Damaged car - fix first or trade in now?

IM

Afternoon all,

My wife's car was 'keyed' a while back, and we'd been wondering whether it was worth our while getting it repaired before we trade it in, as and when she wants to replace the car - or to just accept a lower trade-in value.

This question has been compounded since she mis-judged the driveway last night and clipped the brick post…
She'll be getting quotes this week, but in general is it worth getting a repair done?

i.e. Say the car had a trade-in value of £3,000 in excellent condition, but needed £1,000 of work to get it to that state. Would the trade-in value in 'distressed' state be £2,200 (meaning a repair is a waste of time) or £1,800 (meaning it's not).

Cheers

IM

LandyAndy

Take it to a local dealer, who you might possibly trade it into, and ask the question.

AdrianHi

I was working for BCA (British Car Auctions) a while back.
According to their statistics, car's which are properly presented for sale at auction with repair work done, on average, fetch 3.6% more at auction after accounting for the cost of professional repairs.
These guys shift 1/4 of a million cars a year across their whole business so I would be inclined to get the repairs done, get the car cleaned and either trade it in or consider selling it yourself it is a marketable car (i.e. one that's cheap to run and fuel). If it's a "gas guzzler" best trade it in, you could wait for months for a buyer.

harveybobbles

I'd leave it to be honest, because you could spend £1000 putting it right, but then it might not be to the right standard for some dealers, so they'd make it even cheaper as they'd want to put it right...

Useless_With_Money_3

£100 repair would mean a lot of damage, try one of your local mobile sprayers to give you a quote.

Should find names like, dent devil, scratchmaster etc... in yellow pages

IM

Waiting on the garage to come back with a quote - much teeth sucking apparently...

Anyway, a second question...

Is there a simple calculation/guide to figure out whether or not to put a repair through the insurance?

i.e. How do you estimate how much next year's premium will rise on the back of a claim for £X - and that for subsequent years too for that matter.

This, plus the excess, needs to be weighed against the cost of taking the hit and paying for the repair.

Any thoughts...?

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

What is the damage like? If its metallic paint it could be pricey, but solid colours are much easier to deal with. This time of year you could repair paint damage yourself tbh. Panel damage, depends what its like. If the panel is creased it could need replacing, if just pushed in then it can be pulled out easily enough.

I'd sell it privately rather than part-ex. You'll get a much better deal.

IM

No, it's beyond my capability - new bumper and wing needed (it's a Peugeot 307)

Quentin

IM wrote: »

How do you estimate how much next year's premium will rise on the back of a claim for £X - and that for subsequent years too for that matter.

This, plus the excess, needs to be weighed against the cost of taking the hit and paying for the repair.

Any thoughts...?

You can get a rough idea by getting a series of "virtual" quotes off the net.

Get quotes now:

1) As if you have your current NCB (Or current NCB plus 1 if you are not yet at max. ncb).

2) With the claim declared as having happened in say May 2008

3) Then with the claim declared as having happened in May 2007, etc.

You can then see the effect of the claim (at todays prices) over the next few years on your premiums compared with a renewal premium with no claim.

Other things to take into account:

Make it clear to the bodyshop sure you get an estimate from (for paying yourself) that they know you aren't going through insurance, (they tend to inflate insurance quotes to compensate for any discount they have to allow the insurance company) - (some may give a further discount for cash.)

You might need to make another claim anyway in the near future - you never know!

IM

Thanks for the suggestion.

One thing though, given that you put your registration into quote engines these days, will getting a number of 'virtual' quotes leave any kind of footprint, or cause subsequent quote attempts to fail?

IM

Well we've had the first quote back...

To fix the damage caused by the driveway wall - £1097
To fix the key damage (full length of car) and a small dent - £532

Retail price for the car (54 plate Peugeot 307 1.4) looks to be around the £4.5-5K mark, having a quick scan at Auto Trader.

Obviously we'll get a comparison quote, but based on the above, what's the consensus?

a) Trade it in as-is and take the hit of a low price
b) Get it fixed then trade it in (paid for by us)
c) Get it fixed then trade it in (insurance claim*)

*My wife is currently on full no-claims.