Skoda Octavia vRS - Help on buying a 2007 cat D car is the price ok?

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Fri 9 Jun 2017 10:05
Skoda Octavia vRS - Help on buying a 2007 cat D car is the price ok? - malibu200786

How much is a cat D repaired 10 year old car worth ?

Hello I'm looking at 2007 Skoda Octavia vrs , in the blue colour , which has the touch screen satnav system in .
The car itself had its cat D in 2009 , only had 2 owners altogether .
The last keeper since 2009 .
The car is the petrol 2.0 tfsi and has done 106000 miles , but only has very little service history with it I'm guessing because when it became a cat D they decided it wasn't worth it to take it but just done it themselves.

The car is in really good condition , the engine is smooth it drives straight and smooth , the bodywork is in really good condition no dents or scratches , other than stonechips to the front end , but this is to be expected on a 2007 car I suppose ?

The seller has offered £2800 with new mot and warranty
Is this too much for a cat D ?

I went looking at a 2008 model with 136000 miles on it with full service history including 2 cambelt changes , but the bodywork was a lot more scratched and had quite a few small dents in it , and didn't feel quite has smooth but wasn't a cat D , they want £3300 .

Edited by Avant on 09/06/2017 at 10:41

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Fri 9 Jun 2017 10:43
Skoda Octavia vRS - Help on buying a 2007 cat D car is the price ok? - RobJP

It's worth roughly 25% less than a 'clean' equivalent car.

The 'warranty' will have so many exclusions and clauses as to be almost worthless.

I'll put it this way though. Would you buy a 'performance' version of a normal car, that was 10 years old, with 100k+ miles on the clock, with very little service history ?

Personally, the lack of any evidence of servicing would put me right off it (even if it's been self-serviced, I'd expect the owner to have kept the receipts for parts and other bits, and jobs like the cambelt/waterpump are a swine to do as a 'home mechanic' on cars like this requiring half the front of the car to be dismantled).

Simple lesson : if no evidence of servicing exists, then you MUST assume servicing has never been done.

Buying cheap = buying trouble.

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Fri 9 Jun 2017 14:24
Skoda Octavia vRS - Help on buying a 2007 cat D car is the price ok? - catsdad
In addition to Rob's good advice you need think about what CAT d means in a car that was 2 years old at the time of categorisation. A CAT d declared at that young age would suggest it needed a lot of work at the time. OK it's subsequently lasted to a good age but it's going to be a concern.
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Fri 9 Jun 2017 14:31
Skoda Octavia vRS - Help on buying a 2007 cat D car is the price ok? - SLO76
The only time you should consider a Cat D is if it's been written off by minor damage due to the low value of the car. For example a ten year old car that's worth £1,500 could be written off by a cracked bumper and a few scuffs but something that was written off at two years old would've seen massive damage to be a total loss.

On your tight budget I wouldn't be looking at complex performance motors like this anyway, not unless you can afford to just write off the amount when it explodes. It will go wrong and it'll cripple you to fix it. Do yourself a favour and buy something more in line with your budget.
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Sat 10 Jun 2017 07:35
Skoda Octavia vRS - Help on buying a 2007 cat D car is the price ok? - oldroverboy.

£500 ish at the most. It is a 10 year old banger.

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Sat 10 Jun 2017 10:13
Skoda Octavia vRS - Help on buying a 2007 cat D car is the price ok? - bathtub tom
has very little service history with it I'm guessing because when it became a cat D they decided it wasn't worth it to take it but just done it themselves.

Either that, or it hasn't been serviced for years. I'd lean towards the latter.

The last car I sold (privately) had a folder full of every receipt relating to it during my years of ownership.

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