Car a write off - advice please on options

Penry

Hello all, someone ran into my rear door at the weekend while I was fastening my daughter in her car seat. Luckily we were not injured. The other driver admitted liability and has been very apologetic. The door was crumpled and wouldn't initially shut. Today the insurance company have said the car is a write off as the repair would cost £950 and it is only worth £550 (R reg astra).

I am wondering about getting car back and getting it repaired elsewhere as I know it is reliable. The insurance engineer suggested this was not worth doing and I got a bit bamboozled with all the costs he said this would involve (reregistering with DVLA, private engineer? - not sure of all details as was bit upset). He also said I couldn't just have it back to drive it as it is as "not securable", though the door did shut when they took it away.

Could anyone give any advice on my options here? I am clueless about cars and hate the process of getting a new one (this one used to belong to FIL). Thanks for any help.

manda1205

First off find out what the insurance company rate it as, ie. cat c or cat d. If they rate it as a cat d then the insuarnce company will offer you an amount for the car and if you want to keep the car they will offer you a lower amount (you can haggle with them on this) and then you can get the fixed and off you go. If its cat c however, insurance company will do same as above but to get the car back on the road you will need to fix the car (keeping all receipts) and then you have to take it to be vic tested(although you could leave this until the car tax is due as DVLA wont issue a new tax disc until the car has been vic tested), basically they check the car to make sure its the original car and not stolen and on the damaged cars plates.
If they rate the car anything above cat c then you cant have the car back. cat B is break only and cat A is destruction order

expect a cat c as my car just needed a headlamp and bonnet and was cat c but you may be plesently suprised and get an easy cat d

salvage (damaged car) is worth aprox 25% of the cars original value when buying it back

Miseryschild

My main question is why would it need reregistering with the DVLA? It would still be in your name.

Personally - if you think it can be done cheaply and properly then get it back off them. If you really have to - get a friend with a trailer to take it back home if they protest that much. Simple way to secure it - use bungy cords between the two doors - my dad had to do this after he lost control on some oil on a roundabout and went side-first isnt a solid woodern post - still drove ok so could get home - just needed help getting out the field.

Main thing to check is that the main structure of the car is sound. If its just the door (and possibly the rear panel) thats been damaged - they can easily be replaced by new ones or even old ones from a scrappy for way less than £950 including getting your local garage to fit them if you need to. If the main structure under the car has been bent out of shape - then it would probably be best to leave it and get a new one as that can be extremely expensive to repair and sometimes it is never completely straight.

HTH
~MC

anewman

If it is *only* the door a door from a scrappie shouldn't cost much, and you should have plenty to choose from if you don't mind a different coloured door.

As Miseryschild says, if something more than the door then probably not worth it.

Penry

manda1205 wrote: »

salvage (damaged car) is worth aprox 25% of the cars original value when buying it back

Hi, thanks for the input everyone. Sorry Manda1205, not sure what the above quote means. Please could you explain? Thanks

Think it must be Cat C but will check with engineer. He said if I took it back it would cost me £50, and then I would have to get a private engineer, costing about £150 to check it before they would insure it again (3rd party only). Does this sound right? Think the reregistering with the DVLA must be the vic test you mentioned. Feeling a lot calmer now and off to get the bus!

tomstickland

It's an economic write off, because the insurance quote probably covers buying a brand new door, painting it and is "an insurance job". ie: inflated prices.

A door would cost around £50 tops from scrap, and repainting would be around £100-150, so I'd expect a decent repair to be around £200.

As far as I'm aware you don't need to re-register it - you just tell the insurance company that you don't want to make a claim.

Hintza

Of course you want to claim. You want to be put back in the position you were in before the accident. You were not at fault unless they are offering you very good money then you could insist the car be repaired (might need to agree on 2nd hand door). Best bet is to get a settlement figure ensure it is not Cat C (Cat D is OK) and if it is then ask for a second opinion and then buy it back and have it repaired.

