My Poor Little Car

[thelewisgang]

I have owned a 2003 Suzuki Alto 1.1 GL for a while now & it has given me lots of pleasure. On Sunday, a car in front of me reversed into it. He admitted liability straight away saying he did not see me behind him & I had a call from his insurance company to confirm this. The assessor came out today to look at my car. Not extensive damage but enough to make the cost £1200 including VAT. I had a call from the assessor earlier to tell me this. I do now believe it won't be economically viable to do the repair (I'm guessing the value of my car to be about £800). Annoyingly, I only had it taxed a few weeks ago at the cost of £50 & renewed the car tax albeit only £30 for a year. I am sad for my little car, affectionately known at "Gertie".

[mazie]

Awww. RIP Gertie x

[Cloverjo]

Ah, I know it's only material goods that can be replaced, but we do get attached to our cars, don't we? I adore my car. I hope this accident doesn't cost you too much, and that you get a replacement that you love just as much.

[douglas9401]

Any chance of a cash settlement with the insurance and have your wee car repaired by a local garage that knows where to source pattern parts at a reasonable price?
Seems a shame to scrap a nice car.

[EDDIE51]

Accept a cash payment from the other drivers insurers and then take your car to a small independent repair place or a 'one man business' You will almost certainly find that it can be done a LOT cheaper than the quote , you could even find spare parts from a scrap yard and get them fitted (even cheaper) and with a ten year old car it is not going to affect the value.

[Gizmonster]

You may have a chance to save your baby :)
I had a similar incident - car had a prang and dented a few panels. Cost to repair was greater than the value of the car, so the insurance company offered to pay me out for my car.
The thing is, when they work out the cost of repairing the car, they use original parts that cost an arm and a leg. Luckily I have a friend who's a mechanic and he worked out the cost to repair my car, would be a lot less than the insurance company quoted. I asked and I was given the option of buying the car back for £200 - so basically I got my car back plus the cash value of the car, minus £200. My friend repaired it and it had to be inspected and I'm not too sure if I needed to re-MOT it .... it was a while ago.
In the end, I was £50 in pocket and I got my trusty car back repaired at a fraction of the price that the insurance company quoted :)

[thelewisgang]

Well, I will see what tomorrow brings as far as a call from the assessor again & think I will ring my insurance company in the morning too. I was actually thinking of updating it later this year & although it got through its MOT fine with no advisories, things wear & do know the drive shaft will need fixing some time.

[Gizmonster]

This is a good read:

http://www.rac.co.uk/community/blog/rac-blog/september-2011/what-is-an-insurance-write-off

Good luck, which ever route you choose to take.

[thelewisgang]

thanks everyone for your posts xx

[ToraToraTora]

they usually have a system of giving you a Cat D or C so you can keep the car. They'll give you market value less scrap value.