What happens now? Car claim

lostinrates

Today my DH had an accident in our car...probably writing it off. Its an old car, but incredibly durable, and was completely overhauled and redone the year before last when he bought it (original engine though...just in exceptional condition). Its our only vehicle and we live rurally. (DH is unscathed)

There was noone else involved and the police were fab. (black ice) They arranged removal as the insurers took over an hour to answer the phone and the road needed to be cleared.

Insurers told us that tomorrow they collect the car from the place the police took it to and take it to their appointed garage.

They also said there had been loads of claims in December...i.e. things will be slow to process.

How long is it likely to be before we know whether the car is a write off or not? we need to know whether to look at hiring or buying.

If its a write off do we automatically get asked whether we want to buy it back from them or do we ask? Its a super car and if it can be salvaged then DH would want to.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

yes you can ASK to buy it back but collecion will have to be sorted by yourselfs.. how much damage are we looking at here if its quite bad i.e chassis and structural, then will it be worth doing it?. then depending on catagory of the writeoff, D no need for VIC test C and above will need vic testing,cat A being you will never ever be able to have it back.

cost may well out weigh the car serving you well.

lostinrates

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

yes you can ASK to buy it back but collecion will have to be sorted by yourselfs.. how much damage are we looking at here if its quite bad i.e chassis and structural, then will it be worth doing it?. then depending on catagory of the writeoff, D no need for VIC test C and above will need vic testing,cat A being you will never ever be able to have it back.

cost may well out weigh the car serving you well.

Thank you for the catagory clarification.

The car is a defender. It flipped. Not sure how much damage there will be... Its old, but had been refurbed. It cost about £8k and was better value (we never planned to sell it, so better for a lifetimes use rather than resale) than a younger car with less good condition, it had things like a galvanised chassis. One side looked fine the other wasn't....plus front windscreen, bonnet and some roof ''squash''.

Policeman thought it was a ''bloody tidy vehicle'' but another witness said...something about pillars. I'm afraid we're not ''car people'' so would be relying on guidance from the garages involved in what was reasonable and, now you've explained, the category if write off.

we're guessing, due to age, it won't be valued at what it would cost us to rebuy similar. DH looked for ages for that one.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

put it simply its gunna cost about the same if not more to repair it when you refurbed it, the structure of the vehicle (pillars are key points to structure of the shell) the roof is squashed one side inicated the pillars are bent pulled into shape will weaken them. its entirely upto you if you buy it back and repair it for liftime use by yourselfs but gunna be a long drawn out repair. but i would seek the report from the insurers as a starting point as to what your going to need for the vehicle. then hidden damage as when the vehicle is stripped down to reveal.
im sure the old landrovers you could detach the whole cab to reveal the chassis, if its this type but dont quote me i dont deal with 4x4 overhauling. someone maybe able to confirm.

lostinrates

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

put it simply its gunna cost about the same if not more to repair it when you refurbed it, the structure of the vehicle (pillars are key points to structure of the shell) the roof is squashed one side inicated the pillars are bent pulled into shape will weaken them. its entirely upto you if you buy it back and repair it for liftime use by yourselfs but gunna be a long drawn out repair. but i would seek the report from the insurers as a starting point as to what your going to need for the vehicle. then hidden damage as when the vehicle is stripped down to reveal.
im sure the old landrovers you could detach the whole cab to reveal the chassis, if its this type but dont quote me i dont deal with 4x4 overhauling. someone maybe able to confirm.

Thanks. This is really useful. And yes, its that type.

I'll probably have more questions when spoken to the insurer tomorrow and then when the report is done. we might be putting the cart before the horse...not knowing how bad the damage really is but want to have thought out our options.

we were thinking about buying a runabout for non heavy stuff anyway, so if this is a long drawn out thing that will give dh his car back we could get it home and buy something ''little and cheap'' straight away and do the LR as and when.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

lostinrates wrote: »

Thanks. This is really useful. And yes, its that type.

I'll probably have more questions when spoken to the insurer tomorrow and then when the report is done. we might be putting the cart before the horse...not knowing how bad the damage really is but want to have thought out our options.

we were thinking about buying a runabout for non heavy stuff anyway, so if this is a long drawn out thing that will give dh his car back we could get it home and buy something ''little and cheap'' straight away and do the LR as and when.

if having it back is what you want, and is cat,c write off?, i suspect that if money is a contraint repairing bit by bit will be a long drawn out process.

GDB2222

lostinrates wrote: »

Thank you for the catagory clarification.

The car is a defender. It flipped. Not sure how much damage there will be... Its old, but had been refurbed. It cost about £8k and was better value (we never planned to sell it, so better for a lifetimes use rather than resale) than a younger car with less good condition, it had things like a galvanised chassis. One side looked fine the other wasn't....plus front windscreen, bonnet and some roof ''squash''.

