There's some stuff here I don't understand - maybe not all of it is relevant.

"... a woman reversed into my parked car (1985 w123 230e) whilst fleeing ex-partners house where their son was smashing it up. She tried to make a run for it but I stopped her car before her son jumped in."

The son was smashing up the house, the woman was trying to get away and would have done so but for the intervention of the poster, at which point the son jumped in the woman's car. So she had intended to leave the son behind? The story seems weird to me.

As regards the poster's dealings with his insurance company - I'm surprised the poster was asked to pay his excess. Normally this is deducted from any pay-out on a claim - for repairs or write-off.

If the car is written off and the poster accepts the money offered, then the vehicle belongs to the insurance company, who have in effect bought the car. A £400 salvage fee (plus excess) to prevent this and keep the car sounds outrageous to me - but maybe you should check your small print. And why does the poster have to fork out his £500 excess if he's keeping the car and paying for his own repairs?

I don't understand the time limit of four weeks to get repairs done, with the threat of the car being repossessed by the insurance company. If the car is retained by the poster it's his property.

If his insurance company is not paying for repairs and he still owns the car, there is nothing to prevent the poster from initiating his own claim against the other driver.

Maybe I'm missing something here - and possibly we haven't got the full facts.

Edited by FP on 29/04/2016 at 11:51

I'm going to cancel my policy and go with a [much cheaper] classic car insurance co I shouldda gone with years ago..

expensive lesson.

Normally you would get the excess back once the other party insurance company agrees to pay out.