Damaged & written off

Sell my damaged car

Crashed, written off by the insurer, flood or fire damaged, or just too expensive to repair. We buy damaged cars in any state and collect them free. Some are worth more than scrap value — we will tell you which, rather than quietly paying you the metal price for a car with a good engine in it.

Salvage or scrap — priced honestly: A newer car with damage to one end can be worth several times its scrap value. Our valuation flags it.
Any category: Cat S, Cat N, older Cat C and D, and cars the insurer has not looked at. Cat A and B must be scrapped and we handle those too.
Recovery included: Cars that cannot be driven, steered or rolled are what our truck is for.
Insurance paperwork sorted: If you have kept a written-off car, we deal with the V5C and DVLA side correctly.

Salvage or scrap?

The difference is simple. A scrap price is the car’s weight in metal, whatever its condition. A salvage price is what a repairer or breaker will pay for a car that has good parts or can be put back on the road, and it can be several times higher. Whether your car qualifies depends on its age, model and where the damage is: a five-year-old car with a crumpled rear end is salvage; a fifteen-year-old car with the same damage is scrap.

Our valuation looks the car up and asks about the damage. Where the figures suggest salvage is the better route, we say so and price it accordingly. We would rather pay you properly once than have you find out later.

What we buy

Accident damaged cars, whether or not the 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 quoted more than the car is worth to fix.
Vandalised, stripped and abandoned-on-your-drive vehicles, with the right paperwork.

The paperwork for 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 can sell it to us 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. We are strict about this because a Certificate of Destruction is a legal record — we need to be sure the person selling the car is entitled to.

Getting it collected

Tell us 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. Our driver brings a slide-bed recovery truck and the kit to load a car that cannot move under its own power. There is no charge for any of it inside our area. Book a collection.

Common questions

What do Cat S and Cat N mean?

Insurance write-off categories used since October 2017. Cat S means structural damage — chassis or crumple zones — that must be repaired professionally before the car goes back on the road. Cat N means non-structural damage: panels, electrics, lights, interior. Both can legally be repaired and driven again, which is why they have salvage value. The older Cat C and Cat D labels mean roughly the same thing on cars written off before 2017.

What about Cat A and Cat B?

Those must never return to the road. Cat A cars must be crushed whole; Cat B cars can have parts salvaged but the shell must be destroyed. Both need an Authorised Treatment Facility and a Certificate of Destruction, and we handle both.

I kept my written-off car after the insurance payout — can I sell it?

Yes, as long as the insurer has 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 us as salvage or scrap than it would be to a private buyer who has to declare it.

Is a flood-damaged car worth anything?

As scrap, yes — the metal is unaffected. As salvage, rarely: water in the electrics and interior makes repair uneconomic on most cars. Do not try to start a car that has been under water; tell us and we will recover it.