Hello, I haven't dropped in for a month or so, but should appreciate your thoughts on this.
My 1999 T Vectra hatch manual petrol 1.8 in near pristine condition with 60k on clock and a brand new MOT was run into from behind at low speed whilst queueing to turn right at traffic lights on Saturday morning. Damage amounts to a bust rear bumper bar.
The driver has accepted liability, and his insurance company have contacted me to arrange repairs. As these will coincide with a holiday trip to Scotland, they will arrange an equivalent hire car for me, plus they will pay congestion charge and parking - as a resident of the congestion charging zone these would not normally cost me money and they have agreed to pay.
What's this going to cost them? I'm going to guess that a new bumper will be £500. Two weeks car hire of a Vectra (they have agreed to give me a 'class E' manual from Enterprise-rent-a-car in Bloomsbury on the grounds I won't drive 1500 miles in a Corsa in one week), plus parking, congestion charges etc. isn't going to leave them much change if any from £500.
What's the car worth? I suppose I might get £1500 with a following wind; more likely £1,000. A dealer might give me £500, do you think?
I must therefore be in danger of being written off. I'd much rather have 1000 cash out of their ins co and find a second hand bumper from somewhere and fit it myself.
How can I achieve this?
Many thanks.
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assuming your car is driveable (if its just a bust bumper bar) the insurance company are being exceedingly generous. If you start making waves and putting your head above the parapet, you will loose your hire car, parking, congestion, etc. In short you wont get your 500 quid goodies let alone 1000 quid payoff.
In my typical blunt style, and said in the best of TIC
Shut your trap, stop being a pain in the botty, keep your head down and enjoy the use of the merc.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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ive had a claims assesor trying to talk down damage on a car i was in that got hit from behind.
I would let them get on with what they have offered because once they take the bumper off they may still write your car off,but,you wont be there cos your on your jollies
so i say leave it too=
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.. I must therefore be in danger of being written off. ..
only if that is what they propose and it is agreeable to you.
i think you are a clever bloke who really does not need advice from the likes of me. so at the rsik of teaching granny to suck eggs:
I'd much rather have 1000 cash out of their ins co and find a second hand bumper from somewhere and fit it myself.
tell them just that but in a roundabout way, i.e. talk to a senior jobsworth at the insurance company and inform them that you would like to negotiate a cash settlement rather than a repair.
if you don't ask, you don't get.
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From experience, if your car is written off due to someone else's fault, they may still have to give you a hire car until you find a suitable replacement. I got a hire car for 2-3 weeks, as they assumed this was a reasonable amount of time to find a car once they had decided to write it off. So the hire car cost maybe payable anyway.
I think even if they did not provide a hire car, you could hire one or use taxis and claim this cost against the other guy's insurance. But someone with more car law knowledge than me, might be able to confirm this, I just speak from my own experiences.
The real comparison maybe the actual cost of the repair vs. the private resale value of your car.
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Thanks for comments - and thanks TVM for your TLC.
The car is perfectly driveable, it's a gently deformed bumper. It is on the other hand unsightly, and I don't really like driving 'broken-looking' cars - if Plod wants to pick you up he has a good excuse to stop you. Am I oversensitive?
On the other hand, I might never have got round to having anybody look at it if his ins co hadn't rung me up. Certainly not before August.
It strikes me as very generous indeed on their part. In fact, it's no wonder insurance premiums are so high if they throw their money away like this.
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Apart from the financial discussion I should point out that I think OP is getting a Group E hire car not an E class Merc! Good luck whatevr it is!
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Apologies, I misread the "e class" bit
An enterprise E class car is Vectra/laguna or similar. An F class car is mondeo or passat or similar.
wonder how they split that lot when vectra/laguna/mondeo/passat are all similar!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Interestingly (no really) they told me that it might be a Vectra or Mondeo.
Given the choice, a Passat must be better than a Vectra - mustn't it?
A Mondeo is the car of choice at the moment - TDCi, of course.
And who would want to drive a Renault?
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The insurer may well agree to pay a cash settlement that matches the going rate a bodyshop would charge to repair the car - it saves them the time and hassle of arranging the work themselves.
At least, that's the approach my insurer took when repairing the Scenic on my comprehensive policy after it was hit by a third party. That third party's UK-based insurer had no problem with that when they eventually had to refund the cost of repair either.
