained
its a bike
its a bmw bike at that
a market for a particular type of buyer
i will put my original answer as in post 2 again in case you missed it
no
:-)
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Reggie
the sums dont add up for me
9.5k bike normally you may have to drop that to about 8k to sell as a cat D
6.5k in parts you know about required, say another 1k as contingency.
Gets it awfully close to the "doing it for nothing" threshold.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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TVM said, "Gets it awfully close to the "doing it for nothing" threshold." That's really why I thought I'd put it to the backroom, just to see what reaction it would get.
I have priced up all of the parts that are obviously damaged, and that takes it to about £5.7K. But I am a realist and I know that there are bound to be some things that I hadn't considered, and will have missed which is why I estimated 6K to 6.5K.
Bellboy said,"as the bike is less than one year old it probably has a new for old policy on it?" I had wondered about this myself and how this might influence the insurance Co.
The deciding factor will probably be the fact that I don't not wish to keep this for a few years, as I said, and simon re-iterated, if this was the case it would probably be a good buy.
Thanks again to all for the advice.
Reggie
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>>Bellboy said,"as the bike is less than one year old it probably has a new for old policy on it?" I had wondered >>about this myself and how this might influence the insurance Co.
I don't think that it would influence the insurance company much at all. All that it means is that the insurance company will supply a new identical bike rather than pay out the policy holder out in pound notes. Obviously the insuarnce company will not pay list price to BMW for a new bike, but I'm sure that they won't get a massive discount either. At the end of the day if it was cheaper for the insurance company to repair the bike, rather than write it off, pay out/provide a new bike then I am sure they would have chosen to repair it instead. Why they didn't is down to you to determine.
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