Hi Guys

I was wondering if you can help me out. To cut a long story short, my wife had a small accident in our second car. Its a 51 reg Passat diesel 100pd with 97k on the clock. The accident was fairly minor but because of where the collision was

(front left hand side) it has broken the intercooler. The rest of the damage was to the bumper so probably a new one needed. Our mechanic has said that if we go through our insurance they will probably write it off. So do you think we are better off.

fixing it ourselves (don't involve insurance) Probably about £500 or Get insurance involved and maybe look at buying it back off them Should they right it off. The other option would be to get a new car but i'm very cautious about the risk of me or my wife loseing our jobs.

The car Was faultless to drive and was serviced every 10k miles, had just had the cambelt, water pump and alternator changed and i wanted it to last another 3 to 4 years if possible.

Any advice would be wecome just need a fresh perspective on the situation.

Many thanks Tom

It's not worth the pain of next years premium to claim go 500 notes in my opinion, after you deduct your excess from the 500 pound bill you will probably end up way out of pocket claiming on the insurance as you will have to declare a own fault accident for the next 5 years, I would fix it and never tell them if it was me.

As above, if no other car was involved in the accident, tell no one and get it fixed for £500 As it will be a lot cheaper in the long run.

What's to say the replacement car wouldn't need £500 worth of servicing and new tyres just after you bought it.

As you say yours has been looked after.

+1 it'll cost you a lot more than £500 in the long run to go through your insurance even with protected ncb.

A car of that vintage I'd think you'd get a painted bumper through a scrap dealer and an intercooler probably won't be that dear from a motor factor.

ok thanks for the advice I think i will go down that route.

Tom

Get the parts from a scrapper and it will cost you a lot less than £500.

Insurance will claw it back and you'd still have the excess to pay, so I'd just DIY assuming there was no third party involved.