Had a minor car accident, need advice...

[Nelbo]

Hi all,

My wife ran itno the back of someone and it was completely her fault. No problems there. That is where the problems have started though, with my insurance company.
They said we should take our car to their approved repairer which I duly did, and they assesed the damage and the next thing, Im getting a call from the Information Commissioner saying in their estimate the vehicl is a total loss!!!!!
I don't know very much about cars, but I know enough to get by.
I went to the body shop and asked them for a quote for the repairs. they duly gave this to me and the cost was £1600 excl VAT.
They listed things that needed to be replaced on the vehicle that in my opinion did not. Like the radiator. Nothing wrong with it. Anyway, the short story is that they gave me a figure of pre accident value of £1065 and I said to the guy, what if I disagree with that value? Can I get a second opinion. He said no and it is not negotiable. So I bought the car from them for £50 and bought 2nd hand parts on the internet, fitted them myself, took it into the paintshop, they painted it same colour and put it through MOT (which it passed without replaceing the radiator) and now I have reinsured it third party only with the same Insurance company. All that within a week of getting the car back from their approved repairer. Oh and the cost of the repair and MOT and paint job was just over £500. What I want to know now is can I complain about their estimate because obviously if I as a layman can arrange this for that amount, surely their estimate for repairs (some of which were not required) was an over estimate, or not accurate, and it is easier for them to write a car off than to have it repaired. Also, does it not mean that perhaps they are scrapping cars which are repaireable and paying the consumer out grossly under market value, and then selling these salvageble cars to breakers, ore garages who repair them and resell them making a tidy 100% profit.....

Just wanted to know seeing as you are both in the business of insurance.

Let me know,

Nelbo

[zed007]

Hi

I have just registered with the site, and this is a old thread. But i like to answer it as others might have same question.


I like to strongly disagree with your statement that the garage had over estimated or did not make a accurate estimate with your vehicle.
The garage and insuance company did you a favour, i.e your vehcile was written off / total loss. You received payment for your vehicle (£1065) and you bought the vehcile back for the salvage value £50.
You repaired it; total costing £500. seems that its you who had more benefit from the claim (as you would have recieved nothing if they had repaired it. and you would have had to pay the garage the excess).

Now looking at the garage estimate (just an idea as i dont have the estate or any idea of the damage to your vehicle):

1) You bought second hand parts from the internet. Insurers and Repair Garages don't use second hand or Replica parts. They use only new dealer / manufacterers parts. They have to estimate cost at new parts prices.
Also for older cars,new parts (if they our available) our harder to get hold of or are more expensive and have to be specially ordered in (e.g Rover parts).

2) You fitted the parts yourself. Garages our a business and have to charge Labour costs (number of hours to repair vehicle * company hourly rate).

3) Also the repairer has to make sure that repairs to your vehicle our all correct with no problems. As they have to give you a 3 year parts, repair, paint etc guarantee. There is no guarantee with the repairs you have done.

4) Your vehicle was front damage. Therefore the garage inspector must have checked the radiator and might have saw some crack/ dents/ damage to the radiator (damage you might not have seen). which might cause prblems later and he/she must have thought best to change the front radiator to save you problems later. Imagine if your vehicle was repaired and few months later the radiator was leaking and worst case your engine overheated (e.g causing major mechanically problems). i am sure you will be the first one to blake the garage for NOT inspecting / repairing your vehicle proply.

5) Another point is value and repairs of vehicle . Your vehicle value was £1065. Ignoring garage repair cost. It has cost you Approx £500 to repair this vehicle. that is approx 50% of the cars value. As a general rule insurers write vehicles off; if repairs cost are coming more the 50% or 60% of cars value. As the vehicle is stripped down / getting repaired, more damage might become visible etc (i.e more costs, pushing the 50% estimate up more).

6) Insurance company our very tight, if they could save a few quid they will. But even they have seen it is best and easy for older cars to be total losses. As in the long run will cost insurers more in fixing them.

Disagree with the garage:
1) You can disagree with the value of your vehicle and insurers can change the value offer (same insurers offer you upto 3 offers). But best method is to show to insurers that your vehicle has a higher market value then what there engineer has quoted. Do this by looking on net and in car magazines (like the autotrader), finding similar vehicles to yours (e.g make, model, age, reg, doors, milage etc) advertised for more value then what they have quoted. Showing them to buy this car again would cost you X amount.

A note: Your car now is not worth the full value, if you make a claim on your vehicle (yours is a third party but if it was fully comp ) you would not get full value for your car as the insurers have already paid out for it.

This is a good site and i hope i can learn and teach others on this site. any queries reply back.