There is quite simply no point selling a car that you have known for years & have maintained exceptionally well, that has had a small accident and is now CAT S, to buy one that is non-categorised, but was possibly barrel rolled through a forest at 13 months old, then fixed by the insurance as it was still worth decent money.
I've had similar with Minis:
- My grey one was Cat D, previous owner went into the back of someone, i saw the damage myself, it was minor, but the car was only worth £3k at the time, so they wrote it off. He bought it back & fixed it up.
- My blue one was Hpi clear, but my (now) brother in law crashed it fairly well lol, i saw the damage myself, it was far far worse than the grey one, but the car was worth £10k at the time, so it was fixed by a Mini bodyshop and nobody would ever be the wiser.
The point is, most cars have had damage, at least you know yours was minimal and its been fixed properly.