Could the car have been written off?

[E31Shrew]

Bit of a strange one this. Wifeys Alfa 147 was hit from behind at very low speed , approx 5 mph, on 3rd Jan 2010. Got the car back today, as apparently, they were waiting for a new floor for the boot.

We were given a Mercedes B class thing, brand new, for the duration of the repair and have handed that back today. The other party, by the way, admitted total liability.

Point is..the cost for the rental at £115.00 a day comes to a staggering £10000! Now the car is worth no more than £7500.00 so could a part on a long lead time, cause a car to be written off, even though the amount of damage was negligible?

[kambites]

Yes.

But you could usually buy it back from the insurance company and get it fixed at your leisure.

[poo at Paul's]

utterly ridicuolous waiting so long for a panel.

UNfortunately for your wife, despite her being innocent party, a case like this will highlight the expense of repairing some non exotic foreign cars, and as a result her premium will probably increase next year accordingly.

I am surprised the engineers let it happen to be honest.

[E31Shrew]

Pathetic I know. I called the 'recommended' repair centre every three weeks to be told the same thing each time. Not sure what sort of backhanders these outfits get from the insurance companies, but why on earth they give Alfa repairs to a Ford dealer, beats me. No real incentive for the repairer to chase the part I would've thought.