Discussion
Good Evening,
Last week I was involved in an accident where someone decided to turn right in the left hand lane of a roundabout without indicating causing damage to the rear door, quarter panel and arch. All was caught on dashcam so should absolve me of any liability bilty!
Does anyone have any experience of the costs of this kind of repair? My concern is it may be an uneconomical repair due to the fact a 12 plate 2.0TDi Golf isnt going to be worth much more than £5500, but none the less its a good car which costs me very little to run and allows me to dabble in other weekend projects.
If its deemed a total loss I’d like to look at buying it back and have found a few rear doors in the correct colour to resolve that part of the damage but I be interested to know roughly how much the rest of the damage would be to repair?
TIA
Ben
Last week I was involved in an accident where someone decided to turn right in the left hand lane of a roundabout without indicating causing damage to the rear door, quarter panel and arch. All was caught on dashcam so should absolve me of any liability bilty!
Does anyone have any experience of the costs of this kind of repair? My concern is it may be an uneconomical repair due to the fact a 12 plate 2.0TDi Golf isnt going to be worth much more than £5500, but none the less its a good car which costs me very little to run and allows me to dabble in other weekend projects.
If its deemed a total loss I’d like to look at buying it back and have found a few rear doors in the correct colour to resolve that part of the damage but I be interested to know roughly how much the rest of the damage would be to repair?
TIA
Ben
It seems a bit random - last year daughters 11 plate Golf was written off after a van rear ended it. The damage seemed mainly confined to the rear door, but there was the tiniest ripple in each C post and they wrote it off. It was also suggested to me that her insurer, LV, guarantees repairs for 5 yrs so they're more minded to write things off rather than having someone come back with problems with the car when it's 12 years old.
OTOH the daughter of some friends of ours had her car, worth about £3K, t-boned. Everyone, including the repairer it was taken to, said it was a write off but her insurer ordered it to be repaired.
On the subject of blame, most roundabout accidents go down 50/50. Sounds (and looks) like you cut across the other driver - that might not go as you want it to. It's not necessarily wrong to go around a roundabout in the left lane.
OTOH the daughter of some friends of ours had her car, worth about £3K, t-boned. Everyone, including the repairer it was taken to, said it was a write off but her insurer ordered it to be repaired.
On the subject of blame, most roundabout accidents go down 50/50. Sounds (and looks) like you cut across the other driver - that might not go as you want it to. It's not necessarily wrong to go around a roundabout in the left lane.
Regarding the crash, see video link (turn the volume down, the music is embarrassing, you’ve been warned) and other images regarding who was in the wrong lane. The roundabout is dual carriageway on both side, well marked showing the left lane going straight on only and the right going straight on or right.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n9HSAilDuaRhuvply...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n9HSAilDuaRhuvply...
Edited by bengr33n on Sunday 25th August 22:57
xjay1337 said:
It will be a write off.
Door 80 quid from breakers.
Rear quarter / sill repair approx 500 - 700 depending on quality.
It would still drive straight, but get an alignment to check.
I'd buy it back for sure.
The current plan is to buy back so long as I can find someone to repair it in the ball park you’ve suggested. Its encouraging you’ve estimated similar numbers to what I had in my head though. Will definitely get the geometry checked before looking to buy back as I’m still using the car daily.Door 80 quid from breakers.
Rear quarter / sill repair approx 500 - 700 depending on quality.
It would still drive straight, but get an alignment to check.
I'd buy it back for sure.
You'd notice if it was out to be honest .
The rear arms are cheap and easy to replace if it is bent though, which i doubt.
Mrs car was hit and had worse damage than that and was 750.
Most of that is scuff damage which would polish out.
Would be worth going around a selection of bodyshops to get quotes. I guess it helped for me as I already had a lot of contacts but i still got a selection of quotes and they ranged from 600 - 1250 so worth checking. You don't need it to be perfect in any event.
The rear arms are cheap and easy to replace if it is bent though, which i doubt.
Mrs car was hit and had worse damage than that and was 750.
Most of that is scuff damage which would polish out.
Would be worth going around a selection of bodyshops to get quotes. I guess it helped for me as I already had a lot of contacts but i still got a selection of quotes and they ranged from 600 - 1250 so worth checking. You don't need it to be perfect in any event.
xjay1337 said:
You'd notice if it was out to be honest .
The rear arms are cheap and easy to replace if it is bent though, which i doubt.
Mrs car was hit and had worse damage than that and was 750.
Most of that is scuff damage which would polish out.
Would be worth going around a selection of bodyshops to get quotes. I guess it helped for me as I already had a lot of contacts but i still got a selection of quotes and they ranged from 600 - 1250 so worth checking. You don't need it to be perfect in any event.
The car is mechanically sound, had a new clutch, DMF and slave cylinder at VW prior to my purchase 15k ago, new discs and pads all round again by VW along with a new cambelt, tensioner and waterpump so its a shame to let it go for the sake of a bit of bodywork. I’ve got a few contacts for bodywork, but mot many, I know one who is partial to a cash job so he’ll be my first stop.The rear arms are cheap and easy to replace if it is bent though, which i doubt.
Mrs car was hit and had worse damage than that and was 750.
Most of that is scuff damage which would polish out.
