Fully comprehensive or 3rd party F&T for my old car

ColinDq

Hi
I'm looking for some advice. I've been driving for 40+ years and have always gone for fully comprehensive insurance on my cars. However, my present car is a 2015 Ford Fiesta with 130,000+ miles on the clock. I put on an average of 15-18,000 miles per year. It's market value is <£1000. My excess is £200.
I'm thinking about changing my insurance to 3rd party fire and theft. The way I look at it is, if I'm in an accident the car is likely to be written off even if it's still perfectly driveable, e.g. if there's damage to a door, and I'll be paid market value, which might be £500 once the excess is taken off.

But more importantly, I think, I don't want the car to be written off. If it costs me £1000 to fix a damaged door, I'd rather pay that myself than have the insurance company write off the car because it would be a lot cheaper than getting a new car, even a second hand car.
So there's really two questions, 1) should I change to 3rd party f&t and 2) if my insurance company wrote off my car as described above, would I still be able to get it fixed and drive it or would it be classed as not drivable?

Thanks for any advice

Colin

DullGreyGuy

TPFT is often more expensive than Comprehensive insurance because of negative selection (ie high risk drivers buy it pushing up the prices)

In most cases even if the car is written off you can retain the salvage in exchange for a reduced settlement 

Veteransaver

Often third party insurance isn't actually much (or any) cheaper, and you often lose other benefits compared to Fully comp, such as windscreen cover and driving other people's cars.

fatbelly

You & I remember the days when 3PFT was the moneysaver's option. I've also been driving for 40+ years.

However I doubt you are going to make any savings that way. By all means, try, but I find this guide works pretty well

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance/how-to-get-cheap-car-insurance/