Re: Cat D write off - would you buy one?
 

My bike was Cat D'd last Feb, cost me about £400 to get it back on the road.

Re: Cat D write off - would you buy one?
 

I owned a cat C car (I crashed it). no probs at all. VIC test is a bit of a pain, but you don't have to worry about that on a bike. CAT D is nothing to worry about, especially on a 10 year old bike - it won't affect the value much though TBH, as how many 10 year old bikes HAVEN'T been crashed at some point? Not may I'd wager (although my ZZR has never touch the floor in it's 16 years)

Re: Cat D write off - would you buy one?
 

Its very easy for bikes to become Cat C or D as panels and labour costs soon mounts up. Trouble is for those not in the know it can be very off putting and can often affect residuals. So buy it only if its cheaper than an equivilant non write off and be prepared to work a bit harder at selling it when the time comes.

Re: Cat D write off - would you buy one?
 

i seen a Giixer 750 that was Cat D, and looked like a bargain for what it was.

Re: Cat D write off - would you buy one?
 

My blue SV was a Cat-D when it was a few weeks old and was repaired long before I bought it. I took one of my mates along who knows more about bikes than me. He checked for things like frame damage, bent forks etc. before I handed my money over.

Since then I've dropped it at low speed and scratched the farings a bit, but it was cheap enough that I wasn't stressed about it. If I'd had been a nice shiney new bike it would have been rather different.

Keith.

Re: Cat D write off - would you buy one?
 

I have no problem with buying or riding the bike but it does throw up some interesting dilemmas.

1. My insurer (Footman James) will not insure the bike without seeing and approving the MOT. They're telling me it will up the premium too.

2. When I called them I declared it Cat D from the HPI. Had I not told them I wonder if it would've come up on their system?

3. If I hadn't HPI'd it and got it insured who would've ben any the wiser?

I'm going to call a different insurer this afternoon and see if it comes up on a quote, just out of interest.

Re: Cat D write off - would you buy one?
 

IIRC CAT D doesn't even invalidate a current MOT.

My bike is a CAT D bought it back from the insurers, who were quite happy to continue insuring it, replaced the broken bits and that was it until the next MOT (which it passed without issue). Next insurers didn't ask, no idea if a HPI check would show it up, so didn't tell them.

Re: Cat D write off - would you buy one?
 

I'd buy one :) ive had 2 :) seriously i was the one that made both bikes cat c but they are real bargains! as already said its the stealer labour that writes the bike off not the parts.
My first sv needed £1200 of main dealer parts and £1900 of labour charges!!! ebay put it back on the road for £400 :)

Re: Cat D write off - would you buy one?
 

My SV650 K5 was shunted under a car by me within a couple of weeks of buying it. The total estimated cost of the repair was way over 80% of the bike's value at the time. I fought with the insurance company to keep it off the HPI register and managed to do that by agreeing to do the work myself, thereby saving the dealer's labour. I got a cheque for 1700 quid and it cost me just over 800 quid in parts which included a brand new full fairing. Most of the damage was replaced with better parts than it had before, or I polished the scratches out of stuff like the footrests and exhaust can thereby saving a fortune. When I sold it to Rai her friend who owns a bike shop was most impressed with it, so I must have done a good job of it because he recommended that she buy it.

The point I'm making is that if you know what you're doing, you can make a Cat C or D bike better than it was pre-crash for very little money.

Re: Cat D write off - would you buy one?
 

And that is the crux of it. If you dont know what you are doing, its quite easy to make a lash up of it and thats the thing that would put me off. Unless I 100% knew the history of it, what the crash was, how much damage had been done and how and just as importantly who had put it right. Trouble is that info isnt always available.