Total Loss on car

Got full estimate

Screenshot-2024-11-28-152400.png
 
I used to work for an insurer and even 25 years ago they had a model that allowed them to quickly review quotes for reasonableness.
It had all the common parts for all the (apart from uber rare models) in it, with the cost the time it would take to fit etc.
Any thought that the repair places are in it with the insurers is laughable.

Many garages didn't like dealing with insurers as the insurer wanted firm costs and would check stuff. They would also warranty work and hence the repair garage would be required to warranty the work as well.
Because they wanted a firm cost the repairers need to assume worst case, every clip broken etc.
Plus of course often a replacement car whilst it is in for repair.

When you go and get an estimate from a garage you need to bear in mind thats what it is. Often disclaimered to "what we can see"
Its certainly not unheard of for them to find extra costs when they dismantle. Plus is there warranty on repair etc.
Of you find they have excluded broken clips or used hot glue instead as the official clips are expensive.

There is a place for either type of garage depending on the situation.

There is normally nothing stopping you going outside the repair network, there can be higher costs of excess.

Seeing as in this case the 3rd parties insurer may agree to pay you for the repair detailed as its actually a big win for them.
You should try to deal with them directly.
That estimate I assume has no car available whilst it is in for repair?
 
Have the Insurance company told you how much you could buy the car back for ? offset against the market value they would give you ? isn't that the best way financially for you to proceed.

If you are clocking up an expensive courtesy car in the interim they will probably be adding that to the buy back cost, so maybe better to consider surrendering that.
Did you speak directly to garage to understand their quote ? the 64K question is whether their is suspension damage.
 
There was no mention of buying the car back we got the car back because of the high estimation cost their garage put on it which was £4600 for repair. They wouldn't tell us how much they actually valued our car, according to them they don't have to. We asked for the car back because we told them we can get it fixed cheaper so they brought it back yesterday. How can they claim it's not road worthy but clearly they have driven the car over 44 miles when the garage is just under 7 miles away this making it 14 miles the car should have travelled but still claim it's not road worthy! the car should have been put on a back of a recovery vehicle and taken to the garage we told them it was going to, but no once again they drove an unroadworthy car over 44 miles. They didn't even clean the side of the car to assess the damage fully.

We are not clocking up any expense to ourselves the courtesy car is covered by our insurance excess and will be claimed back from the 3rd party insurance. FMG had the car for 14 days and did nothing to it our insurance told us we can still have the courtesy car until we get our car fixed. This as all been very stressful not for me but for the wife because of my job I have had no time at all to speak to anyone myself and with her being the actual policy owner they needed to speak to her. I have got permission to speak to them and I will do myself once I get some time off work.

Regarding the garage! like I have said previously the garage where it went to 1st is a partnership with our insurance they are the insurance assessors for SAGA and do all the work. We were told they WON'T or can not give us the full rundown of their quote hence us asking for our car back and taking it to another body shop. The quote above is from our body shop, and yes the suspension is being checked and repaired if anything to it but the car has been driven several times not just by us but by FMG and it is acting perfectly fine.
 
Last edited:
If they offered you a write off amount, then the value of the car according to the insurer is that amount plus your excess, if you are liable to pay the excess on the claim.

The cost of the hire car is a factor in the write off decision. If the cost of repairs is £3500, the cost of the hire car is £250 a week, and the estimated time for repair is 8 weeks, and the car is worth £6000, they'll write it off because wiuth the cost of the hire car considered, its not worth them gambling on the repair taking 8 weeks or less, especially with supply chains still being a bit ****.

Insurance doesn't provide a bottomless pit of money to cover claim related costs.
 
Was that at me SonicSW20?

If so what you have said is irrelevant to what is happening to us. The car is in the body shop being repaired and will be back with us in 5 days.
 
Had similar damage to my car a 6 years ago. Insurance wrote car off as apparently the panels and door needed replaced...

Though I had option to buy car back so didn't bother arguing. Ended up getting the keep car and got more money than I paid several years prior for it. Still running the car now and never repaired the damage.
 
Back
Top Bottom