Car writen off, what to do next?

tranceaddict

Morning All

My girlfriend has an old P reg escort, she was involved in a very low speed accident on a roundabout that resulted in her car having a smashed headlight, a hole in the bumper a a dented wing.

Being the good girl she is she reported it all to her insurance company who came and took it away to an authorized Ford dealer and it has now been written off, the dealer said a new bumper was £200 +VAT, wing £100 headlight £60, plus spraying and fitting, all coming to nearly £800.

I have since looked into it and can get it legal by buying a headlight from e-bay for £14. The rest is just cosmetic and does not need to be replaced immediately (and when we do a bumper from e-bay is £50 and the wing is £30!!).

The problem is her insurance company, who say because is is written off that she is no longer insured on it and will have to get all sorts of test and re-insure the vehicle before she can use it again. Is the true, I can understand this if the vehicle is written off due to severe accident damage to a chassis or something making it unsafe, but hers is all only cosmetic, and it's purely the cost of Ford parts making it uneconomical to repair.

Any help or advice on how I can get her back on the road legally in her own car much appreciated.

Richard

Astaroth

Vehicles are given categories based on the severity of the damage. Basically they come in 2 flavours, first are safety issues in which case the car can never be put back on the road and the second is predominately based on economics. That said and done on a clear cut total loss for an old car it isnt worth stripping it back (and therefore incurring cost) when it is damned obvious it isnt economic. As such most insurers will insist that the vehicle goes through a safety test after the repairs are done. Some simply ask for an MOT but others ask for a fuller test.