would you buy a CAT D fiesta

[thecarpman]

looking at buying a fiesta ecoboost 1.0 125 3 door titanium x black or deep impact blue after my july holiday hoping to have around £8k prob be a 13 plate but have seen 16 plates cat d going for £8k would it be worth further investigations or stear clear??????

[karl46]

A Cat "D" insurance write off is mainly cosmetic damage that can be repaired and hasn't damaged the structual integrity of the car. Or it may be stolen recovered with only minor damage.

It's cheaper for that reason and it will always be registered as a d cat. You will not be able to make a profit from it. It will never be worth what an undamaged car would be.

But that said there are bargains to be had on the salvage market as long as you know what you are buying. An engineers report is always advisable.

I've bought several D cat cars , both as is and repaired.

[yunii]

looking at buying a fiesta ecoboost 1.0 125 3 door titanium x black or deep impact blue after my july holiday hoping to have around £8k prob be a 13 plate but have seen 16 plates cat d going for £8k would it be worth further investigations or stear clear??????

Check with your insurance company as not all will insure if cat class cars.
Another thing is resale value will be lower & insurance payout will be low too.
Insure that its repaired to a high standard. I was looking at cat d & for i have seen i might have get a straight one.
Yunii


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[yunii]

Also careful with the 1.0 ecoboost engines as they do have issues

Yunii

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[isetta]

some insurance companies are not keen to insure them, make sure you check (questions or statements of fact that you have to acknowledge are true).

A Cat D could include more serious damage than just cosmetic (it is often cosmetic), eg. it could include damage that bent steering/suspension and you won't neccessarily know if that is all fine for a few thousand miles and see if tyres wear badly in much less time than they should. What is a Cat C and Cat D is about the relative cost of repair to the pre-accident value.  So a Cat D on a newish car could include a lot more damage than a CAt D on a 10 year old car if damaged when it was 10 years old.

I am not saying don't buy one. I could be tempted, but I would rather buy one where they can show me photos of the car with the damage before repair. If they merely tell you what the damage was you have no way of knowing if it is true. they will of course play down what the damage was. If you see the damage you can make a more informed decision.

A few years ago I knew a bloke who repaired insurance write off cars and sold them (proper business, not casual from home). he took detailed photos and made the buyer sign the photos to acknowledge they knew it was a damaged repaired car.

Many people are too scared to buy them. I would only buy it if I was planning to use it for years and squeeze my money's worth out of it. If the plan is to sell it earlier then I might not be so keen because they can be hard to sell as so many people won't go near them.

(Yunii was typing same time I was, I type slowly though)

 

[thecarpman]

i normally keep my car for 4yrs to 6yrs especialy when i really like it, i had a 2001 mondeo silver ghia x it was the colour and model i wanted im sw london and i travelled to norwich to get that car had that for 7yrs of all the cars ive had (driving 27 yrs) ive never used one as a part ex ive either given them to family scrapped them or sold them cheap the only car i sold for good money was a saab 9-3 convertable aero had it for 3 months it was to low for me to get out gave me a bad back

[jbell]

9 hours ago, yunii said:

Also careful with the 1.0 ecoboost engines as they do have issues

Yunii

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I'd say - issue - the coolant pipe recall, which is fixed on the majority of cars. Besides from that they're fine? 

[bigchunk]

I just bought one, 16 plate with 500 miles on the clock, the main thing if possible is to get before and after pics so you can see what was damaged and how good it was repaired, I have been in the motor trade for almost 30 years though so a cat d does not worry me at all, as others have said, resale value will be lower but it's a great way to get an almost new car for 4 year old car money, especially if you intend to keep it for at least 5 years. 

[GaryPL]

2 hours ago, jbell said:

I'd say - issue - the coolant pipe recall, which is fixed on the majority of cars. Besides from that they're fine? 

Unfortunately not. There are lots of examples of failures after having the pipe changed. Without warning, the engine fills with water at around 40,000 miles. Being kept under wraps at the moment because it will cost Ford a fortune. They argue it's not subject to a safety recall, yet it happens when the engine is under load i.e. hauling the vehicle. Pretty dangerous - especially at speed.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FordEcoboostNightmare/

[jbell]

7 hours ago, GaryPL said:

Unfortunately not. There are lots of examples of failures after having the pipe changed. Without warning, the engine fills with water at around 40,000 miles. Being kept under wraps at the moment because it will cost Ford a fortune. They argue it's not subject to a safety recall, yet it happens when the engine is under load i.e. hauling the vehicle. Pretty dangerous - especially at speed.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FordEcoboostNightmare/

I'll have a read up on that later, mine just hit 43k so that is concerning...

[MJNewton]

All the reports on that group are for the Ecoboost in the Focus and whilst I understood them to be the same engines it would appear there may be external differences that are actually to blame. For example, the coolant expansion bottles are different and some (on the Focus) have been known to crack, dump their coolant which then blows the headgasket and anything remaining leaks into the cylinders.

I would be very keen on hearing about Ecoboost failures on the Fiesta specifically.

[GaryPL]

There are a couple of Fiestas in there too.

[MJNewton]

I went through all the posted registrations and found 38 Focus's, a B-Max and a C-Max. There may well have been a Fiesta since (that was in January) that I haven't seen, or a report of one without the registration but again I must've missed them if there were as I don't seem to recall any.