I've bought several over the years and know others who have done the same.

Actually the van I'm driving now is cat C. It's on a 09 plate and I've been using it for a couple of years nearly doing 100k since it was purchased at around 25k on the clock. All that's been replaced is the battery and the damage to the van was very minimal. Dents, scratches, wing mirror etc.

I would only buy a cat C that hasn't been repaired so I could see the damage for myself and I wouldn't pay over the odds either. No more than 50% of book price including an estimation for repairs.

And cars do get written off for the daftest things like a broken headlight by the way