'Write-offs' and insurance.

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My 1978 capri had an engine fire the other week, wasn't going to claim from the insurance as I didn't want it written off, had a word with them, they send an assessor out last week, he told me to get screen shots from online sites of everything I needed to put it back on the road, including engine bay and bonnet painted, and he would get me a cash settlement, sounds good to me,
Does anyone know what that will mean for the car? As in, will it have a category mark against it?

I believe that it will always be categorised by the insurer based on the repair cost, and regardless of whether it's being repaired by a garage or privately by yourself. The only way to avoid it being categorised altogether is by not involving the insurance at all.
 
...Issue with insurance and older cars is that they will always be a write off since insurance use new original parts which are not cheap...

Insurer Aviva own a UK-wide network of accident repair centres called Solus, and they also provide the repair estimates, but I don't know if they use original or patern parts (I am guessing a mixture of both).

Aviva impose an additional excess of £250 if you want to have your car repaired elsewhere, e.g. at a dealer (other insurers do that as well).

Also, Aviva guarantees the repair but only if it is done at one of their approved bodyshops (though you'll still have the repair guaranteed by the dealer if you decided to take your car there).

Personally I avoid taking my cars to the insurer's approved bodyshop, simply because I prefer to work with people I know and trust, be it an independent bodyshop or a franchised dealer.
 
I think off the top of my head insurancers will write a car off if it's more than 17% of the cars retail value
 
I think off the top of my head insurancers will write a car off if it's more than 17% of the cars retail value
I think the typical threshold is that the repair cost is 70% of the retail value.
 
If it was 70% why would they write a pretty new car off for a rear bumper ?
 
If it was 70% why would they write a pretty new car off for a rear bumper ?
Because it's not just the cost of the repair. They're going to be paying out for a hire car for as long as it takes to get sorted, which may be a while if parts are on back order.

When someone backed into the 6 week old Leon, it was £1500 for the new rear bumper, paint etc etc, and about the same for 2 weeks in an equivalent hire car at the other party insurers insistence. It doesn't take much delay for the consequential sums to add up.
 
Have a look at this...

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Have a look at this...

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A good, informative video raising points I have mentioned on the forum in the past.

A thing to note, is that any of us could have unwittingly sold on a write off, having owned the car for years and invested good money in it, unaware of its hidden past. :/


I do like the look of the VCar check. :thumb: :thumb:
 
A thing to note, is that any of us could have unwittingly sold on a write off, having owned the car for years and invested good money in it, unaware of its hidden past. :/
I have unintentionally sold a car that was a previous insurance write off (stolen)
It was a Sierra Sapphire Cosworth back in the early 90's. Bought without due diligence of an HPI check from what I thought a trustworthy source. Kept the car for 4 years or so and decided to buy Mercedes.

Spent some big money on it to rid it of rust in the subframe and sold it to the friend of a good friend. A week after he bought it he was on the phone to me accusing me of selling him a write off. I honestly had no idea.
I commiserated with him but the telling thing was when I said he should have done what I didn't do and check the history before buying.
Would have saved him a lot of grief, and I heard that he gave up on the car and scrapped it after selling on the engine and decent parts.
Since then I've always had a car check of some kind before buying.
 
Because it's not just the cost of the repair. They're going to be paying out for a hire car for as long as it takes to get sorted, which may be a while if parts are on back order.

When someone backed into the 6 week old Leon, it was £1500 for the new rear bumper, paint etc etc, and about the same for 2 weeks in an equivalent hire car at the other party insurers insistence. It doesn't take much delay for the consequential sums to add up.

Also, once the garage start dismantling the car, there's a possibility for additional damage to come to light. So better not take a chance and write it off when the visible damage goes above certain percentage of the car's value.

And finally, if the car is written-off the insurer may ship it to Copart where it will be auctioned for spares, and this will somewhat offset the insurer's loss.
 
And finally, if the car is written-off the insurer may ship it to Copart where it will be auctioned for spares, and this will somewhat offset the insurer's loss.
Motor insurers will always aim to sell the salvage in order to minimise their losses. Even a completely burnt out shell has some value (based on the weight of materials).
 

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