I know it's hard to tell from a single picture, but are repairs really that costly these days that a 15 month old car (albeit with almost 44k on the clock) could be a write-off?

 

The bits you can't see are the wheels don't point in exactly the same direction any more and the PAS pump is hanging limply (plus some of the wires got ripped out).  Yes, the intercooler isn't straight any more and there looks to possibly be some collateral damage to the aircon condensor as well.

 

I could be leaving the Fabia world a bit sooner than I thought!

From what you're saying, frame's bent and block may be damaged. Also, some insewerers have a policy of writing off anything under a certain age whre damage exceeds a certain percentage of the new price.

Engine and box seemed to be working fine afterwards?  Subframe might have been tweaked though - or could just be wishbones?

No. Its minor damage. New Bumper/grill, new Headlamp/foglight , new plastic wing protector thing and undertray work. Refix PAS pump. Suspension geometry check/realign. Doubt anything else. Probably ~ < £1k insurance work

Edited 9 October, 201312 yr by xman

Front wing creased.  Itercooler no longer supported on LHS.  Possible damage to aircon condenser.

 

OK maybe another £600 worth of work.

 

Insurance companies usually only write off if repair costs are greater than (50% - 75%*) of market (retail) value (after repair)

 

* varies on insurance companies

 

Most insurance companies will only use their "approved" repairers and they are hammered down in price.

 

Yours being a newish car worth about £13k means you need in excess of £6.5k - £10k worth of repairs.

 

Its all down to what is cheaper for the insurer write off at market value vs repair costs.

 

I may be wrong in your case - if the floor pan is badly damaged it may still be a write off, but I dont think the damage went that far.

Edited 9 October, 201312 yr by xman

I think it was only 14k new (VAT free jobber) - and at 15 months old and what "the trade" would call over 4 years worth of mileage, it wouldn't be worth 13k in a month of sundays.

 

If you can get it repaired it for £1600, let me know where...

Insurers must use "retail" price, i.e forecourt price at the dealer. I looked it up  here http://www.wisebuyers.co.uk/motoring/used-car-prices/ (I used 10k miles - so its worth about 12k retail) - just because you paid 14k is irrelavent.

 

Believe me, insurers pay very little for repairs compared to us average joes.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/motorinsurance/9780658/Insurers-cash-in-on-your-crash.html

 

I saw some invoices submitted by carclinic for repairs to one of my cars and was shocked at how little it was (little more more than my excess for a new door/ trim and 2 door respray). When I asked them to quote for other damage that was another matter - private pricing!!!

 

Insurance company formula - which is cheaper? Repair or (market value write off minus salvage value)

Edited 9 October, 201312 yr by xman

£11,400 retail to £9100 trade-in I get from that site..

 

Unless there's some serious bending under there (I was doing 57mph at the time), it seems crazy to write it off to me - but it's not my call.  I can only assume the airbags not going off means it wasn't enough to trigger them (might have been if I was dead centre?).

You'll find out in time (it can take 2-3 weeks for the assessor plus repair estimates)

 

My son wrote off a pristine 18 month Corsa (paid 11.5k IIRC) rolling it over a ditch through a hedge and into a farmers ploughed  field - it looked a mess, roof crumpled, front torn off etc. Happy chappy rang me a few weeks later and asked me what I thought it was worth, I asked retail or trade price? He said they always use retail - I said aound £8k  (i.e. what I had seen on valuation sites like that above). He said "thats good, because glasses tells me its worth £8,200 retail, and the repair estimate (which is why it took so long) was just over £8,500" so we agreed a write off figure of £8500 (to include the optional extras - metallic etc). Found out later they had ebayed it for £4,000 - so the accident cost them only £4,500 as opposed to £8,500 to repair.

 

(The guy who bought it, tracked me down for the spare wheel bolts/manuals/spare key etc I still had and told me it didnt look too bad on the ebay  photo - he didnt realise the damage extent - he claimed he just cut the roof off and welded another on :wonder:   )

Edited 9 October, 201312 yr by xman

I can't see the pic (work computer), but my wife's Glf was driven into a few weeks back, creased passenger side front and rear doors.

 

Insurers reckon north of £2k, as it may have bent the side impact bars, which they can't assess without peeling the skins (and/or liners) off.

 

It's a company car (leased), so they'll fix it and give it back, but in that case, I wonder if the write off value is lower, becuase they need to make money back at the end of the lease...?

Difficult to say. Wife had an 08 plate VW Polo 1.4 Match 5 door from new, at 2 weeks old with 320 miles on the clock someone rear ended it at speed whilst practically stationary.

Needless to say it was a bit of a mess; had the back bumper not been touching both the rear wheels it would have probably been able to hobble home but you could tell by looking it was going to need some serious repairs.

In the end we didnt see the car for 9 months so was practically a year old before we got to use it, the repairs on the £12k car including various hire cars over the period amounted to something silly like £18k.

