Possible to argue for a write off?

Guv · 20 Feb 2006 at 19:35

My friend crashed his company car - Civic Type-R last week.
Today an estimate has come back for the repairs at £12,500.
The car is worth around £14,500.
Do you think it's possible to try and argue a bit with the insurance company to make it a write off?

I personally think if they estmate at £12,500 it will cost more than that to repair so it seems stupid to repair the car when it's only worth £2k more than the repair estimate.

Teledude · 20 Feb 2006 at 19:36

Be a strange insurer to authorise 10k+ of repairs imo.

Oblivious · 20 Feb 2006 at 19:41

If its a company car surely, he/you shouldnt be interfering?

Its still cheaper this way to repair the car. Even though its only a couple of thousand under the cars price.

Matmulder · 20 Feb 2006 at 20:03

If it costs that much to repair they wont bother. IIRC if it costs more than 75% of the cars value to repair it, they write it off.

Burned_Alive · 20 Feb 2006 at 20:25

Most definitely an economic write-off, just because the repairs came back at that price doesnt mean they will go through with it.

muckymick · 20 Feb 2006 at 20:41

I recently had my p reg almera repaired by my insurance companies authorised repairer.When i went to collect it i asked how much the repairs had cost.The cost was nearly £800.I asked why they hadnt written it off and was told the insurance companies prefer to repair older cars where possible because they cannot get much for them as salvage whereas newer cars will be written off for the high salvage value.Sold the car a few weeks after repairs were done for £1000 which was book value.

#Chri5# · 20 Feb 2006 at 20:51

Insurance will probably write it off, sell the salvage, somebody will repair it for much much less than £12,500 (ie they won't pay dealer bodyshop labour rates) and put it back on the road.

(Assuming he didn't split it in half or something equally terminal in the first place).