Insurance Write Off- not a fair price given by 3rd party insurers ! HELP

forgotmyname

Puzzled by ratrace's comment. Dont buy it back because its retail value and any future insurance claim will be reduced??

They seem to have forgot that you will get the car back for a tiny fraction of its retail value. So no huge losses.

You may get it back for £200 and spend a few hundred fixing it then get years worth of use from it.

ratrace

forgotmyname wrote: »

Puzzled by ratrace's comment. Dont buy it back because its retail value and any future insurance claim will be reduced??

They seem to have forgot that you will get the car back for a tiny fraction of its retail value. So no huge losses.

You may get it back for £200 and spend a few hundred fixing it then get years worth of use from it.

OH i doubt the insurance company will sell the car for a mere £200 which is about scrap value

Also the op wouldn't possibly no how much it would cost to repair untill they bought the car back, (once bought you cannot sell it back to the insurance company) then they would have to go and get an estimate for the repairs as this cannot be done until they own it , finally once the quotes come back, it could be that it is not financially viable to repair it

So the op's 22 year old son will be left with a damaged car on the drive which is to expensive to repair, i feel its too much risk on the op's son as he is young and money is probably tight

Hence the suggestion to take the insurance money by a cheaper car with it and swallow the bitter pill

forgotmyname

It wont be far off the scrap value. The insurer is likely to get much less if it ends up at the salvage auctions.

Its an older car so the value wont be high and spares should be easily available.
They would need to be very unlucky to have a car worth less than the insurer want.

I bet they could buy it off the insurer and stick it on ebay for an instant profit.

patman99

It could be something as easy to replace as a bumper or door. These cars were made between 2004 & 2012, so if it is a 10-year old one, then the cost of replacing body parts could easily be great-enough to warrant the insurers go for a write-off instead.

It might even be the case that if it is an economical write-off it may still be drivable without doing any repairs to it at all.

jaynek65

To answer some of the comments, We have been offered the car for £151, and prior to this we took some pics of the damage and was quoted in the region of £600 to get it repaired, bearing in mind the car is worth £1900, (but much less if Cat C or D) then technically yes it would make sense to buy the car back and sell the parts, but neither my son, or myself have the space or time to do this, I put it out on a few salvage websites, and the most he got offered £200 for it, so that really was not worth bothering with for just a £49 profit !

We found a door on eBay for £150 (inc door handle, regulators etc) but like I said, we don’t have the time to or knowledge to do it ourselves :-(

JustinR1979

Get it bought back, sounds like you'll have a dented door and a grand to put it right.

Aretnap

Is £1900 the insurer's valuation or your own estimate of the value? If it's the insurer's offer and you've had a repair estimate of £600 then tbh it sounds like a no brainer - buy the car back for £151, get it fixed for £600 and your son is left with his old car, complete with newish engine, and over a grand left over to spend on something nice.

The cat C/D marker is only an issue if he plans to sell the car in the reasonably near future. If he's going to drive it until the end of its life and then scrap it or trade it in for a couple of hundred quid it will make very little difference to how much he eventually gets for it (and certainly less than a grand).

AdrianC

Aretnap wrote: »

Is £1900 the insurer's valuation or your own estimate of the value?

I rather suspect the latter. There's no way the insurer would write a two grand car off for a door.

Norman_Castle

We have been offered the car for £151, and prior to this we took some pics of the damage and was quoted in the region of £600 to get it repaired,

Total cost £751. If your son was offered an identical car with the same repaired damage at this price would he buy it?. How much is he planning on spending on a replacement.

arcon5

That £750 could be reduced if you bought the stuff off ebay and took it to a local garage to sort it out.

Buying it back and repairing could well leave you with some change at the end of it. So wouldn't be all bad