When is it an insurance write off?
Discussion
Yesterday I was t-boned at a junction.
The car jumped red lights. There are witnesses etc.
My car is worth £15,000
The damage is all the driver side: bumper, bonnet, headlight, wheel, wish bone bent, driver door, passenger door and, what appeared to be coolant from the radiator.
I would say may be £11,000 worth of damage.
Would it be a total loss?
Or does it depend on the insurer?
The car jumped red lights. There are witnesses etc.
My car is worth £15,000
The damage is all the driver side: bumper, bonnet, headlight, wheel, wish bone bent, driver door, passenger door and, what appeared to be coolant from the radiator.
I would say may be £11,000 worth of damage.
Would it be a total loss?
Or does it depend on the insurer?
From the sound of it that could be more than £11K.
I had a repair costed at a main dealer for front bumper, wing, headlight and rear quarter and that totalled around £7K...
Fairly sure there's a percentage figure that insurance companies GENERALLY work to, but I couldn't tell you what it is.
I had a repair costed at a main dealer for front bumper, wing, headlight and rear quarter and that totalled around £7K...
Fairly sure there's a percentage figure that insurance companies GENERALLY work to, but I couldn't tell you what it is.
Yup, I would say soo too.. Had a rear bumper replaced plus mounting brackets underneath, driven into at <10mph at a roundabout. No metal panels damaged at all. I didn't even claim hire car or anything, as used a works car for a while whilst being repaired - that cost around £1200. And I'm still paying for it, as a non fault claim on every renewal me & misses do.
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That makes sense. Thanks guys. I will wait it out to see what the assessment brings from the garage.
Yes now I think about it, it may be more than I estimate.
Hotel costs probably need to be factored in. A ‘premium’ car was not available. The hire company refused to provide anything less. All we wanted to do was get home but there were no cars available until the following day. We shall see.
My poor dog. She was so frightened.
Thank you.
Yes now I think about it, it may be more than I estimate.
Hotel costs probably need to be factored in. A ‘premium’ car was not available. The hire company refused to provide anything less. All we wanted to do was get home but there were no cars available until the following day. We shall see.
My poor dog. She was so frightened.
Thank you.
Super_G said:
That makes sense. Thanks guys. I will wait it out to see what the assessment brings from the garage.
Yes now I think about it, it may be more than I estimate.
Hotel costs probably need to be factored in. A ‘premium’ car was not available. The hire company refused to provide anything less. All we wanted to do was get home but there were no cars available until the following day. We shall see.
My poor dog. She was so frightened.
Thank you.
Long as you, family and Pup are OK, that's main part. Yes now I think about it, it may be more than I estimate.
Hotel costs probably need to be factored in. A ‘premium’ car was not available. The hire company refused to provide anything less. All we wanted to do was get home but there were no cars available until the following day. We shall see.
My poor dog. She was so frightened.
Thank you.
I had a low speed bump in a car park few years back now. Needed bumper spray, rear quarter spray, new bumper fixings and a small dent pulling. Got a low end hire car for 7 days, total bill was still £1600 for very little repair work and a cheap hire car. Still declaring a no fault collision now, put my premiums up for first two years but seems to have returned back to normal now.
Hope it all gets sorted the way you'd like it to though.
A neighbour pulled out a junction, missed the car coming hidden in view of her a pillers and went into the side of it as it passed the junction. Front quarter of the 3 year old juke damaged, lights, bumper, bolt on crash structure underneath. £11k of damages apparently which was enough to write the car off.
I`m sure there is a fiddle going on with some insurers, body shops and car breakers. My friend had an immaculate four year old Fiesta with 30K on the clock, parked in a doctor`s car park. Another guy left his hand brake off, his car just rolled into my mate`s pride and joy. Dent in the rear 1/4 panel and tail gate, cracked rear bumper and rear light, all cosmetic stuff. The quotation was to fit new everything, 1/4 panel, tail gate, the lot. I think it was over £4000 !!! The insurer wrote the car off. He could have taken a reduced payment and kept the car.
I could have got the repair done perfectly for less than £1K, but the car would have had a permanent marker on it, so he waved that lovely car goodbye.
Within a month we checked that car online, it was taxed, insured, MOT, so presumably back on the road.
I could have got the repair done perfectly for less than £1K, but the car would have had a permanent marker on it, so he waved that lovely car goodbye.
Within a month we checked that car online, it was taxed, insured, MOT, so presumably back on the road.
Old Merc said:
I`m sure there is a fiddle going on with some insurers, body shops and car breakers. My friend had an immaculate four year old Fiesta with 30K on the clock, parked in a doctor`s car park. Another guy left his hand brake off, his car just rolled into my mate`s pride and joy. Dent in the rear 1/4 panel and tail gate, cracked rear bumper and rear light, all cosmetic stuff. The quotation was to fit new everything, 1/4 panel, tail gate, the lot. I think it was over £4000 !!! The insurer wrote the car off. He could have taken a reduced payment and kept the car.
