Dilema

[BFCTom]

Some of you might have seen my previous thread about looking for a new car (my old one got wrote off monday night, not my fault) just thought I'd let you know how I got on today.

Went to see a 54 Plate Honda Civic SE Executive 1.6 (35K miles on the clock) today. Had a good look both inside and out with my Dad and I'll be honest I kind of fell in love with it.

So anyway, we take it for a spin and both have a drive. We both felt it drove like a dream and I was happy with it so we went back to the garage to talk figures.

Sat down with the sales person and even got them down to £4.7K which I thought was extra ordinarily cheap and a bit too good to be true. Alas, it was and they THEN decide (after looking and driving it for about an hour and half!) to tell me it was a Cat C write off. I was a bit gutted because I really, really liked the car and it was a lot of car for the money I would have been paying.

I told them I would have to go away and think about it now because that had severely put me off.

Now I've been trying to weigh up whether it would be worth buying a Cat C car. I wouldn't be re-selling it until it was worth virtually nothing anyway, but I was mainly worried about the insurance costs/premiums/etc.

My head says run a million miles but it looked the bees knees and I really liked it a lot. It's a real good spec and everything for the money, but am I just being incredibly naive?

Tempted to do a HPI check on it and see if I can get any extra info from that, but it might just be a waste of money.

Any advice or previous experiences with this kind of situation would be a great help to me!

Cheers

 

[BFCTom]

You are 20. You WILL want to change it within 2-3 years once you become used to it and then grow bored of its performance. So, resale is a concern.

HOWEVER....

The price is VERY keen indeed. A non Cat C example would be likely to set you back £7.5-£8k (My god these Civics are a ripoff), so you are making enough of a saving to offset future value loss anyway.

If you want it, dont be put off BUT get a FULL inspection by somebody properly qualified first. You need a hefty smack to Cat C a car!

I forgot to mention the other extras it had on the car.

It had a DVD/MP3 head unit thingy with a screen and also 2 decent sized screens on the back of the front head rests.

Had a couple of speaker things mounted into the parcel shelf and an amp in the boot.

Also had Honda standard privacy glass on the back windows.

I know it's a great price, but as soon as they said Cat C I was like "nooo!".

Could have probably got them down to £4.5 as well if I'm honest, all I said was "what's your best price?" and I got £300 off

Hmm, you might have a point about the re-sale as well. Maybe I would get bored of it, but in truth it's a massive step up from my 1.1 Saxo.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[BFCTom]

Uh oh. Sounds like it may have been ragged around by Kevin, thumping dem tunes, before the envitable happened and he wrecked it.

Yup another thing I thought.

Is there anyway I can find out what the extent of the damage was and what areas of the car were affected?

 

[BFCTom]

Just been back on Autotrader and they've knocked the price down to £4,481 on there!

Must have been a bad smash to be fair, think I've had a lucky escape

gah I really need a new car ASAP, I use it to commute to Uni and I start back on Monday.

The searching is really starting to **** me off

 

[BFCTom]

Go with Fox's advice with the inspection. You need to know it's been screwed back together properly. Modern cars are designed with a passenger cell and the rest of the car crumpling up around it to absorb impact. You go messing around with that and you start putting forces through places they aren't meant to and that can have nasty consequences in a smash.

Aye, well I've decided to leave it.

I'm just struggling now to find something local that fits my criteria

(1.4-1.6, Petrol, Manual, 5 Doors, as near to £5K as possible and that I like the look of).

 

[BFCTom]

1.6 focus, pocket some change.

gah, I don't like the look of them though

The new shape looks alright but is probably a bit over my budget.