Write off?

Big Chris

Big Chris

Big Chris

Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2004
Posts
5,461
Location
Bloxham
Had a shunt this morning on the way to work, heading towards a roundabout slowing down and was checking to see if any traffic was coming to my right around the roundabout. Since there was none I foolishly assumed the cars in front would also note this and keep moving but this was not the case and I went into the back of a VW Transporter van, which in turn went into the back of a Ford Fiesta.

Totally my fault and having spoken to my insurance company they confirmed this.

My car (1999 Ford Focus 1.8) looked ok on first inspection, but having checked it out properly it looks like the chassis is bent and party sheared behind the front bumper:

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I'm guessing this is a write off? Car is probably worth about £1200 now, 68k on the clock and a full tank of jungle-juice annoyingly :(
 
They'd write if off dude, may only be a Cat D mind.

Car of that age and damage is looking at over £1500. I had a similar off in my first car. Is the front slam panel bent?

The VW driver must have been extremely close to the car in front to hit it. Bit foolish to accelerate behind a van if you can't see clear in front of it, but accidents happen and everyones ok. Assumption is the mother of all screw ups...
 
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at least your alright.

and at least you admit that you made the mistake unlike every other person i know involved in a crash that makes up excuses like 'my brakes didn't work'
 
Logsi said:
They'd write if off dude, may only be a Cat D mind.

Car of that age and damage is looking at over £1500. I had a similar off in my first car. Is the front slam panel bent?

The VW driver must have been extremely close to the car in front to hit it. Bit foolish to accelerate behind a van if you can't see clear in front of it, but accidents happen and everyones ok. Assumption is the mother of all screw ups...
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Not sure what a slam panel is? It's all pretty bent up behind there though sadly. Bonnet is released with the ignition key though and that's all mangled too so I can't actually open the bonnet to check properly.

I was slowing down at the time of the accident, no more than 15/20mph. I drive that road every morning and if there's nothing coming (you can see for quite a distance) then traffic just flows onward. The Fiesta was at the front and had obviously stopped to check properly though and the Transporter was waiting behind him, so I cruised up behind looking up the road instead of straight ahead just (stupidly) expecting them to keep moving.

I'm fine and so were they, although I randomly hurt my thumb as my fingernail broke the skin somehow. Still, far from the worst that could've happened - just annoyed at myself.
 
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Unfortunately it's probably a write off, could always buy it back and fix it if you're keen on keeping it though. I wouldn't be surprised if you hear claims of whiplash in a few weeks/months too.
 
We all make mistakes. I had 2 accidents within 2 months in 2009 both 100% my fault. Suck it up and know that you won't be feeling so bad in a couple of days when things are sorted out :)
 
admiral wanted to write off my 2001 focus for this:

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only damage was the wing/bumper and light, all of which I sourced for less than £60! So may be worth looking into repairing it and looking for one or 2 being broken
 
That's exactly what I'm doing now actually.

I work at an insurance company (in IT) so asked one of the Claims Inspectors to take a look. He doesn't think there's any serious damage, although he can't say for sure since the bonnet won't open. He said he'd be very surprised if the chassis was damanged (the bit I thought was the chassis is actually the cross-member which proves how much I know about cars!) and that if I source the bits 2nd hand through breakers etc then I should be able to get it sorted.

I've cancelled the claim for the time being and am going to take it to a local accident repair place where I know someone who will give it an honest opinion. If it's buggered then I'll claim and just take what little money is left after my excess, but if it can be fixed then I'd rather spend £500 doing so than trying to find much more than that for a new car.

One question though, do I still have to pay my excess given the other people will be claiming from my insurance?
 
YarwoodUK said:
Yeah from those pics I was wondering how you could say the chassis was damaged :p

Does the engine start? Is the radiator intact etc?
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hehe yeah I saw bent bits of metal behind the bumper and just assumed the worst :o Certainly glad to have been proved wrong in this case though...

Drives absolutely fine, didn't touch the rad from what I can tell since there's no fluids coming out and it hasn't overheated, but we'll know more when we get the bonnet open. Just hoping there are no nasty surprises...
 
The car will very likely be written off - that's the bad news.

Good news is that it looks like the only real damage is to your slam panel, maybe radiator as well as the obvious bodywork stuff. Can't see the chasis being bent in a straight on low speed hit like that

If you were so inclined (and have someone who could check the rest for you) you could probably get a payout for the car, buy it back at next to nothing and fix it for a few hundred.
 
I've almost done this a couple of times, it's very easy to assume others are going to do the same that you would. Now I just make sure that I stare at the car in front of me rather than looking right and getting ready to go.
 
It's very easy to do this to be fair, very common crunch, suspect the Foci is toast old boy looking at those pics. Every cloud, time to go car shopping. :)
 
rodenal said:
If you were so inclined (and have someone who could check the rest for you) you could probably get a payout for the car, buy it back at next to nothing and fix it for a few hundred.
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This was one of the options suggested, it would come back Cat-D most likely then I pay them the salvage (approx £150) and use the payout to fix it.

How does it being Cat-D affect things though? I know the re-sale value would be hit but I'm not bothered about that since it's worth chuff-all anyway. I assume I'd need to get another MOT once it was fixed, and would the insurance go up too? Any other knock-on effects?

Plan at the moment is to drop the claim and just pay to have it fixed as I can't afford a new car without borrowing but could manage a few hundred on repairs & spares.
 
you can't drop the claim as you hit other parties. Will make zero difference to future insurance policies (compared to what it will be anyway) for your own car to be included on it

I would go through with it, get the car written off, get a pay out and use some of that to repair the car.
 
I've dropped the claim on my car already, they said I can come back to them and claim if it turns out it'll cost loads to fix once it's properly checked out. Obviously the other people involved will claim against me though.

Happen that I do end up claiming though and they Cat-D it, what happens then? Other than the resale value going down, are there are costs to consider once I've fixed it?
 
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