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Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - SarahBurgundy

Hi all, please could you offer some advice.

I have a 2002 Ford Fiesta 1.4 5dr which I bought for £1000 one month ago. It's only got 60,000 miles and WAS in great shape. This is my first car, I've only had my license 4 years despite being 28, so my insurance is quite pricey.

Yesterday, I drove my car into my own fence post, like a complete m****. Somehow, I've completely torn off the front passenger side wing panel, even though I was in 1st gear. I've rung a few garages and they say it's going to be £1000 to fix, so technically it's a write-off???? I checked scrap value and I'd get £100 :(

A friend said I shouldn't tell my insurers as I'll get even less from them AND my premiums will go up next year. Can I scrap the car and not tell the insurers it was an accident? (ie claim it was an engine failure?) To clarify, it was on my OWN property, no one else was hurt, no other cars were damaged.

Guys, please can you tell me how I can get out of this situation with the least damage to my bank balance??? Both now and in the future??? Do I have any other options?

My pride and self-respect has already been hurt beyond belief :(

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - FP

You can sell the car to anyone for whatever price you agree, so you could simply do that and ignore the insurance company, though technically I believe you should inform them if there's been an accident even if you don't claim and even if it's happened on private property. (I'm slightly unsure of my ground here - perhaps someone more expert can confirm.)

Secondly, I wonder if the price you've been quoted for a repair is realistic, or whether the places you've contacted are trying to rip you off. If you can get the car fixed for a reasonable amount - even if the repair is less than perfect - that is the route I would take, assuming the car is in good shape mechanically.

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - Gibbo_Wirral

I wonder if the price you've been quoted for a repair is realistic, or whether the places you've contacted are trying to rip you off. If you can get the car fixed for a reasonable amount - even if the repair is less than perfect - that is the route I would take, assuming the car is in good shape mechanically.

They probably don't want the work.

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - SarahBurgundy

Thank you!!
I think I will inform them. Am I right in thinking that if I don't claim it won't impact my premiums.

I've rung a few garages and emailed over detailed photos - all have quoted in the £1000 mark but one chap was kind enough to send this detailed breakdown.

Replacement of left front wing and front bumper

L/F WING - RRP £131.70 - to be discounted to £105.36 if happy to have a non-genuine wing

L/F WING REPEATER LAMP - RRP £7.12 (Genuine only)

FRONT BUMPER (UPPER - PAINTED PART) - RRP £190.74 (Genuine only)

FRONT BUMPER (LOWER - TEXTURED PART) - RRP £122.51 (Genuine only)

Total parts - £425.73

Approx cost for paint - £190

Approx cost for labour - £175

Approx total price - £790.73 + VAT (£948.88)

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - Bromptonaut

No reason in principle why you cannot claim on your own insurance and get either a repair or market value as a write off. Makes no difference that it happened at home. Of course your excess would be payable on repair or deducted if they pay out on a write off and as you say your premiums would go up.

How much is your excess?

Was quote for new parts? Might a repair be possible using a panel from a scrappie?

Other thought, given age, is whether pre-existing corrosion allowed the wing to separate ie it was already weak.

I'd be wary of telling them anything that's not true ie that it was scrapped for engine failure. Unlikely but the story could come back and bite you later.

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - SarahBurgundy

My excess is £290 and the car is worth about £450 market value according to insurers!

Thank you for this advice. You may be right on the corrosion side of things.
The detailed quote I got was as follows:

Quote (Definitely needs repairing)

Replacement of left front wing and front bumper

L/F WING - RRP £131.70 - to be discounted to £105.36 if happy to have a non-genuine wing

L/F WING REPEATER LAMP - RRP £7.12 (Genuine only)

FRONT BUMPER (UPPER - PAINTED PART) - RRP £190.74 (Genuine only)

FRONT BUMPER (LOWER - TEXTURED PART) - RRP £122.51 (Genuine only)

Total parts - £425.73

Approx cost for paint - £190

Approx cost for labour - £175

Approx total price - £790.73 + VAT (£948.88)



Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - elekie&a/c doctor
No other parties involved, so don’t bother with insurance. This car is easily repaired using all s/ hand parts , for around half of the price quoted .
Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - Cris_on_the_gas

Or even some new parts at less than quoted. Euro car parts (other suppliers are available) Aftermarket Wing (Front Left) £31.49 inc VAT. Indicator repeater £4.28. So big saving on quoted cost. Throw in a few spray cans at £5 a pop and car will look OK again.

