That sounds like he may be uninsured , which means a claim off your own insurance rather than his.

Not good , but most of the advice stands

Just seen this, Hope SWMBO is recovering well.

Hope the car gets crushed and replaced with a new one for you both to feel easy about driving.

If the other guy is uninsured then you're more likely going to have to claim on your own policy.

But you shouldnt lose your NCB as it wasn't your fault and you were within the law.

The insurance company could sue the other party and police will more likely impound/crush the Galaxy if the other party was found to be driving illegally.

I'm curious as to why you wouldnt want your car back if it was repaired?

If the safety cell was comprimised the insurers would write off the car otherwise they would see if it was worth repairing.

Accident damaged cars don't lose that much unless it's been done really badly and tings start going wrong like doors not shutting properly and panel gaps.

Whats a re-shell?

It's the squeaks and rattles associated with repaired cars that worries me and on a 4 month old car it's unacceptable in my opinion.

I've has a few cars repaired after minor accidents and they are never the same again.

We'll have to wait and see what the judgement is when the car is taken away on Monday.

Good luck dude! - It's your car and I hope you get the outcome you want and thats the bottom line.

When my Skoda got taken away this year I was fearing the worst.

Borderline write-off is what the repairers told me.

All it needed was a new rear wing on the passenger side.

I would have got £1100 if they wrote it off and I paid £800 the prev year. But as I had the car the way I wanted it i just let them fix it as it was on the other parties policy.

In fact the only thing I didn't like (besides claiming) was driving a Corsa 1.2 for a week and a bit. Nice engine but dull steering.

The day i got my Skoda back I was

I once backed my Astra into a lamppost back in 2002. Not pretty. right on the corner. Needed a new rear wing, new rear light cluster and surrounding panel and a new rear bumper.

The car was repaired and never noticed any problems. But I suppose everyones had diff experiences.

I wasn't insured to drive the courtesy car though as it wa on my Dads policy - A Nissan Micra.

We have been told the replacement car will be an equivalent car, possibly a 2.0TDI something or other. Should arrive tomorrow when the vRS is taken away. The GAP people have been excellent thus far, hopefully it will continue.

If the other guy is uninsured then you're more likely going to have to claim on your own policy.

But you shouldnt lose your NCB as it wasn't your fault and you were within the law.

It's a no *claims* bonus. If you have to clain on your own policy then you will lose it

The insurance company could sue the other party and police will more likely impound/crush the Galaxy if the other party was found to be driving illegally.

But you will only get your NCB back if they recover every penny , which would take months/years

I'm curious as to why you wouldnt want your car back if it was repaired?

No matter what body repairers say , a car that has had significant damage will never be the same.

Panel gaps won't be as accurate , the paintwork isn't as good and once the metal has been bent it simply can't be bent back as though nothing has happened. That means that sections need to be cut out and welded in , or as often happens , new panels are put over the top hiding the still damaged parts. If you look closely you can see the repairs , and it often won't drive quite the same as before.

You might be happy with that on a crappy old Felicia , but on a brand new twenty grand car? Are you mad?

If the safety cell was comprimised the insurers would write off the car otherwise they would see if it was worth repairing.

They write cars off when the cost exceeds a certain percentage of the value.

That can mean huge amounts of work done on a nearly new car.

Accident damaged cars don't lose that much unless it's been done really badly and tings start going wrong like doors not shutting properly and panel gaps.

Heh. If you wanted to spend for example 15k on a car , would you buy one that's never been crashed , or one that's been heavily damaged and then repaired? Of course you'd go for the clean one unless the other one was a hell of a lot cheaper. When you trade a car in you will be asked if it has had significant damage in the past. If you say yes , you'll be offered much less.

Whats a re-shell?

Replacing the chassis of the car and moving the entire engine , wiring loom , glass , interior , undamaged bodywork over from the damaged car. A vast amount of work and it's never going to be as well assembled as a factory built car. Hand made may be better than production line for a Bentley made by skilled craftsmen , but it would end up being done by some garage monkey earning less than a tenner an hour. How good a job do you think they will do compared to a robot working to very tight tolerances?

Crappy old Felicia :eek:

I had that car for a year and with the work i'd done to it to keep it on the road and the hassle of searching for another one etc.... I opted to have mine repaired as i new it only needed a panel.

LOL

Joking aside I understand where you're coming from as the values of the car are different. But so is the design.

Auto Express did a test with 2 Focus'

One which had been written off and rebuilt and another standard from the same model group.

The repaired one faired worse as not only had it been repaired badly but as the safety cell, strong points of the car was comprimised the first time it wasn't as strong as the original undamaged one.

