Some rotter has stolen the cataytic converter from my car. Police were notified apparently its increasingly common because of the high scrap value.

The insurance company has written off the car as the oem parts and repair are costly and its quite an old car now (07 octavia). So I have a choice of taking their valuation of £2k, which seems reasonable, and the car is scrapped or keeping it to repair myself.

If I keep the car I’ll still get around £1300, estimated repair cost with cheap online parts is £500-600.
Risk is a cheaper aftermarket cat may not last very long and increase chance of mot fail on emissions, also the car will be cat N and lose value. Would certainly never be worth 2k again. On the other hand I would be spending at least 2k on an unknown used car so certainly not without risk.

Worst part is losing no claims and excess through no fault of my own but can’t be avoided now.
Not really sure which is the best option potential risk and costs either way – wwstw do?

No offence in running without a cat, just straight pipe it and consider it a £700 ten year old motor. Is the mot fresh? Do you know a mot tester? If you’ve got 12 months test on it I’d keep it.

No point chucking money at it imo, something else could let go at that age. Cats are being pinched a lot, easy money as the precious metal content is so high and on older cars your talking 5 minutes for two blokes with a hand tool.

If the car is still in your posession, chances are even if they pay out the write off they’ll tell you to scrap it, you could have the full money and the car if that happens.

If the car is still in your posession, chances are even if they pay out the write off they’ll tell you to scrap it, you could have the full money and the car if that happens.

I think you’d have a job getting insurance and tax for a scrapped car!

OP, if the Octavia is reliable and shows no signs of needing expensive repairs soon, I’d take the repair money, you could easily buy a £2k replacement that needs similar to do big jobs in short order.

If the car is still in your posession, chances are even if they pay out the write off they’ll tell you to scrap it, you could have the full money and the car if that happens.

Not always the case is it.

The new categories for damaged insurance payout cars allow some categories to be fixed and back on the road with minimal repair work…

Cat pinching would come under one of the lesser categories as it isn’t structural.

Buy it back, de-cat it. Drive it till it dies.

Be aware that a decatted car, while legal, absolutely **** stinks, you may be able to smell it in the car if a window is open, it’s not nice.
Edit: i mean the exhaust.

estimated repair cost with cheap online parts is £500-600.

Have you priced the parts up yourself? What model is it?

Worst part is losing no claims and excess through no fault of my own but can’t be avoided now.

Why on earth did you you even get the insurance involved for something like this, it’ll probably end up costing more in the long run than just keeping quiet and sorting it yourself 😂

I think you’d have a job getting insurance and tax for a scrapped car!

Why does it get scrapped? It gets recorded as a write off whatever happens, assuming as a cat removal it will only be a minor one and not need any re certifying etc.

Just means they’ll let you sort scrapping it as opposed to picking it up themselves, so you just don’t scrap it. That’s how I’ve done it anyway, had 2 written off, kept one and scrapped one. No idea if there’s more regulations etc on the new insurance write off categories.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/modifying-your-vehicles-emissions/modifying-your-vehicles-emissions-the-legal-safety-and-health-implications

Cheers all.

Octavia passed mot in November, no advisories its generally mechanically sound afaik. Needs air con sorted but that can wait a few months! Its a 1.8 tsi petrol btw.
Could be wrong but isn’t a decat an instant fail if there would have been one in place from new? Also not comfortable pumping out more harmful crap than is necessary.

Insurance company will definitely take the car if I accept the write off, Ive already had to delay salvage people from coming to collect while I decide what to do.
Will be classed as cat N non structural damage if I keep it.

Maybe shouldn’t have been so hasty informing insurance but was in a right flap when I found it! Soon as the mechanic mentioned repairs of £500+ I figured thats what its there for. Just checked a few quotes and premium won’t go up too much.

Anyway edging towards keeping it now. Fnding the cheapest cat I can online and getting my regular garage to install it. Keep the leftover money for eventual replacement and if the repair lasts a couple of years and nothing else major goes wrong its not worked out too bad.

In hindsight it might have been less hassle to just buy a new cat, that said, if it go knicked once, they might come back in a month and have it away again.

Decat will fail an MOT, you could also be in trouble with the Construction And Use regulations if you came to the attention of a suitable knowledgable Police Officer. Or a DofT roadside check.

It was a one off I left it ouside the pub overnight after a few pints its usually parked at home. Bloody expensive night out!

Personally i wouldn’t involved the insurance company, making a insurance claim will cost more in the long run than buying a 2nd hand cat and fitting it yourself (or ask a friend who is handy with cars who will fit it for a drink or two)

2nd hand cats can be had for around £100-£200 and being a Skoda means more than likely the same cat is fitted to other models in the Skoda/VW/Audi/Seat group

Buy a second hand cat so you can give the original thieves a bonus for their work! 😉

Having had a couple write off’s in this situation, I found it’s usually better to keep the car. They’re writing off the car because their repair costs will be higher, but most people will do a ‘good enough’ cheap repair that is much cheaper. A Cat rating on a car worth only £2k won’t affect it’s resale value in a couple of years. That’s more of a concern if the car is worth £15k.

Or, as its a 1.8t go for a new stainless system to get the more horses. Chuck a remap on it while there and enjoy some new found fun.

As tempting as that is I’m not sure the 12 yr old clutch would enjoy the extra shove!
Searching ebay and I can get a new cat for £250 not much more that a used one. Got to be good for a couple of years at least?

