Well I'm currently living in 'Whiplash City'! :thumbdwn:

Some one rear ended me on the M1 last night.

It was in the middle of roadworks so at no more than 40mph, although it felt like twice that.

Anyway, from the outside the car doesn't look too bad, however, the floor of the boot is all bent, so much so, the polystyrene thingy does not fit anymore!

So, two questions, do you think it will be a right-off and if so, how much will I get for a 2001 Octavia Estate Elegance 110TDI 110k?

Anybody looking to sell an estate car soon?

Ive recently bought a rear ended Ibiza cupra that was Category 'C' written off ( it was deemed too expensive to buy all new partsfrom dealer/fit and spray, etc.. ) I have it back on the road for the princley sum of £15 for a rear crash bar, £20 for a tail gate ..(wrong colour admittedly, but it will be resprayed soon), and £36 for a 'VIC' test from the DVLA/VOSA so dependant on how much* damage, not neccesarily so...

The car still drives fine and everything still works OK, but my broker thinks they may want to write it off due to the amount of work involved in replacing a boot floor.

It should be going in to be checked out tomorrow, so I guess I will find out then.

Personally I could live with the floor all wrinkly, but I guess the car would be worthless when trying to sell it?

My octy vrs rolled down my drive into a wall late last summer, the boot floor was buckled. It was repaired on the insurance and you would never know it had ever happened!

Yeah, a lady went into the back of my previous car (focus). It was quite low speed but creased the boot floor. Don't know if they welded in a new floor, or if they just hammered it out, but it was good as new.

I was rear ended by a Legacy a few years back, deformed the spare wheel well quite nicely but was repaired with no problems

I think you will find that the boot is part of the crumple zone and can be repaired, the main problem is if the floor section within the car get creased and rippled, then you have the problem with possible write off.

A colleague was rear ended on the M42 - creased the boot floor and was written off.

It was a Saxo with a value of £2500 though, which will make a difference.

Whether it will be a write off is determined by the cars value, not by how much damage its received one of my old favorits would be written off if it lost a wing mirror, where as more valuable cars could need substantial repairs and not be a write off. Replacing a boot floor is certainly doable, Ive done bigger jobs on cars. But the problem with insurance and write offs is that repairs are done to "new" standard and that can get very expensive. Ive had a car rear ended before with an £800 repair quote (ten years ago - would be a lot more now ) where I straightened out the back bumper replaced a light lens and youd never know it happened.

It sounds abit 50:50.

Any idea of the value of my Octy?

Your car maybe worth about 4-5K maybe slightly more.

As long as its only the boot floor, then repair is possible. But it will be 50:50 on cost.

The actual boot floor where the spare wheel sits, is really really flexible, one of my classic DIY errors is using that area to jack my car up - raised up the bottom of the spare wheel well about 2". So my boot floor wouldn't go right down with the spare wheel in. All it needed was a bit of wood laid out in the bottom of the wheel well, and a bit of 2 x 2 to hammer it back flat again, gently.

As for the actual boot floor around the spare wheel well - I can't comment.

My octy was massively bent in that area, but then so was the actual chassis.

It does depend on the car and also its value.

For example 306's crumple very heavily if rear ended, and past a point will crack/bend a couple of points on the main chassis, which mean total write off.

When i worked temping in insurance, any car over 10 years old was an instant write off, however that got argued with a lot by 4x4 and other high value cars.

Either way I wouldn't worry too much about the car, and more about your back.

If you haven't seen a doctor make sure you do within 48 hours of the accident, and get some physio.

Hope you feel better soon, it took me about 9 months to get mostly right again.

Not necessarily; it will depend on the actual damage, value of the car, and labour rates.

As CM says, worry rather more about your back than about the back of the car!

Well FINALLY got the estimate from the repair centre.

Well FINALLY got the estimate from the repair centre.

If it's been hit like that , not only will the boot floor be bent , the wings at the side get forced apart , the rear wings get pushed forwards so that they touch the rear doors , and the boot floor would need to be cut out and replaced if it's at all possible , plus all the jig work to straighten it.

You joke , but a reshell is probably what would be needed to get it *right*.

You could almost certainly bodge it back together for a lot less but would you want to drive that after?

the rear wings get pushed forwards so that they touch the rear doors , and the boot floor would need to be cut out and replaced if it's at all possible , want to drive that after?

The inspection engineer did indeed say that the rear door gaps were all wrong, which is an indication that the rear quarters (wings) had moved forward.

Well spotted Dr Zoidberg.

I'm not surprised really - there'll be a lot of work cutting out the damaged panels and welding in the new ones.

Like everyone else, I hope your back mends as fast as your car.

What was the twit behind you doing to manage to rear end you and cause that much damage in a 40mph roadworks zone?

The inspection engineer did indeed say that the rear door gaps were all wrong, which is an indication that the rear quarters (wings) had moved forward.

Well spotted Dr Zoidberg.

Do I win a prize

so it could well be repaired then!

A mate has a 97P Astra TD with 180k on the clock. He reversed into a street light, did £900 of damage, and they repaired it! He was given the option of having it written off and £1000 though, but no option to maintain salvage.

I can tell you, it didn't feel like 40mph.

I engineer did sound surprised when I said that I was in a 40mph zone!

He said it would involve replacing the whole of the rear floor :eek: , like you say, in some ways I hope it is written off.

Just got to wait and see what the insurance people say next week.

Maybe I should start a sweep stake on the price they pay out.

Roll-up! Roll-up! guess the price of the car...

2001 Octavia Estate, Elegance, silver, 112k miles, FSH, two loving owners, etc, etc!

1) £5500.00 (fingers crossed!)

What spec is it? If an Elegance I reckon its only worth £4000 going by Parkers... :(

What spec is it? :(

Sorry, missed that bit. Yes it is an Elegance.

I hope I get more than that.

Sorry, missed that bit. Yes it is an Elegance.

I hope I get more than that.

I hope you get more than that too!

NEVER, and I mean never, accept the first offer you get from the insurance company.

Good to arm yourself with adverts for similar cars too.