My parents were rear ended in their Fiesta on the M62.

Long and short the damage has been valued at £4,000, and then there will be courtesy car cost for at least 2 weeks while it is repaired. So far the 3rd party want to repair it.

The concern is that the car is worth £7-8,0000 (in good condition). However when they come to sell it which they will do immediately after having the damage repaired, the local Ford dealer has already said it wont be worth as much as normal book as people are aware its had £4,000 of damage!

To add to this they have gap insurance, and the gap insurance have already confirmed they will pay out if it is a write off.

Direct Line (my parents insurers are being no help at all).

Is there anything they can do?

The concern is that the car is worth £7-8,0000 (in good condition). However when they come to sell it which they will do immediately after having the damage repaired, the local Ford dealer has already said it wont be worth as much as normal book as people are aware its had £4,000 of damage!

Balls, the dealer will never know…… unless they’ve just told the guy they intend to give it to

Why?

Some people don’t like driving a car thats been in a bump

Why? – Because every car that is sold now comes with a check thing that shows how many accidents its been in etc.

If I had the choice between 2 cars of same spec etc, and one came back with significant repaired damaged, I would buy the other one.

Their choice, but it’s a choice which will cost them money (especially if they’ve told the guy they intend to sell it to about the crash!)

Presumably the OP wants to find some way for it to be written off – if that’s what DL aren’t being helpful about, then it’s not exactly surprising! What exactly have DL done wrong here?

Why? – Because every car that is sold now comes with a check thing that shows how many accidents its been in etc.

If I had the choice between 2 cars of same spec etc, and one came back with significant repaired damaged, I would buy the other one

Really?!

I knew about Cat Cs and Ds but I didn’t know you could find details of non-write offs.

Personally I’m surprised they’re willing to repair it that close – the cost of the hire cars and what not must be clocking up very quickly.

Did they use a claims handling firm, non-fault claims can be made easier going through them and they tend to burn through cash as the rate of knots meaning a speedy resolution.

FunkyDunc – Member

Why? – Because every car that is sold now comes with a check thing that shows how many accidents its been in etc.

Really? Never heard of anything like it before. Who’s recording the data?

Sell it to different dealer.

Just noticed this

To add to this they have gap insurance, and the gap insurance have already confirmed they will pay out if it is a write off.

So it’s on PCP? The value at the end wont be affected unless the car is still a crumpled heap when they hand it back

If its not written off (ie, not a cat C or D etc) then just flog it to WBAC etc when its fixed. Job done.

Cost of hire cars etc isn’t taken into account when deciding if its an economic write off or not.

We had the same thing 10 years ago – my wife’s brand new (ie 6 weeks old) car was shunted from behind and the repair cost was something like £12k and it was about £500 of the % of new value that would have triggered the write off. I argued and argued with them but they wouldn’t budge so we had no choice but to have it repaired. Other insurance companies would have written it off as (IIRC) our insurance company set the write off value at 70% of the new value, whereas others set it at 65%.

To be fair though, we still own it and it hasn’t been a problem, ie, the repair doesn’t show in any way (either in handling or appearance).