Would you buy a cat N?
Discussion
As per title I suppose, looking at a new work van and have found one that is listed as a category N, normal would keep scrolling when seeing anything listed as written off but this is the exact spec, colour and condition I’m after but priced around £6K less than others the same spec.
It’s with a dealer and states inspection welcome, so would look at getting an independent inspection done. Have read that it can make insurance harder/more expensive, any other advice or tips?
It’s with a dealer and states inspection welcome, so would look at getting an independent inspection done. Have read that it can make insurance harder/more expensive, any other advice or tips?
I bought a repaired cat C car, the new classification of N and S is better than the old system which was based on cost of the damage I think.
Cat N is non structural so could just be panel/external fittings/wheel damage or water, either way wouldn't expect major issues.
Take it for a good drive, include 70 mph and hard braking, that should show up any badly fixed suspension, if it judders or the wheel pulls then I'd be likely to walk.
Always stated it to insurance companies after doing online quotes and prices never went up, none refused. The value of the car is reduced so don't expect to receive the current market value of a non-cat car if it comes to it.
I got a car that was cheaper, took it for 2 test drives, on my own inspection got a idea of where the damage was.
Planned to put 100k miles on the car hence when it comes to selling I didn't expect it to be popular anyway.
If it's quite new then I'd inquire about the warranty and if it's still covered.
Bit of context on cat N
A colleague had front offset collision in his E-Class, air bags fired and a bit of frontal damage, insurance company agreed to fix it and work started before further damage was found that if previously known would have resulted in a cat. Car now looks great and no one would be any the wiser but the car probably had more damage than most cat N on the market.
Cat N is non structural so could just be panel/external fittings/wheel damage or water, either way wouldn't expect major issues.
Take it for a good drive, include 70 mph and hard braking, that should show up any badly fixed suspension, if it judders or the wheel pulls then I'd be likely to walk.
Always stated it to insurance companies after doing online quotes and prices never went up, none refused. The value of the car is reduced so don't expect to receive the current market value of a non-cat car if it comes to it.
I got a car that was cheaper, took it for 2 test drives, on my own inspection got a idea of where the damage was.
Planned to put 100k miles on the car hence when it comes to selling I didn't expect it to be popular anyway.
If it's quite new then I'd inquire about the warranty and if it's still covered.
Bit of context on cat N
A colleague had front offset collision in his E-Class, air bags fired and a bit of frontal damage, insurance company agreed to fix it and work started before further damage was found that if previously known would have resulted in a cat. Car now looks great and no one would be any the wiser but the car probably had more damage than most cat N on the market.
As has been stated, Cat N is the lesser of the evil damaged repairable cars. If you plan on using the van for a while and the price represents a significant discount (30-40%) of the non-salvage price, go for it. The only advice I would give is to find out who repaired the car post-accident. If it is an insurance approved Bodyshop you'll be fine - if it was an enthusiast that sourced the parts and did it themselves be wary as most cut corners and leave stuff out.
Good luck
Good luck
These gradings.
Does anyone actually go and inspect these cars to decide the grading?
I only ask as I spoke to a bodyshop manager years ago and he said no one comes out, it's done on a photo, or a discussion over the phone.
Has this changed?
I also bring this up because I've seen plenty of CAT D cars over the years that were awful underneath, with clearly visible kinks/damage.
I can't see insurance companies paying expert engineers to travel around the UK and put every car on a ramp to inspect it just to give it a grading.
There must be someone on here in the know.
I presume the categories are done before the cars get to Copart?
Anyone?
I've seen so many bodge repairs over the years, downright unsafe cars, that I stopped accepting jobs to inspect written off cars. I got fed up with sellers telling me "it was only minor damage" "it's only a CAT D"
And as a poster has said above, hit the brakes at 70mph to see what happens, do you feel lucky?
And a side note, I've also seen plenty of awful repairs on cars with clear Hpi's
Does anyone actually go and inspect these cars to decide the grading?
I only ask as I spoke to a bodyshop manager years ago and he said no one comes out, it's done on a photo, or a discussion over the phone.
Has this changed?
I also bring this up because I've seen plenty of CAT D cars over the years that were awful underneath, with clearly visible kinks/damage.
I can't see insurance companies paying expert engineers to travel around the UK and put every car on a ramp to inspect it just to give it a grading.