Im trusting the assessor who approved the repairs on the car lost their job, if they didnt they deserved to. Had a large A4 folder full to the brim of correspondence that we old got rid of in the last 12 months. Hoping not to have to go through that again anytime soon as was a real ballache; bit different when its a company motor though. I know my firm only insure our cars 3rd party fire and theft as fully comp makes corporate liability insurance ridiculous and its just as straightforward for our business to buy a new car to replace it.

Edited 9 October, 201312 yr by pipsyp

Bit of Tcut...

had less that that on my 5 year old roomy, 160k miles, wrote it off, claimed north of 3,500 damage, as it would have to go on jig to check chassis etc

 

tis all a numbers game to save insurers money,

 

if anyone has a roomy ending YPP, I can prob tell you its history

Hire also needs to be considered. If your car is going to be off the road for another 2-3 weeks the insurer will consider hire. It may be cheaper to make a 'constructive total loss' and recover sums in salvage

Its the numbers game alright - added into this is the issue of the car needing transporting back from Germany (£1500/2k?).  Hire car costs - although I have a temporary car in Germany, I'll probably just get one from the fleet pool so that one's negated (maybe) - if they have one.  Added to the possible salvage price (6k?) and it might be touch and go for that reason.  Depends how much hassle they want..

 

Popped the bonnet last night (opened fine) and nothing immediately amiss aside from the headlight being spread all over the engine bay.  Crash cans for the bumper support untouched as the impact way below those (just).

 

I get the feeling that they're going to make a judgement based on the pics I sent them - and depends on how pricey the bits are in that front corner...  Part of me wants to see how much the bits are out of interest, part of me wants to start looking at replacements 

Original quote to repair my Pug 306 many years ago was £6000 after I hit a bin lorry head on.

 

Repaired it myself with help from a few bodyshop mates for around £600.

 

Bodyshop estimates can vary and awful lot but the damage to that is pretty low. The front end if designed to be easily replaceable. Just needs a lock carrier at the front and all the intercooler will be back in place etc.

I suspected there's a plastic subframe a lot of it bolts onto judging by the mess..

looks worse than my 20mph dint... new wing, bumper, foglight, power steering pump, wing liner, bumper grille (Small, next to foglight), washer bottle, paint/prep.etc.  plus a few more odds n sods, £2000! (Plus hire car, duel control, adding a fair few more pennies)! The other drivers insurance paid up!

The other drivers insurance paid up!

 

When its the other party paying, your insurance tries to screw as much as possible out of the claim.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/motorinsurance/9780658/Insurers-cash-in-on-your-crash.html

The shipping back home on top of the repair might be the killer.

Is there someone for your insurer to claim off or is it a fault claim?

I couldn't find the Boar that I hit, so its highly unlikely they can claim of anyone (or anything) else.  If I had found it, I would have been eating it every night this week..

 

To top it all off, almost wiped the hire car out thanks to a deer this morning!!  Missed it by inches - literally.

 

Still no word from the insurers - last I heard they were trying to get an assessor from Germany to come and look at the car.  That might take some time!

If you want to be thorough (and picky), you could investigate the land laws for Germany.  The boar you hit "belongs" to the land owner.  If you had stuck it in the boot and driven off, you'd have been poaching.  Equally, his animal hit your car, so there may be some 50:50 type liability about damage.

 

My knowledge of German law is rusty - I lived there for three years, but if you're bored and off the road, it might be worth investigating.  Obviously discretely, because maybe there is a German landowner running around trying to get compensation for his prize boar!!

 

The other aspect to all of this is the fact that if the Insurance declares your car a write off (is it Cat D or C for cosmetic damage?), then that obviously sits on your car's V5 or whatever, technically devaluing the car.  That's fine if you're keeping it forever, but the depreciation may make it better to accept the write off declaration and take the money - let someone else rebuild it after picking it up from an auction and get a bit back for it.

Company car, company insurance...one for them to argue about.

 

Have a hire car, so not off the road.  My only concern is that it's the anti-christ compared to the vRS (Ford S-Max so big, slow, diesel and manual  ) so I'd just like an answer one way or the other.  Do I wait for the Fabia to be repaired, or start choosing something else     Current short list is an Octavia 1.4 SE/Elegance Estate DSG or the Golf GT Estate..again, 1.4 DSG 

I'm only going from my wife's company Golf - her company insurer (through Lex) got it inspected (by a Lex approved VW repairer). 

 

They then questioned the estimate and sent their own assessor to photograph the damage. 

 

It is finally going in for repair at the end of this month, with a hire car booked (I know that got rejected, as they offered a 1.0 Micra to replace the Golf Bluemotion that my wife does 600 miles in two days of the week in).

 

I guess it depends on your company car set up - if you can get another while they repair yours and you never get the VRS back, then do it.  If you like the VRS so much (I'd have thought it was sportier than the Octavia, possibly not the Golf...) then wait for it to come back, box fresh, boar free!