Second hand cars - Cat D write offs - best avoided?

[iaind]

Are there any laws of regulations about what needs to be done before a car can be sold on after a write off? I'm guessing not as you can buy them damaged!

 

[Dogbreath]

but now you've hit this sort of money you'll barely be able to give the Cat D away because it'll only be worth about a grand and there is so much available in this price range most people will just buy a straight car.

Not really. At any price point a Cat D car is going to have to be newer/in better condition to sell, so it still makes a potentially attractive buy.

 

[Building Candy]

Depends on the original problem.

I have seen a cat D Supra, someone keyed it all the way round, rest of the car was fine, just needed a respray.

 

[Durzel]

As has been said several times it completely depends on:

• what caused it to end up on Cat D,
• how well it was repaired (lowest cost? non-visible stuff skipped?)
• the value of the car at the point it was written off (a £30k car written off less than a year from new ≠ a 10 year old car written off because someone keyed it)

As a rule of thumb I'd want the seller to be able to tell me categorically how it ended up Cat D and be able to provide receipts or some other proof to back it up. Obviously the less I'm spending the less relevant it becomes.

Also one thing people often forget is that it's a false economy looking at Cat D cars as a big saving over non-Cat D for the simple fact that whatever saving you make when you buy it you'll likely have to pass on to whoever you sell it to who are themselves looking to save money.

 

[Vonhelmet]

Cheers for the advice guys. I've found one car I'm particularly interested in, which is surprisingly cheap, but I've spoken to the garage and they've said that all their cars are HPI checked before they buy them and that they don't sell insurance write-offs, so things are looking OK on that. I'll keep what you've said in mind as I'm looking around at other ones.

 

[K.C. Leblanc]

My car became a Cat C write off and yet is still drivable. However it's probably an exception since it has a fairly low value and the repair costs would have been fairly high.