However, do bear in mind the insurer will also probably want a copy of the final invoice for the work if they agree to the cash settlement. Again, this was the case with both my insurer and the third party that refunded them.
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vectra/laguna/mondeo/passat are all similar!
RF pulled on his gloves. RF straightened his hat
In his vectra/laguna/mondeo/passat.
RF needn't have truck with a ticket inspectra
In his mondeo/passat/laguna (or vectra).
After searching the cambox for sludge, fumes and mayo
In his vectra/laguna/passat or mondeo
He'll start as a hoon and grow hooner and hooner
Poor mondeo, poor vectra, passat and laguna.
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I would haggle with insurance co for a cash pay-off. Then track down a s/hand bumper is the right colour - should be easy on a Vectra.
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Funnily enough we have a hire car booked for our Scottish holiday in a couple of weeks (due to different reasons). The booking agency class of car was given as Mondeo/Pug 407/Laguna or similar. Now I see which hire car company I'm placed with they state Vectra/Laguna or similar which are *intermediate*. The hire co have the Mondeo/407 as the next class up called *standard*.
If the hire co offers a Vectra on the day may have to hassle for the Mondeo then. Having said that I too thought they were all pretty much the same class.
I would not choose to own a Laguna but would be very pleased to have a week in one.... I mean it would get to Scotland and back... surely??
We are just 75% of the way into a blame-free rear-end claim/repair from very similar circumstances and it's been a bit of a pain.
David
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Apologies not required - just a bit of banter!
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>>I must therefore be in danger of being written off. I'd much rather have 1000 cash out of their ins co and find a second hand bumper from somewhere and fit it myself.
How can I achieve this?>>
The danger with this approach is that you car could be classed as a write off, cat C probably, if so the £1000 to £1500 that it might be worth now would be more like £300 to £500.
So if you go down that route do so only if you plan to run the car into the ground. And even then it is not fool proof, you only need someone else to stuff it up the back a bit harder and you wont get much of a pay out from their insurer if it is Cat C.
In short, heed TVM's earlier advice, take the repair and the hire car etc, get a diesel Mondeo, Passat et al and you will save yourself 50 quid on your trip to Scotland.
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Cheddar suggests that they would write it off... that's quite a different proposal.
Am I being naive in believing that they would make me a cash payment in exchange for not claiming against them?
If they wish to write it off, then fine; I'll take £1200 and buy it back for £300 and run it until the cambelt snaps (never been changed - HJ recommends 40k) or the EGR valve which sometimes throws up the engine management fault light finally fails. Or the unidentifiable and gentle misfire that has accompanied the last three years and 25,000 miles causes the thing to die. Or the strange unidentifiable rattle that makes a noise at low power and revs since I had a new alternator fitted causes a fatal disaster. Oh yes, and it nearly needs two new front tyres.
If I'm being honest, if I paid to have all the above fixed, the car is more of a liability than an asset. FSH, low mileage and near-impeccable condition notwithstanding.
What would it cost me to repair it? £30 for a replacement second hand bumper and half an hour to undo and redo the four nuts?
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Am I being naive in believing that they would make me a cash payment in exchange for not claiming against them?
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No, though it is risky as per TVM's points: "If you start making waves and putting your head above the parapet, you will loose your hire car, parking, congestion, etc. In short you wont get your 500 quid goodies let alone 1000 quid payoff."
If they wish to write it off then fine; I'll take £1200 and buy it back for £300 and run it until the cambelt snaps >>
A reasonable suggestion, though subject to the same risks. Also they may offer £1000 and want £500 which would change the dynamics somewhat.
I know someone who was knocked of his motorcycle, minimal damage to the bike, he was offered £2600 which was more than fair and bought it back for £750 as a Cat C and it cost him £500 to put it back to better than before, so he made over well £1000 but for the fact that the bike is now worth less than it was. So your approach can work, though in your case rather risky.
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If you go down the payout route then most insurance companies wont let you buy it back as they are tied to someone like universal salvage or similar.
The best advise is as said by a few and that really is to leave the status quo as is............que song..........
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What it would cost you to hire a car and have the repairs done to yours compared to what it will cost the insurance company are two very different figures.
They will have a bulk rate with a bodyshop which will be way below what you could get the work done for if you were to just book it in yourself.
