Insurance write off

[aero93]

Wife managed to reverse her 03 (facelift) X5 into a post yesterday. Apparently "it needs a new lower tailgate and rear bumper and some work over the wheel arch". She spoke to the insurance company after taking it to two bodyshops this morning to get rough quotes.

Insurance company said due to its age it will be a write off. The two bodyshops gave quotes of around 800-900.. Similar cars on autotrader are going for around 6,000-8,000, it has just under 70,000 miles on the clock and fully loaded with heated seats, tv, sat nav etc as it was originally a demo car.

Having never had to go through this before any idea what type of offer I can expect from insurance company or how much I should be aiming to negotiate to? Is it worth trying to buy off the insurer and keep it on the road?

Any help appreciated or recommendations of other bodyshops in Essex (pref Brentwood/Romford way)..

[Du1point8]

How is an 800-900 repair a write off on a car that is worth between 6000-8000?

Thought it had to be getting to close to 40% of the value of the car.

Edited by Du1point8 on Tuesday 27th May 13:29

[eybic]

Someone has definitely got their sums wrong, there is no way an 800 repair would write off a 6k car.

[LukeR94]

get settlement value, buy from insurace for dirt cheap, repair as cat d, sell on, make profit, win win!

[TooMany2cvs]

aero93 said:

Apparently "it needs a new lower tailgate and rear bumper and some work over the wheel arch".

That sounds like a lot more than £8-900 worth of work, tbh.

[thebigmacmoomin]

A new lower tailgate from BMW would probably be nearly £800 on its own I would have thought.

[t400ble]

I'd tell em to forget it and fix it yourself

Second hand bits on ebay?

[73mark]

LukeR94 said:

get settlement value, buy from insurace for dirt cheap, repair as cat d, sell on, make profit, win win!

^this^

[Muffsy]

TooMany2cvs said:

aero93 said:

Apparently "it needs a new lower tailgate and rear bumper and some work over the wheel arch".

That sounds like a lot more than £8-900 worth of work, tbh.

+1
You can double that for starters...

[aero93]

Muffsy said:

TooMany2cvs said:

aero93 said:

Apparently "it needs a new lower tailgate and rear bumper and some work over the wheel arch".

That sounds like a lot more than £8-900 worth of work, tbh.

+1
You can double that for starters...

Yeah I was expecting more but two places looked at it and quoted around the same price..

[Jim AK]

Is estimate worded "Plus parts @MLP" or "Labour only"?

It may then be a write off if other replies are correct as to parts prices.

Seems very easy to get a 4 figure quote these days.