If it has suffered structural damage, it is classed as a Cat S.Īs a result, a car placed in Cat C under the old system could be a Cat N under the new one if it has no structural damage, or a Cat S if it has had some sort of structural repair. Under the new system, the key criterion is whether or not a car has suffered structural damage. What is the equivalent of Cat C under the new category system?īefore 2017, whether a car fell into the insurance write-off categories of Cat C and Cat D depended on whether or not the cost of repairs exceeded the value of the car – if the car was deemed more expensive to repair than it was worth, it would be a Cat C write-off. Cars that fall into Category C are often referred to as ‘Cat C cars’. BuyaCar does not sell cars that have previously been written off. It was not decided by an outside party.Ĭategory A and B cars are too damaged to be repaired and must be scrapped.

The category a car falls into was decided by the insurer’s inspecting staff or an independent engineer chosen by them. If you find a used car that has previously been written off, then it may have been graded under this system.Īll write-offs that fell into these categories were recorded on the motor insurance fraud and theft register (MIAFTR). Others might have minor damage to an expensive part, which means that it’s not economical for an insurer to repair them, but may be cost-effective for a garage to do so with second-hand components.īetween 2007 and September 2017, the insurance industry used four categories of write-offs, from A (the worst) to D (the least serious). Some write-offs are completely unrecognisable as cars. Read on for more details on what Cat C means, or click on the button below to start your search for a quality-assured used car. We also do not list previously written-off cars. As a result, you should be cautious about any vehicle that’s classified as Cat C.Īll the cars we sell on BuyaCar will have their histories checked prior to being listed on the site, so you can be sure there will be no unwanted surprises attached to any of our used cars.

While these may well have been fully repaired and can now be considered safe to drive, it can be hard to tell how competently these cars have been repaired. So while newly written-off cars are no longer classified as Category C, some cars assessed under the old system (prior to 1 October 2017) will pop up for sale. The new write-off categories introduced on 1 October 2017 are as follows:Ĭategory A: Car may not be repaired, and must be crushed.Ĭategory B: Car may have its usable parts recycled, but it also must be crushed.Ĭategory N: A write-off that has not sustained any damage to its structure, and which may be repaired and safely returned to the road.Ĭategory S: Car that has suffered structural damage but which is repairable. A car that would have previously been classified as a Cat C could be down as a Cat N - this depends on whether or not the car sustained any structural damage before it was repaired. However, the new categorisation system introduced in 2017 can be a source of confusion. The problem is, it can be hard to ascertain what type of repairs have been done and how well they were carried out, and insuring a cat C car can be more expensive than one with a clean history. A Cat C car can be safe to drive as long as it’s repaired safely and properly. In these cases, the car isn’t necessarily considered completely unroadworthy. However, after this happens, it gets categorised according to the level of damage, meaning it may or may not eventually be put back on the road.īut, what does Cat C mean? Category C (often shortened to ‘Cat C’) means the insurer has deemed the cost of repair to exceed the value of the vehicle. While they could seem like a great deal, these cars can represent a risk to the buyer.Īfter an accident, if an insurer considers the cost of repair to be greater than the value of the car itself, or the car cannot be repaired safely, they will write the vehicle off. If you’ve ever come across a car for sale that seems suspiciously cheaper than most other equivalent models with the same age and mileage, it’s likely it could have previously been written off by an insurance company.

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