Total Loss on car

The wife is on the phone to saga now, they're releasing our car so we can take it to our local body shop. The garage Saga sent it to valued our car at £2814 but quoted £4600 for repair a repair with fully new wings something it doesn't need.

There is no severe damage, the so called damage on the front tyre is a graze nothing more the wheel trim that was on there come off cos the other car grazed the tyre before hitting the front wheel arch. I was the one driving the car and I was only doing between 5-8 mph going up a one way street when the learner driver pulled out about 2ft away from our car. I heard a thud but it didn't register what happened but stopped asap about a foot in front of the car that hit us. There is no damage to the tyre or wheel just a scuff, a small dint on the front arch a scratch all the way down the passenger side, the back arch has no damage at all its just scratched.

We are just waiting now for FMG to release the car so we can get it to the body shop of our choice but then have to wait for FMG to pass the cost of the repair which hopefully is no way near the £2814 FMG have quoted our car is worth.
 
Lord Alibaski said:
a repair with fully new wings something it doesn't need.
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Why do you think it doesn't need a new wing? It's got a big dent in it, and no body shop will try and repair a wing, when they just unbolt and can be replaced. (And to repair properly it would need to be removed anyway...)
Repairing the old wing to a high quality takes far longer in terms of labour than just replacing.

Unfortunately it won't just be the cost of the wing - there will be the "laundry list" that some have been frustrated about earlier, of potentially necessary parts like clips, screws, potentially a new arch liner etc, as until it's off you won't know what exactly is broken, and generally don't want the repair process held up having to order them later when they find out the existing ones are damaged.


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GarethSouthgate said:
Bumper, bonnet, headlight, wing and bumper bar, have you priced up what those would cost? Presumably direct from BMW? Plus paint which is probably at £1-2k to paint all that, at least.

What do you reckon? A £5-6k job that they put an extra £2-3k on? It might be closer than you think. Headlights can be crazy prices alone.
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Should have qualified the post, the parts prices are also ridiculous, 2-3k for a headlight is unecessary, ive been around the car trade a long time, and parts prices, certainly since covid, have just been getting dearer and dearer.
 
The damage actually looks pretty extensive looking at all the photos. I'm not surprised at some of the quotes you got considering the cost of parts and labour these days.
 
Another question maybe how the car maybe categorised - is it the 3rd party insurance or their garage that may decide if were category N (not S) ?
 
i know if i am getting my car repaired under insurance i want a proper job doing.... hence i do not doubt the quoted repair fees.

which is why i think you need to take the money, then buy it back and then patch it up as best you can (or just live with it).
 
bigmike20vt said:
i know if i am getting my car repaired under insurance i want a proper job doing.... hence i do not doubt the quoted repair fees.

which is why i think you need to take the money, then buy it back and then patch it up as best you can (or just live with it).
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Yea I'd take the money and fix it myself.
.I could fix that pretty cheap, I mean, it would still look like ****, but if you don't care.
 
I wouldn't spend too much to repair it as it will always be a cat n and worth a fraction of the value.
So no sell on value.
But if planning to keep it for a few years not such a issue.
 
Lord Alibaski said:
We just hope our insurance doesn't say it's a write off when it clearly isn't we are not bothered about the dent in the arch it just needs a good T-cut or paint job.
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Your car will be written off. You need to get used to that idea. The damage you speak of not being severe, may not in your head be severe, but in fact is very costly to put right. The entire side of your car has had a rub from another car. You need to be realistic here. The cost to repair all of that will indeed be thousands. I'm not saying it's right, but it is what it is. A write off.
Of course you can buy it back from the insurance company and get it repaired cheap and continue driving it. You don't even have to get it repaired if it is still roadworthy. That's up to you.

Cars get written off when they accidentally clip a bollard. You can literally scratch a bumper or crack a light and suddenly you need a new headlight because you broke the lens all be it minimal, it's still broke. So you ask for a repair and the repair place has to source and paint a brand new bumper with all the trimmings, modern day sensors on it, labour to fit, prime, paint, laquer, colour match and blend. Then you have the new headlight. One of those from Ford is it is xenon projector can be £500.

You've got multiple panels damaged there including rear 3/4 panel, arches, door. Can you not see why they will write that off? Cars get written off for much less honestly.
 
Lord Alibaski said:
The wife is on the phone to saga now, they're releasing our car so we can take it to our local body shop. The garage Saga sent it to valued our car at £2814 but quoted £4600 for repair a repair with fully new wings something it doesn't need.

There is no severe damage, the so called damage on the front tyre is a graze nothing more the wheel trim that was on there come off cos the other car grazed the tyre before hitting the front wheel arch. I was the one driving the car and I was only doing between 5-8 mph going up a one way street when the learner driver pulled out about 2ft away from our car. I heard a thud but it didn't register what happened but stopped asap about a foot in front of the car that hit us. There is no damage to the tyre or wheel just a scuff, a small dint on the front arch a scratch all the way down the passenger side, the back arch has no damage at all its just scratched.