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - gordonbennet

I wouldn't be telling the insurer, and i'd be finding all the above parts from a breaker, common enough car worth searching around for a breaker the same colour, and pay someone ££ in their hand to put it right.

I'd expect to pay no more than £300 complete job.

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - SarahBurgundy

Any idea how I can source a person like this? I live in Reading but all the the garages I've called have said a grand!! I was willing to pay up to £400 to keep him going.

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - gordonbennet

You have to ask around among your friends and family, someone will have a handy mechnically minded chap they use.

You'll have to do some of the leg work yourself, check on ebay and gumtree for Fiesta Breaking and pencil in some plans to collect all the parts you need in another car if yours in undriveable you might find a local breaker you might be travelling 100 miles to find all the parts in one place in the right colour...same colour will save you a lot of money.

It might even be worth buying an MOT failure or broken down car complete if the parts your need are in decent condition and get it trailered to a suitable driveway, remove all the parts you need plus any useful likely extras and then sell the left over to a scrappy for probably £50, though i don't know what scrap cars are fetching at the moment, you could do some dismantling yourself, you might find once your taken your old wing and bumpers off that refitting used parts isn't as daunting as you might think.

If your potential chap has to travel and use his time finding fetching and fitting parts that is going to cost, so the more you can do yourself the cheaper the job will be.

Edited by gordonbennet on 21/01/2020 at 15:34

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - focussed

No reason in principle why you cannot claim on your own insurance and get either a repair or market value as a write off. Makes no difference that it happened at home. Of course your excess would be payable on repair or deducted if they pay out on a write off and as you say your premiums would go up.

How much is your excess?

Was quote for new parts? Might a repair be possible using a panel from a scrappie?

Other thought, given age, is whether pre-existing corrosion allowed the wing to separate ie it was already weak.

I'd be wary of telling them anything that's not true ie that it was scrapped for engine failure. Unlikely but the story could come back and bite you later.

Nothing to do with anybody except her garage and her bank account, you don't have to give any reason to anybody to scrap a car.

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - Bromptonaut

Nothing to do with anybody except her garage and her bank account, you don't have to give any reason to anybody to scrap a car.

That's quite right, just tell them it's been crushed. My caution was over telling the insurer a reason and it being untrue.

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - Zippy123

Try a small back street garage.

I caught my previous car's valance (the bit under the bumper) on a rock in an unlit private car park. There were several very deep scratches showing the black underneath the silver plastic.

Local repairers wanted anything from £50 to £1,000 to fix. Guess which one I went to and it looked fine. The lease company passed it when it went back.

Sand down, fill, sand down again and repaint. Job was given to an apprentice and they were a busy shop, but grateful for the work.

Ford Fiesta - Wrote my car off on my own property. What now? - HGV ~ P Valentine

Hello Sarah,

First let me say it can happen, I saw a class 1 driver with over 20 years experience, very used to driving extended vehicles ( even for a class 1 ), with extra wide loads, all the right markings. police in attendance because of the size of the load, had to inform hignways of their route to avoid low bridges etc months in advance, etc

On pulling off from the kerb, to start his journey, the load clipped the post and that vehicle was going nowhere as the load had shifted.

Pretty much most of the advice you have been given is good, forget about spending £ 1000 on it, if you can find a garage that will charge you labour only then try and get the parts yourself, as already suggested if you do that then no more then £ 300, scrappy are good or euro car parts.

As for your insurance, it is kind of a grey area, where others are involved by either damaging their property, or a person then most def yes to telling the insurance, but as you stated no one else was involved, your car is yours and has no outstanding payments on it, and since it was on your property and not on a public area or a private road where the public would ordinarily have access you do not need to tell anyone.

As for your friends, that will take longer to live down if ever, but I have seen professional HGV 1 drivers do worse things, so cut yourself some slack.


Good luck.

Edited by A Driver since 1988, HGV 2006 on 30/01/2020 at 12:57