Some little yob :evil:about two weeks ago walked over my year near mint W(2000) c200 c class. To impress his mates on our works cctv system
Its a four door saloon elegance in smoke gold. In almost perfect condition a few small rust pits on the front driver wheel arch.
The c200 now has bonnet light scratch, roof multiple small dents and two almost undetectable small dints in the boot lid.
The dent man said he couldn't repair the dent to the roof. but could make it 100% better than it is.
I have been told the repair under insurance will coast around £300-3700 estimate. I am sure the insurance company get a better deal on the repair and suspect it will require bonnet roof and boot repair. The roof will require cutting off and replacing which is a major repair although is light cosmetic.
They are suggesting it will be cheaper to write the car off than repair as if they get problems re cutting the roof and didn't look write post repair it would lead to prohibitive costs.
To be honest i can live with the cosmetic damage rather than write it off as i work as a district nurse so its possible further cosmetics may accrue in time due to the areas i work in and around on duty.
My main question is if they offer a buy back solution how much should i accept.
Market value before damage would set this car at £4700 bottom price. Its low mileage 64000
A full service history. I have recently replaced the maf. Full Mot and serviced as well as two new front tyers.
It drives like new. any thought welcome its an automatic with air con.
I don't want to get ripped off on the buy back price.
thanks cameronboy
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If the roof is not that bad take the write-off money (if reasonable i.e. near your valuation) and buy it back (if reasonable) - get the bonnet etc fixed - for a run about a dented roof is not that difficult to live with.
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That what i am looking for what would be a fair buy back price in this situation.
I am looking for a fair price not a haggle to the last penny.
thanks
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In my yoof, I remember a Friend (honest) was faced with a problem of explaining away a large dent in the roof of his fathers A90 Westminster and discussed it with the perp, (another friend). The outcome was a repair achieved with the help of a M/C crash helmet, the perps head, and several sharp upward movements. Result an almost perfect repair!
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Smile :)
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Where are you seeing £4700 as the value of your car - that looks *very* high looking at Glass's on the Vauxhall site and a (very) quick look at AutoTrader?
Somewhere around £2000 looks more like it - am I missing something?
If the insurance company are thinking around the £4K mark (based on you saying they're humming and harring over the repair estimates) then, on the face of it, that looks pretty good.
I've really no idea on the post right-off value - lightly damaged but otherwise good cars can sell for what seem like surprisingly high prices, but the vlaue of your car seems askew somewhere.
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This reminds me of a windsurfing trip to Aruba many years ago. 4 of us needed a hire car with A/C and a roof rack. We needed A/C because having been to Aruba before we knew how humid it was and we needed a roof rack for 4 windsurf boards and multiple sails, masts, booms, etc.
Hire car company said we could have A/C or roof rack, but not both. So we hired a Mitsubishi Lancer - with A/C. After 3 weeks of having all our kit on the roof, the roof panel was well and truly multiple dented. When we came to return the car it was fortunately dusk, and the hire car guy was more concerned with the precise fuel level and didn't even think to look at the roof. We had bashed it out from inside, and although there were many dents, they were small. This was in the days of paper credit card deposit slips, and I was ever so pleased to get that slip back in my hand!!
So, in response to the OP, I would buy back the car, depending on the figures. You know its history and as you say you work in the less desirable areas, so even if you got a new car, the scroats may well do the same again.
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You should value any buy back offer on your terms rather than those of the insurance company.
Their position is likely to be; write-off (4700) v repair (3700). If you give them the difference (1000) the options are the same for them financially and is the least hassle. A complication is whether the company think they might get more, say 1250, through the salvage trade, or at auction, in which case they will want you to match that.
Your position, I guess, is that you would have 4700 to buy a car and as you're not too fussed about the cosmetics you could get minimum repairs done privately for say 500 and you would have a good car that you trust for, say, 1750.... Sounds like a bargain.
Two points...
-Your car will be a category 'C' write off, so difficult to sell on. Though you may not care about that.
-Parkers say your car is worth 3755....If that's true the insurance company should be keener to sell it to you for less ...This may strengthen your bargaining position.
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Book prices on an old car in 'good' condition can be extremely misleading. I suggest that since the company are obliged to put you back to the pre-claim position, that you start collecting information on retail (not private) sales for similar vehicles from real adverts, and present these to your insurers as evidence on how much it will cost you to replace.
