Just been involved in a 5 car pile up on a busy roundabout,my car was the last and bumped into the back of a peugeot 106,minor dent on the back of the Peugeot,however R front lights on my 1999 almera smashed with the whole bonnet arched about 3 inches above the normal(Approx speed ?20mph).
The Honda Civic Type R , ie the car in front insists that he swerved to one side suddenly to avoid hitting a Mercedes that cut into the roundabout and sped away
How true is that is anyones guess!
However no problems in running and the bonnet still opens and closes.
I have tried to contact my insurers but they are closed for today.
Any idea what I should do, apart from contacting the insurers to inform them about the accident and the details of the other cars-thankfully they seem to be insured!
My NCD is protected yet the excess at 250 will sting!
Does anyone know what I can expect re the repair of this vehicle and how long it will take.
Also a courtesy car thats provided-I travel 50-100 miles running to and for between various sites of work,varied sites hence no fixed timetable.Does anyone know the approx time it will take to get a courtesy car and the time it will take to repair??
My friend tells me that the insurers are very likely to write it off and give me the market value less approx a 1000 pounds,at £600 this isnt going to do anything to replace what is a reliable workhorse.
Is that a real possibility with this relatively small amount of damage?
Any ideas on what to expect and any advise at all-Thanks in advance.
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Sorry to hear of the accident, please no one was hurt.
My mate had a similar car, he was the filling in a sandwich, he had a cracked rear bumper and dented bootlid and a slightly cracked front bumper on a 1994 Monedo that at the time was valued at about £1400 by the insurers, unfortunately they wasted no time in writing it off.
They sold the wreck to him for £200 and he ran it, then in a veritable frenzy of poor planning he scrapped it (it drove fine) and financed himself up on a new Micra which has now been repossesed. (I tried to stop him, but it was all I could do just to get him to buy it from a dealer instead of Yes Car Credit!)
Good luck getting it sorted, if they do write it off then ask to buy the salvage, get some bits from a scrappy and fix it yourself! I don't see why they would deduct £1000 from your settlement though if your excess is only £250???
Blue
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From what you tell me I suspect your repair estimate will be in excess of £1000.
My wife's T reg Almera was run into a wall at low speed (she was driving) This wrecked the bumper, grill, one wing, one indicator lense, bent the metalwork behind the bumper, and scratched the other wing and bonnet. The damage was probably less extensive than that on yours. However I doubt that your car is unsafe to drive (apart from the lack of headlights)
The repair IIRC cost the insurer's over £1200! the car was probably worth around £2k at the time.
If your car is written off which it probably will be you should get market value minus any excess only. I suggest you hunt around for advertised prices of similar vehicles to yours now to back up any arguement over a low offer.
If you wanted to keep it, then it may be economically reperable using salvaged parts. Now is the time to seek recommendations for a good backstreet bodyshop, for ideas of cost.
Then see what the insurers would want for it.
If you do go this route, bear in mind that the total cost of this including buying the car back from the insurers should work out significantly less than the market value of the car. When you come to sell it it'll be registered as a total loss, so you'll get less for it that you would normally.
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When you come to sell it it'll be registered as a total loss, so you'll get less for it that you would normally.
Hopefully resale won't be top of your list of priorities then! I had overlooked that bit when I suggested fixing it, Hugo is quite right, it would be worth less if it was written off and fixed than if it were just fixed. Of course if it's just used as a work horse I doubt that you would want to sell it in a hurry.
Blue
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The reasons I can see for £1k being deducted from the settlement figure if the car is written off are:-
a. Excess - which JohnX has already indicated;
b. Outstanding finance - of course the money paid to the finance company improves his financial position but won't be reflected in the cheque that hits his bank account;
c. Outstanding insurance premium - i.e., if the insurance premium is paid monthly, the amount still due under the contract will be deducted from the settlement figure;
d. A perception that the insurer is entitled to impose a settlement figure below market value - it isn't.
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The one problem that you may face is that you hit the car in front rather than your vehicle being bumped from behind.
You may be held responsible for a proportion of the blame as a result by seemingly failing to allow enough space/adequate stopping distance from the car in front.
But thankfully, as you say, it was only a minor bump.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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