Scrapping a Cat A, B, and S car

Is your car past its sell-by date? Is it beyond repair and you don't know whether it will live to see another day? If your car has been damaged or involved in an accident then your insurance company will have the final say and decide whether or not it is a write-off (unrepairable and not allowed back on the road). If it is, then you'll know about it as it will have a fancy new title.

So let's say your car is now either unsafe to drive it will be assigned one of the two insurance categories, Cat A or Cat B.

If your car is still hanging on by a fine thread and could be repaired to go back on the road, that will be a Cat S.

In short, this is what we're dealing with:

Cat A: Scrap only

Cat B: Break for parts

Cat S: Structurally damaged but repairable

Category A

We really do feel for you if your car has put into a Cat A. Basically, there's no hope left for your car and it has to be crushed. You can forget about removing any parts from your car either, as this isn't an option. If your car is dead, your car is dead and no parts can be returned to the road. This is devasting if some parts were salvageable because you could have sold them on, but no, they have to be destroyed too, which limits the vehicle value to scrap metal only.

Normally, if your car is declared a Cat A then your insurance company will deal with it and the scrappage of it, which is great if your car was your pride and joy. It means you don't have to deal with looking at your car being in the worst state its ever been in.

Category B

Things start looking up a little bit if your car is a Category B. On the downside your car's body shell would have to be crushed, but on the bright side, you would be able to salvage parts from it, so it's not all bad.

Similar to Cat A, cars that have been written off as a Cat B should never return to the road. If you do take parts from it, they should be fine to use in other roadworthy cars so you could always sell them on if you wanted.

Category S

If your car falls under a Category S, it will need some serious repairs doing to it before it can be deemed safe to drive on the road. We're talking structural damage, like the twisting or bending of your chassis or maybe a problem with one of the more vital parts. Or, you do have the option for it to be scrapped too.

The thing with Cat S cars, is if you choose to keep it, it does require re-registration with the DVLA and declaration to any future buyers that you might have. As long as you follow the repair procedures, you'll be ok. The main thing is that you provide your complete log book to your insurance company and apply for a free duplicate using the DVLA's V62 form. The DVLA will do the rest for you and make sure that the car has Cat S registration. This might sound lie the boring part, all the paperwork and faff, but its the most important part too so that if you were to ever sell your car to someone, they know about if your car has ever sustained any damage., prior to them purchasing it.

Should you buy a Cat A or Cat B car?

There's nothing to say that you can't buy a Cat A car, but it's not really worth it at the end of the day, unless you're going to take it to an Authorised Treatment Facility to be binned. If you didn't want to go there, you could always come to us too.

We can help you to compare the best scrap deals around. No matter where you are or what you're doing, you can get a scrap car quote straight to your phone. It's all at your fingertips and you can choose an offer that best suits you. All we need to give you all the information for you to be able to scrap your car is your reg number. Everything else will brought to you on you lap, so you can sit back, relax and wait for our scrap buyers to get in touch.

A Cat A is the highest level given in terms of damage, so it doesn't get much worse than this. It gets a bit better when we talk about buying a Cat B, but not much. If you want to know whether you should buy a Cat B, then the answer is yes and no. If you plan on driving the car, then no. The shell of the car itself is a Cat B so can never return to the road. If you're looking for a donor car for parts, then by all means the parts can be used in other cars.