Let them write it off but don’t let them have the car – its your property!

Absolutely don’t let it out of your sight. Never accept their first offer for the value of the car ALWAYS negotiate. This might get you £500 more. Remember its retail value of the car not trade value of the car, you have to replace it.

Then once you have agreed a figure, only then ask them to buy the salvage back from them. I’d start at £500.

They will otherwise have to pay to pick the car up, transport to auction, auction fees which costs them £££ they will want to avoid this as they will only get a few quid at auction.

So if you get it for £500 you are £2000 better off, as above have a local garage weld in a straight pipe or get a cheap cat fitted.

Good advise thanks, I’ve not accepted the insurance valuation yet. They did say if I retained it there is a fixed percentage they would deduct depending on category of the write off.

Firstly, if no work or recovery has been done on the car yet and you’re regretting involving insurance, there’s no harm ringing them up and asking about withdrawing the claim. If you’ve had anything from them (e.g. hire car, recovery of the vehicle) then you would have to reimburse them for that, but it doesn’t sound like this has happened. If they’ve sent an engineer to inspect then that could be a cost though.

Secondly (assuming you proceed with the claim), on the numbers and the “keep it” “deduct some” conversation, it’s probably easier to understand what’s happening and assess your decision making by separating what are in effect two transactions:

1) Settlement of your claim – as above re. advice, although I have had fair offers in the past as well has having to argue so don’t assume this has to be a fight.

2) Buying back the car from the insurer. This the reality of the second transaction – they’ve settled (1) so now, what will they sell the car back to you for? They’ll net this off the amount they settle for when they send you money (which is why people talk about a “deduction”, it’s not a deduction in your settlement, it’s a separate transaction being offset).

Why this distinction is useful is in assessing the decision you need to make: Do you want to buy this car in it’s current condition for the amount the insurance are willing to sell it to you for? The amount they’ve settled for is irrelevant to that decision (other than setting the price, (2) will be a percentage of (1)).

I had a not-worth-a-whole-lot car written off by my insurer needing a front bumper. I paid the insurer less than the full tank of petrol it had in it to buy it back – a no brainer for me, if I’d driven it until it was dry and then torched it I would have been up on the deal. £30 down the scrappies and 20,000 miles later it looks like one of my better car purchases – don’t forget as well as buying the car for next to nothing I got the full settlement for the car I’ve had all that usage from. So it’s Cat N? I don’t even care about the loss in value, I’ve already had the payout at the non-Cat N and 20,000 miles ago value..

Then once you have agreed a figure, only then ask them to buy the salvage back from them. I’d start at £500.

I’d keep my mouth shut and find out how much they want first – mine was written off at around £1-1.1K value iirc so similar ballpark to yours and I paid less than £50 to buy it back. I wouldn’t be inclined to open with an offer of £500 for a 12 year old “spares or repair” Skoda that the insurer considers not economic to repair.

wzzzz

Member

Let them write it off but don’t let them have the car – its your property!

When it’s written off it becomes their property. Policy docs will cover this.

As edlong says, a quick call to the insurance company can make it all go away if you dont want to proceed with the claim. You wont even be lying about the “accidents or claims” question at renewal time if you do

As someone with an 07 car that I’ve had for ages and is trouble-free (touch wood), I’ve come to the conclusion that I could never get anything as reliable for even double its current market value. It’s a known quantity and I’ll be keeping it for as long as I can. With that in mind, I’d just take the hit and pay for a new cat – £2k won’t get you anything especially nice second hand, and at that price point everything is a bit of a gamble.

Thanks again very useful.

From what they said on the phone they deduct a fixed percentage depending on the category, cat N is a 30% deduction so if I accepted the 2k valuation and keep the car I get £1400. In effect I’m paying £600 for my broken but repairable car. Now I’m not sure if they are trying it on and this percentage is open for negotiotion. I would be inclined to debate this with them as it does seem like a high deduction.

Looking on autotrader etc I may struggle to negotiate a higher settlement valuation, there are a fair few similar age Octavias around that price they would use that to back up their offer. They may be about to blow up (tsi engine apparently notoriously unreliable) but its not something I can really prove.

Interesting I had no idea I may be able to cancel the claim. No courtesy car or work undertaken only cost may be to garage for storage.
Cancelling the claim would I still have to pay to have cheap cat fitted approx £350 not great on an old car but would maintain no claims. Not confident enough to work on it myself unfortunately I have a habit of making things worse…

Is the premium increase for the next ~5 years really going to cost you £1400?

I doubt they’d offer me £500 for my 06 C-max which would adjust the mathematics a bit, but I’d bite their hands off for £1400!

only cost may be to garage for storage

Unfortunately you might be unpleasantly surprised by what the insurance repair industry considers to be a reasonable daily storage rate – if this the road you want to go down I’d have the conversation today, and get the car back asap.

Cancelling the claim would I still have to pay to have cheap cat fitted approx £350 not great on an old car but would maintain no claims.

My 05 car has almost 180k but its been super reliable and a known quantity. Just sailed through the MOT… (a month early just in case)

I’m going to have to get a new clutch at some point and makes no sense not to fit a new DMF at the same time so it will be about £1000….

Obviously no insurance involved but it’s a perspective if you can just withdraw the claim.
Advantages.. you can say no on the claims question, car doesn’t get potentially more expensive as CAT <?>