Talking Scrap – What Is A Category C Car?
14th Feb, 2017
We all know what the term totalled means; it means a vehicle is wrecked. Done. Finito. But in fact, the technical definition is a tiny bit more complicated – the term is referring to the fact that the cost of the damage is worth more than the car’s total worth. Hence: totalled. Armed with this piece of trivia (feel free to use it in a pub quiz), let us tell you a bit about Category C cars.
What Is A Category C Car?
Essentially, a Cat C car is a vehicle that’s been heavily damaged or written off by an insurance company who decided not to repair it (it’s totalled, if you will). Mostly Cat C cars are ones that have been involved in accidents or collisions. Flood or fire damage are also common factors. Despite this, though, it’s not necessarily illegal to put them back on the road. Difficult and probably expensive yes, illegal no. If they’ve been repaired properly and declared roadworthy, it’s legal for them to be put back on the road after a bit of official double-checking.
Some good news for you, then – even if your car is a Cat C vehicle, you can still sell it! Having said that though, you do need to let the buyer know that it’s a Cat C car. What’s more, it has to go through a Vehicle Identity Check by the DLVA to confirm that the same car you’re selling is indeed the same car that was once declared off-road, and it has indeed been repaired. A fair few hoops to jump through, you’re probably thinking, and you wouldn’t be wrong! But they do have to be performed – without them, there are opportunities for shadier vendors to sell unsafe cars using inaccurate certification.
As you can imagine, Category C cars are not worth an awful lot, and traditionally go for far less than their market value. Even second hand car dealers will rarely have an interest in buying them, whether they’ve been repaired or not. That doesn’t mean that they’re impossible to sell though – certain motor traders and repair businesses will gladly take them on, so you might be able to recoup a modest sum from them.
So What Does This Mean If I Want To Scrap My Car?
Happily, very little! Mainly Cat C cars are pains to sell, but they can be scrapped for cash just like any other car. In case you’re wondering “are there any other categories?”, well there are indeed. There are both Category A and Category B cars, both of which generally indicate that the vehicle is so badly damaged that it should never appear on the roads again.
Whatever the category, we can say with confidence that we are the guys you want for all of your car scrapping needs. Not only can we get you a fantastic deal from any one of our Authorised Treatment Facilities, but by choosing us you’re helping out with environmental and humanitarian causes too! If doing good isn’t a solid incentive, we don’t know what is. You can read in more detail about reasons to choose us here, or get straight to scrapping by entering your car reg and postcode to get an instant price to scrap your car on our website.
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