Buying a Cat D car - will it affect my insurance?

I want to buy a little run-around for over the summer, but am on a VERY strict budget seeing as I'll be paying for it myself.

I've found a little red Citroen Saxo (1.0, 1998, 52000 miles) which is £499. It sounds like exactly what I'm looking for, but its a Cat D. Hence the price probably!!

But is this going to put the insurance through the roof? The cheapest quote i've got is from direct line at £801 (I only passed in december 2006) - but I can't afford it to go much higher.

Shall I avoid buying this car, or should it be ok providing I get it thoroughly checked out??

Advice please :smile:

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Reply 1

Pookie

Won't affect it at all.

Reply 2

sebbie

be careful about buying it, it means the car was trashed....

Reply 3

mypaperheart

Yeah, I'm going to have to ask the seller about why it got its Cat D. Looks ok now though...

car1.JPG54.1KB

Reply 4

Ryan

Won't effect it but it's not worth £500, you can get cars for that price which haven't been in an accident.

Cat D's can be OK as cars can be written off for swtupid reasons, but be careful. You gotta know what you're looking at

Reply 5

Stubo

just because that bodywork is clean from that pic dosent mean there isnt something wrong with it. get someone that knows about cars to have a check round it etc.

Reply 6

Stubo

that car is worth 500 as a non smashed version IMO.

Reply 7

pghstochaj

Cat D is the "best" type of write off - if there is as such - it means it was written off for financial reasons or as part of a requirements of a policy. For example, if the car was quite new and had a small accident, the insurer would have replaced it with a new car. I believe that goes down as cat D. The main type of Cat D is when the insurer decides that the repairs are not worth it given the value of the car. On a low value you car with a small bump...

Reply 8

mypaperheart

If I'm honest, I really don't have much of a clue about cars, but I don't want something that is too old... and £500 is the budget :frown:

I want a ford ka but can't seem to find one at that price.

Reply 9

pghstochaj

Personally I would have thought the price was fine and it is pretty irrelevant that it is cat D in most instances - especially if the repair was good. The fact it is cat D has no bearing on the mechanics of the car. A saxo like that could be cat D from a scrape on the wing and damaged headlight.

Reply 10

Stubo

so on a saxo a small bump costs 500+ to fix? hmmm,

Reply 11

Ryan

Dont buy that saxo seriously, its not worth anywhere near that as its cat D. It will also be impossible to sell on (if it lives, assuming its yuor first car)

Reply 12

Ryan

Stubo, the bump could have been a long time ago, like when it was a year old when it was worth more :tongue:

Reply 13

pghstochaj

Stubo

so on a saxo a small bump costs 500+ to fix? hmmm,

Yes....insurance costs wise. A headlight plus manufacturer's wing, painting and fitting will be around £500 and thus a financial write off. DIY or non-insurance costs wise it would cost you next to nothing. To further this, different insurers use different percentages of the car's value before writing off cat D. I.e. at worst the insurer might write off the car (cat D) even if the car repairs would be 50% of the value of the car.

Reply 14

pghstochaj

Ryan

Dont buy that saxo seriously, its not worth anywhere near that as its cat D. It will also be impossible to sell on (if it lives, assuming its yuor first car)

Again, cat D implies next to nothing about a car, it's a financial write off, nothing more. Cat C you would have a point, cat D should be considered basically as a normal car and looked at in the same light. £500 for a 1998 car is pretty much the lowest you will pay for one. Hence it would be worth a good look over.

Reply 15

Stubo

Not around here it isnt the lowest. but that has a pretty low milage, so it could be worth the cash. but it will be a real piece of **** to drive. my old 78k V reg went for 800 AFAIK. But I think that was because I could see it shining from miles away :cool:

Reply 16

mypaperheart

So is there anything that would be more worthy of spending £500 on, in your opinions?

Reply 17

Stubo

yeh that saxo might be alright, as mentioned, get someone to have a good check over it/test drive etc.

Have fun paxo cruisin!

Reply 18

pghstochaj

Cheapest Saxo on AT within 40 miles of me is 895 for a 1997 1.1 5dr with 80,000 miles on the clock....small cheap cars seem to have hit a plateu recently, especially in city centre areas, few seem to be dipping below £600-800 mark if they work and look serviced.

Reply 19

JC.

You have to take each car on its own merrits.

I was at one time considering a VW golf cabriolet that was a cat D.
It had no damage at all and was a matching numbers car. So why was it a cat d? Well, it was stolen with the keys in the ignition and was missing for longer than 30 days.

You can get some real bargains but you need to know what your looking at.