My only caveat as others have said is that if the pillars on the car are damaged it would probably be better just accepting a good offer from them. Remember they will try and pay you out the minimum so you might have to fight it.

manda1205

Penry wrote: »

Hi, thanks for the input everyone. Sorry Manda1205, not sure what the above quote means. Please could you explain? Thanks

Think it must be Cat C but will check with engineer. He said if I took it back it would cost me £50, and then I would have to get a private engineer, costing about £150 to check it before they would insure it again (3rd party only). Does this sound right? Think the reregistering with the DVLA must be the vic test you mentioned. Feeling a lot calmer now and off to get the bus!

If they offer you £600 for the car then if you want to "buy" the car back from them then it is worth 25% of the £600 so they would then offer you £450 plus you keep the car.
What ever the engineer is telling you does not make sense! The money it costs you to buy the car back is taken from the amount they would orignally offer you. It would not cost £150 to check it before it will be insured again. It costs you £36 for a vic test and you are still insured regardless. But the car will never be worth the original value again(because its been written off).

AdrianHi

I can appreciate you don't like going through the process of buying a replacement car. While all the above advice about recovering and repairing the current car might or might not save you a bit of money, isn't the hassle your having to go through to do it worse than buying a replacement car?

It's a £550 car that's uneconomical to repair, let it go, get something else for £500-£1000 or whatever budget you can raise. £3000 to £4000 buys you a 5 or 6 year old 60-80,000 mile Skoda Octavia 110hp diesel which should be a good ownership prospect for quite a long time, very highly rated for reliability.

manda1205

AdrianHi wrote: »

I can appreciate you don't like going through the process of buying a replacement car. While all the above advice about recovering and repairing the current car might or might not save you a bit of money, isn't the hassle your having to go through to do it worse than buying a replacement car?

Why is it a hassel? When my excort got written off in Feb all we did was say no to insurance company give me the car, he said ok then haggled a bit with price(all in one telephone call) then we went to the ford gargage picked up the car and drove home! And why is it uneconomical to repair? My escort had a broken headlight and dented bonnet, the reason its written off is because the car has little market value, and they want to put brand new ford parts on it with Ford labour too, we went to a scrappy paid £20 for a new light and left the bonnet! I now drive the car no probs, the tax is due next month though and MOT which we will do and take for a VIC test. Cant see any hassel in that.

AdrianHi

manda1205 wrote: »

Why is it a hassel? When my excort got written off in Feb all we did was say no to insurance company give me the car, he said ok then haggled a bit with price(all in one telephone call) then we went to the ford gargage picked up the car and drove home! And why is it uneconomical to repair? My escort had a broken headlight and dented bonnet, the reason its written off is because the car has little market value, and they want to put brand new ford parts on it with Ford labour too, we went to a scrappy paid £20 for a new light and left the bonnet! I now drive the car no probs, the tax is due next month though and MOT which we will do and take for a VIC test. Cant see any hassel in that.

I cannot see any hassle in your case either and would agree you did the right thing. But a replacement headlight from a scrappy and fitting it is dead simple and there is unlikely to be any further damage not apparent at first inspection in your case either. In the case we are talking about here the repair is more complex and there is a greater chance of further damage not picked up in the original inspection which may not become apparent until the repair work is done when you start taking the car apart and attempting to fit replacement parts. Insurance companies assess the costs of repair and then add around 33% to that figure to account for this risk when making a decision on whether to right a car off or not. In buying back this damaged Astra to repair you are now taking on this risk your self, for a car that is not really worth anything.
And if we really are looking at this process (something I have no experience of myself):

Penry wrote: »

Think it must be Cat C but will check with engineer. He said if I took it back it would cost me £50, and then I would have to get a private engineer, costing about £150 [Edit: or £36] to check it before they would insure it again (3rd party only). Does this sound right? Think the reregistering with the DVLA must be the vic test you mentioned. Feeling a lot calmer now and off to get the bus!

it all sounds like a lot of effort compared to buying a replacement car from somewhere, especially if you can buy something from a friend or relative that you know the history of. There are thousands of R reg Astra or similar cars for sale out there that don't need this repair work at or above their current market value doing. Sure there is a risk those cars might throw up a repair bill soon after you get them, but this R reg Astra could do that to you just after you fixed it too.