Cat C Help

what makes my claim more outlandish than yours ?

Surely if they were all minor bumps and vandalism etc.. they would be Cat D rather than C ?
 
The fact you made a huge blanket claim that applies to every Cat C vehicle.

I repeat, burden of proof is on you to back your claim up.

We all know you won't do it, because you can't.
 
MrLOL said:
yes it has, if it was a nice easy scrape in the car park it wouldnt get written off.
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Sorry but you just can't make these claims you keep making because they are not grounded in fact. Some Cat C writeoffs, especially higher value cars, have indeed been involved in nasty accidents but many have not.

Did you know Jez's Mercedes S430 is a Category C writeoff? Do you know why? Because it had a scrape in a carpark. Literally just that - a scrape in a carpark. A scuffed bumper and a cracked light cluster with a mark on the wing. It was written off Category C for that because the cost of an S Class light cluster, replacement bumper and work at a Mercedes Benz authorised repairer along with a hire S Class was many thousands of pounds.

Jez fixed it himself for literally a few hundred quid.

Surely if they were all minor bumps and vandalism etc.. they would be Cat D rather than C ?
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Cat D and C isn't relating to the seriousness of the accident, its about the cost to the insurer. Generally speaking Cat D is where the value of the car minus the salvage value is more than the claim cost. Cat C is where the value of the car is more than the claim cost.

The biggest factor in whether a car becomes a Cat C or Cat D writeoff is the value of the car, not the severity of the accident.
 
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Cat C damage may be light but unless you know what the damage was then you will struggle to decide if this may have left a lasting impression on the vehicle.

I've seen what the trade considers a "light frontal" and the suspension has been moved. Really, I'd not want to get into it with a car which has had that kind of movement. With the fact that cars are more and more designed to deform to protect the occupants you will find surprisingly light damage on a modern-ish car will lead to structural movement.

OK - you want to buy a car, you find out it is Cat C, you get the HPI report and you find out when it was done. As said above, a Cat C wreck on a nearly-new car and you should walk away IMO. The damage will have been extensive and unless there is an engineers report of extensive recipets to show this was correctly repaired you are just guessing and hoping.

It will always be worth less come resale as is shown in this thread, some people hold very firm opinions on register recorded cars. Someone good with maths will show you how it is often better value to buy something more expensive but which devalues less.

Your call.

I've owned damaged-repaired cars before and they are a mixed bag. Some good, some not so. Not just the risk of them falling apart in another accident, touch wood, never happened to me, but stuff like uneven tyre wear you can never get sorted out no matter how many times it gets tracking, allignment, etc. leaks, whistling noise at certain speeds, etc. just stuff like that.
 
Alistairk said:
Cat C damage may be light

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As said above, a Cat C wreck on a nearly-new car and you should walk away IMO. The damage will have been extensive
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It MAY be light, but WILL have been extensive? So which one is it?

Cat C on a new or very valuable car is more likely to involve heavy damage, but not always. Something as simple as a part being unavailable could tip the balance as hire charges will quickly mount up if the insurers are paying for a like for like vehicle over a few weeks.
 
yeah, as said up above and kinda implied by me a write off at 6 months old is a guarantee of heavy damage. A write off at 6 years old is debatable. Just panel and glass damage can be enough to cat-C something that age. A write off at 16 years old could be that a fat lass sat down too hard on the passenger seat...

In the olden days you used to get an engineers report before the car could go back on the road. I had a write off which had this and it detailed all the original damage and what was done to repair it and certified that it was all safe and sound. I was able to make my own decission to buy the car (which was 100% fine) on this basis. All damage had been cosmetic but had exceeded the value of the car. You don't seem to get these written reports any more after inspection, which is a shame.

if the car flags, ask questions. If you can't get answers to those questions which you are happy with and are provable too (not seller BS) then walk away, find another one.

My wife had a car which was going to be Cat C, the insurance changed thier mind when I argued over the valuation for pay out and they fixed it. That was pretty substantial damage. But it wasn't even recorded after the repair, so none of this is fool proof.
 
so many myths.

CAT C is a status where the value of repairs AND hire costs exceed the value of the car

THEN youve got to consider value of car minus salvage value which makes the threshold lower

so saying cat c or d is heavier than the other is utter rubbish.

and the golden rule (imo) is considering the first reg date of the car versus the date of the loss/incident

a `12 year old car is a lot easier to write off than a 12 week old one
 
Cat C and D seem to be chosen entirely at random tbh.

Take a browse on copart and see for yourselves what kind of damage these kind of cars have.
 
Watchdog did a full report on a company
Misleading buyers stating that they had been in minor knocks. May have had the bumper replaced or a wing and bonnet. Watchdog got the original photos. And the cars were in major smashes. Guess what they were cat C
 
DAMO RAM80 said:
The point to my post is that. Cat c cars are a major risk. And unless you buy un repaired. Stay away
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Cat C cars *can* be a major risk. If you are buying a 2 year old Mercedes and it's Cat C it's almost certainly been in a huge accident. If you are buying a 10 year old Mercedes and it's Cat C there is a high chance somebody broke a light cluster and scraped the bumper so its worthy of more investigation.
 
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