If car is written off for economic reasons, can I sue the woman who crashed into it?

bigjl

Insurance very rarely fixes cars of this value, as even a bumper and headlight can cost over £500 via Insurance approved repairers.

As already mentioned, if the car is lightly damaged and safely driveable then you can definately buy it back, pocket the balance and carry on knowing your car owes you nothing.

Friend of mine had his Rover hit by a skip lorry, needed a door and a wing, second hand parts, one in the right colour one needed painting to match had the car on the road for a couple of hundred, looking better than before if i'm honest, the Insurance knocked £100 of the settlement and he kept the car, actually made a £600 profit and he still has his car that thopugh an S Reg and a Rover has been reliable and cheap to run, was bought for next to nothing needing a head gasket, 4 yrs of trouble free motoring later he has no plans to sell it on.

Try and price up the damaged bits on eBay to give you and idea of how much it will cost you to fix.

Sponge

Nearly 4 weeks ago my mother in law's car was written off (uneconomical to repair) after she was hit in the side by another driver. He admitted liability and everything was handled by his insurance company.

They took her car to be assessed and she was provided with a courtesy car. She was eventually offered £1450 and keep the car, or £1700 and leave it.

I checked various sources and the £1700 appeared to be a reasonable offer, but I suggested she get a few quotes for repairs as she might be better off with the 1st option.

The garage that took the car for assessment gave her a written quote for over £1800 to effect repairs. But then added that that was actually the discounted quote they were providing the insurance company and included a significant discount. It would cost at least 25% more if she were to pay for the repairs herself. (There was damage to front wing, door, rear wing and both bumpers.)

She didn't bother going any further down that road as she'd decided she wouldn't be happy driving the car again, even after full repairs (she often travels with my two young children). So she called the insurance company and got them to increase their offer. She finally took £1800 and with some extra cash bought a new car yesterday. (She handed the courtesy car back as well.)

Her then current motor insurer closed her policy and gave her a 5 month refund. So she was free to choose a new insurer for her new car. The subsequent premium was over £100 more than the old one. Now this may have been partly due to the new car being a higher group (I don't actually know the insurance groups for each car) but it's probably also due to the fact she now has to declare an incident and will have to for the next 5 years or so. If you add increased premiums into the mix, the £1800 doesn't really cover her losses.