Beyond economical repair?

Patch up the bumper (or don't bother). Replace the wing, they don't cost a lot.

Or just hammer it roughly back in to shape if you don't care about selling the car at some point :P

I wouldn't even speak to insurance (even if the guy that did it won't pay for the damage). You will just end up paying extra in premiums for no reason.
 
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Must admit I was quite surprised when the offer was turned down, I would have been more than willing to sort it out myself as long as the costs were covered but I guess you can't help some people.

Photo's have been sent to the insurance company as they wanted to see them prior to coming and picking it up, I guess thats because the cost of the pickup alone maybe more than the car is deemed worth so I suspect a write off will be incoming shortly.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what the offer is but based on some of the advice above we'll probably buy it back and arrange repairs as knowing the car is reliable is worth more than to her than anything else to be honest.

Nasher said:
Patch up the bumper (or don't bother). Replace the wing, they don't cost a lot.

Or just hammer it roughly back in to shape if you don't care about selling the car at some point :P

I wouldn't even speak to instance (even if the guy that did it won't pay for the damage). You will just end up paying extra in premiums for no reason.
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Our premiums won't be affected as the NCB is protected (this has already been confirmed to me by Sainsbury's) and we have 16 years no claims discount, we also have a zero excess policy so the cost to us is nothing.
 
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Columbo said:
Our premiums won't be affected as the NCB is protected (this has already been confirmed to me by Sainsbury's) and we have 16 years no claims discount, we also have a zero excess policy so the cost to us is nothing.
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Unfortunately, that is not how insurance works.

The fact that you you have been involved in a claim at all makes you statistically a higher risk. And despite you keeping your level of discount, the initial premium will increase, so the cost after discount will also increase.

The excess thing doesn't matter here either, since you do not pay excess on a claim against a third party.
 
xs2man said:
Unfortunately, that is not how insurance works.

The fact that you you have been involved in a claim at all makes you statistically a higher risk. And despite you keeping your level of discount, the initial premium will increase, so the cost after discount will also increase.

The excess thing doesn't matter here either, since you do not pay excess on a claim against a third party.
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xs2man is right unfortunately, you will retain your NCB but its still going to be a discount on a higher premium.

I'm curious, how exactly has she managed to hit you?
 
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Thanks for the advice guys, wasn't aware that premiums would be affected by something that wasn't our fault, never made a claim in 20+ years of driving!
The insurance rep did state that my premiums would not be unaffected but that sounds like she was blowing smoke up my rear end.

Jamesyboyjim said:
xs2man is right unfortunately, you will retain your NCB but its still going to be a discount on a higher premium.

I'm curious, how exactly has she managed to hit you?
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Genuinly no idea, wife has parked it there for 14 years with not a single problem.
I'm guessing human error played a large part but it's kind of hard to press an 18yr old girl who is absolutely heart broken about what happened, as a father myself I did feel for her and as no-one was hurt and the car being of the age it is I just tried to as reasonable as possible.
 
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Sad when something like that happens. Although a tiny part inside of me is happy that a jazz has been picked on!
 
Current premium won't be effected (so you don't have to pay any extra straight away). But soon as you renew it will go up.
 
I'm not sure how insurance companies work, but I had a non-fault claim in 2012... some companies ask for claims in the last 3 years and some in the last 5.
So I went to renew my bike's insurance and my claim from 2012 was there and the insurance quote was £450, but they were asking for claims over the last 3 years, so I removed the claim... guess what? the insurance went to £510 ??? LOGIC???

So I just put the claim back and paid £450 for it.
 
Columbo said:
T


Genuinly no idea, wife has parked it there for 14 years with not a single problem.
I'm guessing human error played a large part but it's kind of hard to press an 18yr old girl who is absolutely heart broken about what happened, as a father myself I did feel for her and as no-one was hurt and the car being of the age it is I just tried to as reasonable as possible.
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So you're parked on the side of a straight road? not by a bend or anything? She must have been distracted and drifted into the side of you, that's a hard pill to swallow as it points towards her messing about with a phone or radio perhaps.

Fair play to you for being reasonable and calm about the whole thing!
 
It's been wrote off as uneconomical to repair and being collected in the next 24 hours for the insurance assessor to recommend its value. Once thats done I'll see what the cost of buy back is and take it from there.
 
What car was she driving to cause that amount of damage?

If it's something new and flash might explain why her parents are forcing the insurance route.
 
xs2man said:
Unfortunately, that is not how insurance works.

The fact that you you have been involved in a claim at all makes you statistically a higher risk. And despite you keeping your level of discount, the initial premium will increase, so the cost after discount will also increase.
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From his insurers point of view this may be how it works, unless anything has changed since I stopped working there a few years back Sainsburys is underwritten by UKI/Direct Line Group who don't load policies for non-fault claims, or like I say didn't.

That said when you change insurer it may have an effect.
 
mrk said:
They absolutely can! If they deem the repair costs outweigh their margin cost for repair, then they will write it off. I know this from first hand experience.
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Only if you let them

Columbo said:
It's been wrote off as uneconomical to repair and being collected in the next 24 hours for the insurance assessor to recommend its value. Once thats done I'll see what the cost of buy back is and take it from there.
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Don't let them write it off and there is no need to buy it back.

When you next speak to the insurance company, the words you are looking for in this instance is "cash in lieu of repair".

I've taken the above twice on cars I've owned - no write off markers and I was free to arrange a repair at a garage of my choosing. For the most recent one (Ford Scorpio Cosworth) - I got £1400, a bodyshop I trust did the repair for £800 and I spent the remaining £600 on a holiday in a log cabin in Scotland.
 
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asim18 said:
That's some serious damage to inflict on a parked car. I mean if she can't avoid a huge car how will she avoid a small child? You should probably talk to her parents about getting her license revoked in the interests of everybody's safety as well as insurance premiums.
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Well she didn't hit a small child so suggesting she gets her license revoked is absolutely absurd.

Accidents happen. She'll learn from it and this is why new drivers pay a hefty premium to be on the road.
 
bainbridge said:
Looking at the pic it's unlikely to just be cosmetic damage, wheel must have taken a hit.
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Yeah that was my thinking too.

If you plan on buying it back, i would at least have a garage inspect the steering/suspension. The last thing you want to do is buy back the car and then be faced with a hefty bill for repairing the non-cosmetic damage.
 
I got drove into. went through insurance and my yearly cost still went down the next year. I think there was a whole £2-3 difference between putting the claim on the quote and not.

so all this about your premium going through the roof, is utter hear say.
 
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