thanks for the replies guys!

I asked the dealer if there was any pics available before the repairs were carried out and funny enough they aren’t none!! I also am doubtful of the original insurance company releasing info or pics on why they wrote off the car.

The repairs carried out according to the dealer were minor and were on the back passenger wing panel costing £2k to repair. My suspicion is why would the insurance company write off a car that only needed £2k repairs (well I’m sure that if Audi were repairing it you would be looking at double that). HonestJohn thinks its prob cos the insurance company wanted to sort it out quickly and so remove the need and cost of an accident repair company, who would also charge and also there would be a hire car to pay for too.

I really like the car, it is under value (hence the cat d!!) and is fully loaded as it is the le mans spec. As I said above, I’m not worried about the car loosing value as I would be driving it for a long time (well hopefully). I’m more worried about having a damaged car that could be fatal in crash.

I asked the dealer to get an independent engineer report from RAC/AA to give the car a once over, cos I think only this will tell me what the damage was originally and if the car is safe.

My other concern is on my insurance. If I buy it and tell them it’s cat d and set the value of the car as say £12k. Is there a chance that if I’m involved in an accident were the car is really written off that the insurance company will say you insured it for £12k which we agreed to, but as it was a cat d we are only giving you £6/7k as the value of the car is nowhere near £12k??

I know the sums of money doesn’t seem to make sense, however the seller does seem genuine and has even offered to pay for a RAC/AA engineer report on the car. I’m sure if they were trying to hide something they wouldn’t have offered as it is costing them more and so move onto the next mug.

But if the engineer report comes back and says yea this car is structurally fine and the minor cosmetic damage it had was repaired well, it will make the whole thing even more confusing

It might be a long shot, but what do you think the chances are of asking the seller to give me details of the original owner and then contact him/her to find out exactly what happened and what the damage was?

"however the seller does seem genuine "

All con men or women are always are plausable otherwise they would be out of business.

No-one offers you a 'bargain' - there's always a reason for something appearing cheap.

If there's really no problem or question mark with written-off cars - why do they appear 'bargains' ? No dealer is in the charity game.

With the complexity & structural interactions in a modern car, I simply wouldn't trust a body shop/ repairer to have anywhere near the know-how & equipment to re-instate a car to factory specs. Older chassis based cars with 'bolt-on' wings etc, I'm sure could withstand bodywork damage without compromising function too much - so a quick new wing/paint job might suffice - but modern monocoque cars with crumple zones & integral structural construction (i.e. hit one part & they all 'hurt' or are affected) - like buying 2nd hand climbing rope in my view.

so I guess the question is does the above repairs sound as if they cost £2k and also does the engineer report remove any fears of further damage??

I didnt mention it above, but the report was compiled by an independent car assessor who is a full member of the institute of the motor industry

>>bodyshell was rejigged on a car bench to the manufacturers original specification

So it was bent and been pulled back into shape. How does the assessor know that?

The seller paid for the assessment. That would ring alarm bells for me, a bit like 'the seller's done an HPI check'.

It seems like you're determined to buy it despite the advice you've asked for. Please keep us informed on how it is in the future.

Edited by bathtub tom on 22/02/2011 at 19:24

My first decent car was written off 2 years ago, the damage was fairly extensive. It reappeared several weeks later for sale as an 'easy repair' light damage Cat D with no airbag damage. I know for sure that the airbags went as I was sitting in it.

I would not for one second trust any car that has been through any salvage recovery/repair firm.

Your money would be better spent on a proper car, unless it was going very very cheap with a good discount on that price!!