would you buy a written off car?

Phoebs

Phoebs

Phoebs

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so following my Ka thread. im now considering purchasing a ka off ebay. planning to view it during the week

anyway we've done a check on the vehicle and it turns out its been a category C write off but has obviously been repaired.

i asked the seller for any info but they dont seem to know anything as they have just acquired it to sell from someone else.

the price they are asking is still a little high considering its been a write off so will have to try and knock her down a bit.

should i be looking out for anything in particular? and more importantly would you buy a written off car?
 
If it had been repaired to an acceptable standard yes, Probably only a cat D tho.

But I'd milk it for all it's worth on the price.
 
I would never buy a car that had been written off, and would be very put off by buying any car that had been in an accident that was more than a slight knock.

This in my opinion is even more relevant when talking about anything remotely sporting (a direct example that people on here could refence would be munchers VX220, a car like that which has had precision engineering and is a very competant in the handling department car to me has too much of a chance of 'not being quite right' after repair)
 
Cat C = Can be repaired, but the cost of repairs exceeds pre-accident value. May need a Vehicle Identity Check.

I wouldn't bother on such a common car especially as the seller hadn't advised its vcar status in the first place.
 
Conanius said:
I would never buy a car that had been written off, and would be very put off by buying any car that had been in an accident that was more than a slight knock.

This in my opinion is even more relevant when talking about anything remotely sporting (a direct example that people on here could refence would be munchers VX220, a car like that which has had precision engineering and is a very competant in the handling department car to me has too much of a chance of 'not being quite right' after repair)
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To a certain extent, due to the way the VX/Elise is made it lends itself even more to being easily repairable. If there is chassis damage to any significant extent then generally a repair won't even be attempted, especially if it is to suspension mounts. However, for things like mine where the impact is to the rear the subframe will take all of the impact and that is simply a bolt on/bolt off piece. Even for things such as clam damage they are interchangeable items, unbolt the old one, bolt a new one on. Front crash structure damage, take the old one off and glue a new one on, as good as new.
 
GT3 said:
Cat C = Can be repaired, but the cost of repairs exceeds pre-accident value. May need a Vehicle Identity Check.

I wouldn't bother on such a common car especially as the seller hadn't advised its vcar status in the first place.
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its had the VIC and passed. i dont know all the details. the boyfriend did the research for me.
 
Wouldn't buy a written off car at all. I'd rather spend more money to have peace of mind tbh. I especially would not buy a KA cat C as they don't strike me as being good cars in accidents and could be a lot of underlying damage you don't know about. Also its a common as muck car. I'd save up a little more and get a decent one.
 
Muncher said:
To a certain extent, due to the way the VX/Elise is made it lends itself even more to being easily repairable. If there is chassis damage to any significant extent then generally a repair won't even be attempted, especially if it is to suspension mounts. However, for things like mine where the impact is to the rear the subframe will take all of the impact and that is simply a bolt on/bolt off piece. Even for things such as clam damage they are interchangeable items, unbolt the old one, bolt a new one on. Front crash structure damage, take the old one off and glue a new one on, as good as new.
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Not that I doubt what your saying, but the energy of the impact goes through the whole car.. anything that puts in enough energy to cause enough damage to require quite serious repair work I refuse to believe wont cause damage of some sort to other parts of the car...

I would however be interested to see how you feel your car is when its back on the road...
 
Conanius said:
Not that I doubt what your saying, but the energy of the impact goes through the whole car.. anything that puts in enough energy to cause enough damage to require quite serious repair work I refuse to believe wont cause damage of some sort to other parts of the car...

I would however be interested to see how you feel your car is when its back on the road...
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http://www.muncher.org.uk/subframe/

Those are the photos of the old subframe which I'm now flogging on ebay.

In those photos you can see the only damage is to the exhaust hanger, the furthermost part of the subframe from the chassis.

In terms of being 100% sure that there is no damage further towards the chassis, the subframe is attached to the chassis via 2 bolts on either side, two very large flat surfaces mate together, one of those is the aluminium of the chassis. As the aluminium will deform very easily you can check the area where it bolts on for any damage or marking. If a steal structure is pressed into an aluminium face if there is any damage you would see it instantly. The good thing with aluminium in that respect is any damage is very, very visible. A light tap with a small hammer would mark it instantly and would always be there. A steel structure can be hammered back into shape, painted and covered up, a bare aluminium one cannot.

In the photo below you can see the two areas of aluminium chassis which the subframe bolts onto, there was no marking whatsoever.

Mr%20VX%20-%20GAY!%20046%20(Medium).jpg


Everything else that was changed are common things to take off the average VX at some point, the rear clam, the wishbones which are taken off to replace bushes. In my case, other than replacing the subframe everything that I have taken off the car at the moment has been taken off before by myself, it's just that as it happens I'm doing it all at once this time.
 
Yes and I have. The carisma was written of which I own know. Not sure which category.

Similar cars where going for twice as much and had 20-30k more miles.
Ok the lights are slightly pushed back and the bumper isn't painted that well. But mechanically it is sound and to pay £800 instead of around 2k, especially when I was poor.

Why not, it all depends what you want. I wanted as much spec as possible in a car that I could keep around 3+ years with no hassle.
 
Depending on the car I would be happy to buy a repaired write off, as long as I was saving a decent amount of money and I could be sure it had been well repaired.

As for a Ka, unless it's a very new one and going for peanuts, then probably not such a great buy. They aren't exactly expensive cars anyway
 
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All CATD and C stand for is D is uneconomical to repair. Ie the repair bill is very close to what the car is worth. CATC means the cost of repair exceeded the value of the car.

It's possible a CATC car could have far less damage than a CATD it depends on the car. Obviously if you compare the same car the CATC will be more heavily damaged.

Our accord was a CATC but only just. Still no real damge just bent bonnet and bumper support. So I bought it back and replaced those bits.

What is worrying is a CATC or CATD require nothing more than a VIC check and an MOT to get them back on the road.

I would be happy to buy one provided there were detailed pre repair damage photos.
 
Something stupid like 1 in 3 cars in this country have repaired accident damage.

Think about two examples.

£50,000 BMW M3. Guy smacks it and causes £20,000 worth of damage. This will almost certainly be repaired. It will not be a write off. It will not show on HPI. You could buy this car in 2 years time, HPI it, it come up clear becuase it's simply a car thats been repaired. Not a 'write off'. You'd never know.

£3000 Ford Focus. Guy dents the rear wing. Thats it. Miles less damage than the M3. But of course, it's an old car, and dealership repair costs are high. It gets written off. It's now a Cat D write off. Oh no! It flags up on HPI.

People walk away from the Focus but clamour over the M3.

Which would YOU be happier buying?
 
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