Gully Posted June 24, 2010 Report Share Posted June 24, 2010 A friend of mine has a fantastic Defender 90 Td5 which was all set up for long offroad travelling around Africa. It recently suffered an engine fire and has been written off by his insurance. It's totally repairable but the assessor has classed it Cat B which means it can't be put back on the road. We can't understand why this has been done other than some kind of scam where he gets some kind of kickback on all the expensive bits that can now be taken off the car. Even the engine block is fine and worth a few grand. He's now looking for a donor car to take the history of and get a new chassis, engine etc and rebuild it. I think it will need to be a cat D write off as a cat C would have to go through a Vehicle ID check? I don't know much about all this kind of stuff and my mate knows even less, so any pointers would be helpful. Anyone know where to start looking for a donor car? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tam Posted June 24, 2010 Report Share Posted June 24, 2010 (edited) :unsure: :unsure: can of worms mate :blink: but if you are looking for damaged repairables check out the UK's largest & best http://www.copart.co.uk/c2/home.html Edited June 24, 2010 by Tam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stumacher Posted June 24, 2010 Report Share Posted June 24, 2010 hi there , your post interests me as i am a bodyshop estimator. i've always been lead to believe there's four levels of total loss a to d. After surfing the web there seems to be cat f for fire. Now don't get too excited as i will look further into this tomorrow at work, but surely if this is the case it would be the lowest form of total loss and wouldn't have to be broken or taken off the road. I can understand why its been set as a cat b. as vehicles which have been flooded or fire damaged or are full of blood are a hazard to any body who comes in contact with them. But if there is a cat f surely you could contest the cat and receive a pay out and keep the car! quids in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlistairB Posted June 24, 2010 Report Share Posted June 24, 2010 I've used these guys before to buy insurance write offs for parts for rebuilds. AB http://www.hbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/zyview/D=vehi...e/ZV_AND_OR=and Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gully Posted June 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2010 Thanks for the replies. I posted this up as I was due to meet the guy last night and I'd promised I'd ask around about this. He's sorted the problem. A couple of solicitors letters and they've re-classified it as a Cat D and they've reduced the payout by 20% for him to keep the scrap. There was definitely a scam going on though as the woman at the insurance company kept saying that the car had to be removed and crushed in its entirety without any of the extra accessories (roll cage etc) being removed. The assessor turned up and gave it a Cat B without even getting out of his car. You may be right about the fire damaged interior being hazardous though. Also maybe they assume that the amount of heat produced would buckle the subframe on a normal car. Not a problem on a defender though with its proper chassis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted June 25, 2010 Report Share Posted June 25, 2010 might not do the aluminium much good though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gully Posted June 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2010 There's not much ally left, its all burnt away. In a lot of heat ally doesn't melt, it burns very well. both front wings, bonnet and most of the front except the bulkhead is gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted June 25, 2010 Report Share Posted June 25, 2010 sounds like that is why the assesor didn't get out of the car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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