We are just waiting now for FMG to release the car so we can get it to the body shop of our choice but then have to wait for FMG to pass the cost of the repair which hopefully is no way near the £2814 FMG have quoted our car is worth.
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Sounds like you're an expert on car body repair, why not do it yourself? :p
 
Tbh id get the car back, source a red wing and door and polish out the quarter panel as best you can, it'll never match but tbh even done at bodyshop you'll see the 'sprayed' bits.
 
Any experience with asking insurance not to write off a car? I would argue that our recent incident has resulted in a car that is most definitely economical to repair for less than the total loss payout. What sort of car are we going to buy with £2,300 to replace a car we’ve owned from new which everyone likes?

One further question - are categorised cars (cosmetic damage, valid MOT) and more challenging or expensive to insure compared to an equivalent non categorised car?
 
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As long as it has a valid mot should be just the same. I have had 3 cat n and no difference for insurance.
It does seem fair when they right a good car off but that how it is. but if you can tidy it up cheaply and happy to run it into the ground it is ok.
The resale value is lost though
 
tom_nieto said:
Any experience with asking insurance not to write off a car? I would argue that our recent incident has resulted in a car that is most definitely economical to repair for less than the total loss payout. What sort of car are we going to buy with £2,300 to replace a car we’ve owned from new which everyone likes?

One further question - are categorised cars (cosmetic damage, valid MOT) and more challenging or expensive to insure compared to an equivalent non categorised car?
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The settlement value should be the "market value" of what it would cost to buy another similar vehicle (same make, model, mileage, condition etc), minus your excess if you are liable to pay it. If the value offered is too low, you can make a case for a higher payout.

Depending on how far down the process you've gone, you can ask for "cash in lieu of repairs" - this is where the insurer pays you a fixed sum to settle the damage and you keep the car. This can be risky though if you are not 100% sure on the extent of the damage as the pay out may not cover the cost of repairs if there is hidden damage.

It is not usually an issue to insure, and most insurers don't ask about it during the quote process. If you have another accident the value of the car is lower though, which means the writeoff threshold is also lower. No MOT issues either.
 
maybe you can mitigate any perceived loss in value from write-off/catN by getting a professional evaluation after you have done the repairs,
(if you had pro-diy repaired it without incurring labour charges would be unfair to undervalue it )
 
The car was dropped off at ours yesterday by FMG, the cheek of them to ask us to sign the paper saying the car isn't road worthy! we didn't sign this because it would give them the option to scrap the car right away. Funny thing is how can it not be road worthy but they can drive it on the road back and forth?

They wouldn't give us a full rundown on the actual cost of repair, a couple of garages we asked said we are entitled to this but Saga & FMG said they couldn't give it to us. Though Saga did tell us how much they were willing to pay for repairs and this was up to £2814.50. This is another reason why we will be leaving Saga because they use FMG as their insurance assessor and garage. Surely they should be asking the 3rd party to assess the car and not their own assessors! we have no idea.

We have dropped the car off at our local body shop who have give us an estimate of £1780 for repair he did say £1400 at 1st but he said it wouldn't cost more than £1800, he did tell us what they would be doing can't remember it all but main things like checking the front wheel is aligned, replacing front suspension if needed or not needed, replacing the front arch (the back arch is fine the body shape on this Fiesta make's it look like it's dinted but it's not the dirt was cleaned off and the shape is exactly the same as the drivers side. The passenger door needs putting right not causing any problems but he will put it back to shape. He is replacing the passenger front tyre and wheel and also doing the paint work.

Only other problem we have with this is we have been told FMG have to give them the go ahead for this to be done!! surely they can't say no when FMG have valued what they would pay for the car at £2814.50. He also told us they shouldn't have the rights to stop him from repairing the car.

Saga have also told us once all this work is done the total loss will be written off the books, our premiums might go up a bit but we are not bothered about that we just want the car back.
 
Thanks for the replies. Sorry for the thread hijack.

Cash in lieu of repairs sounds like a nice phrase and is exactly what we need. Have been to a local bodyshop already who have given us an estimate. I was concerned about potential damage to the sill, but it’s just cosmetic. If the impact had been any further forward then the suspension would have taken a hit and it wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

Resale value is all a bit academic as we’re talking about a 12 year old fiat 500 with nearly 100k on the clock. The fact that the car has been really reliable and wanted for nothing during our ownership makes it worth hanging on to. Like I said - what sort of car are we going to get for £2,300 (not such a bad insurance valuation IMO)?
 
tbh when we were looking for cars earlier in the year for daughters partner, its surprising how many cat n and s cars are for sale at not much lower prices. when we repaired them we always knocked between 30 and 40 per cent off for cat.
nowadays lots of people are buying from copart and just flipping them usually without even cleaning them.
as said the insurance market and repairs seem totally skewed at the moment, almost worth me buying a couple a year:)

id be surprised if you cant get a secondhand wing and door in colour and just get the garage to fit them. they are not a hard car to source parts for.
 
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