And a heavily damaged car would have a class C/D write off on the V5 (unless i'm mistaken)

But Dr Zoidburg I'd agree with you again. If that was my expensive new car shunted, I'd not only be annoyed and worried. But i'd prob request a new car if the damage was like DStevs.

I'm curious as to why you wouldnt want your car back if it was repaired?

Because it's never the same, even with a really good repair.

Whats a re-shell?

Buying a bodyshell and transplanting the rest of the car into it.

That means that sections need to be cut out and welded in

And the newly welded bits tend to rust quicker than factory metal.

Having owned several accident damaged cars in the past, and having damaged several myself I dont think that will be written off. The insurance will go for the cheaper option, as long as the repair cost is less than what they will pay you then it will be fixed. You dont really have a say in the decision sadly, it is after all their money. There was a thread on here recently on an older car with simillar damage, and it was repaired and you couldnt tell anything had been damaged. The rear quater panel has several layers, a thin external skin and the main structure underneath. From your point of impact, its easy to damage the outer skin leaving the structure underneath untouched. I have seen it done, many times on Wrecks to Riches on discovery turbo.

You dont really have a say in the decision sadly, it is after all their money.

There will be an appeals process, plus potentially the ability to go to the insurance ombudsman if no agreement can be reached.

If the other guy is uninsured then you're more likely going to have to claim on your own policy.

But you shouldnt lose your NCB as it wasn't your fault and you were within the law.

The insurance company could sue the other party and police will more likely impound/crush the Galaxy if the other party was found to be driving illegally.

I lost my NCD after being hit and run even thought the police told the Ins co this.

Sorry to be a bit of a downer.

I'll reserve judgement on the other party until we have definitive proof he was uninsured, he may well have just renewed it and the system may not have been updated or there could be an admin error of some sort.

..............Or I am being blindly optimistic

That aside, thanks again to all who have contributed to this thread so far. There is a wealth of good information here that may come in useful depending on how things pan out over the next week or two.

The car is being taken away on Monday to a Skoda approved body shop for assessment (is that good or bad???)

You won't know til tomorrow as the insurers need to assess the damage and see if it's worth fixing.

The car is being taken away on Monday to a Skoda approved body shop for assessment (is that good or bad???)

I suspect that labour rates will be higher and some part costs higher too, so more chance of a write off. Plus, if it is repaired, then less problems with regards to warranty work if approved repairers used. Its their monkeys

Thats a shi*ter mate. U should both get down a&e or at least the docs and claim whiplash and back pain, at least you will get a couple of grand each out of the ****** that went into the back of u!

The personal injury route is someting we are debating as SWMBO hasn't slept properly since the accident (I wasn't in the car at the time) due to neck and back pain, we went to A&E shortly after the crash and then reported the accident and the injury at our local police station.

Its a good shout, i got hit from behind and hurt my neck and back, got £1650 and £600 worth of chiropractor sessions! Paid for a years car insurance and a holiday for me and the mrs!

This, in my opinion, is where a personal injury claim can be used to help compensate your loss if the other party does turn out to be uninsured, as if that is the case, you will lose out financially through no fault of your own.

Personally I feel people in general are far to quick to claim for injury (often fiegning it) and it's one of those annoying American things that always seem to spread here.

But in your case I thnk you should claim for everything possible.

Oh, I'm not suggesting your wife is faking it BTW! just thought I'd make that clear.

A women sued the garage she got her SUV from in america because she set it on cruz control and then left the wheel to make a coffee and it crashed! She thought that was what cruz control did, was drive the car for you!

So she actually sued the garage? or did the case get laughed out of the courts?

Crazy yankees

So she actually sued the garage? or did the case get laughed out of the courts?

Neither...is urban legend.

Rob.

]

The car is being taken away on Monday to a Skoda approved body shop for assessment (is that good or bad???)

That's good. Better than most of the shonky half-wits the insurance co's use, anyway. As your car is new, if it gets repaired, you want an approved repair. They will also have factory guidelines on repair to work to.

This, in my opinion, is where a personal injury claim can be used to help compensate your loss if the other party does turn out to be uninsured, as if that is the case, you will lose out financially through no fault of your own.

Personally I feel people in general are far to quick to claim for injury (often fiegning it) and it's one of those annoying American things that always seem to spread here.

But in your case I thnk you should claim for everything possible.

Oh, I'm not suggesting your wife is faking it BTW! just thought I'd make that clear.

I understand what you are saying

Usually I am against the whole compensation culture as people claim at the drop of a hat but as there has been a genuine injury and genuine upset I am going to claim for anything I can. We originally agreed not to but now the extent of my wife's injuries are becoming clear we have now decided to go ahead and do it despite my initial feelings about the matter.

The next few days should be interesting