What would you do?

AFurt

For those who like a tangle around car costs - the situation: £600 of damage caused to underside of X reg Skoda Fabia from driving over rock (my garage says sump and complete exhaust replacement). My garage won't deal with insurance companies who they say just screw you around.
So, I have comprehensive insurance, last year £234 with £350 excess, new quote just in for £244 this year with £400 excess. We have 9 years no claims bonus.
The car appears to be worth about £600-£750 on Auto Trader. I need a car for my business (running classes on 3 days a week). At the moment I'm hiring a Zipcar at £28 a day. Hopefully the insurance company would supply a courtesy car.
Questions - should I trust my garage who have been good in the past and will do the repair quickly. Car is just due for MOT so we were about to have to spend some money on it anyway. It seems ok for its age. If I go for another garage through the insurance company I suppose I'll have to pay the tow charge to my current garage.
Is the pay off between losing the no claims and not having to pay so much up front for the repairs worth it?
Given the market value, is the car worth repairing? It has 108,000 on the clock.
Many thanks for taking the time to read.

OddballJamie

£600 of damage to a £600 car, surely your insurance will just write it off?

On a side note, have you tried decreasing your excess for next year? Mine's at £100, it cost me £5 a year more to reduce from £300. Or if you never see yourself claiming on your vehicle raise it up for a cheaper quote.

Ransoman

Your car is not worth repairing and definately don't go through insurance.

If you are handy with the spanners then fix it yourself. If not sell it as spares or repairs.

If you smashed the sump and the engine ran without engine oil even for a moment then the car is scrap. Weigh it in at the scrappies and buy another sub £1k car.

TadleyBaggie

Why start a new thread? Original one here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4772740=

mgdavid

Ransoman wrote: »

.....
If you smashed the sump and the engine ran without engine oil even for a moment then the car is scrap....... .

Not true - you're making this up. The residual oil film will provide protection for a good minute or two at low speed. It's not as if the OP was doing 80 on an M-way!

OP - 600 sounds a lot for replacing a sump and an exhaust. Find a local mobile mechanic and get another quote. Do you have off-road parking so it could be fixed where it is?

colino

ebay it for scrap and get another banger. If you report to your insurance the premiums will rise and if you keep on hiring at those rates, you could have bought a replacement in a month.

AFurt

Massive thanks for your answers. This has been so helpful. Cost of £600 seemed a lot to me, it does live on our drive so I think a second quote may be best. Don't really trust insurance companies - it's Ageas via M&S - if they write it off rather than repair that seems the worst option.
I started a new thread because things seemed to have moved on and though I tittered for a long time in response to Collino's posting, I thought we were headed in a frivolous direction!