G53

Dear UK members,

I'm a 964 owner thinking of trading up. I've found a 993 with "Cat D repair - fully certified". £18,995.

Can anyone shed some light on exactly what this means and how bad it could be. Am I out of my mind to consider buying a performance car with this sort of damage??

Many thanks

177mph

I have no idea what that means? Catalytic converters? A cat died in the back seat?

G53

;-) No it's a Category of damage that insurers use!

RallyJon

Is that like the British version of "Salvage Title"? A major, possibly structural repair?

Look at it this way, even assuming the repairs were done flawlessly, your discount at this point vs usual price for that car should cover you completely for 1) future additional maintenance due to the repairs 2) future loss of resale value whenever you decide to resell the car.

drsh

Cat D repair means it goes on a register as damaged repaired, so any hpi check will show it up, you can have the car go through an autolign check http://www.autoligninspections.co.uk/inspections.html

If it passes it moves from damaged repaired, to "condition inspected" register. but you should still be getting a major discount, as if you come to sell it later on, any other buyer will expect a discount.

You haven't said what year, mileage, condition of the car for the money.

burrow01

Hi

Cat D means that the car was not economically reparable by the insurance company after an accident.
This would have meant that the price to repair it at a Porsche approved repairer with brand new original parts exceeded the value of the car at the time.
Cat D means that the car had no structural damage, and could safely be repaired, and potentially more cheaply than an insurer would get charged.

Is it worth buying? - it depends on the value of the car at the time - when the car was worth £50000 then obviously it would take more damage to write it off than when it was worth £20000

The question is, therfore, when was the car damaged, how much damage was done, who repaired it, and why were they able to do it more cheaply than the official repairer..

Cat D cars will always be harder to sell, but that is why they are cheaper in the first place

Hope this helps

Pete

G53

Thanks for your replies. Here's the description:

1996 PORSCHE 911 2dr Carrera Coupe
56,000 miles, Carrera 2 varioram. Silver with black leather. Manual 6 sp. s/roof A/C CD player alarm immobiliser MOT tax full service history. Excellent low mileage condition. Drives and runs superb. Minor cat D but fully certified repair. Any inspection welcome. £18,990

The damage took place in 1999 so the car would have been worth quite a bit back then....he doesn't know who actually carried out the repairs but has a certificate from Cridfords Porsche to say that it was done. He also claims that he had his mechanic look at the car and he couldn't tell where it had been repaired at all???

xrix

That price reflects a decent discount for the cat-D. A car with a clean history would be at least 5k more than that (assuming RHD). Even a LHD would be ~20k+.

burrow01

Hi
Are Cridfords selling it, or are they certifying that the repairs were to a satisfactory standard.
It would probably have been worth £35-40000+ in 1999, so the repair costs would have been approaching that for the insurance company to write it off.

My 3.2 was written off for requiring a new wing, front suspension strut, wheel, rear wing plus some other minor bodywork and a full respray - Insurance repair cost was estimated at £12000
I took the mony and sold it to a local dealer, and he repaired it for approx £4000 and sold it as Cat D repaired
If you are serious about the car, I would have a very thorough inspection done, to determine exactly what has been repaired and how it was done

Pete

G53

No it's a private sale. Cridfords certified that the work had been done to their satisfaction. I haven't reviewed the documentation. It does concern me that no-one knows exactly what has been done. I guess with a bit of digging it could be done.

I hope to see it on the weekend and will report back. Obviously a bit nervous at this point. It would mean selling my 964 which had a top end rebuild 9,000 miles ago.....

many thanks again

drsh

Just be careful,take someone with you who will be able to give you a non emotional opinion, just to keep you on the straight and narrow. If you decide to buy, ask the seller to get it checked out at autolign, or have it in the sale contract that you get your money back if it doesn't pass, if he won't agree to either of these then he isn't truly confident about the quality of repairs.

good luck

G53

David,

Sound advice and thanks for the autolign tip - they look like the perfect guys for the job!

Chrisw_05

Although Autolign can check the car over, and probably do a good job....they claim (over the phone) to be able to re-classify the car and get rid of the CAT D damage information when an HPI check is performed on the car in future. This is not the case. you still get a report saying it has been inspected after an accident so as a prospective buyer you know it has had an accident and been repaired correctley and inspected. the accident will never be taken off the HPI report, it just confirms it has been inspected.

A good friend of mine helped me go through exactly the same scenario when i was looking at a couple of CAT D damaged cars. I phoned Autolign and they stated all the above but then found out the check was good, but not all that is cracked up to be.

I had a look at 2 CAT D's. 1 was terrible, the other had a full photo album, of before, durin and after shots of the repair and bill to prove. I didn't buy any of them but feel sorry for the guy who eventually bought the first if he bought with his heart as it was a mess to the trained eye. I'm glad my mate who knows Porsches backwards talked me out of this one. CAT D means minor damage but this one had been straightened probably with a big hammer as it pulled badly into oncoming traffic. It should have been cat c or worse in my opinion.

The best way is to get an independent / local Porsche specialist to go and take a look for you. as already stated by others, takes the heart out of buying and tells you if it's worth the risk.

Chris W.

G53

Chris, thanks for that. Certainly puts thigs into perspective....