Category C and D car insurance; your advice, please.

[Bamboocarman]

There are many many Cat C and D motors for sale.

 

Couple of years ago, bought a '96 Cat C Golf GTi, which had been properly  repaired; new N/S wing and a headlight, maybe a new drive shaft / steering components; stopped started steered, etc all fine. Used it for a few months then moved on to something else, a ZX Volcane Diesel (very good).

 

Getting it insured was a problem. Phoned around a few brokers, all of whom said 'no', ended up with Swinton (not my favourite organisation) who insured it for £395.00, which is a lot of £££ cos I'm late 50s, with max NCD. A comparable quote for an undamaged one was only £175.00 - ish.

 

My question is: if there are so many C and D cars running around, which firms are insuring them, are the premiums loaded, what might be the restrictions, if any, and so on.

 

I'd love to know how to insure these things for reasonable money / terms and conditions, cos I keep seeing a few interesting damaged repairables for sale.

 

Advice welcome, thanks.

[spike60]

Admiral put no loading on my Cat C 2 years ago.

[Pillock]

I had Sureterm on my Cat D Audi 90, no hassles at all and no price hike.

[bigfella2]

Me and my partner have both been running cat c/d cars and vans, myself over ten years. Two sat on driveway now. Only ever had it mentioned once by one insurance company, and all they asked was, has it been repaired to a high standard. They even repaired it no questions asked when I had a accident in it.

[Anglevan]

You don't need to advise. It's not in the standard questions, are you advising them?

[Taff]

You don't need to advise. It's not in the standard questions, are you advising them?

 

That's interesting. So unless they specifically ask, there is no need to volunteer the information?

[New POD]

You have to understand what CAT C and CAT D actually mean in both spirit and fact.

 

CAT C is likely to have a repair cost that even a small back street bodger will struggle to make a profit on, so therefore at risk of being ringed. HENCE the need for a Vehicle Identity Check.

 

CAT D is likely to have a repair cost that a small back street bodger using a few second hand parts would be able to make a decent profit on, hence no risk of ringing and no need for VIC

 

The older and cheaper the car the more likely a simple small dent will be uneconomic. No reason why using second hand parts and free labour, that the fixed car, shouldn't be a better car than a similar car bodged through an MOT with dubious welding to the sills (or whatever).

 

So whilst the value of a CAT C might be a bit lower, I see no reason why any insurance company wouldn't and shouldn't ignore it when it comes to premiums. It's just another scam by some companies to bull shit the price higher.

[Junkman]

Cat C, or D?

 

Run like f00k!

[spike60]

My Z3 is a Cat C and was bought from a friend after being repaired by a mutual acquaintance. It is a 2000 2.8 and was damaged in spring 2011 when it had a value of roughly £3000. Damage was bolt on rear quarter, rear bottom arm, light damage to door skin and a wheel and tyre.

I paid £1900 in the summer of 2012 with the repairer saying he made a loss, pinch of salt optional! This seems about the right price bracket, roughly 2/3 of full market value.

As an aside, it was a good buy, a fine toy with no problems related to accident.

I was happy enough as I knew a little of the car, look very hard if it's a stranger though.

[Cavcraft]

You also have to remember everybody selling a Cat C or D vehicle is going to say it was a scratch on the inside of the offside outside ball joint cap. You then buy the car and find everything is held together with cable ties and overspray.

[outlaw118]

^^^^^ That's a CAvcraft gUARANTEE FOLKS ^^^^^^^^

 

(want yer money back, GTFO etc)

[Anglevan]

That's interesting. So unless they specifically ask, there is no need to volunteer the information?

yep that's right, on any question they ask you have to answer 'in utmost good faith' failure to do so can render a policy void. However if they don't ask they can't void.

would you volunteer personal information regards your driving style or condition of your motor.

there's thousands of vehicles out in the market place that technically would be a write off but are not recorded. Hire vehicles for one. Are they insured? You bet they are.

at least if it does have a marker you know what you are buying.

Regards cat c and cat d, you could have a £30,000 bmw with £28,000 pounds worth of damage - that would be a cat d.

Or you could have a 1995 ford mondeo that wants a rear panel repair and new bumper. £1000 worth of damage on a £500 car - that would be a cat c.

so basically having a cat on it is not the issue, when it was issued is !