There must be someone on here in the know.
I presume the categories are done before the cars get to Copart?
Anyone?
I've seen so many bodge repairs over the years, downright unsafe cars, that I stopped accepting jobs to inspect written off cars. I got fed up with sellers telling me "it was only minor damage" "it's only a CAT D"
And as a poster has said above, hit the brakes at 70mph to see what happens, do you feel lucky?
And a side note, I've also seen plenty of awful repairs on cars with clear Hpi's
Trevor555 said:
These gradings.
Does anyone actually go and inspect these cars to decide the grading?
I only ask as I spoke to a bodyshop manager years ago and he said no one comes out, it's done on a photo, or a discussion over the phone.
Has this changed?
I also bring this up because I've seen plenty of CAT D cars over the years that were awful underneath, with clearly visible kinks/damage.
I can't see insurance companies paying expert engineers to travel around the UK and put every car on a ramp to inspect it just to give it a grading.
There must be someone on here in the know.
I presume the categories are done before the cars get to Copart?
Anyone?
I've seen so many bodge repairs over the years, downright unsafe cars, that I stopped accepting jobs to inspect written off cars. I got fed up with sellers telling me "it was only minor damage" "it's only a CAT D"
And as a poster has said above, hit the brakes at 70mph to see what happens, do you feel lucky?
And a side note, I've also seen plenty of awful repairs on cars with clear Hpi's
The grading is classified as a result of an inspection by the insurance companies' loss adjuster, which takes into account the cost of repair, car value, hire car costs etc. They will then classify the car as Cat N, S, B, or whatever. Does anyone actually go and inspect these cars to decide the grading?
I only ask as I spoke to a bodyshop manager years ago and he said no one comes out, it's done on a photo, or a discussion over the phone.
Has this changed?
I also bring this up because I've seen plenty of CAT D cars over the years that were awful underneath, with clearly visible kinks/damage.
I can't see insurance companies paying expert engineers to travel around the UK and put every car on a ramp to inspect it just to give it a grading.
There must be someone on here in the know.
I presume the categories are done before the cars get to Copart?
Anyone?
I've seen so many bodge repairs over the years, downright unsafe cars, that I stopped accepting jobs to inspect written off cars. I got fed up with sellers telling me "it was only minor damage" "it's only a CAT D"
And as a poster has said above, hit the brakes at 70mph to see what happens, do you feel lucky?
And a side note, I've also seen plenty of awful repairs on cars with clear Hpi's
A lot of people buy these cars on Copart or wherever, buy the spare parts on eBay or a scrappy and get their mate to fix the car. In such circumstances, they tend to focus on what the eye can see and miss out on fundamental parts under or within the car
maz8062 said:
The grading is classified as a result of an inspection by the insurance companies' loss adjuster, which takes into account the cost of repair, car value, hire car costs etc. They will then classify the car as Cat N, S, B, or whatever.
But do you know from personal experience they go to every storage compound site and actually see the car in the flesh?Actually crawl underneath and have a good look?
Because they never used to.
maz8062 said:
A lot of people buy these cars on Copart or wherever, buy the spare parts on eBay or a scrappy and get their mate to fix the car. In such circumstances, they tend to focus on what the eye can see and miss out on fundamental parts under or within the car
Even some dealers/companies behave in that way. The outfit that repaired mine made it look perfect, about 18 months later I noticed the paint on the wing and door was prone to stone chips, rest of the car's paint was fine.The door still had tiny bits of broken glass visible, after a year or so the handle on the door broke, I took apart the door and noticed the handle had previously been glued together. I brought a new handle. Whilst the door was apart i saw the rivets for the inner door had been drilled out and replaced with bolts in a poor manner, some of the bolts were in holes drilled too large (poorly).
The handle and the paint was annoying but didn't lose sleep over them, the door bolts was poor workman ship and bothers me know as I think it;s the reason the door doesn't made a nice thud when closed.
Financially I did okay and I enjoy the car, it was bought as a workhorse to eat up the big commute so I'm not particular about the issues currently.
Thanks for the input guys, I didn’t make it very clear in my post having read it back. The reason it caught my eye is the same spec is above my budget in that to get one fully loaded it would be 3/4 years older and 80k ish or higher mileage. The cat n one is 33k.
