Rear ended, car potentially written off

[mcmiller]

Hi

Tonight I was about to pull on to a main road, I changed my mind and stopped, a few seconds later the car behind me hit me. My car sustained very little cosmetic damage however when i went to open the boot it would not open or close properly. I checked and he has dented the metal behind the bumper. His car sustained very little damage. My car is a R reg ford fiesta Ghia so worth very little so I reckon it will be written off and Ill be given a small sum to be another car.

If this happens i'll be really annoyed because whilst the car is worth very little resale its worth a lot to me, i have spent alot on maintaining it on, yearly service etc.. I'll be out of pocket because of someones mistake... Has this happened to anyone before? if so what did you do?

[Barakka]

Similar in a way... bit long winded but probably best to just give you the whole story...

My wife had an accident two weeks ago. Leaving from a set of traffic lights in the left lane of two lanes both turning right onto a dual carriageway. Car in right lane didn't look and on entering the dual carriageway lanes moved left into the side of my wife's car. Her car is a 2003 Punto Sporting, the car that hit her was a brand new Mini Countryman. Damage was a dent in front wing, scratch and small dent in driver's door, scratch on side-skirt, and scratches on front alloy wheel.

My wife's insurance wanted to send a haulage company to pick it up and get a hire car dropped off for her to use - her car had been serviced the week before and MOT'd two days before the accident. We took her car the next day to two repair centres (one insurance approved - but small, one average back street spray shop) and got quotes of £600+VAT and £550+VAT.

She phoned her insurance and told them, they said it depends how much the repair is compared to the value of the car. She said she had looked on Autotrader and an equivalent car (Sporting model with Air Con, in Yellow about 10 years old) was in the region of £1500, the insurance guy said "I've just put punto into auto trader and the 1st one is £400" - she replied "If you can find me an EXACT match for my car, a Punto Sporting, in Yellow, with the factory options of Air Con and in dash CD Changer, with service history, and 12 months MOT, fine, get it delivered to my house and i'll take it. (she knew there wasn't one listed on autotrader) But otherwise you can cancel the haulage company 'cause you're not having my car to write it off for the sake of £600, and you can cancel the hire car as my car is perfectly driveable, the damage is cosmetic"

The insurance guy was not happy and said he would have to get an assessor to visit to inspect the car, she told him that was fine. Later that day the assessor phoned to make an appointment to visit and asked is she'd had a quote, she told him the quotes she's had and he said "So what's the problem, why didn't they just approve the repair? Your car is worth well over a grand" He phoned the repair centre the next morning and arranged to pay them directly (save for the excess which we had to pay to the garage and will hopefully get back from the other driver's insurance).

Don't let them take your car - once they have it they hold all the cards.

You need to find out;
How much your car is worth - trawl autotrader and find a good but realistic price for an exact match for your car - colour, model, engine, age, mileage, service history.
How much the repair will cost - get at least two quotes - just find the closest places to you and call in, it takes them 5 mins and they're fine doing it as they might get the business.
If possible reduce the insurance company's costs - if you can be without your car for a few days while it's repaired they don't need to load in the cost of a hire car

If they do write it off (which they might) you may have the option to buy the car off them for a fee (usually) 5-10% of it's value, and then get it repaired - one of the quotes we got told us if it's an insurance repair they have to charge a different rate for labour and paint (in order to stay insurance approved) and if it got written off would do the job privately for £400+VAT.

Good Luck

[GoNz0]

R reg fezzy, time to get a good bit of rope round a telegraph pole to reshape it

did it on an old h reg cavalier years ago.

see what the other party wants to do as they may offer to pay an hours labour to a garage to do that little job for you ?

[ik9000]

in short, stick to your guns and don't accept any settlement you're not happy with. And if you've already told your insurer you won't have the option of leaving them out of the loop. However, is it wise to go that route? I think that would be in breech of the terms of insurance to not tell them? You are at liberty however to tell them it has happened but you do not wish to make a claim on your policy. It all comes down to how helpful they then are. Some become real err, well insert your own expletives, while others are actually helpful! Good luck!

[shelley bda]

Just be wary and prepared to have to deal with yourself if your car isn't wrth much. My car was rear ended earlier in the year and my insurance company didn't want to know as my car was worth less than the excess (T Reg Brava, old and ropey, but it's my car! and I have to drive a good 30 mile a day for work) made me wonder why pay the AA for all singing and dancing fully comp really, so thanks for shizz AA.

I was on my way to work and was sat in the roading waiting to turn right, indicator going. Girl shunted my car, reckoned she didn't see me! Mmm how???? My car sustained the same damage as yours. It was pulled back into shape and banged into submission, the boot floor sustained the impact. Her car (206 Peugeot. Complete mess, grill and bonnet dented to hell)

I turned up for work and told no one, shock does silly things, I ended up in A&E later that day, having been forced out by my boss.

I was told by my insurers to deal with it myself, contact her insurers directly. When I rang her and asked her for her policy number (Yeah I know, exchanged details at the roadside all but policy numbers) she said she didn't want to go through her insurers as it would be cheaper for her. I said it wasnt her decision to make, and she can either tell me her policy details or Dyfed Powys Police (Just so happens my boss is a Police officer of the same force, and had said he'd pay her a visit)... She gave me the number and fair play to her insurers they were brilliant! I rang and reported it to them. They chased it up. Turns out the stupid girl ignored their letters and phonecalls asking for her to contact them. They went to visit her and she tried to say that she's driven into a wall lol.

They waited a month before declaring it her fault and paid out for my injuries plus the car. Silly girl has cost herself more in the long run because she had her policy cancelled and a mark against her.

They wrote my car off,and said they have to declare written off cars to Vosa, I was told that I would need to take may car for a VIC. £40 to have it checked and put back on the system. I rang them up beginning of November and no VIC marker had been placed so was able to tax my car as usual, will check again soon to make sure there is still no marker on it .

Hope you get it sorted, I know how much of a pain in the rear it can be

[Ttaskmaster]

I was stationary and got rear-ended by a car going at least 40 (probably 60), just before Christmas. I was right outside my house, so I know how fast cars go down my road there.
Amazingly, my bike is an absolute TANK, so just a rear light cluster, crank case cover and a few scratches.

Indy insurance assessors value repairs at £3200, while my own indy mechanics value it between £3-500!!
Result = Cat-C write off, bike valued at £900 (less that 50% of what others are selling at), leaving me pretty stuffed and out of pocket.
The argument is ongoing...