[Taff]

some good info on this thread, thanks gents

[Hendry]

Some old biddy pulled into the side of my 2005 Astra in 2012, big dent on drivers door, dent/scuff on rear wheel arch and smaller dent/scuff on OSR door, went through insurance and took it to a big bodyshop for estimate is one which had BMW/Land Rover/Audi/Porsche manufacturer franchised body repair, they said it needed amongst other things a complete new drivers door, there was no mechanical damage whatsoever that car was 100% sound, but it got written off and is back on the road as I've seen it on eBay, I daresay I could've got a door in the correct colour from a breaker for £200 and got the thing 100% perfect again for under £500 but due to body shop rates and new parts where it would've been more than £500 just for a new bare door it got written off, so they can be good buys.

 

What I would say is I'd rather buy an unrepaired Cat C/D than a repaired one, then I know for certain what the damage is and that it'd repaired to my standard not someone else's.

[Twiggy]

Just out of interest...

 

https://www.mycarcheck.com/help/recorded-accident-damage/

[SambaS]

Huh, never even gave thought to declaring my car Cat C, nor my penis size, how much I like apples or any other random shit that doesn't concern them.

[Felly Magic]

My view is always declare, because one day you wont, and you have a bump, your insurers find out, that's your insurance cancelled, and you are up before the beak for driving with no insurance. It doesn't take a lot for any insurer to wriggle out of coughing up these days

[PiperCub]

Personally was advised by trade friends to largely avoid Cat C/D writeoffs unless they were really cheap for hack purposes only as resale values (or ability to sell it at all) can be affected.

 

Never been asked in 30-odd years 'Is it a write-off?' by any insurance company. Only had one car to my knowledge that was a Cat C/D, that was a damaged valance (it was a cheap Mk3 Fruad Fester) & it was no problem at all.

 

By the way, the VIC is being binned off by VOSA (or whatever they are called this year) next year as its been proved to be an utter waste of time and money (a policy from HMG? Surely not...), apparantly they've never reached the numbers they said they would. Of the 300000-odd checks they've done, they've found less than 50 ringers as that's the extent of the check, contrary to popular belief, it's got nothing to do with safety or whether the vehicle's been fixed right or not. So value for money then.

[r.welfare]

I never got refused insurance nor loaded for extra with the Avensis that was Cat C, and that was genuinely limited to a dented front wing (replaced) and cracked bumper (left as is). When I sold it I provided a pic of the damage, the buyer was fine with it.

 

As PiperCub says the VIC check purely validates identity and they don't care if you've fixed the damage or not, provided the car is not dangerous if you've gone down the latter route.

[panhard65]

I had a VIC done last month on my 206. It basically needed a rear bumper and hammer the rear panel out. It is only a run about so I am not too bothered about the CAT C. The guy doing the VIC said they have to take the car into the workshop to check it so the customer doesn't see what they do. It is a little more than just checking the VIN they also have to check it against the description the insurance company gave of the damage. The fact that they have only found 50 ringers with the VIC does prove it has worked at reducing ringed cars. Even the most stupid crook isn't going to take a car he knows is a ringer for a VIC so therefore he didn't go out and nick one in the first place. There used to be money in salvage but after the VIC and the cat C being marked on them they have become very hard to sell.

[Bamboocarman]

Just out of interest...

 

https://www.mycarcheck.com/help/recorded-accident-damage/

Thank you for this outline; very useful indeed.

[Bamboocarman]

Thanks for all of the contributions to this subject. It's a tricky one. 

 

My view is that an insurance company will do all that they can to get out of paying on a claim, so if Cat C or D is not disclosed prior then we're f x x x x d.

 

I'm going to avoid any potential hassle or complications and continue to run older cheap stuff on the 'classic' policies, which are not too expensive.

 

Thanks again.

[Felly Magic]

Now that there is the Motor Insurers Database, I suspect it will be a piece of piss for insurers to crosscheck anyway

[Cavcraft]

Also, a private seller doesn't haven't to declare Cat C or D (but cannot lie if you ask them) but a motor trader must.

[bigfella2]

The insurer know straight away just by giving them the registration number if its a cat c/d because at the end of the day it was an insurance company have written it off in the first place so will be on there database. I can't see insurers been that bothered whether its a cat c/d, because if the car gets written off again they are going to pay out a lower sum than a non caterogised car but still the customer pays the same premium. And as I said in a previous comment I drive a cat c caddy van (slightly pineappled but forgive me) that was not declared to the insurance company as a previous write off and I managed to crash it quite convincingly into a Chevrolet rental car, my insurance paid out repaired both vehicles and never mentioned it. It had only had it out of bodyshop two hours from being repaired the first time, bummer. The time I got asked about the quality of repair was another insurance company.

[PiperCub]

Now that there is the Motor Insurers Database, I suspect it will be a piece of piss for insurers to crosscheck anyway

 

Actually a very good point, I hadn't thought of that, they ought to have the info at their fingertips already.