buying advice please - cat d damage

[cbay]

Originally Posted by rich88

Yeahh i am thinking about just sacking it in and going somewhere else, but its seems so hard to find a nice full fair low milage new-ish black sv650.

Patience my friend.

Plus you don't want to go for 2nd best, its a Cat D at the end of the day. Price seems way to high to me.

and Mileage is not everything.

[Nobbylad]

My bike was written off as Cat d after the fairings were damaged in a fairly low speed off thanks to some plonker turning across me to get to a side road.

Insurance company paid out fair price and I bought the bike back and sorted the fairings etc for cheap.

Not saying I'd buy one, just pointing out that there are probably bikes that have had worse damage than a Cat D that have never been reported to insurer and just fixed up and rode again.

I would walk away personally. I got a 08 SV for 2700 with free gear and only 1500 miles on the clock. One owner from new. The deals are out there

yeah i spent 2/3 months looking for mine.. got an 07 6k miles for 2400. not many nice ones at low prices showed up, but once id bought mine several did at once, sods law

i think theres a blue 07 with lots of mods in the for sale section on here for 2500 ish right now

cat d bikes are a good buy but the one in question is too expencive, you can knock 20/30% off that price and if the seller agrees then its a bargain use your HPI report as a bargaining tool

My bike was written off after some (mostly aesthetic) fairly minor damage. Needless to say, before buying the "wreck" back and repairing it, I researched the subject thoroughly. The conclusion I reached was:

Cat C can be a bit of a ball ache, but Cat D is not that big a deal.

You are best of declaring it to your insurers, but there are plenty of insurers who won't load a premium for a Cat D bike. They just won't pay out as much if it's in a crash (irrespective of who is to blame) because the bike is perceived as not being worth very much. It's also harder to sell on, because all future buyers who do their homework will also clock it's a Cat D and have the same reservations that you do. If you're the sort of person who chops and changes bikes all the time, it's probably not worth it, unless you can get it for an absolute steal. If on the other hand, you'll keep it until you run it into the ground and your insurer are happy to insure it at a sensible rate, go for it, provided you can get him to drop the price a lot.

The main thing is, for a Cat D bike, that is very overpriced. I'd be looking to pay £2000-2300 for that. Tell the seller irrespective of how legit he thought it was when he bought it, it's a Cat D, show him the HPI and let him know he'll have this problem with everyone he tries to sell it to at this price. If he won't budge on price, walk away.

Originally Posted by Ceri JC

My bike was written off after some (mostly aesthetic) fairly minor damage. Needless to say, before buying the "wreck" back and repairing it, I researched the subject thoroughly. The conclusion I reached was:

Cat C can be a bit of a ball ache, but Cat D is not that big a deal.

You are best of declaring it to your insurers, but there are plenty of insurers who won't load a premium for a Cat D bike. They just won't pay out as much if it's in a crash (irrespective of who is to blame) because the bike is perceived as not being worth very much. It's also harder to sell on, because all future buyers who do their homework will also clock it's a Cat D and have the same reservations that you do. If you're the sort of person who chops and changes bikes all the time, it's probably not worth it, unless you can get it for an absolute steal. If on the other hand, you'll keep it until you run it into the ground and your insurer are happy to insure it at a sensible rate, go for it, provided you can get him to drop the price a lot.

The main thing is, for a Cat D bike, that is very overpriced. I'd be looking to pay £2000-2300 for that. Tell the seller irrespective of how legit he thought it was when he bought it, it's a Cat D, show him the HPI and let him know he'll have this problem with everyone he tries to sell it to at this price. If he won't budge on price, walk away.

Yeah i did tell the seller this and he said he would consider a lowwer offer, as i had already said to him i would have paid anything near the asking price.

But i've decided not to go for it, maybe if it wasnt my first bike and i knew a little more and was more confident with buying/maintaining bikes i would have gone for it but i dont think its worse the potential risk for me.

Luckily got another one lined up thats basically the same, save for all the extras the other one had (alarm, seat cowl, scottoiler etc).
2.6k miles, fully faired 08, black, asking price is £2995. and more importantly HPI clear!

Thanks for the advice chaps!!