Policeman thought it was a ''bloody tidy vehicle'' but another witness said...something about pillars. I'm afraid we're not ''car people'' so would be relying on guidance from the garages involved in what was reasonable and, now you've explained, the category if write off.

we're guessing, due to age, it won't be valued at what it would cost us to rebuy similar. DH looked for ages for that one.

Do you have any pics of the wrecked car?

My guess is that it's a write-off for insurance purposes, so I suggest looking for a replacement car. We have unfortunately had three cars written off in the last few years, despite only fairly minor damage, so I have experience of how the insurance companies work.

As an example, my £8,000 Mazda MX5 was a write-off. It had some damage to the front wing and not all that much else. The chassis wasn't bent or anything like that.

The garage refused to give a detailed quote, as the replacement airbags seatbelt tensioners and the like would cost over £3k just on their own, and then there was some body damage to deal with. They reckoned it would have to go on a jig to check the chassis - and so on.

I ended up selling the wreck on ebay for £3k, so it was certainly repairable. Mine was damaged at the front. The guy who bought it had found a rear-end write off with the front intact and was proposing to swap parts between them. He was going to end up with an £8k car for £4k and quite a bit of work.

So, I guess yours will be downvalued below the £8k value you put on it, and then they won't want to spend over 50-60% repairing it. If it was rolled, you are looking at a lot of panel damage to repair plus windscreen, bonnet, etc. And what about damage underneath? Round here, each panel costs £200 just to respray. I guess you don't have airbags to worry about on yours.

Pleased DH is ok, though. It sounds like quite a smash.

Jackinbox99

All depends on what the insurance company says. I went through this recently with an accident the other half had in her car. The insurnace company look in their book and detirmine the "market price" of that car. They then automatically allow 10% of the cars value as salvage. That gives them a figure of how much its "worth" them spending on the car to repair it. If the cost of the repairs + salvage is less than the market value then they will repair it. Sometimes they save money, sometimes they are very out of pocket. Once they have commited to repairing the vehicle, sometimes other faults appear which ends up costing the insurers more than the actual car is worth.

Wait and see what the insurers come back with. If they have written it off, the next problem you will have is negociating what its "market value" is. Sometimes insurance companys have wildly low ideas as to what a car is worth. When my brother wrote his car off many moons ago, the insurance company offered him £1500. He looked on autotrader and the same car, same year, same spec, same mileage was worth £4500. So he printed off about 6 or 7 adverts for the same car, sent them off to the insurance company and they then agreed to pay him the £4500 it would cost him to replace his car. I guess they assume some people will just accept the lower amount without questioning.

As for keeping the salvage, the problem you have now is that the car is at the insurance companies garage. In my experience, sometimes they let you buy it back for a value, other times they wont let you. It depends on the insurance company. When my last car was written off, i had it taken to my house rather than a garagea and the insurance assessor came out to my house to do his assesment. When the insurance company wrote it off they said i could either keep the car for free, or they would happily come and dispose of it for me. I put it on ebay and sold it for spares.

lostinrates

Thanks everyone.

Yes gdb2222 (hello!) its impressive. A mutual debate forum friend of ours has photoshopped a version of the pics for me to blank out numberplate, butanother of our mutual friends has advised me not to share it on forum ...for now anyway.

I guess what we buy will depend on the value and if it is repairable. And yes, DH rally wants it back and is prepared to wait for some money to repair. So it will depend on that. If it will be back on the road within a year I'll buy a small car for me. If it won't we need to think about another 4 wheel drive.

Thank you all for the help. Its all so new to us. The imsurance company expect it will be looked at on Friday and then we'll know a bit more.

oscarward

My previous (Pug 407 2.7 coupe) car was written off last January. The book valuation was £11k. the repairs would have cost £9.5k with £5k being parts. I was told the xenon bidirectional xenon headlamp units were £1k each!

I was offered the wreck for £2800 but declined as the chassis needed straightening and was told that further damage could be found such as radiators which would be my responsibility.

Subsequently I was contacted by a couple of Polish (?) guys, looking for the spare key and wheel locking bolts keys, who had bought the car from the insurance for £6.5K. It appeared the insurance company had repaired the car and sold it on.

Hope this helps

lostinrates

Update:

The damage has been valued at £9,900 to repair
The car has been valued and £3.345 (using Glass's guide)

The engineer called and went through everything and agreed the car was in very good nick....apart from the crunch.

I told him we couldn't buy that car again for £3.345, but asked what category write off it was and whether we could buy it back and repair. He didn't answer either question but said he'd need to go back to his line manager.

He was very nice, but not very helpful. They said it was being taken away today, which I'm worried about as if its repairable then we want it back, and I'm terrified they'll crunch it/sell it before we have resolved this.

eta: I'm having a flick through LR sales garages and can't see anything for that price at all. A year younger with higher milage (surely at 20 years old milage is relevant over 12 months?) is £5,500