Is this car a write-off

[K50 DEL]

Thanks to a set of circumstances that you couldn't script, my Jeep has impacted my friend's Impreza whilst the Subaru was parked on her driveway, pushing it into her house.
I wasn't driving and she is legally insured as a named driver on my (Jeep) insurance.

She's concerned that insurance might write off the car, anyone within the industry care to hazard a guess.

The car's a 2000 W Subaru Impreza STi 6, it has some interesting history in that it was owned by Prodrive and was Richard Burns' car however I know that won't affect the insurance outcome.
It was in generally OK condition with about 80k on the clock before the impact but now

Tailgate damaged
rear bumper and spats damaged
boot floor appears kinked
one wheel and tyre damaged
scratches to rear and front wings
bonnet damaged
light cluster broken

The Jeep towbar also put a hole in the rear bumper, so not sure what's damaged under there.

A pic



We won't even talk about the damage to my Jeep, the neighbour's fence or her house!

[edition]

Nasty!! I would say with all that damage an insurance company would write it off.

Not sure if an ex-rally driver would put the price up or not! You can imagine if he wanted, he could have driven it prety hard! Nice interesting history though!

[A911DOM]

Should this be in the bad parking thread?

No idea about the insurance bit, sorry.

[911p]

I'd say there's at least £3k worth of damage there, and an STi of that year is worth around £4k max (IMO). I reckon the insurance would deem it uneconomic to repair. In short, yes, it's probably a write-off.

[E30M3SE]

If this is indicative of what that car I worth and it does indeed have a buckled boot floor then I would say, yes, insurance will deem uneconomical to repair.

[K50 DEL]

E30M3SE said:

If this is indicative of what that car I worth and it does indeed have a buckled boot floor then I would say, yes, insurance will deem uneconomical to repair.

I was thinking that the boot floor is probably the critical part to be honest.
Looking at the picture (and having been rear ended in my own Impreza a few years ago, I'm wondering if, in fact, it's not buckled... the impact doesn't seem hard enough, but I guess we won't know until the insurance assessor checks it out.

[TheRoadWarrior]

How on earth did you/she do so much damage PUSHING the car around on a driveway?!

Would be a shame if it was written off, but looking at the value of them i'd not be too hopeful.

[E30M3SE]

Once you have started going down the insurance route I don't think there is any way of going back.

So may be an idea, if your friend wants to keep the car, to take it to a body shop and get them you quote on the repair, they should also be able to advise on the boot floor, and your friend pay for the repairs herself.

(Don't know how viable this just an idea.)

[*Al*]

If the boot floor is damaged then i'd say it'll be an uneconomical write off. Shame.

[Ozzie Osmond]

K50 DEL said:

I was thinking that the boot floor is probably the critical part to be honest.

+1

Overall it sounds marginal to me so see how it goes with the assessor.

[kambites]

Yes, I'd imagine that will be written off. However, you can generally take the payout and then buy it back from the insurers, if you want to only fix some of the damage and keep the car.

[Hugo a Gogo]

sorry, was SHE driving your Jeep and hit her own car, the impreza?

I've a funny feeling the insurance company won't like that one bit

[AndrewW-G]

One of the factors to consider, is whether or not she wants a like for like hire car, whilst its off the road . . . as we all know a month or two of scooby hire is not going to be cheap and would IMHO make your insurance co write it off.

If she wants to get it fixed, you will both have to find ways to ensure that the repair costs stay as low as possible

[J4CKO]

Stick it in a field, if it goes like the Escort based on Rallying pedigree ina few years it will be worth 100 grand,

[K50 DEL]

E30M3SE said:

Once you have started going down the insurance route I don't think there is any way of going back.

So may be an idea, if your friend wants to keep the car, to take it to a body shop and get them you quote on the repair, they should also be able to advise on the boot floor, and your friend pay for the repairs herself.

(Don't know how viable this just an idea.)

This is true, and there's no option to repair it herself as I think the Jeep may well be written off too, not to mention the damage to the fence and her house.
It's definately a suck-it-and-see job with the assessor, I was just hoping to be able to alleviate her concerns that she might lose the car... it means a very great deal to her.

