Hypothetical purchase question

[Derek Mc]

OK here is a potential situation that I would welcome an opinion or three on please

Buying a low lies s/h car.

Car 1 2010, on a 10 plate C220 CDi Sport manual blue efficiency, perfect colour and trim (for me) roughly 12K miles with a price of say £16K

Car 2 late 2011 facelift C220CDi Sport 7G auto on a 61 plate again very much ideal colour and full leather 12K miles on a Cat D same price band ,,,

Would the Cat D but professional repair deter you from the younger but facelifted car

 

[GP801]

What caused the Cat D? I think it would depend a lot on the problem and the quality of the repair. The Cat D will always be harder to sell on.
The auto is preferable to the manual though.

 

[st4]

Don't get the cat D.

 

[Derek Mc]

The damage on the particular car is as seen here

MERCEDES C220 CDI SPORTS 2011 61 REG ECO MODEL SALVAGE DAMAGED REPAIRED FACELIFT | eBay

 

[Carrsey]

Some insurance companies can be funny about Cat C / D. As if you ever have to make a claim they see it that they have already paid out on the car.. No personal experience just what i have heard.

As above can be harder to sell on and will be worth a lot less, not as much of a problem if you are to keep it for a very long time..

 

[Derek Mc]

Some insurance companies can be funny about Cat C / D. As if you ever have to make a claim they see it that they have already paid out on the car.. No personal experience just what i have heard.

As above can be harder to sell on and will be worth a lot less, not as much of a problem if you are to keep it for a very long time..

I would plan on my next car being 4 years 130K miles use on top of the starting age.

I am not posting the link to the other car just yet until I open dialogue with the sellor first as I am in LOVE!! I just wondered if I was missing a trick on that one first,,,,

 

[steve333]

If you are comfortable buying a car that has previously had accident damage then go for it,personally,i wouldn't & i couldn't keep a car after accident damage,just my honest opinion

 

[steve333]

I would plan on my next car being 4 years 130K miles use on top of the starting age.

I am not posting the link to the other car just yet until I open dialogue with the sellor first as I am in LOVE!! I just wondered if I was missing a trick on that one first,,,,

Thats a lot of miles you will be putting on the car so if you go for the cat d i would want to be sure the repairs we're a1/guaranteed.

 

[gaz_l]

If you're planning on keeping it for 4 years you're going to be looking at a 6/7 year old car with pushing 150K miles on it when you come to sell. To my mind, you're not going to get a great price for it as there will be plenty of other examples about with fewer miles. A Cat D will just drag the price down further - if I was thinking about buying it I would ask myself how much damage had it taken to get a Cat D that early on, and personally I wouldn't even pick up the phone.

On the other hand, you're going to be sitting in the car an awful lot if you're planning on racking up 130K in 4 years, so if it was me I'd probably place more emphasis on getting exactly the car I wanted and less on the likely resale value when it was time to move on. Just my $0.02.

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[Derek Mc]

On the other hand, you're going to be sitting in the car an awful lot if you're planning on racking up 130K in 4 years, so if it was me I'd probably place more emphasis on getting exactly the car I wanted and less on the likely resale value when it was time to move on. Just my $0.02.

Cheers,

Gaz

Thanks for the input. I commute about 100 miles a day I also travel to see clients almost daily hence the big miles. I am not really concerned about the resale value as when I'm done it will be almost worthless in any case however the chance to get a car that is 2 y/o for the same money as one 3.5 y/o same miles is tempting, plus the selling garage seems to have a rock solid reputation.

No, on balance I plan to keep looking / look at this other car first as it is truly special looking and is not so much talking to me as shouting from the other side of the room!!

 

[GP801]

The paint match looks pretty awful in some of those pictures. I would also question why it was written off if the damage was as little as stated. Something just does not add up here.

 

[Meldrew2]

I'd be concerned about buying a Cat D - but if the repair is properly done I wouldn't be over concerned.

A couple of considerations.........

Does the 2 yr old Cat D have any manufacturer's warranty left on it?

Is there any difference in mpg between the 2 cars? Especially with the eco stop-start?

In 4 years time will a facelifted but cat D be any harder to sell than a non-cat D pre-facelift model?

Even though the older car is not a cat D - it is a manual - so it will still be hard to sell on

You could buy the older car then get hit by another driver the following week - so the non-repaired car becomes a repaired car

Have you driven a manual C class? Remember the parking brake on many MB is foot operated, and it needs to be used much more than in an auto (eg hill starts)

If you keep the car 4 years, the non-facelift model might start to look more dated - would this be an issue?

.

 

[grober]

About a year old and a Cat D repaired from??? an insurance approved bodyshop. Mmmmm. May have been written off due to "airbag damage" Many young cars are now being written off , as after a severe collision, many of the air bags go off and basically the interior is "gutted" by their deployment. To repair same "economically" might mean the use of lots of invisible [ behind trim] second hand pyrotechnic safety devices/ parts of variable provenance/age. Would I drive a car thus repaired for that sort of money ----- nah!

 

[Derek Mc]

About a year old and a Cat D repaired from??? an insurance approved bodyshop. Mmmmm. May have been written off due to "airbag damage" Many young cars are now being written off , as after a severe collision, many of the air bags go off and basically the interior is "gutted" by their deployment. To repair same "economically" might mean the use of lots of invisible [ behind trim] second hand pyrotechnic safety devices/ parts of variable provenance/age. Would I drive a car thus repaired for that sort of money ----- nah!

Yip yip yip,,,,, I got my answer it matches my gut feeling well