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my m8 has just done a search on the cap system used by a major ford dealers and rang me back
very bottom price £3200
This car car has the tip tronic auto and air con system which were quite expensive add ons
re sale pitch price £5395
Plus car tax is still quite cheap £200 a year compared to a free lander 2000cc(w) which has now jumped up to £400 a year ouch.
I am still wondering what figures they will come up with next week at least a least I want to be pre armed. As i don't want them to treat me like a mug.
Edited by cameronboy on 28/03/2008 at 12:27
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Hmm..there's plenty that sound pretty similar on AutoTrader at £3-3500.
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This has 100 % every item its ever needed recorded invoices even down to the winder wiper blades the lot but i see your point after doing an auto trader search
I paid all on 6000 for the car this time last year.
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I hope you do well but insurance companies are not noted for being over-generous.
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I hope you do well but insurance companies are not noted for being over-generous.
True, by and large, although I wrote 2 cars off whilst insured with Direct Line, and in both cases they paid out at least 20% more than I thought the car was worth. A friend has had a similar experience with them in the last year when he wrote his Jag off.
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If you`re a District Nurse, why not just live with it as it is? Or let someone for a few pounds push the worst of the dents out?
We have a car which has accrued damage since new by being parked outside clients houses on estates and we would have been priced out of insurance if we had claimed for every incident.
Its now 6 years old having picked up its first slight football dent in the bonnet (still there) when only a few weeks old.
For that reason (frequent damage) it will be kept long term, or at least 10 years.
It just puts you off putting a new, or perfect looking car into that sort of use.
Its regarded as a tank going into battle, dented, scraped and scarred. Only washed and never polished, but meticulously maintained under the bonnet for reliability.
(depends where you work though I suppose ;)
regards
Edited by oilrag on 28/03/2008 at 13:44
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The figure you need to know, that is currently missing, is the value of the car as a Cat D financial write off. Say it's worth 1700 if you sell it tomorrow, then you need to get 3000 from the ins co to put you where you were before the damage.
You also need to take into account your excess, and you increased premiums if you don'y have your NCD insured.
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One thing I did wonder, but didn't mention earlier as the discussion was already going off-track, is how easy is it to get a written off car insured?
Say the OP wants to carry on using the car (largely) unrepaired, can it be easily re-insured immediately?
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I use the car as reliable tank rather than all anything else i have full protected no claims so its worth making a claim this time. As the damage is quite extensive cosmetic. The car in effect wont be wrote off its put down as an uneconomical cosmetic repair. So they may allow me to buy the car back from the cosmetic write off cost.
I also do quite a bit of motor way running for pleasure and the car again is in a league of its own on the motorway love the automatic box will never go back to a manual.
Its just a shame the NHS don't provide us with cars for our work. Its asking like the police and ambulance crews having to provide their own vehicle's. As you say we go into un savory inner city areas.
I think the buy back will work fine. I just want to work out a fair price thats all.
As i have only just serviced it its had a new maf and first class beef on all the tyres.
I look at cars in my line of work to give me 5 years use then as you say its a binner.
still four years to go!!!
I just need guidance on what you guys think is an acceptable buy back price given the cars age and spec. i just don't want to get ripped off that all
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Two things to bear in mind:
1) a write off is write off, for very light damage it will be Cat C, as mentioned above, IIRC you may be able to get it inspected and taken off the HPI records though, search around here to learn more
2) even if you have protected NCD, your premium will still go up.
The reason for #2 is that your premium is calculated on the basis of many factors, including how many claims you make and then adjusted by your NCD afterwards. Therefore it's better than have protected NCD than not, but you don't get away scot free!
Just be sure you're making the right choice, that's all I'm saying...
Shame they don't provide cars. I know my Mum was given a car by the NHS when she was a district nurse back in the 80s. Budgets have obviously been squeezed since then.
Edited by TheOilBurner on 28/03/2008 at 17:38
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Thanks for the advice the claim is in process so i guess i cant turn the clock back now?
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>Turning back the clock
Yes, you can turn the clock back. Until you cash the cheque it is not too late.
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so even though i have lodged a claim and they have sent me for estimates etc i can still pull out thats food for thought.
A big bonus would be the Police getting an id from the cctv and trainer prints match that would be a result.
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