Thoughts on this Cat D?

T

tomTVR

Active member
http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/z4m-roadster/bmw-z4m-roadster-3-2l-rhd-salvage-cat-d/672472

Looks like it's hit a deer or something given theres less damage to the bottom part of the grill than to the bonnet. Looks like the most expensive part would be to sort the matt black paint out!
 
Having previously owned a cat D car in the past, I would personally never buy one again. Yes they can potentially be cheaper to buy but trying to sell them on can be a complete nightmare. Plus with this cat D there could be some underlying damage that you can't see.

The paintwork looks like a wrap (and a bad one at that) judging by the door sills.
 
chassis is made from aluminium so where previous cars could be bent back into shape the Z4 cannot; the front panel alone is £900 the bonnet is like £600 so just those two parts alone make it an un-eco purchase for repair.

As the others have said, it'll be better as parts.
 
Not much people would want off this in parts, the whole front end is a mess, the panels are non original colours.
 
Yep, definitely looks like a wrap. Very expensive though considering the mileage and condition of the thing!

And it's in the Netherlands. Would cost a lot to get back.
 
This is much better, but still expensive imo...

One which isn't recorded can be gotten for around £11k, so a CAT D @ 75% is £8.25k. Repairing the bellow will be around £1k so about £1-2k over priced.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2006-56-REG-BMW-Z4M-Z4-3-2-M-CONVERTIBLE-CABRIOLET-BLACK-6-SPEED-DAMAGED-SALVAGE-/300786717746?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item4608491432
 
peddy said:
This is much better, but still expensive imo...

One which isn't recorded can be gotten for around £11k, so a CAT D @ 75% is £8.25k. Repairing the bellow will be around £1k so about £1-2k over priced.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2006-56-REG-BMW-Z4M-Z4-3-2-M-CONVERTIBLE-CABRIOLET-BLACK-6-SPEED-DAMAGED-SALVAGE-/300786717746?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item4608491432
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Makes you wonder why he hasn't repaired it himself.
 
dan yeates said:
peddy said:
This is much better, but still expensive imo...

One which isn't recorded can be gotten for around £11k, so a CAT D @ 75% is £8.25k. Repairing the bellow will be around £1k so about £1-2k over priced.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2006-56-REG-BMW-Z4M-Z4-3-2-M-CONVERTIBLE-CABRIOLET-BLACK-6-SPEED-DAMAGED-SALVAGE-/300786717746?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item4608491432
Click to expand...

Makes you wonder why he hasn't repaired it himself.
Click to expand...

Was thinking the same thing, unless there is some hidden damage we are not seeing.
 
in the US this car is listed as 24000 USD or almost 15000 quid. It does make you wonder how it could have been deemed a salvage car if a 24000 car took only 1600 to fix. Yet was tossed into the dust bin by the insurance company. My wifes 2008 328 was hit here in Germany. it is valued at 22.000 US. The damage to it was 15k US. It was not written off. and was fully repaired at our local BMW dealer. Not sure of the regs in Britain. But it seems that cars are written off for a few scratches. Or am I missing something?
 
Something to be aware of when looking at Cat B or C cars..... unscrupulous salvage yards often pull then straight ( ish) to make them appear easy to repair...... you as a buyer of a damaged car wouldnt have a leg to stand on if you later found unseen damage
And worth bearing in mind they were written off for a reason
 
if it didn't have any underlying damage then you could always repair it using standard z4 body panels, which would mean a cheap fix.

what i really want to know though, is why on earth would you put matte black wrap over imola red paintwork? madness.
 
To expensive by far. When I bought mine there was a CAT D near me that appeared to have been repaired to a very high standard with full receipts. It was listed on ebay for £11k and didn't sell. I dare say the guy ended up giving it away.

At £7k plus then the hassle and cost of fixing you probably wouldn't be far off the cost of just buying a well cared for one that hadn't been chav wrapped, thrashed and crashed.
 
bigdog said:
...Not sure of the regs in Britain. But it seems that cars are written off for a few scratches. Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
I think a part of it is sellers seriously understating the true extent of the damage. As you say, 10k cars don't get written off because they need a new bumper.
 
Agree with wondermike, I once bought a cat D 325tds after buying all the bits in needed for the rear end nothing fully lined up perfectly (rear lights with boot etc) the whole rear chassis needed slightly straightening which cost more and meant that the car was then weakend? . The damage looked light but infact it must have been quite a bang.
 
Wondermike said:
bigdog said:
...Not sure of the regs in Britain. But it seems that cars are written off for a few scratches. Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
I think a part of it is sellers seriously understating the true extent of the damage. As you say, 10k cars don't get written of because they need a new bumper.
Click to expand...

I would disagree to a point. I think insurance companies are just limiting their liability. I had a 18 month old car written off because I knackered the engine driving through flood water. The guy wrote it off as he was concerned about water damage in the electrics. Also claimed it would need a new radiator and other ancillaries. Bottom line is the car was in 6 inches of water for less than a minute or two (the wife and me got wet pushing it out of the puddle). No water ever got into the cabin so was no worse than driving in normal rain with lots of surface water. I bough the car back for 20% of the write off value and put a new engine in it.

Don't forget the cost of putting you in a hire car for a few weeks etc also, all adds up.
 
Interesting Steve. I suppose as long as the cost is reasonably less than the write off value then they should be fixed. In your case the cos of fixing would have been less?

Remember Lucy's coupe got repaired after a pretty serious prang, which just makes me doubt a lot of the stories behind some Cat D cars.

Won't be driving through any deep water though :o
 
Wondermike said:
Interesting Steve. I suppose as long as the cost is reasonably less than the write off value then they should be fixed. In your case the cos of fixing would have been less?

Remember Lucy's coupe got repaired after a pretty serious prang, which just makes me doubt a lot of the stories behind some Cat D cars.

Won't be driving through any deep water though :o
Click to expand...

It was 6 inches, but the problem was I got to cocky and created a bow wave which hydraulic'd the engine.

If he had costed the job on the engine alone which is all it needed then yes. They paid me out £10K and a fitted engine was half that, but he kept adding parts to get it over 75% to write it off. In some way I can see why he did it, as he was concerned about problems appearing 6 months down the road, but he made it perfectly clear to me what he was doing.
 
So subjective. Could be borderline Cat C, but hard to tell. Too expensive too :(


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