Would be worth going around a selection of bodyshops to get quotes. I guess it helped for me as I already had a lot of contacts but i still got a selection of quotes and they ranged from 600 - 1250 so worth checking. You don't need it to be perfect in any event.
I know its often hard to tell, but the below is all the damage that occurred to the rear alloy.
Edited by bengr33n on Sunday 25th August 22:55
bengr33n said:
Regarding the crash, see video link (turn the volume down, the music is embarrassing, you’ve been warned) and other images regarding who was in the wrong lane.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n9HSAilDuaRhuvply...
Hopefully you'll be OK due to the lane markings - the other driver changed lanes when it wasn't safe to do so.https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n9HSAilDuaRhuvply...
You could have so easily avoided that accident though. It's asking for trouble to pass another vehicle at that point, the car's road positioning even looks like it isn't going to turn off.
Sheepshanks said:
Hopefully you'll be OK due to the lane markings - the other driver changed lanes when it wasn't safe to do so.
You could have so easily avoided that accident though. It's asking for trouble to pass another vehicle at that point.
Very easy to criticise ones actions watching a clip behind a keyboard where you’re expecting an accident to occur rather than in the real world on a roundabout that you’ve driven thousands of time in the same manner with thousands of other vehicles doing the same over the last 10 years.You could have so easily avoided that accident though. It's asking for trouble to pass another vehicle at that point.
As you’ll see in the clip shortly after applying the brakes I was turning right in an effort to avoid the car hence the lessening of the damage to the vehicle and in all honestly I was watching the learner, as thats where I expected the danger to come from. Legal, but now worn eco tyres fitted to the car at the time of buying also didn't help my cause very much either nor odes the wide angle nature of dash cam lenses or the fact the camera is set off centre of the vehicle.
I drove the roundabout again today and hung back from another car in the left hand lane in a very similar situation to be greeted with waved arms and flashing lights behind me, its nothing more than a roundabout breaking a section of dual carriageway and as such everyone driving it trying to continue with their journey at NSL.
Ultimately, after 12 years of driving with no accidents I didn't come here for a critique of my driving by a person I’ve never met, nor will.
Edited by bengr33n on Sunday 25th August 23:06
Looks to me that the car was intending to go left but wanted past that learner and so was focusing on that rather than their blind spot.
Not sure what the speed limit is on that roundabout but I doubt that will be an issue anyway as from my experience you'd have to be going considerable over it to give them any sort of a defence. I'd crop the bottom of the video out if the limit is 30 just in case though. Fact is they changed lanes into you so I can't imagine how any blame could be assigned to you? Another great example of why dashcams are so crucial.
Not sure what the speed limit is on that roundabout but I doubt that will be an issue anyway as from my experience you'd have to be going considerable over it to give them any sort of a defence. I'd crop the bottom of the video out if the limit is 30 just in case though. Fact is they changed lanes into you so I can't imagine how any blame could be assigned to you? Another great example of why dashcams are so crucial.
ninjag said:
Looks to me that the car was intending to go left but wanted past that learner and so was focusing on that rather than their blind spot.
Not sure what the speed limit is on that roundabout but I doubt that will be an issue anyway as from my experience you'd have to be going considerable over it to give them any sort of a defence. I'd crop the bottom of the video out if the limit is 30 just in case though. Fact is they changed lanes into you so I can't imagine how any blame could be assigned to you? Another great example of why dashcams are so crucial.
Speed limit is 40mph in that section, which I didn't break, when we both go out she told me the ‘sat nav said she could use both lanes to turn right’.Not sure what the speed limit is on that roundabout but I doubt that will be an issue anyway as from my experience you'd have to be going considerable over it to give them any sort of a defence. I'd crop the bottom of the video out if the limit is 30 just in case though. Fact is they changed lanes into you so I can't imagine how any blame could be assigned to you? Another great example of why dashcams are so crucial.
bengr33n said:
when we both go out she told me the ‘sat nav said she could use both lanes to turn right’.
Dozy cow. You were completely in the right in my book, although judging from many past threads on PH you may find there are quite a few misguided fools with a poor understanding of the highway code, that will disagree with me.
Edited by rlg43p on Sunday 25th August 23:53
I’ll agree and say that the payout/write off/repair answers are random from each insurer. I had a Scenic for sometime. I was the second owner, the first being a mobility user, car was immaculate and we had all the history. Very little value but to us it was good. Had a £500s worth of timing belt work few weeks before at a main dealer. Was worth about £1800 at the time and needed 60% of its value in repairs following an accident like yours. Back quarter, door, pillar damage. Insurer said that once it gets to 50% they write it off. I argued, long term customer etc and the they finally agreed to do it once I found a few quotes to better their original one from their preferred body shop. They then arranged courtesy car and the entire thing was stress free for me. I could’ve bought the damaged car and then arranged to get it fixed in hindsight but didn’t have the confidence on how that would’ve worked out for me. Driving around in a damaged car, getting another car to drive and I was really annoyed at the time that the car would’ve been a Category write off.
I hope you get what you want from it but don’t be afraid to question the insurers first answer.
I hope you get what you want from it but don’t be afraid to question the insurers first answer.
Edited by oldaudi on Monday 26th August 06:05
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