Damaged vehicle repairs
My wife has just had an articulated lorry rip the side off her car on a roundabout and, of course, we are now in the usual insurance tangle.
The car is a Citreon Berlingo Multispace HDi VTR 1.6 Diesel, bought new by us on 7/9/10. It has covered about 14K miles and was like new.
The recovery bodywork shop have quoted around £7,400 for the repair, but cannot be more specific until they start work. Our Insurance company has been very supportive (SAGA) and have recommended that repairs be carried out.
My wife is understandably emotional about this and says that she does not want back such a badly damaged car. We paid £11,086 for the car (plus delivery etc), so the repair is now a very large part of the original cost, let alone it's new worth after depreciation.
Should we just accept the repair work and then try to sell it afterwards, knowing that it has been badly damaged, or should we push Saga harder to try to get a better deal in the form of a replacement car?
The car is a Citreon Berlingo Multispace HDi VTR 1.6 Diesel, bought new by us on 7/9/10. It has covered about 14K miles and was like new.
The recovery bodywork shop have quoted around £7,400 for the repair, but cannot be more specific until they start work. Our Insurance company has been very supportive (SAGA) and have recommended that repairs be carried out.
My wife is understandably emotional about this and says that she does not want back such a badly damaged car. We paid £11,086 for the car (plus delivery etc), so the repair is now a very large part of the original cost, let alone it's new worth after depreciation.
Should we just accept the repair work and then try to sell it afterwards, knowing that it has been badly damaged, or should we push Saga harder to try to get a better deal in the form of a replacement car?
Asked on 10 January 2012 by Geoff
Answered by
Honest John
Try to push Saga into scrapping it, pointing out that the cost of a courtesy car during the extended repair will hugely increase the total cost to the insurer. Though, of course, that might be SAGA's plan, because its parent company has its own accident management and credit hire operation. So whatever you do, do not sign any liability for the cost of the courtesy car.
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