finding out what cat d damage was on a car

Alarm bells are ringing.Leave it alone.If you can find out insurance company they will tell you.If he or his friend don't know that then run.

It could be something as minor as damaged in transit to the dealer. Give the delivery garage a call as they might be able to confirm, if not at least it narrows things down.

it's a con. walk away.

btw getting insurance may be a problem.

Hello!

Your problem is if its chassis damage, which is included in CAT D. Damaged chassis rust, they make the car not ride correctly, turn correctly etc. Everything else will be obvious, normally people buy back and repair and use cheap repairers. So massive amounts of orange peel on the paintwork, lots of bumps down the door where its had damage removed. Poorly aligned bumpers or lines around the wings and the front doors. Are the lights flush?

Door plastics might have been stuck back on after a door repair and now will be slightly different colour.

Some times they are S and R. Which is fine along as it wasn't to badly ragged along the way! No doubt cat D's are normally cheap and if its mainly cosmetic repairs and they look then I would buy at the discounted price, but don't pay anything near market value as if it was non cat D no matter how much someone tries to bend your arm about the repairs etc!
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im not sure but what i can tell you is in my experience CAT D is cosmetic and is only written off as the insurer refuses to fix the car if the parts cost more than half the cars value.
We had a cracked bumper and lights and because the garage quoted on official parts and added a grand for estimated hours worked they said it was a cat d write off instead. in fact as a cat d the car was completely driveable and fine and was allowed to choose to not fix the damage and drive it away instead.

For such a new car to have been declared a cat d it must have needed some expensive parts replacing......like the previuos poster said; insurers will not repair if the cost is over 50% of the vehicles value (so looking at the average car price it must of needed over £8000 of work doing)

Steer clear.

That is all.

Mine was Cat D and the roof was rippled bonnet wrote off bumper wrote off.Roof put me off keeping and a fatality!So you don'the get to know the full details we found out it had been resold and new buyer had no idea...I'd steer clear unless picture history...

I'm not sure there is a way to find out officially. unless the car came with a fully documented folder with before/after pictures and receipts for what was fixed I wouldn't go near a cat d. Especially a 2016 car.

Thanks to all for the replies. Not going ahead with it as it all seems too dodgy in that he claims he doesn't know what the repairs were. It's £11,500 so not going to risk it. Thanks again.
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Should only be light damage.... depends how much saving you're making and how long you're going to keep it... have it checked by the rac or aa prior to buying, had a few in the past but always kept em for a long time so the value fell out of em anyway... no good for part ex'ing though...

Cat d is very light damage. Cat c is the no go.
Cat d should be fine with insurance also

Even if this car was really cheap, I would probably steer clear.The fact that the guy bought it off a mate and didn't know the history rings alarm bells.The repair is probably sub-standard, it's possible that it could be dangerous to drive. The fact that you will have to declare that the vehicle is Cat D if you decide to sell the vehicle. Also you will definitely pay a premium on your insurance. Cat D vehicles can be a bargain and may have only suffered cosmetic damage, but this seller is hiding something so walk away.

z_pieman

Even if this car was really cheap, I would probably steer clear.The fact … Even if this car was really cheap, I would probably steer clear.The fact that the guy bought it off a mate and didn't know the history rings alarm bells.The repair is probably sub-standard, it's possible that it could be dangerous to drive. The fact that you will have to declare that the vehicle is Cat D if you decide to sell the vehicle. Also you will definitely pay a premium on your insurance. Cat D vehicles can be a bargain and may have only suffered cosmetic damage, but this seller is hiding something so walk away.Read lessRead more

Not true. Only cat c have to be declared to the dvla. Cat d's are already in the insurance database

Cat D is where cost of repair is significant compared to the vehicle value. It is not always a big NO NO.
[Cat C is where cost of repair exceeds the vehicle value]

If the pre-incident car is worth say £2,000, if a slight dent on one door can result in a Cat D as they may need to change the skin on the door and then spray it and then spray all that side to match the panels.

So if it high value car, be more concerned compared to low value car.

I use app called MyCarCheck. Option costs from £2.99 for a check then there is a number you can call and they have more info on file. I checked a car that was flagged as a Cat D. When I rang up I found out that it was due to water damage. On the phone, I have found them to be extremely helpful with providing additional info. At times they have not disclosed some details that they have had on file (due to data protection) but other staff members on other occasions have been more forthcoming.

So the moral of the story is, Don't always Write Off a Write Off.
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