Cat S and Cat N explained, without the scare stories

"Category" write-offs sound worse than they usually are. Cat S means the car suffered structural damage that's since been professionally repaired. Cat N means the damage was non-structural (a bumper, a door, a wing) and the car was written off on cost grounds, not safety grounds. Neither category means the car is unsafe today. An insurer writes a car off when the repair cost plus the reduction in resale value exceeds the car's pre-accident worth, which happens more easily on an older, cheaper car than a brand-new one. Three questions worth asking before you view one: 1. Who did the repair, and do they have paperwork and photos? 2. Has an engineer's report been done since the repair? 3. Is the price low enough to reflect the permanently reduced resale value? Cat S and Cat N cars are worth meaningfully less than a clean-history equivalent, forever. If the answers check out, a well-repaired Cat S or N can be a genuinely good, honestly-priced car. If a seller can't answer the first two, walk away regardless of the price.