taken from: http://www.car-crime.com/salvage_category.htm
Quote:
Salvage is categorised from A to D
Category D
The least damage suffered of the four categories e.g. vehicles replaced under `new for old` schemes, vehicles written-off to minimise hire charges.
The vehicle can be safely and economically repaired either by the insurer / motor trade or by an enthusiast using cheaper parts and reduced labour costs. The PAV (Pre Accident Value) does not exceed £2,000 (£1,000 for motorcycles), or for more expensive vehicles, where the engineer`s assessed repair costs do not exceed the PAV.
Category C
Substantial damage, but repairable by an repairer or enthusiast.
The vehicle can be safely and economically repaired either by the insurer / motor trade or by an enthusiast using cheaper parts and reduced labour costs. The PAV (Pre Accident Value) exceeds £2,000 (£1,000 for motorcycles) and the engineer`s assessed repair costs exceed the PAV.
Category B
Heavy damage e.g. bent chassis
The vehicle cannot be safely and economically repaired either by the insurer / motor trade or by an enthusiast using cheaper parts and reduced labour costs. However, the vehicle contains economically salvageable parts.
Category A
A `total loss` e.g. burn-out. The only value is the scrap metal.
The vehicle cannot be safely and economically repaired either by the insurer / motor trade or by an enthusiast using cheaper parts and reduced labour costs and there are no economically salvageable parts.
I have had a damaged-repaired vehicle myself in the past, and to be honest, i wouldn`t have one again.
They do provide a cheap way to buy a fairly new vehicle, if you can source the parts cheaply, and repair it yourself, or get it done cheap enough.....BUT, they are very difficult to sell on in the future.
A dealer will give you less than bottom book price at a trade in, if they take it at all, and the vehicle will be listed on HPI or equivalent, if a private buyer checks up on it, and this usually kills any potential deal.
My Dad (who is in the trade) is currently having problems selling his car, which was also a category C damaged repaired car.
Problem is, most people don`t care that the vehicle may have been repaired correctly, or professionally, they just tend not to want to buy a car that has, in it`s past been in a major accident (major enough to be classed as salvage).
To be honest, I would avoid them.
Hope this helps.
MJ
This item was edited on Wednesday, 15th October 2003, 08:47