Likewise. They hire probably hundreds if not thousands of cars a week, and as such will pay a very much smaller amount for car hire then you or I could!!!!! £10 a day is not unheard of! (SWMBO was a rentals manager for car hire firms)
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as i said before, the only way mapmaker will know "for sure2 is by asking the guilty party's insurance company.
as to how much his car is worth, how much it will cost the insurance company to repair, or for car hire and other extra compensation and inconvenience payments; it is all immaterial if the cash settlement offered is worthwhile to mapmaker.
and remember, mapamaker is claiming from the guilty party (and their insurance company is acting on behalf of the guilty party).
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>>as i said before, the only way mapmaker will know "for sure2 is by asking the guilty party's insurance company.
Which he did yesterday afternoon and will let you all know the outcome. They are sending (apologies Aprilia and others) an 'engineer' who will no doubt be a fitter and who will tell me how much they are offering. In the interim, thanks to all for their thoughts.
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£565 and DIY bumper change
or a hire car for a week?
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So you have gone from car hire for a week and your bumper being changed by them for free, to £565 or a car hire and you changing the bumper?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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looks that way TVM, there was only us said leave it........ let them sort it i believe?
wonder if it wouldnt have happened if the abs was connected ;-o
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Eh??
Would you rather have a hire car for a week & your bumper fixing for free
OR
over £500 profit and an hour on your knees
I'm chuffed.
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I'll be very interested to know the full time/money cost of this exercise. Please note how long it takes to source the 'new' bumper, the cost of it, travel time including removal time if the scrappy hasn't done it for you. Then there's the removal of the bent one and fitting of the new one and disposing of the old one - these things never take 'an hour' in my experience, there's always a seized nut or snapped bolt somewhere.
If you weren't going on holiday I'd have said 'take the money' But as you are and you've got that cam-belt timebomb ticking away, how chuffed will you be if it goes when you're 500 miles away on your holiday?
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Errrr, what does the cambelt have to do with it? And why does going on holiday make any difference as to my choice of hire car v repair?
Time taken to source - nil. eBay in the office over lunchtime. It makes no difference to me whether I spend my time posting here or buying bumpers.
Disposal of the old one - Westminster will do that for free and zero time on my part.
In fact, DIY will take me negative time. Because I won't have to struggle across London to pick up the hire car - nor to drop it back. And I shall be able to park outside my house rather than finding a car park. And I won't have to fork out hundreds on parking that I then have to *spend more time* claiming back.
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Errrr what does the cambelt have to do with it? >>
I guess because it is more likley to fail the more miles you do and could do so in Scotland or wherever so perhaps better to use someone else's more fun to drive and/or more economical brand new hire car.
With ref to the propsed 1500 mile or so round trip I would take the hire car, if it wasn't for the trip I would take the money.
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i would have settled for the payout when they find the crumpled floor and chassis and then awaited the phone call in the brand new hire car whilst sat on the trossacks.............. £1500?............... why yes that will do nicely thank you ;-)
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£700.
Following the 'engineer's' report stating damage would cost £566, I was rung up by Norwich Union this morning to confirm they had sent out a cheque for this sum.
I asked what about meeting half way on the other costs. The chappie on the end of the phone went to consult with his boss and said sorry 'only pay out for actual losses'. I spoke to the supervisor who said 'sorry, we wouldn't usually pay more than that sum'.
HURRAH thought I, and said 'usually? So sometimes you do?' I now have £700 which is certainly more than its trade in value.
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The above should not be construed as a recommendation or advice. Be
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thanks for the update,pictures with bumper off next please :-)
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Bellboy, sorry I forgot to take a picture. But I did promise to update when I did the bumper.
Picked one up last week, £30 from a bloke who breaks Vectras, in the right colour, 20 mile round trip from where I was going anyway, so half an hour.
10 torx bolts to remove. 4 T30, off in seconds. 4 T20, off in seconds. The last two were T25 (whoever designs a car such that a simple-to-change component requires three different-sized heads?) And of course my 4,380-piece tool set didn't have one, so pop down to Halfords - needed to go to B&Q which is next door anyway - for the right piece - £3.15 later. (Pop to market for some flowers on the way back, £40 parking fine as discussed elsewhere, can't really blame the car for that.)
Armed with right tool, off in 2 minutes; new one on in 10 minutes. Washed rest of car to stop it from standing out. It has taken me 18 months to get round to it...
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