Hi Guys,

Its been a while since i've been on, seem to be dipping on and off as life take over, new house and new job in the last 9 months and i now find myself in the land of the Geordies!!!!!! (Wye Eye and all that!)

I'm in the market for a new car, got my heart set on a 3 Series Tourer or C Class Merc Estate. Could be temped with a 5 Series or E-Class, on the basis that the next 5 years are more than likely going to involve a dog, a wedding, and one maybe two kids. (i've already got a kidney on eBay!)

So need cheaper options, currently running a c30, which won't cut the mustard, so was wondering where i could pick up a 2/3 year BM or Merc thats a CAT D on the Cheap.

i understand that if being bought from a trade seller they have to declare that the car is a CAT D but do they have to provide you with repairer documentation if you ask for it, i.e why was it written off, what was done to repair it etc. Is there an inspection report that is provided with the car to say its been repaired to a road worthy standard.

What are peoples opinions on CAT D's, who out there has bought one are are there any horror i need to watch out for?

DO's & Don'ts ????

All the best

Alex

Cat D cars can have very little wrong with them - it all depends on the market value of the car before the write-off incident.

A few years ago a neighbour and I bought a Merc A 170 from the local salvage auction. It was covered in fingerprint dust (stolen recovered)but in the end all we had to replace were a broken mirror glass, front pads and discs (and they were only rusted from sitting in the compound too long) . A quick service and we sold it for just over twice what we paid for it. Best we could make out was that the owners had declined to take the recovered car back (which I believe is their right)

A cat D has to go to VOSA for an identity check. The V5 when returned to us didn't even show it was a cat D car.


Cat D cars can have as little as severe scratching or minor bodywork damage, broken glass etc. It's all to do with the cost of repair as a percentage of the market value. there may in reality be very little wrong with it and it may be easily fixable.

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Originally posted by omega0684
Hi Guys,

Its been a while since i've been on, seem to be dipping on and off as life take over, new house and new job in the last 9 months and i now find myself in the land of the Geordies!!!!!! (Wye Eye and all that!)

I'm in the market for a new car, got my heart set on a 3 Series Tourer or C Class Merc Estate. Could be temped with a 5 Series or E-Class, on the basis that the next 5 years are more than likely going to involve a dog, a wedding, and one maybe two kids. (i've already got a kidney on eBay!)

DO's & Don'ts ????

All the best

Alex

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Bought a CAT-D 370Z, searched it all over for problems - the only problem I could find was the pedestrian impact sensors and bonnet explosive bolts had been removed and not replaced (common, the sensors and bolts are ~3K parts alone so most accident repairs don't replace them). Body was all straight, suspension fine, no damage to subframes or structure.

Sometimes I wonder exactly how little it takes to write a car off.

Its why aye marra!

Where you at like??

Determine when it was written off. A car that was classified Cat-D when it was worth 30k must have had a hell of a bang, whereas a Cat-D when it was only worth £2k would have just been a wing mirror and a couple of scratched panels :-)

i.e. It's not a classification of damage severity - more a function of value of the car. Then you'll know what kind of thing you're looking for on the inspection.