I bought a 4 year old car last year. It is a good runner but came with
no history.

I was gutted to recently learn that it is cat' C.

I have looked all over the vehicle but cannot find any trace whatsoever
of any repairs and without the paperwork to prove what has been done
I can't tell my insurers that its a C although any work must have been
done to an extremely high standard.

The V5 shows a VIN check so it's not a ringer nor is it a cut-n-shut.

Anyone any suggestions? It's a shame to break it as it seems fine.

Could I possibly get an engineers report to satisfy the insurers? How
much would this cost?

"Soggy matches" <wont (AT) light (DOT) com> wrote



IIRC the car needs an inspection to be returned to the road to say that it
is safe. I'm quite sure an inquiry at your local DVLA will put you in the
right direction. Apart from that the car will only ever be worth 70 to 80%
of an non Cat C's value. Hope you didn't pay over the odds.

gazzafield wrote:

Thanks, I have indeed contacted DVLA who are going to send me details of
who had the car at the date of the VIN so hopefully I can get details
from them as to what went on.

I have been under the car again today and can find no trace of repair so
this is very puzzling.

By coincidence there was a news item on BBC today saying that cat C's
are to be awarded a kite mark to clear up such problems.

In article <er4eda$bu9$1 (AT) aioe (DOT) org>, Soggy matches says...



--
Conor

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright
until you hear them speak.........

Soggy matches wrote:
Depending on what car it is there may have been little damage. A front
bumper, couple of fog lights, a grille, 2x headlight, 2x indicators,
slam panel & a bonnet may result in a write-off.

If you bought the car from a dealer I believe they have a legal
responsibility to inform you that it was a Cat C. They are liable for up
to 6 years so I would suggest you take it back to them. If it was
private they do not have to tell you, but would be liable if you asked
the question & they said NO.

I am intrigued as to why you cannot tell your insurance company & why it
was not declared on their MIAFTA database (think that is the acronym).
The other answer which I have experienced is where the actual vehicle
was not written off by the insurance company but DVLA had it written
off. That was a key input error, my registration was R86 *** & the
vehicle that should have been written off was R88 *** it took an amazing
long time to get it sorted.

Conor wrote:

Absolutely. But I normally find some trace however small of a repair
especially one that claims to have been so vast as to write a car off.

In this case I really cannot see anything at all. If it has been
repaired it has been done extremely well and I have no doubt whatsoever
the car is perfectly safe. In fact I thought that the makers might have
rebuilt it but they say no.

I'm not too worried about losing a few quid on the book price but I know
if I tell them that the insurance company will ask for proof of the
repair which I don't have which is where my problem lies.

"Phaeton" <phaeton (AT) none (DOT) com> wrote

That was a key input error, my registration was R86 *** & the
You should have seen the arguments we had over clearing up what colour our
car was from new. "Its listed as X" yes i know but it has never been X, its
Y. "no, it must have been sprayed" ...no, not unless they bare-metal'd it
within 3 years of its birth...

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:44:17 +0000, Soggy matches wrote:

===============================
It's possible that it was vandalised rather than accident damaged. It
might have had all the glass replaced although it would have to be very
expensive glass to write off a 4 year old car, I think.

Perhaps someone can confirm that a car can be a Cat C in these
circumstances?

Cic.

--
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Testing UBUNTU Linux
Everything working so far
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Phaeton wrote:

Thanks that is the other idea that I am looking at that it is a DVLA
error. I'll try the MIAFTA database.

I can't tell my insurers as they will almost certainly want it in
writing that it has been repaired and by whom.

Soggy matches wrote:

If I was an insurer I'd be reading this newsgroup...

But then I'd probably not insure anyone called Soggy matches anyway :-)

Tony