Car bumped - will insurers write off? Is that good / bad

[LoonR1]

MGJohn said:

Major player reason for writing cars off for relatively light shunts is replacement car hire costs etc. Could be a month maybe more off the road looking for spares and repairing it. Hire car for a month is costly. Write a car off quickly and settle with cheque in the post sharpish and hire car taken back ASAP.

Not always a bad thing though because as previously advised, buy back the car for peanuts and use the write off cheque to get the repair done at your leisure. Go about it wisely and you should end up a nice few quid in front plus the car good as ever.

I don't think you quite understand the hire car piece. My insurer decides whether to write my car off or not. The cost to them of hire is negligible.

[MGJohn]

LoonR1 said:

MGJohn said:

Major player reason for writing cars off for relatively light shunts is replacement car hire costs etc. Could be a month maybe more off the road looking for spares and repairing it. Hire car for a month is costly. Write a car off quickly and settle with cheque in the post sharpish and hire car taken back ASAP.

Not always a bad thing though because as previously advised, buy back the car for peanuts and use the write off cheque to get the repair done at your leisure. Go about it wisely and you should end up a nice few quid in front plus the car good as ever.

I don't think you quite understand the hire car piece. My insurer decides whether to write my car off or not. The cost to them of hire is negligible.

My "limited" understanding includes many cases where car hire costs were thousands ... 40k in one instance.

[torqueofthedevil]

There are hundreds of cars worth more than 5k at 12 years old!

Thanks for all your help everyone!

[lbc]

torqueofthedevil said:

There are hundreds of cars worth more than 5k at 12 years old!

Thanks for all your help everyone!

But what is this amazing 02 plate car that is 'worth' £5K to you or your girlfriend?

[LoonR1]

MGJohn said:

My "limited" understanding includes many cases where car hire costs were thousands ... 40k in one instance.

Really? So an insurer who writes their policyholder's car off can be on the hook for the type of hire that runs to that value? Clue: they can't.

[MGJohn]

LoonR1 said:

MGJohn said:

My "limited" understanding includes many cases where car hire costs were thousands ... 40k in one instance.

Really? So an insurer who writes their policyholder's car off can be on the hook for the type of hire that runs to that value? Clue: they can't.

Policyholder ??

Third party at fault?

[LoonR1]

MGJohn said:

Policyholder ??

Third party at fault?

It's clear you don't understand this. An insurer will incur excessive hire charges on a claim from a third party driver who was not at fault. If hire is ongoing on a credit basis then this insurer will not control the repair. As such they have no ability to mandate total loss or repair.