Would you buy a Cat S car?

Xenomorph

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I see some cars on Auto Trader which are Cat S, which is a repaired car previously declared an insurance write off.
These cars are obviously reduced price due to their status.
Would you buy such a car?
 
Well me neither. I mean you don't know how the car was damaged, and what repairs were done. Just wondering how these cars are going to sell really.
 
No point if a non-category alternative is available.
Now if it was (random example) a Capri MK1 'barn find' that had been restored, who is to know what category it would have been (as unrecorded back then) before it was laid up? Yet it would still fetch ££K.
 
No point if a non-category alternative is available.

Well true, only reason I guess is to save a few quid. But you'd have to be a very brave man, or really in the know about the car, to buy it.
 
It depends. Cat S is normally minor damage, sometimes just stolen and recovered, but you would want to know what's been repaired.

Other thing to bear in mind is that it will be worth less when you come to sell it. If you just run cars into the ground, then not an issue, but if you look after them and like to get top dollar, probably not the right option.

A mate of mine bought a Saab 9000 Aero Karlson - the one with the wooden steering wheel. It was written off at 2 years old because someone had stolen the steering wheel, literally no other damage.

He put a racing wheel on it and kept a look out for a wooden wheel coming up through the salvage yards and a year later one turned up! That gave him a perfect car for about 60% of the value.
 
I wouldn't touch a category S personally but I would buy a cat N if the price/condition was right. I did purchase a cat D car years ago (which would be N under the current system) and it was a massive ballache to sell on so make sure to account for that when purchasing, it really needs to be substantially cheaper than a non recorded car to be worthwhile.
 
No, I’d rather buy a higher mileage car with a solid service history behind it.
 
Wouldn't buy a Cat S but would buy a Cat N. This is mainly because I ended up with a Cat N car after a minor accident.

If there is proof of what the damage was and that it has been repaired, no issue with Cat N but obviously you pay far less for them.
 
Depends a bit on the category and the age. An old can be written off for pretty trivial cosmetic damage esp. if parts availability is poor so it will take ages to repair.

I wouldn't buy anything I was planning on eventually selling anywhere but an auction or a scrap yard.
But if you want a very cheap run around that you intend to drive into the ground AND you know enough about cars to spot serious problems then it might be worth the gamble but it would still be a gamble.
 
Yes, especially on a high value newish car for obvious reasons.
 
Only if i was going to turn it into a track slag.
 
personally ive only ever sold 2 of my previous cars(owned about 12). I normally run them into the ground until they’re worthless. So I have been tempted by the cat n route, but it’s not actually happened yet.
 
Yes and I have done in the past. I had a Honda Civic that was deemed irreparable by the insures as someone had keyed it. TBH the marks weren't even that bad.

Never bother me at all. I kept that Honda for ages without any problems. I had the keyed panels repaired by a mobile company who came to my work. It wasn't expensive at all. I would not have bothered, but I wanted to sell it and having these marks fixed helped me to sell it on.
 

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