Why would a Ferrari 430 ever be a Cat D ?

P

ph001

Veteran
 N. Yorkshire.
Saw this come up on Ebay and was pondering the circumstances as to how something like a car with a market value of at least £100k could be written off as a cat D? You would have thought that any kind of superficial or cosmetic damage would be way way less to repair.

Car in question is this beauty... a rare manual transmission too. Will certainly rocket in value as time goes by - accept for that cat D tag making it a big risk for any investor when it comes to resale.

Thoughts?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222899321550
 
Some insurance companies right cars off pretty easily these days and go on worse case scenario regarding to cost estimates.

That car would have been worth a bit less back in 2016 too.

It could also have also been a bigger smash up than they are letting on.
 
It’s all relative isn’t it!!
New body panels suspension parts airbags all the stuff that needs replacing on CAT D cars. Is going to cost more from Ferrari and there approved body shops will cost more. If it’s a % of the value. It can be written off the same as any other car?
 
Obviously not in this case, but if a car is stolen and then recovered after the insurance has paid out it'll get put on a cat D.
 
Yeh, just that they said it suffered light panel damage and I just can't imagine even Ferrari panels costing £50k!!! There are also things like car hire costs and general processing. I get why cars worth perhaps £10k or even £20k get written off with light damage (Cat D), I'm just struggling to get my head around how one worth £100k could be.

I think I'm going to ask for the pictures just to be nosy!!
 
The term “light panel damage” in salvage speak is probably a lot more damage than the layman thinks.

You could roll the car and still end up with the same “light panel damage” description from some companies.
 
With a lot of these cases they have to provide a hire car of similar caliber, even standard hire cars cost a lot over a period of time that a car may need to be repaired.

That and also the time scale that it takes to get the parts required. Parts are expensive and its often they have to be manufactured rather than ordered in. Theres a reason that they cost so much to run, for example the 355 interior plastics tend to disintegrate and melt its almost impossible to buy the trim without having it re manufactured. My uncle has one and he wanted a new shroud for the gearstick which also has the air conditioning controls etc because the symbols had disintegrated and I seem to remember that one piece was absolutely eye watering.

There was that idiot on vehicle virgins that had 2 smashes in his lambo and it took the best part of 12 months to get it back on the road with similar problems it was mostly panel issues.

A lot of the time its not the cost of repairing the cars that makes them category vehicles its other factors like hire cars, storage, time and cost to get parts. Insurers also replace a lot more of the car that probably needs be, components in and around the area are usually replaced also just in case although they could be ok.

When an insurer checks out the car they mark each area with a UV pen or a fluorescent marker and its usually anything that is connected to the area. If your ever interested in a cat D or C its worth taking a black light with you to have a look at the areas and see whether any components that are in the area are marked up.

Another issue is even small plastic parts, shrouds, covers etc are crazy expensive. Although "pannel damage" doesnt sound a lot its the snap fittings that cost the money to replace all the intricate parts people dont realize are there. Most of the time these cars need very specialist garages to do the work and that also costs probably 3-4 times more than you would be used to on a car like a BMW.

Worth having a look on Sam Cracks youtube channel he specifically does these kind of projects and goes through many of the above issues and how small issues can write off these vehicles.
 
All good points - the lead time on parts could make a big difference if you have to provide another Ferrari as a courtesy car. Anyway, I've asked for pics so will post them up here just out of interest. The 430 manual is investment gold at the moment I think, but peoples perceptions of Cat D means it could be very hard to re-sell.
 
tomscott said:
Not sure if its the images but the front wheel looks like it may have hit a curb too.
Click to expand...

Well you would certainly want to check the geometry on the whole car, after a tap like that.
 
That is nasty. I mean what sort of car do you need to have to get an even amount of tape laid down for the reg plate.
 
mmm-five said:
The term “light panel damage” in salvage speak is probably a lot more damage than the layman thinks.

You could roll the car and still end up with the same “light panel damage” description from some companies.
Click to expand...
+1
 
tomscott said:
With a lot of these cases they have to provide a hire car of similar caliber, even standard hire cars cost a lot over a period of time that a car may need to be repaired.
Click to expand...

We had a brand new 4 series gran coupe on BMWs staff scheme and it got rear ended on the M1 when it was a month old! The accident management company but us in a 520d Msport while BMW repaired the car at their Thorn workshop but as the exhaust was on back order the repair took 12 weeks. I believe the repair bill was just over £10k but hire charges for the 520d were about £31k :cry:
In the end it would have been cheaper to write the car off which is crazy for a month old £40k+ car
 
Pastry said:
tomscott said:
With a lot of these cases they have to provide a hire car of similar caliber, even standard hire cars cost a lot over a period of time that a car may need to be repaired.
Click to expand...

We had a brand new 4 series gran coupe on BMWs staff scheme and it got rear ended on the M1 when it was a month old! The accident management company but us in a 520d Msport while BMW repaired the car at their Thorn workshop but as the exhaust was on back order the repair took 12 weeks. I believe the repair bill was just over £10k but hire charges for the 520d were about £31k :cry:
In the end it would have been cheaper to write the car off which is crazy for a month old £40k+ car
Click to expand...

Insanity!
 
That's had a fair old whack!

My missus' fiesta st (before it got stolen) sustained similar damage last year. The dealer charged her insurance company £9800 to fix it. That didn't include any hire car costs, as they were going to write it off if she had taken out a hire car, due to the insane fee's they charge for them.

It's fair to assume Ferrari parts could be up to 10x the value (or more) of her Fiesta parts, so you can see how the costs sky rocket quite easily.
 
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