My 51 plate Mercedes C class estate (c220 CDI) has been damaged in the front in an accident. The estimate figure came out through the insurance company to repair it is about 10000 pounds. The car is valued at about 6500 pounds by the insurance company. I have consulted a few garages and they said they could get the repair done at about 1500-2000 pounds. Now my question is, is it worth buying it back from the insurance company after they have written it off and repair myself? They also told me the offer from the insurance company is negotiable, but how do I negotiate with them?
The car was a very well looked after example also has about 140k miles on the clock, I only had it for a little while and I do like it. To buy another one in similar condition, I probably need to spend 7000 pounds. But if I had the car for 2000 pounds and repair it for another 2000 pounds, end up with a car being recorded on HPi, is it worth it?
Could anyone have similar experience tell me what kind of deals you had?
Any help would be great!
Thanks
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bromine
The first thing to discover is whether your insurer will indeed sell the car to you. Many have closed deals with dismantlers that ensure that they get all the company's write-offs.
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Whether the insurer will let you buy it or not, if you would need to pay £7,000 to get an equivalent car from a similar source, then try to push for that as a settlement (less any excess) - that's what the insurance is for. Searching Auto Trader etc may help find the evidence you need.
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I think the settlement is £6k5 isn't it?
The salvage is obviously worth a lot less than that - the value depends on the extent of the damage. I would budget for salvage+repair coming in at £4k max. That's what a reparied car with 140k would sell at, if you were lucky...
To be honest, unless the car was really good I wouldn't bother.
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I'd sooner add £500 to the £6500 settlement and buy another than spend £2000 getting it repaired. Spending £2000 doesn't make economic sense to me.
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L\'escargot.
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When my daughters car was involved in an accident (her fault) I repaired the vehicle myself retained all the reciepts and claimed it from the insurance company.I was unable to claim anything for my labour,but this enabled a good vehicle which we knew the history off to be back on the road in a short time.I kept all the parts untill setalment occurred in case their engineer wanted to view parts
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rustbucket (the original)
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When my daughters car was involved in an accident (her fault) I repaired the vehicle myself retained all the reciepts and claimed it from the insurance company.I was unable to claim anything for my labour,but this enabled a good vehicle which we knew the history off to be back on the road in a short time.I kept all the parts untill setalment occurred in case their engineer wanted to view parts -- rustbucket (the original)
Forgot to add it would have been written off if it had been assesed and gone to repair centre.
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rustbucket (the original)
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No you will be well out of pocket and all you will have is an insurance right off,51,52's are only fetching 7 to 8k at auction and thats for minters with plenty on the market retailing for 8 to 10k forget it..
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Not quite as much money, but my neighbour has a 1994 Rover, with a Honda V6 engine, and someone bumped into the back, doing mostly cosmetic damage. Her insurance got a quote for £1700 and wanted to write it off. The local bodyshop, said they could easily knock a grand off that. She bought it as scrap, out of the payout money, and got it fixed. With some scrapyard dealings the car now looks better than before, and she ended up with a profit.
Do bodyshops have a special price list for insurance companies, I wonder ?
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You don't make a profit if you end up with a car you cannot sell as that what will happen with the Merc.
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You don't make a profit if you end up with a car you cannot sell as that what will happen with the Merc.
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Quite, but in this case the car was worth very little anyway, so its value did not count for very much, just its usefulness to the owner. The Merc is a different case.
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>>Do bodyshops have a special price list for insurance companies, I wonder ?
No but normally the cars have to be repaired using genuine new parts and there is no cutting of corners with insurance repair work. What I am saying is that all of the work needs to be carried out to a decent standard (believe it or not) and things like blending the paintwork out into the other panels has to be done etc. Otherwise you end up with an unhappy customer who is expecting their car to be repaired as good as new and the repairer has to give things like a warranty of their paintwork and as such they have to purchase the better quality paint and materials to be able to achieve this.
Your cheap and cheerful repairs are often done to a much lesser standard. Often second hand or non genuine parts are used which cuts a good chunk off the bill, badly smashed panels may be repaired with vast amounts of filler whereas an insurance company would insist on a new part. A lot of cheap and cheerful repairs get cheaper quality paint and materials thrown at them, you will probably also get an edge to edge colour match rather than it blended in and you won't get any kind of guarantee about how long the repair will 'last' for.