I could have got the repair done perfectly for less than £1K, but the car would have had a permanent marker on it, so he waved that lovely car goodbye.
Within a month we checked that car online, it was taxed, insured, MOT, so presumably back on the road.
Your friend had the opportunity to buy the car back from the insurance company, get it repaired with cheaper parts (pattern/used - whatever) for a lot less money, and keep the car, albeit with an insurance marker against it - He chose not to.I could have got the repair done perfectly for less than £1K, but the car would have had a permanent marker on it, so he waved that lovely car goodbye.
Within a month we checked that car online, it was taxed, insured, MOT, so presumably back on the road.
Someone else decided to buy the car, carry out the required repairs (most likely using pattern/used parts), and either use it with the insurance marker against it, or sell it on - So what?
At no point would your friend have been told that he couldn't buy the car back, but other people could buy the car.
As for your claim that insurance companies writing-off vehicles is some sort of scam:
Insurance companies need a way to create an industry standard for costing repairs, and the best way for them to do that, and guarantee the provenance and quality of the parts being used for any repairs, is to insist on brand new parts being used. That's because, the quality and price of second hand parts can vary from part to part, whereas the quality and cost of new parts is pretty much consistent.
Also, the insurance company will have paid out more money than they will get from selling the car on, so they won't make a profit on the damaged car, they will simply mitigate a percentage of the money paid out.
Whoever repairs the vehicle, and sells it on will make some profit, but in most cases (where the insurance write-off is declared), they will make less profit than they would selling an undamaged car.
If you really think it's some sort of fiddle though, and that you could repair insurance write-off's so easily, and make big profits, why don't you do it for a business?
Byker28i said:
A neighbour pulled out a junction, missed the car coming hidden in view of her a pillers and went into the side of it as it passed the junction. Front quarter of the 3 year old juke damaged, lights, bumper, bolt on crash structure underneath. £11k of damages apparently which was enough to write the car off.
Not surprised. That’s about £15k more than the Juke is worth 
mike74 said:
I recently saw an ebay ad for a car that was a cat s or n ( can't get my head around these new classifications) supposedly "due to a tear in the passenger seat"
Depends on a few things.I believe any car involved in an RTA where there is a (significant?) amount of blood will be automatically written off.
I also recall some recent-ish model of Audi being written off if the front seats needed replacing i.e. if they'd been nicked, as Audi wanted an extortionate amount of money for replacements.
mike74 said:
I recently saw an ebay ad for a car that was a cat s or n ( can't get my head around these new classifications) supposedly "due to a tear in the passenger seat"
Probably because rather than just have one seat cover repaired / replaced, the insured would insist on a completely new full interior "as otherwise it won't match due to fading & use"It’s normally around 60% of the cars market value when it becomes a potential write off.
There’s various industry standard programmes ( we use Audatex) to cost a repair job in which you input mileage, pre accident condition, and a few other fields to give you a CAP valuation which you then input labour times which gives you manufacturers set panel times, paint costings, part prices etc.. to give a final figure to weigh up repair vs write off.
Btw, There’s no Bodyshop/insurance conspiracy. You have to fight to justify your repair costs and normally provide photo evidence. Any ‘I’ not dotted or ‘t’ not crossed they delay payment.
There’s various industry standard programmes ( we use Audatex) to cost a repair job in which you input mileage, pre accident condition, and a few other fields to give you a CAP valuation which you then input labour times which gives you manufacturers set panel times, paint costings, part prices etc.. to give a final figure to weigh up repair vs write off.
Btw, There’s no Bodyshop/insurance conspiracy. You have to fight to justify your repair costs and normally provide photo evidence. Any ‘I’ not dotted or ‘t’ not crossed they delay payment.
glennjamin said:
Airbags and dash boards cost a fortune to replace, often the cost that tips the balance in writing a car off. Happen to our VW Passat !
I was warning of this when I was in the trade about 15 years ago .We had a big Citroen/Peugeot people carrier come in for repair .
It had swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle and hit something solid with the N/S wheel , this destroyed the wheel , tyre , upright and bottom arm . The real expensive bit was that the safety systems fired off the curtain airbags on that side had the seatbelt pre tensioners . The curtain airbag and headliner was £3500 , the car had 4 child seats fitted that all fired the pre tensioners along with the drivers belt .
What would have been a £2000 repair in the past just for the impact damage turned into over £8000 with all the safety stuff .
We were already beginning to see the difference between a car being written off was if the airbags were able to be replaced as an individual unit or if full dashtops , seatcovers or roof linings had to be replaced .
Many seatbelts that are connected will need replacement after an accident.
Leave all your seatbelts connected after an MOT at your peril, have a minor bump that triggers the safety systems and the repair costs can sky rocket .
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