Someone on their phone rammed me on a roundabout causing me to spin and crash into the central reservation causing a lot of damage to my car.
The car was 2 weeks old with less than 200 miles on the clock... pretty gutted.
The woman was cautioned at the scene and is being prosecuted for driving without due care and attention so blame isn't a factor.
The problem is the insurance company want to repair the car and I really don't think this is right. I know it's down to them but it's a literally band new car and there is no way the repair will be perfect.
I paid £18,200 for the car direct from ford and the two quotes for repair I've seen are £6,500-£7,500 from a third party repair shop and £6,700-£7,800 from a ford repair centre.
Speaking to the insurance assessor was like banging my head against a wall, regardless of the angle I took he just kept saying "We're a long way away from £18,000 so I can't consider a write off" over and over.
Speaking to the accident repair manager at the ford repair centre he explained that the figures he had given (6.7 and 7.8) were only for the "definitely needed" part of the repair, this included panels, steering rack, front suspension on one side, two wheels, two tyres and blending the paintwork (pearl so not insignificant). He said they suspect the rear axle is also bent but they can't quote for that until they fix the front so they can't put it in their initial quote. I also asked if they had looked all around the vehicle or just at the obvious damage - they hadn't and when they looked there is damage to both driver side alloys from the rough surface when the car spun and possibly both tyres too.
So the way I see it, assuming £7,800 + £750 for the axle + £480 for the two alloys + £300 for the tyres we're talking about a possible figure of more like £9500.
I felt like he was trying to tell me something that he wasn't allowed to say outright, he told me to push "hard" (pause, "haaard") for a write off and that while they would do a really good job it was a "major repair" and a few times he said it's going to be a "repaired car" not a new car. All of those things are obvious but the way he said them sounded a bit like wink wink, nudge nudge, if you get what I'm saying... but obviously I didn't get exactly what he was saying
Is there some magic phrase I'm supposed to say to the insurer to get them to write it off?
It seems hugely unfair that some stupid dangerous person can wreck my brand new car and I have to end up with a patched up heap that no doubt will have both cosmetic and mechanical issues down the line.
The dealer is going to give his final estimate to the insurance company tomorrow and ask the insurance assessor to call me before OKing the repair. He said he'd mention the axle but couldn't put it in his quote and that I should talk about it with the assessor. I'll raise that and point out that I'm going to go over the car with a fine toothed comb after the repair and reject it for anything I see (as it was brand new), scratches, chips, out of line panels, damaged rubber, paint that doesn't look right, etc. But I don't think this will be enough to convince him to write it off.
I realise that the book value is a lot lower than the 18k retail price but my insurer have a "new car promise" whereby they will order a new car in the same exact spec as yours from the manufacturer if they write it off in the first year. Thats why I'm gunning for a write off so hard.
I don't know if I'm being overly pessimistic about the quality of the repair but over 50% of the panels are wrecked and there is damage to both the front and back suspension.... I just can't imagine it'll ever be right again and when I come to sell it I'm sure a keen eyed person will be able to spot it's been in a crash. If I do get it back I'm probably going to sell/part ex it ASAP because it's spoiled in my mind, I'll constantly be looking for faults and won't be able to enjoy it.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
The car was 2 weeks old with less than 200 miles on the clock... pretty gutted.
The woman was cautioned at the scene and is being prosecuted for driving without due care and attention so blame isn't a factor.
The problem is the insurance company want to repair the car and I really don't think this is right. I know it's down to them but it's a literally band new car and there is no way the repair will be perfect.
I paid £18,200 for the car direct from ford and the two quotes for repair I've seen are £6,500-£7,500 from a third party repair shop and £6,700-£7,800 from a ford repair centre.
Speaking to the insurance assessor was like banging my head against a wall, regardless of the angle I took he just kept saying "We're a long way away from £18,000 so I can't consider a write off" over and over.
Speaking to the accident repair manager at the ford repair centre he explained that the figures he had given (6.7 and 7.8) were only for the "definitely needed" part of the repair, this included panels, steering rack, front suspension on one side, two wheels, two tyres and blending the paintwork (pearl so not insignificant). He said they suspect the rear axle is also bent but they can't quote for that until they fix the front so they can't put it in their initial quote. I also asked if they had looked all around the vehicle or just at the obvious damage - they hadn't and when they looked there is damage to both driver side alloys from the rough surface when the car spun and possibly both tyres too.
So the way I see it, assuming £7,800 + £750 for the axle + £480 for the two alloys + £300 for the tyres we're talking about a possible figure of more like £9500.
I felt like he was trying to tell me something that he wasn't allowed to say outright, he told me to push "hard" (pause, "haaard") for a write off and that while they would do a really good job it was a "major repair" and a few times he said it's going to be a "repaired car" not a new car. All of those things are obvious but the way he said them sounded a bit like wink wink, nudge nudge, if you get what I'm saying... but obviously I didn't get exactly what he was saying
Is there some magic phrase I'm supposed to say to the insurer to get them to write it off?
It seems hugely unfair that some stupid dangerous person can wreck my brand new car and I have to end up with a patched up heap that no doubt will have both cosmetic and mechanical issues down the line.
The dealer is going to give his final estimate to the insurance company tomorrow and ask the insurance assessor to call me before OKing the repair. He said he'd mention the axle but couldn't put it in his quote and that I should talk about it with the assessor. I'll raise that and point out that I'm going to go over the car with a fine toothed comb after the repair and reject it for anything I see (as it was brand new), scratches, chips, out of line panels, damaged rubber, paint that doesn't look right, etc. But I don't think this will be enough to convince him to write it off.
I realise that the book value is a lot lower than the 18k retail price but my insurer have a "new car promise" whereby they will order a new car in the same exact spec as yours from the manufacturer if they write it off in the first year. Thats why I'm gunning for a write off so hard.
I don't know if I'm being overly pessimistic about the quality of the repair but over 50% of the panels are wrecked and there is damage to both the front and back suspension.... I just can't imagine it'll ever be right again and when I come to sell it I'm sure a keen eyed person will be able to spot it's been in a crash. If I do get it back I'm probably going to sell/part ex it ASAP because it's spoiled in my mind, I'll constantly be looking for faults and won't be able to enjoy it.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
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