Would you buy a Cat D?

TaKeN

TaKeN

TaKeN

Soldato
Joined
18 Aug 2005
Posts
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Location
Shropshire
As per title, savings to be had I guess. But re-sale value will always be lower, and the standard of repair might be sketchy.

Or is that wrong?

Thanks :)
 
all depends on the car and my own position

ie if it was something that would be a big saving and was repaired to a satisfactory condition and i didnt plan on selling it any time soon then yes, i would buy a cat D

remember if you buy it then punt it on next year your going to be hard pressed to sell it on
 
depends on the car and the seller

if i know either then sure I would

a guy in the office had his m6 cat d'd and all it had was panel damage and scratches, dropped 10k off the list price!
 
I think if you go into it with your eyes open, accept the risks and know that the level of repair meets your standards then technically there's nothing wrong with it.

I've been running a Cat D E60 530d for nearly two years now and it hasn't imploded or spontaneously combusted.

However, a couple of things have come up since I've been running it which confirm that it wasn't the best of purchases.

The front brake pads are slightly the wrong size. It passes the MOT and BMW have told me that it's not the end of the world and that they don't need replacing. However, it doesn't reflect well on any other repairs.

The nice man from BMW has also pointed out that the front of the car hasn't been repaired 'by the BMW book' — something simple he pointed out was that they used the wrong rivets.

If my dad had known it was a Cat D he probably wouldn't have bought it and if I had known I would have strongly advised against it.

So in a nutshell — I'm driving a Cat D at the moment and no, I wouldn't by one.
 
Sold a Cat D mondeo a few months ago and it was a mission, scared most people away. Would never buy a Cat D again because of this, shame because all it had was a new wing headlight and bumper repaired to factory standard.
 
Cat D cars represent fantastic value for money. Its shame that they get a bad rep but then again its the minority of people who dont repair them right that makes them all seem like a dodgy purchase.

What I would do is go and have a look at a few. If they look like poor repairs, just walk away. If you go to look at it and have to get up and close to see any kind of difference then thats a sign of a good repair.

Dont forget that the cars cheaper to buy in the first place so when you come to sell it then its worth less i.e the 'straight' car is £5000 yours will be worth £4000.

If you want to make a saving now then buy a Cat D and dont be worried, if you dont need or want to make a saving now then dont buy a damaged repaired car.
 
ryanpetit said:
Sold a Cat D mondeo a few months ago and it was a mission, scared most people away. Would never buy a Cat D again because of this, shame because all it had was a new wing headlight and bumper repaired to factory standard.
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I think the big problem with this sort of scenario is that you have repaired a model that already has a massive influx of cheap plentiful cars anyway.

How much did you sell it for in relation to what a 'straight' example fetched?
 
Selling a Cat D car can't be that hard, particularly at the lower end of the market. There's no onus on you to advertise the fact that it's cat D and many buyers of cheaper cars probably wouldn't even bother with an HPI check.
 
If you plan to keep it till it dies then definately if it's up to scratch. It doesnt take much to write a car off these days, and even "straight" cars could well have been repaired, and whose to say it'll be up to standard?
 
kaiowas said:
Selling a Cat D car can't be that hard, particularly at the lower end of the market. There's no onus on you to advertise the fact that it's cat D and many buyers of cheaper cars probably wouldn't even bother with an HPI check.
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That's a very dodgy thing to do though.

If a punter asks you have to declare it (sale of goods act) so you may as well save everyone's time and declare it in the first place.
 
The Edge said:
That's a very dodgy thing to do though.

If a punter asks you have to declare it (sale of goods act) so you may as well save everyone's time and declare it in the first place.
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If I was selling a car I wouldn't go around and point out every single thing that's wrong with it, it's up to the buyer to know what they're buying. This is no different.

If the buyer has the sense to ask the right questions I'll be honest but i'm not going to volunteer information that will cost me money.
 
kaiowas said:
Selling a Cat D car can't be that hard, particularly at the lower end of the market. There's no onus on you to advertise the fact that it's cat D and many buyers of cheaper cars probably wouldn't even bother with an HPI check.
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I think most people will do an HPI check nower days considering how cheap and well publicized they are.
 
I'd avoid that car for every reason mentioned by Westyfield.

Everything is screaming dodgy and battered car, not what you want on a performance model.
 
Had a reply back from him saying someone is coming to view it tommorow, I'd decided against it anyway at that point and wished him good luck with the sale :p
 
kaiowas said:
If I was selling a car I wouldn't go around and point out every single thing that's wrong with it, it's up to the buyer to know what they're buying. This is no different.

If the buyer has the sense to ask the right questions I'll be honest but i'm not going to volunteer information that will cost me money.
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But i'd class a cat d as in a differant class to a rattly ball joint, or temperamental electric window switch.

I'd be really cross if i wasted 2 hours coming to view a car that was cat d.
 
It depends a lot on how old the car was when it was damaged.

To put in into perspective, I spend a year driving a cat c write off that hadn't been repaired. It was only cosmetic panel damage, but because the car's value was very low it wasn't worth fixing.

At the same time a car that has been written when it's less then 3 years old had probably had a massive whack and would be something I'd want to stay well away from.
 
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