As for people talking of bodyshops charging insurance companies a higher rate for hourly labour then that is just plain wrong. Insurance companies dictate to their approved repairers what labour rates they are prepared to pay and it is much lower than you would think. Often you will find that the insurance companies hourly rate is a lot lower than the rate that Joe Bloggs off the street is quoted and as a rough example the insurance hourly rate is probably only two thirds of the equivalent mechanical workshop hourly rate, operating in the same area.
The difference is all to do with the quality of workmanship that goes into repairing your vehicle. It has nothing to do with bodyshops ripping off insurance companies - they are far too wise to fall for that!
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I had all this some years back with my old Triumph. It wasn't worth a great deal, but i'd fallen for it. Someone hit it in the side, damaging the two nearside doors & rear wing.... and the cost of repair was more than the car was worth
ins co asked me for the MOT etc and told me i 'might' be able to but it back from them
things got a bit fraught, i stood my ground and had to insist on going up the management tier, but eventually got what I wanted
i told them that i owned the car, not them........on that basis i would choose what would happen to it, not them... and indeed i could choose whether or not i even claimed on the insurance....
because i could easily replace two damaged doors, i was not going to have the car written off ( i knew i was going to keep it long term and didn't want the 'written off' stigma).
the eventual angle i went down was........."i've paid the premium, i'm keeping the car, now what are you going to do to recompense me for the damage that has been caused. At no point will you be owning this car, so there will be no need for me to buy back what i already own"
they paid up a reasonable figure and i got it repaired myself
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First thank you all for your great advice.
After a week's waiting, the insurance company has come back to me and told me I cannot buy it back from them. They will be arranging paying it off. I think they probably have a closed deal with a scrapyard to buy all their write-offs.
I would still want to buy the car off the insurance company if they offered me at around 2000 pounds. Having spent a bit of time on looking at ebay/autotrader, I realised if I wanted another one I would be paying at least 7000 pounds. Whereas if i had it back at 2000 pounds, I would end up with paying 4000 pounds for this car, which means I will be making a profit as well. I don't mind it to be on the Hpi register coz i will keep it for a few years anyway. It has lots of history and lots of care has been spent on the car. The car itself is a minter and certainly worth keeping.
I spoke to 'Financial Services Authority' which regulates them and they said there is no such rule to say the insurance have to offer the car to the owner if the owner wanted. So it's entirely up to them to decide who they sell to. But like the owner of the Triumph said, at the end of the day, it's my car and I want to decide what to do with it.
Now my question is, the insurance company is asking for the documents for the car, do i send to them? They said they will come back with an offer middle next week, will they still make an offer if they don't have the documents? Shall I speak to the management of the insurance company and try and buy it back?
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As a poss alternative why not find out who they are selling to (probably Universal Salvage) and then put an offer in to them for it?
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if your car is at a bodyshop ask there where the salvage is headed,depending on your insurer it may be going anywhere in the country
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That's a good idea actually. I will go to see them on monday. But there is a possiblity that they will ask for a few pounds more because they will get more for it in the auction.
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But like the owner of the Triumph said, at the end of the day, it's my car and I want to decide what to do with it.
that's my whole point........it's your car.......why should you be worrying about whether or not someone else will let you purchase your own car.......you already own it
negotiate with them on the principle that you're not prepared to hand it over to them, full stop...
just because their way of doing things is along those lines, it doesn't mean you've got to go along with it...you're the customer get them to fit around you......
yes you have a contract with them, yes there will be 'rules of engagement' for want of a better description...but stand your ground and politely ask them to pay up something reasonable on your terms....
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What you sign on the "claim" form will make a difference.
When I was bumped up the back (stationary at a roundabout) I needed to claim because of the value of repairs. The claim form basically assigned all of my rights, including ownership etc to my insurance company with the assumption they were going to see me right (gross oversimplification but it will do).
I substantially altered the ending on the form, making it clear it was a true statement of the facts and crossing out all the bits about ownership and transport etc I accompanied the form with a letter explaining my actions so they were in no doubt.
Never heard a peep and the car was repaired just fine.
I perhaps should add initial storage was not an issue (in my garage), and I undertook to transport the car as needed. (It's a vintage car, and if anyone puts it on a trailer it's me).
In other words, if the form was the current standard, I think you can do little.
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