As to how she did it, the time honoured method of not paying attention to what she was doing, rushing and a bit of bad luck. 4.7 V8 Jeeps might weigh 3 tonnes but they stil accelerate fast enough that I doubt she had more than 5 seconds to react and come off the loud pedal (she's used to starting a car with her foot on the clutch and I think she must have started the Jeep and put it into Reverse with her foot on the throttle instead.)

Ah well, what's done is done, luckily I have protected and guaranteed no claims so...

[Hugo a Gogo]

does anyone know for sure if ins. co. has a 'get-out' for people crashing into their own cars? I'm sure I recall something like that

[Mastodon2]

K50 DEL said:

E30M3SE said:

Once you have started going down the insurance route I don't think there is any way of going back.

So may be an idea, if your friend wants to keep the car, to take it to a body shop and get them you quote on the repair, they should also be able to advise on the boot floor, and your friend pay for the repairs herself.

(Don't know how viable this just an idea.)

This is true, and there's no option to repair it herself as I think the Jeep may well be written off too, not to mention the damage to the fence and her house.
It's definately a suck-it-and-see job with the assessor, I was just hoping to be able to alleviate her concerns that she might lose the car... it means a very great deal to her.

As to how she did it, the time honoured method of not paying attention to what she was doing, rushing and a bit of bad luck. 4.7 V8 Jeeps might weigh 3 tonnes but they stil accelerate fast enough that I doubt she had more than 5 seconds to react and come off the loud pedal (she's used to starting a car with her foot on the clutch and I think she must have started the Jeep and put it into Reverse with her foot on the throttle instead.)

Ah well, what's done is done, luckily I have protected and guaranteed no claims so...

If you are used to starting a car with your left down down on the pedal, how do you cock up and start with the right one down instead? I start my car with the clutch depressed (always have done) and I can't fathom how I could put a car in reverse and start with the throttle down instead. Unless Land Rovers have their pedals in back to front or something?

[Beyond Rational]

Wrote off the jeep as well

Any pics of the front of the car?

[K50 DEL]

Beyond Rational said:

Wrote off the jeep as well

Any pics of the front of the car?

Nope, no pics of the front of the scoob, and I say I think that the Jeep will be written off as it only cost me 2.5k 6 months ago, the towbar is bent to hell and the offside has been dented and scraped all the way along by the rather nice expensive style fence that next door have.

You can see the main point of impact in the photo below, it's not as bad as this all the way down, but both wings and doors have dents etc.
Also the rear bumper and of course the towbar are fubar-ed

[R11ysf]

Mastodon2 said:

K50 DEL said:

E30M3SE said:

Once you have started going down the insurance route I don't think there is any way of going back.

So may be an idea, if your friend wants to keep the car, to take it to a body shop and get them you quote on the repair, they should also be able to advise on the boot floor, and your friend pay for the repairs herself.

(Don't know how viable this just an idea.)

This is true, and there's no option to repair it herself as I think the Jeep may well be written off too, not to mention the damage to the fence and her house.
It's definately a suck-it-and-see job with the assessor, I was just hoping to be able to alleviate her concerns that she might lose the car... it means a very great deal to her.

As to how she did it, the time honoured method of not paying attention to what she was doing, rushing and a bit of bad luck. 4.7 V8 Jeeps might weigh 3 tonnes but they stil accelerate fast enough that I doubt she had more than 5 seconds to react and come off the loud pedal (she's used to starting a car with her foot on the clutch and I think she must have started the Jeep and put it into Reverse with her foot on the throttle instead.)

Ah well, what's done is done, luckily I have protected and guaranteed no claims so...

If you are used to starting a car with your left down down on the pedal, how do you cock up and start with the right one down instead? I start my car with the clutch depressed (always have done) and I can't fathom how I could put a car in reverse and start with the throttle down instead. Unless Land Rovers have their pedals in back to front or something?

Seems straight forward enough. The OP's other half normally has foot on clutch and revs accelerator to start engine. In this instance she did the same in an auto - i.e no clutch to hold down - and the thing shot backwards.
Bad luck, these things can happen.

OP - you can always buy the car back off the insurance co if it has sentimental value.