Been looking for some time for a car for the mrs

Spoke to a mate yesterday and he knows of a Sept 05 1.6 Focus Sport on 61k, it has had light os panel damage which has been repaired, all it needs is new airbags. The price atm is £2400 then I would have to get the dash panel and airbags sorted (theres a set on ebay for £450 as I type).

Do I bother ? It's had a VIC check and the fella is waiting on the V5 to back so I assume it's clean, besides my mate is a genuine guy and wouldn't hook me up with scammer.

Opinions please.

Depending on the extent of the accident damage, providing it has been repaired correctly then there is nothing wrong IMO with write off's - you can get a lot of car for the money.

However you need to make sure that anything that has been replaced has come from a sport (or higher) model, they can also be notoriously hard to sell on again as most people wont touch them with a barge pole, so if you intend keeping it for a long time then go for it, but not at that price i would want the airbags etc included in that price (so £2K for the car).

I wouldn't buy a written off car unless I could have seen the car prior to the damage being fixed.

It wouldn't take much to write off a 2005 Focus so it might have just been just a bit of cosmetic damage.

I'm told by my mate it was very light panel damage no bent legs or owt, it's just the bags popped which put the repair cost through the roof for the ins company, hence the write off

I'm told by my mate it was very light panel damage no bent legs or owt, it's just the bags popped which put the repair cost through the roof for the ins company, hence the write off

i believe the bags wont pop at impact of less than 30 mph, could be wrong, but a 30 mph impact i'm guessing would leave considerable damage!

As long as been repaired correctly and to good standard then a CAT C write off can be a good bargain, it will be a CAT C if it requires a VIC check. CAT D doesnt require a VIC if i remember correctly

Category C An extensively damaged vehicle which the insurer has decided not to repair, but which could be repaired and returned to the road.

Category D A damaged vehicle which the insurer has decided not to repair, but which could be repaired and returned to the road.

Cats C & D are generally written off on purley economic grounds and most insurers will reinsure them ok with little or no additional premium (but you must let them know).

A & B's are more extensivly damage and are usually car that the insure wants broken, never to be seen again.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/insurance

Just airbags? If they've gone, so have the seat belt pretensioners and the airbag control unit might need replacing as the crash data written to it is not usually eraseable with the normal diagnostic kit.

I know a man who can reprogram air bag ecu's, but not sure I can be bothered now tbh. Unless someone can convince me otherwise .............

I'd walk away from it as it is way too expensive for the damage.

You can probably get a 1.6 undamaged for not much more.