Damaged & written off
Sell my damaged car online
Crashed, written off by the insurer, flooded, burnt, or simply quoted more to repair than it is worth. The licensed yards on the network buy damaged cars in any state and collect them free, anywhere in the UK. Because several of them break cars for parts, a damaged car with a good engine is often worth more to one of them than its weight in steel — and competition between the yards is how that shows up in your price.
- Priced by yards that break cars
- A breaker pays for what is still good on the car — engine, gearbox, panels — not only for the metal. Several are on the network.
- Any category
- Cat S, Cat N, the older Cat C and D, and cars the insurer never saw. Cat A and B must be destroyed and the yards handle those too.
- Recovery included
- A car that cannot be driven, steered or rolled is what the collector’s slide-bed truck is for. No charge.
- The write-off paperwork done properly
- A retained-salvage car is scrapped against the V5C in your name; the DVLA record is closed with a Certificate of Destruction.
Scrap value and salvage value
A scrap price is the car’s weight in metal, whatever state it is in. A salvage price is what a repairer or a breaker will pay for a car with good parts on it or a realistic chance of going back on the road, and it can be several times higher. Which one your car earns depends on age, model and where the damage is: a five-year-old car with a crumpled rear end is salvage; the same damage on a fifteen-year-old car is scrap.
On the network both kinds of yard quote for the same districts. A yard that dismantles cars for parts will pay more for a damaged car with a sound engine than a yard that only weighs it in, and because you are shown the best rate covering your district, that difference reaches you without you having to ring round. If you think yours is a salvage case, describe the damage in the notes when you book, or ring us first.
What the yards buy
- Accident damaged cars, whether or not an insurer has been involved.
- Insurance write-offs in every category — S, N, C, D, A and B.
- Flood, storm and fire damaged vehicles.
- Cars with mechanical damage the garage has priced above what the car is worth.
- Vandalised, stripped and abandoned-on-your-drive cars, with the right paperwork.
The paperwork on a written-off car
If the insurer paid out and kept the car, it is theirs to dispose of. If they paid out and you kept it — a “retained salvage” settlement — the V5C should still be in your name and you sell it like any other car. If the insurer has the V5C, ask them for it, or for written confirmation that the vehicle was returned to you. The collector will be strict about this, because a Certificate of Destruction is a legal record and the yard has to be sure the person selling the car is entitled to.
Getting it collected
Say how the car is sitting: whether it rolls, whether it steers, whether the wheels are straight, whether there is glass or fluid to worry about. The yard sends a slide-bed truck and the kit to load a car that cannot move under its own power, at no charge. Get your price and book.
Common questions
What do Cat S and Cat N mean?
The insurance write-off categories used since October 2017. Cat S is structural damage — chassis, crumple zones — that has to be repaired professionally before the car can go back on the road. Cat N is non-structural: panels, electrics, lights, interior. Both can legally be repaired and driven again, which is why they have salvage value. Cat C and Cat D are the older labels on cars written off before 2017 and mean much the same.
What about Cat A and Cat B?
Neither may return to the road. A Cat A car is crushed whole; a Cat B can have parts salvaged but the shell must be destroyed. Both need an Authorised Treatment Facility and a Certificate of Destruction, and every yard on the network is one.
I kept my written-off car after the payout — can I sell it?
Yes, as long as the insurer returned the car to you (or you bought it back) and the V5C is in your name. The write-off marker stays on the vehicle record, so it is worth more to a yard as salvage or scrap than to a private buyer who would have to declare it.
Is a flood-damaged car worth anything?
As scrap, yes — the metal does not care. As salvage, rarely: water in the electrics and the interior makes a repair uneconomic on most cars. Do not try to start a car that has been under water; say it was flooded when you book and the collector recovers it.