Would you buy...

M0T

M0T

M0T

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a cat D writeoff?

I have been looking at buying a new car for a while, and saw one pop up on ebay. The seller had bought it 2 months previously as a stop gap and was flogging it cheaply because it had an engine problem.

Now I am 90% sure on what the problem is and can fix it for not much money, so I HPI'd it. The car came back as having been written off in 2004 and is classified as catagory D. The owner mentioned that he didn't get any history with the car (and his auction history backs it up - he bought manuals for the car and radio etc off ebay just after he purchased the car).

I fired off an email to the seller asking about the write off, but as of yet no reply and he didn't own it when it was written off, so I'm not expecting much. The major plus points are it being cheap and low mileage, so should I buy it (its too far for me to go and look at)?
 
Muncher said:
I would, depends on the car though and whether you know what you're looking for when inspecting it.
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Thats the problem, I can't go and inspect it because it's too far away.

I'd be relying on what the seller says about the condition of the car, and sellers arn't usually the most honest people.
 
M0T said:
Thats the problem, I can't go and inspect it because it's too far away.

I'd be relying on what the seller says about the condition of the car, and sellers arn't usually the most honest people.
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Given this scenario then, no.

If I could go see the car to verify its status and condition then yes providing it was suitably cheap.
 
Yes, I would and I have. Cat D is fairly minor and as long as the price reflected it's 'cat' status it wouldn't bother me. If I remember correctly it has to pass a more strict MOT to to get the log book back (Or that could just be Cs).
 
The only problem is that I don't know if the seller even knew about it, and since its not listed on the auction it could easily go above what I think is reasonable to pay for it.

The thing that worries me is I sent the seller an email at 6 and he replied 20 minutes later, so I immediatly sent an email about the cat d status and have heard nothing - So I am starting to think he may have known.
 
I think I'd only buy a Cat D if I knew the history for myself, i.e. off a mate or similar.


In your situation, I wouldn't at all. It's not worth the hassle in my eyes.
 
It would depend entirely on what the car was and why it was a Cat D.

A £20k M5 thats Cat D? No, becuase it takes a heck of a smack to write off a car like that.

A £3k Mondeo thats Cat D? Probably, yup.
 
The car would normally sell for about £2200 but at the moment looks to be going for around £900. Thats part of the reason I'm quite interested, its not a massive amount of money.

Edit: It looks increasingly less likely that I will buy it - I think its a little odd that after all the interest I expressed he wouldn't check his email, seems more likely he just doesn't want to talk to me because I discovered its history.
 
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I'm not going to say because it would be easy to find it on ebay and:

A) Don't want the competition if I do buy it.
B) Don't want anyone to mail the seller about this thread and annoy him.
 
Both reason A and B are bordering on pathetic. Why would someone suddenly decide to buy it instead of you, and what on earth good would a link to this thread do for the seller anyway? :confused:
 
i'm being paranoid about A, but if the seller thought I was questioning his integrity when he was being totally honest he may take offence.

He has just replied saying he doesn't know anything about the Cat D status and advised not to bid if I am unsure about its safety.

Seems like a genuine enough bloke at the moment.
 
lordrobs said:
I wouldn't touch one unless we were talking banger money. No way I'd pay over a grand for one.
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Aye, I think I'll bid for it but not a huge amount. Probably lose anyway as I know its cat d whereas others won't check.
 
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