Clio 182 CAT D, too much of a gamble?

[andyissuperman]

First of all I hope this is in the right place, first post

So I'm looking at buying my first Renaultsport Clio, I've been wanting a 182 for a while now, I've saved up some money and started advertising my current car for sale. I've found this Clio 182 in Gordini blue (the best colour) but it's a CAT D, there's not much information on the car so I'm not sure if it's someone hoping so move a shed quickly or if it's just being sold by someone who is incredibly lazy. I think it's a fairly good price and I could easily afford to buy it and spend a bit of money on it if needed, obviously I'd go and look at it first and find out why it was a CAT D but is it worth driving almost a 100 mile round trip to look at a waste of money?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Renault-C...2457923?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item4183b39243

Any replies will be helpful, thanks :clown:

 

[AdDaMan]

Definitely worth going to look at.

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

For another £350-500 you'll get a straight one - why would you?

 

[mokeyat]

As above, I would drive that far to see it. The thing with cat D is, as long as you're aware of it and you realise that you won't get full price when you sell it on and the new owner is aware, everyone's happy. It would have had the smallest of knocks or be stolen and recovered.
Cat D is the least serious category. It usually means that the vehicle has suffered light damage but the insurance company's decision to repair it is dependent on the cost of the repairs and the value of the vehicle.
If you're buying a Cat D car, there's no guarantee that it hasn't incurred chassis damage.
If you buy a Cat D car, make sure your insurance company knows about it, otherwise they might not pay up on any claim.
Hope this helps!

 

[GrahamS]

pay £1200 for something that's a D as it's a pain in the A to sell.

IT'S RACING BLUE

 

[bob the builder]

give them a ring to find out why it was cat d first, and any other info you can get out of them.
if all seems ok ask if you come down with a grand cash will they let it go for that.

personally i have no problem with catergory cars just as long as you get them at the right price and you know what to look for when inspecting it.
you can get stung just as bad buying a car off ebay or a so called trader.

 

[Faxo]

Missing its xenons, so there's £100 straight away. Going off that, id say front end knock, however what else have they cut corners on, if they've put the wrong headlights in?

 

[Chris V6 255]

Find out when it was recorded as a cat D.
If it was back in say 2005 then there must have been a significant damage. If it was recorded as cat D last year then a relatively small incident could cause 2-3k damage making it uneconomical to repair.

That said I would still be spending an extra £500-£1000 for a nice straight one.

If your budget can't stretch that far then a good Ph1 would be my choice

 

[BoatNonce]

I don't think there's anything for sale locally at that sort of price, but I'll keep an ear down in case.

The front bumper's seen paint too. It could be a very minor knock which cracked the bumper and headlights. I'd go and look at it and see if it's worth it.

 

[Jack!]

Standard exhaust, s**t alloys, front bumpers had paint, I wouldn't.

 

[Battery Nonce]

I paid £1550 for my 182 last month but it's in arctic blue not racing blue. Bargains can be had if you haggle!

 

[andyissuperman]

thanks for all the replies, I think i'll send them a message asking what it's had done and make sure the work was done properly! To be honest £1500 seems to be cheap already for around where I live, a lot of high milers are advertised at £3k+ and seem to go fairly quickly..haven't seen a Cat D advertised before though so it might be a rip off :/ hopefully it's only had some sort of light damage with no big problems!

EDIT: as for letting the insurers know I've already requested a quote from Admiral and put that it was a CAT D, they've come back with a fairly reasonable quote considering it'd be changed from a 1.4HDi 206 to a 2.0RS

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

give them a ring to find out why it was cat d first, and any other info you can get out of them.
if all seems ok ask if you come down with a grand cash will they let it go for that.

personally i have no problem with catergory cars just as long as you get them at the right price and you know what to look for when inspecting it.
you can get stung just as bad buying a car off ebay or a so called trader.

You think they'll take £495 off if you turn up with a bag of sand? I highly doubt that.

 

[Steven103]

Cat D aside it does look like a very tatty example.

Gangster colour wheels badly kerbed, big scuff on front bumper, standard exhaust. Doesn't exactly scream that it was a decent one beforehand.

 

[andyissuperman]

in a way that makes me want to buy it even more, give it some TLC and get it looking nice again

 

[Battery Nonce]

You think they'll take £495 off if you turn up with a bag of sand? I highly doubt that.

Out of interest, why not?

Before I got my blue one I offered £1700 to a guy who had his titanium one on eBay for £2300. He was willing to take it too but I found one that tied in with my selling my car plans. Also knocked £400 off that because it ran out of Tax and the belts are due soon.

People get desperate to sell these i've found!

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

Sorry but if you take 33% odd off an already cheap car then it can hardly be worth selling, i couldn't insult someone so much, personally.

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

Finding out when in its life it became a cat d will give you a good indication of the level of damage incurred. If it was cat d within the first year that would be a big impact, if it was last year could have been a small dent in the rear quarter.

 

[bob the builder]

if you dont ask you dont get.
i have had some cracking bargains over the years by being cheaky, and as dann2707 said people get desperate.
i once got £400 off a car advertised at £700.