Advice please, step daughter has crashed the car.

darknite

darknite

darknite

Associate
Joined
9 Jan 2010
Posts
1,379
Location
Norfolk
Ok basically step daughter drove into a concrete pilar in a multi story last night and I do mean drive into, not just caught it with the bumper but actually into it. Luckily not fast, crawling speed. But managed to break all the mounting points on the front bumper. 2005 KA front bumper is in 3 bits, the bend on the left hand side caused the right hand side to pop off too.

SO the car is worth £800 or less. Maybe £600!!! I've had quotes from local body repair center's. . . . £622 fitted and sprayed, £540 from another. Thats without seeing the car. . . so could be more. To make things worse she is due an MOT next month and I know she needs 1 new front tyre and a new headlight. . .

So is it worth it? Should she just get it scrapped? Or call the insurance company about the accident and see if they will write it off to maybe get some cash back? I know they will have it assessed first.... She may have to scrap it herself. She paid £2100 for it 27 months ago. Great engine, went trough the last 2 MOT's no problem.

Any advice?
 
Is it just the bumper (and pkasticy stick ons?)

If so forget buying it all new, same colour from an eBay scrapper and stick it on yourself for not a lot of pennies

Forget insurance
 
If the car is otherwise OK I would just suck it up and fix it.

A Car (especially an older one) isn't "worth" what you could sell it for. It is "Worth" what it would cost you to replace it!

Which is going to be a good bit more than £600!
 
Yes just the front left and right plastic bumpers. Not actually EVER done any car repairs myself.

The car looks otherwise ok. But the local ford garage says that kind of bump in a old KA can break some other bits. He suggested going the insurance route as could be looking nearly 4 digits. Again I don't understand what I am looking at. Never had a car older than 6 years, never had a bump that needed repairs. Any faults always been done under warranty. I've been VERY lucky.

To be honest if she scraps this one I've suggested she doesn't drive again. Her driving is bad. Very fast, late breaking. In the last 7 months she has bumped 2 other car's and now this. It worries the hell out of me. She doesn't like driving. I think she drives so fast so she can get to her destination and get out. Though she passed her test. . . . so was good enough once. Passed in January btw.
 
Theres ford ka front bumpers on ebay from £25 so i would just go down that route. Seem to be lots of options so with luck youll be able to find the right colour and model
 
Pick up any colour bumper you can find and if you don't want to fit it yourself go to a local indy.
 
Ideally you need to get the bumper off - check the crash bar, radiator and all the bumper guides.

Do you know anyone capable of having a look? If all else is OK there is no need to spend more than a hundred or two fixing it.

Insurance route is honestly not goig to be worthwhile

Don't personally believe you should try and discourage anyone from driving, perhaps more tuition?
 
Last edited:
Only people I know would want money to look.

I just think her driving is unsafe. If that was a person instead of a concrete post she hit that would have broken there leg or crushed it if she panicked and raised the clutch. She drives once a week mainly and takes my younger step son in the car. Would hate to lose them both because she's dangerous. She had 2 years worth of lessons, and 4 tests. She is a very angry girl. That has not changed from when she was 14 til now. I'm not angry with her, guess I am angry because I am EXTREMELY worried when she does use the car.
 
Typical woman. Should maybe add some sort of window on the front of the car so she can see where she is going.

Jokes aside though, you shouldn't put her off driving, sounds like she just needs a few more lessons as her instructor obviously wasn't very good at getting the core principles home. No idea how she would have passed though if she is a late breaker. When I was learning, I was in a dual control vehicle and my instructor would hit the brakes if there was a car even on the horizon.
 
She had 3 instructors and I took her out in her own car. I would say her driving has got worse not better. To be fair she doesn't need a car, her job means a bus is far cheaper.

I don't know. Think I need to take the car to the local ford and have them assess, which they said they would do for free. Then see about doing the work else where or myself.

But at least I know going insurance route will be a waste of time.
 
Get the car MOTed now. It will fail because of the bumper, but they'll also pick up what else is wrong with the car, and the current MOT will still be valid for a month.

Edit: if the local Ford place will do it for free then go with that.
 
Ok 1 sec I can do pictures. Though they are very dark as I took them in the multistory on my iphone. . .

Also ford dealer just called. They will assess repairs for the accident damage for free and a pre mot check for £27.99 which is the same price as a full MOT at the garage next door. . . But I'll get the accident damaged checked. If something is damaged under the car bumper that will be a bit more major.

Pics coming in a bit.
 
Yeah that looks like nothing - if the bumper clips are gone they can even be plastic welded back together - but it's probably just as easy to replace it with another from a scrap car.

This arches might just clip back in, or need some new fixings/ a bit of help with some sticky stuff (be aware, do that and they'll be hell to get back off - but in the interests of fixing it cheap....)
 
The car is worth £600 and your talking about taking it to Ford and insurance...
What? :confused:
If ford will assess it for free then fair does, but I'd really be expecting them to come up with a list the length of ya arm. i see however free has now changed to £27.99
To hell with that.

Bumper offa eBay fit yerself, just read up or watch some youtube vids first.
Mate I'f I can take apart the front end of my car and put it back together then the technical level involved must be.... not much :p

Cars worth very little, the money you spend repairing it you'll lively never see back.
Have her repair as cheap as possible and let her run it into the ground.
the other "incidents" did they go thru insurance or anything?

EDIT - this ios on the basis I cant see the images at work as online storage is blocked
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom