Hi Folks

At the moment I'm looking to buy an everyday car that is Cat N. From what I have found it is not a big problem if you understand how re-sale values are affected and I have checked the insurance is OK. But what I can't seem to find is: What happens if a car is declared Cat N (or S) more than once in it's life? The seller has shown me photos that claim to show the damage before the classification, but there is no way I can see the car being written off for that (but that doesn't mean it wasn't). But in general, what if a cars gets a good banging up one year, gets repaired and back on the road and given CatN, but then gets into a small scrape the next year, the seller takes some pics, gets a repair, and then uses that as the pics to say, 'Look.. it wasn't damaged much at all!'. Is there any record or registry held by anyone, or should there be a paper trail to show that the damage and repair shown to me is the one that the car got its Cat N for?

Thanks

Andrew

If the car has had an insurance loss it'll be marked as such on the database. You could get a service like car vertical and check the registration for any prior incidents, but as you say there might well have been a car park smash that someone has repaired out of pocket.


Did you not mention a DBS in another thread? I personally wouldn't bother these days for the relatively modest % saved. Certainly isn't like it used to be with write offs being really cheap. Most times you'll land a slightly older, possibly more mileage, but fully straight equivalent for the same money. Plus you're already suspicious of the car. I'd walk away unless it's too good to be true.

Yes car vertical appears to be the go to atm. Im sure there are other HPI checks which will identify the date/s that are car has been written off.
My daily is a cat n and despite what appeared to be light damage, the headlight tabs were broken on the xenons.. Replacements where £1500 alone. I wouldn't underestimate the value of an insurance repair, although it seems quite easy to write a car off these days. Certainly bargains to be had if you do your research.

I do have a DBS, but that does not make me a wealthy man - restoring it ensures I remain a poor man.

But when I get fixated on a car I narrow it down to such an extent that there is usually only one in the country (and often at the other end).

I want a big powerful petrol estate with 250+bhp auto with flappies, upmarket, comfortable seats interior not black, exterior strong colour & definitely not white/grey/black/silver. under 80k miles. All for under £14,000. So being Cat N is not the driving force, but I will admit I do love a bargain.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185362322876?