Cat C Help
- Thread starter mdb08
- Start date
Cat C vehicles have been in a nasty accident, so nasty in fact the insurance company just gave the owner cash and said it wasn't economical to repair the vehicle.
You can have Cat D as well, with Cat C being worse than D. So if a newish car will have had a hefty shunt at some point in its life.
You can't get it changed - once its been repaired as a former cat c write off it will be one forever. You can insure them providing they have been properly inspected, but they are worth substantially less and much harder to sell privately.
IMO not worth bothering.
You can have Cat D as well, with Cat C being worse than D. So if a newish car will have had a hefty shunt at some point in its life.
You can't get it changed - once its been repaired as a former cat c write off it will be one forever. You can insure them providing they have been properly inspected, but they are worth substantially less and much harder to sell privately.
IMO not worth bothering.
Soldato
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A vehicle with a Cat C or D marker against it does not necessarily have to have been involved in a crash - it depends on the age of the vehicle don't forget, as it doesn't take much to write off something if it's an older car.
It's also worth remembering that the writeoff might not have been caused by a crash, but instead paint damage from vandalism, smashed windows, that kind of thing. Even if it was a crash it may have been something as simple as a damaged wing and alloy.
Being Cat C means that it wasn't economical to fix the car with new parts, inclusive of labour rates, but it could still be repaired to a satisfactory state if desired.
If you HPI the vehicle it will tell you when it was written off, which will enable you (if the current owner doesn't know) to make some judgement as to how much damage was done - i.e. if it was written off when it was a year old, then it was some major damage - yet if it was done when it was 7 years old then the damage was probably relatively light. It's a big assumption to make though so just look round it very carefully and try to assess what's actually happened to it.
There are loads of cars out there though, so very rarely is it worth dealing with a writeoff unless it's some kind of super-bargain that you intend to hang onto, or you don't mind if you make a loss on it.
It's also worth remembering that the writeoff might not have been caused by a crash, but instead paint damage from vandalism, smashed windows, that kind of thing. Even if it was a crash it may have been something as simple as a damaged wing and alloy.
Being Cat C means that it wasn't economical to fix the car with new parts, inclusive of labour rates, but it could still be repaired to a satisfactory state if desired.
If you HPI the vehicle it will tell you when it was written off, which will enable you (if the current owner doesn't know) to make some judgement as to how much damage was done - i.e. if it was written off when it was a year old, then it was some major damage - yet if it was done when it was 7 years old then the damage was probably relatively light. It's a big assumption to make though so just look round it very carefully and try to assess what's actually happened to it.
There are loads of cars out there though, so very rarely is it worth dealing with a writeoff unless it's some kind of super-bargain that you intend to hang onto, or you don't mind if you make a loss on it.
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If it was something I planned on selling at a later date and wanted to ensure I got a decent price then I'd not look at a cat C. If I was buying it to keep for a long time and resale value wasn't on my agenda then cat C is worth looking at.
I have bought a cat C in the past and felt it was a good decision for me at that time.
I have bought a cat C in the past and felt it was a good decision for me at that time.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
No, this isn't neccesarily the case at all. It simply means the repair cost exceeds the value of the vehicle. So put a dent in the rear wing of a £1000 car and it's a Cat C. Rip the side off a £30,000 car and its repaired and never given a category!
'Properly inspected' - the only inspection a Cat C requires is a VIC check, this doesnt check the repair it just checks the identity of the car.
Associate
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This. A crazy woman aquaplaned and ploughed her X5 into my mate's 6 month old Leon. £6k worth of damage, but the car was valued at around £16k. It was fixed by the insurance company, and no category put against it.[TW]Fox;18409400 said:
It was never the same car though.
[TW]Fox;18409400 said:
this.
However, cat C means that it is more likely to have had structural damage than a cat D, so I'd avoid cat C simply on this principle.
If someone were to lightly smack my 52 reg astra in the rear so that it would dent the boot and the spoiler a bit, crack the bumper and a tail light it would no doubt be a cat D. That doesn't mean I wouldn'y try to buy it back, spend some time on ebay and get all the parts in the right colour for £200.
isn't that what i just said
No, you said "Cat C vehicles have been in a nasty accident" before that.
This isn't necessarily so, it depends entirely on the value of the car. Hell, it doesn't even have to have been an accident, could have been someone keyed every panel on the car or something like that, resulting in a huge respray bill.
isn't that what i just said
Selective quoting is not going to get you out of this one.
This is complete and utter rubbish.
It has got absoultely nothing to do with how 'Nasty' an accident was and all to do with how economically viable it was to the insurance company to repair.
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yes it has, if it was a nice easy scrape in the car park it wouldnt get written off.
Unless it was a £500 banger, but i've already added a caveat about the car being new in that statement if you want to quote even further back up my post.
Unless it was a £500 banger, but i've already added a caveat about the car being new in that statement if you want to quote even further back up my post.
Ok, i'll just get on www.catcwriteoffstatistics.com and get those to you shortly.
You're the one claiming all Cat C cars have been in nasty accidents, burden of proof is on you to back up such a ludicrous statement.
You're the one claiming all Cat C cars have been in nasty accidents, burden of proof is on you to back up such a ludicrous statement.
I've seen some properly mangled cars get repaired without and category applied because their value is so high. Now apply it the other way, cars not getting repaired because their value is so low and having a Category applied. People read far too much into this 'Cat x' business.
You are the one making the outlandish claim that all Cat C vehicles have been in nasty accidents, as I said, burden of proof is on you to back up your claim.