Plenty of food for thought, to be honest with the current situation and it is 6 hours drive away so not practical I don’t think
Plenty of food for thought, to be honest with the current situation and it is 6 hours drive away so not practical I don’t think
Chris77 said:
Thanks for the input guys, I didn’t make it very clear in my post having read it back. The reason it caught my eye is the same spec is above my budget in that to get one fully loaded it would be 3/4 years older and 80k ish or higher mileage. The cat n one is 33k.
Plenty of food for thought, to be honest with the current situation and it is 6 hours drive away so not practical I don’t think
If you do go take someone with you that's worked in a bodyshop, they'll know what they're looking for.Plenty of food for thought, to be honest with the current situation and it is 6 hours drive away so not practical I don’t think
Vans can get written off quite easily because of the huge side panels. Some bodyshops that do insurance work will quote to cut out and replace whole panels rather than knock out and fill/repair.
Check the airbag light comes on with the ignition. You don't want to find out your airbags aren't working when you need them.
And as I said before, you need to get underneath and have a very good look.
Most of these vehicles are bought to resell and make money, so are often repaired as cheaply as possible to hold on to the profit.
Trevor555 said:
If you do go take someone with you that's worked in a bodyshop, they'll know what they're looking for.
Vans can get written off quite easily because of the huge side panels. Some bodyshops that do insurance work will quote to cut out and replace whole panels rather than knock out and fill/repair.
Check the airbag light comes on with the ignition. You don't want to find out your airbags aren't working when you need them.
And as I said before, you need to get underneath and have a very good look.
Most of these vehicles are bought to resell and make money, so are often repaired as cheaply as possible to hold on to the profit.
If I decide to investigate further I will certainly take your advice, thanks!Vans can get written off quite easily because of the huge side panels. Some bodyshops that do insurance work will quote to cut out and replace whole panels rather than knock out and fill/repair.
Check the airbag light comes on with the ignition. You don't want to find out your airbags aren't working when you need them.
And as I said before, you need to get underneath and have a very good look.
Most of these vehicles are bought to resell and make money, so are often repaired as cheaply as possible to hold on to the profit.
I bought a CAT N VW UP and it never once let me down. Drove perfectly. And as mentioned above it was no more expensive to insure. I then loaned it to my daughter for a holiday in Cornwall. Which it did with no issues. I then gave it to her and she wrote it off 
. In fairness it wasnt her fault. But although shook up she was fine and the car protected her. And still drove perfectly well. So absolutely I would buy another without hesitation.
. In fairness it wasnt her fault. But although shook up she was fine and the car protected her. And still drove perfectly well. So absolutely I would buy another without hesitation. I did once but never again.
The spec was very good. Cost about £18k. A few months in I’d spent £1.5k fixing a coolant leak. Whilst fixing the coolant leak they discovered the gearbox was leaking oil, that ended up costing £15k to fix.
But, nearly 2 years of ownership later, it is now a very good car. And I have no plans to sell it which makes it one of my most successful cars. I was previously changing car after roughly less than one year because I’d get bored, but I know I won’t get good money for my Cat N when I come to resell and now feel bored of buying cars (I have no desire to go to a car dealer who’ll offer me peanuts for it). I’ll run it into the ground and will be quids up in the long run ;-)
The spec was very good. Cost about £18k. A few months in I’d spent £1.5k fixing a coolant leak. Whilst fixing the coolant leak they discovered the gearbox was leaking oil, that ended up costing £15k to fix.
But, nearly 2 years of ownership later, it is now a very good car. And I have no plans to sell it which makes it one of my most successful cars. I was previously changing car after roughly less than one year because I’d get bored, but I know I won’t get good money for my Cat N when I come to resell and now feel bored of buying cars (I have no desire to go to a car dealer who’ll offer me peanuts for it). I’ll run it into the ground and will be quids up in the long run ;-)
Cars were being categorised without an on site inspection during covid. So there was a spate of lightly damaged cars being described as Cat S, because it was difficult to assess all of the damage in pics only, and therefore assumptions were made about what else would be wrong behind what could actually be seen. There is stuff that could be driven away with only panel damage out there now on a Cat S.
I've had a few, I'd do it again. I prefer to repair them rather than buy them already done, unless there are detailed pics of it pre repair.
I've had a few, I'd do it again. I prefer to repair them rather than buy them already done, unless there are detailed pics of it pre repair.
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