what do they mean? this might help a few of you as it seems a very common question

Below are the advisory status the insurance assesors will issue a car when it is inspected. *note the word ADVISORY, we will come to that later*

CAT A : Scrap only, ie, with few or no economically salvagable parts and vehicle is of value only for scrap, ie total burnouts.

CAT B : Break for spare parts, if economically viable (excluding any residual scrap value)

CAT C : Repairable total loss, Vehicles where repair costs including vat exceed the vehicles pre acicdent value.

CAT D : Repairable total loss vehicles where the repair costs do not exceed the vehicles re accident value.



So as i mentioned before, these are advisory markers only. ~ There is no reason why a CAT A car cannot be returned to the road....however salvage disposers should try to ensure cat A and B vehilces do not re appear on the road.

The point of no return for these vehicles, is when they are issued with a COD marker (certificate of destruction) issued by scrap disposers, this means the cars have been destroyed.
it has been known for cars with cod markers to re appear on the road, and this is normally dealt with by the scrapping of the car under dvla instruction.

CAT A,B,and C cars will require a vic test to be issued with a new v5.

 

cheers for that mate

i have always wondered about this and have been put off for no real reason aslong as work has been carried out to a high standard

 

sometimes they can be ok. sometimes they can be unsafe. For example, a box section with a box inside it like often found around the rear quarters in modern hatchbacks, when they weld a new rear corner on they can only weld the bits you see, meaning the inner box section remains unwelded after being cut out... but you'd never know cause from the outside it looks welded.

Best way to deal with this is inspect it yourself before damage and make sure it can be rapaired to how it should be, or make sure there are pics of the repair showing things like this are worked around.

 

there is also a category X.. i bought one recently which needed glass only..no vic check needed etc

 

I have always wanted to know that.Thanks.

 

Handy bit of info there

 

yup v` usefull

ta

 

 

sorry ill rephrase that . i thought cat a and b wernt allowed back on the road

 

yes they are, i have personally vic tested quite a few in my time at vosa , the cat markers legally mean nothing, they are advisory.

never dealt with cat x, not sure what would fall into that

 

There is also a Category X

Category X Insurance Write Off - the vehicle is easily repairable and may even be still roadworthy.

Unrecorded Insurance Write Off - the vehicle damage was not reported to the insurer or the driver was uninsured. The most common example is drivers who only have third party insurance but have had an accident that was their fault (usually not involving anyone else).