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Should I buy cat C Alfa 156??

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A

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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
Can you help me please?

There's an Alfa 156 2.0 T.Spark for sale locally for £1095. It looks great inside and out, but I've been told there is an intermittant knocking/crunching sound from the rear (presummably something to do with the suspension), which I looked online and appears plausable to have repaired.

I asked whether the timing belts and water pump had been replaced and the fella said they hadn't since he has owned it but he has had the cambelt replaced and the waterpump didn't need replacing. He also told me that he bought the car from a salvage yard and the car was a cat C and he had the wing and suspension leg repaired at a professional body shop. He is getting a new MOT put on the car and has had the VIC check done and has a certificate for this.

I don't know anything about the mechanics of Alfa's, just love the cars! Please can someone tell me if this car sounds ok or a risk?? Should I pay to get the AA to look it over? It's 9 years old, but my kids will go in it, so I need to know it's safe. Such a beautiful car, looks brand new inside and out....help!!!
 
bobda

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#3 ·
I think if you've got to ask then you know the answer. There may be nothing wrong with the repair job, but it obviously needs work to make it good otherwise it wouldn't be crunching.
There should be plenty of Alfas available for similar money and in better condition. My advice - save your money and get one that has been looked after.
 
pubsinger

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#4 ·
There's nothing wrong with buying Cat C/D cars providing all the paperwork and repairs are in order, however the fact it has been written off should be reflected in the price. The money being asked here is what one would expect for a 156 with no such history.

Having said that you don't say what the mileage is and what spec the car is, the knocking is also a worry, who's to say how much that's going to cost to put right?

Only you can ultimately decide whether it's worth the money.

All the best

Pub
 
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PhilzAlfa

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#5 ·
Run a mile :lol:

A cat C with crunching suspension for over £1000 is not a good buy. It may look smart, but crash repaired vehicles usually do. There are plenty of other 156's out there to choose from :thumbs:
 
gazza82

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Alfa Mito, 2010, 1.4NA, 6-speed
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#6 ·
What year is it? Engine size, trim levels, etc ...

I'd go with PhilzAlfa .. keep looking. I once found a Cat C Clio for £3800 ... paid £4200 for a newer one and no history of damage.

(The Cat C wasn't actually well repaired either when you looked ... and this was outside the repair shop that did the work! Not a good advert)
 
A

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#7 ·
dont buy it...im telling you this from personal experience
is been proffesionally repaired but still making crunching noise from back??? not good
alfas are cars that needs to be looked after properly and why change cambelt and not change water pump?
what about the cambelt tensioner?? a new belt and an old tensioner and water pump is the right recipe for a snapped cambelt very soon!!
plenty of good ones and cheap 156 out there just keep looking
 
G

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#10 ·
As others have said, A Cat C isn't necessarily a bad buy as such. A lot of Cat Cs get written off purely because of age. If they had been a year or two newer they would just have been fixed and nobody would be any the wiser. However, if they are recorded, they need to be cheap and perfect to be worth it. If it's got issues and it's not cheap it's not worth it.
 
T

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#11 ·
I say don't buy it, not worth the risk and i am speaking from my own experience. bought a Lexus is200 cat c a year back and then wrote off in an accident. insurance valued it 500 pounds less than normal market value. Plus you cant really see how well the structural repair is, may be it was just good enough to go through the test but not to last.
 
P

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#13 ·
tonz13 said:
I say don't buy it, not worth the risk and i am speaking from my own experience. bought a Lexus is200 cat c a year back and then wrote off in an accident. insurance valued it 500 pounds less than normal market value. Plus you cant really see how well the structural repair is, may be it was just good enough to go through the test but not to last.
Click to expand...
Which is why you should've paid less to buy it. My mate has done cat c/d's up for years and makes decent money doing it but the cars always sell well under market value. So you can't complain when you sell it on under market value. (another mate bought an astra off him someone rear ended him and the insurance actually paid out £500 more than he'd bought the car from)

I had someone working on my house who bought a cupra R for £4700 and after 3 years the market value was £4500ish and he was complaining because when he put it up for £4400 no one would touch it. So he was saying wasn't really worth it, but my point to him was could you have bought a Cupra R for the £8000 it would've been u straight then happily sold it for £4400 now losing almost 50% where as if he'd put his car up for £3700 he'd have got £3500 all day losing a lot less.

My aunt once bought a cat c from a garage at market value, the garage told her it was cat c but did not explain what it meant, now this is wrong.(sure she thought it was summit to do with cat converter)

Really the moral of the story is the seller, some will sell at full value and you shouldn't touch with a barge. As a rule of thumb even if the car is stone mint, it should be around bottom book price
 
A

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Discussion Starter · #14 ·
Thanks for your replies everyone. The car is a 2.0 Twin Spark with full leather interior, air con, spoiler and skirts. I don't know what other spec it has as I have deliberately not looked inside and taken a test drive because my heart would rule my head!

The seller is putting on a full MOT before it sells. There is a Alfa specialist repair centre near me and I am going to ask one of the mechanics to look it over for me and check the repairs from the cat C (the seller says he has receipts from the bodyshop which repaired it). Is there any way of getting a report of what the Cat C entailed? I'd like to see exactly what was wrong to make sure it was all fixed.

The car wasn't knocked from the rear, (so he says!) and claims this is a new fault.

Anyone know how I can upload a photo of the car on here??
 
K

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#15 ·
if you are mechanically minded and have the time and cash and you want a project then i would but you said you have kids just like me i bought a 156 sportwagon for 1k last year spent £800 on it straigth away to do cam belt etc etc love the car but parts arent cheap so mine is a on going project just to keep it on the road i know of at least 5 thing i need doing to mine and they are way down the list of knocking noiseies
 
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