Write off?

Big Chris

Big Chris

Big Chris

Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2004
Posts
5,482
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 :(
 
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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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...
 
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.
 
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?
 
You're probably right, I'm just wary as I don't really know what having the car back as Cat-D means to me & the costs as I've said.

As it stands I know the car is worth £1250 according to Glass' Guide, minus £550 excess, minus the salvage cost which is approx £170 according the Claims guys at work. So that leaves me with about £500 give or take.

So, I get the car back and £500 and let's say it costs £500 to put right. Can I just drive off into the sunset once it's fixed or do I have to do anything else since it's Cat-D? Will it cost more to insure, and do I have to insure it again or will the existing policy still stand?
 
Great, thanks. The Glass' value I got is from the Claims guy at work so the official one (I spend half my working life installing/reinstalling Glass' Guide and Escribe so about time they did something for me!) He's printed me off a load of stuff about the bits I might need to replace and the value of the car, plus the salvage value.

My only other question is, since I'm not planning at this stage to claim for damage to my car, but the other guys will claim from me, do I still have to pay the excess?
 
Right, spoken to my insurer again this morning just to clear up a few things.

If the car is written off as Cat-D and I get it back, I'm left with about £500 after the payout and the salvage costs.

-I have to pay £x amount to fix it myself
-I have to have an MOT done
-I have to reinsure it at a higher premium since the policy will have been cancelled (with no refund) and the premium will go up given the accident

So bearing all that in mind, I might as well just spend the few hundred quid fixing it myself and be done with it since I won't have to pay the excess if I don't claim for my car.

I'm now just hoping there aren't any nasty surprises when we get the bonnet open and we can just make do with a new wing, cross-member etc. Fingers crossed...
 
The chap said my policy would be cancelled once they'd written off the car as Cat-D, so I'd need to get a new MOT done before I could reinsure it, and the reinsurance quote would include the fact that I'd just had an accident obviously so would be higher; although I still have 7yrs protected no claims.
 
4T5 said:
Sorry to hear this mate as I've done it before twice. :o One time I just nudged the person in front so no damage tuther time I looked & stopped in time. Both times like you said the people in front could have got a bus out let alone a car. :mad:

Anyways.
Looks like a financial write off to me but always hard to judge just from a few pics.
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Yeah it's frustrating, but totally my fault. I drive that route every morning and more than likely do so on autopilot. Just takes one person who isn't so familiar with the road to stop, apply handbrake and check both ways and you're stuffed.

Ahh well, lesson learned and should hopefully be sorted with a few hundred quid and some trips to breakers (shame I didn't hit the back of a silver Focus as I could've had the front off it and sorted it there and then! :p)
 
Took it in to be checked over this morning, friend of a friend so I know he would give it an honest appraisal.

He reckons he can do the lot for £400 including labour and he can source bits through is regular contacts since he runs a bodyshop & accident repair place.

He's booked up for the foreseeable but said if I drop it to him next Fri he'll do his best to get it back to me over the weekend; at which point I'll buy him many beers.

Pretty happy with that outcome (relatively speaking of course, in an ideal world I wouldn't have driven into the back of anyone and I'd be using that £400 on drugs & hookers etc.)
 
Got the car back today, pretty happy with the results for £350:

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The shut lines aren't perfect and the grille is a little loose but it's good enough for me.

Bad news is, I had a letter from the guy in front of the guy I hit saying he has neck stiffness, back stiffness, and get this... "anxiety whilst driving" :confused:

It was a low speed accident, he was perfectly alright at the time, and when I phoned him later to let him know my insurance would be in contact he again said he was fine. Guess it's to be expected these days sadly, he seemed like a decent guy at the time though :(.

I've forwarded the letter onto my insurance company and enclosed a letter saying it seemed suspicious but will have to wait and see what happens. I did mention that since I was the one who hit a guy directly and neither I nor he had any medical problems. It also said in his letter that he'd not sought medical attention or visited a hospital.
 
I phoned my insurance company yesterday and told them about it, they said if there's any medical evidence then they have to pay out. His letter said he'd not sought any medical advice, but I assume he just has to go to the doctor and say his neck hurts?

I've got legal cover on my policy and all that so I guess if they do pay out then it won't effect me in any way?

Once it's all done and dusted either way I'm tempted to ring the guy and tell him what I think of him. "Anxiety whilst driving?" What a pussy...
 
Do they go to any lengths to try and find out if the claim is genuine though? Or will they just pay him some money to keep him happy?

If he works full time and has sick pay then how does he come up with a compensation figure if he's not out of pocket? Will he have to produce any proof etc?
 
Thanks for that post Ray, really appreciate the time and effort you put into that and certainly makes things clearer.

Will I hear any more about this then since it's with the insurers? Or will they just go through the bits that apply from the info you provided above and settle with the guy then close the case?
 
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