Last week a van pulled out on a blind corner and scraped down the side of my car ( 02 mazda 6 ) long story short the insurance company engineer called today and said the repairs are uneconomical at £1600 , i went and got a quote today for 1000 if i sourced a rear door myself .
The total loss department are calling me on monday but i am not sure what to expect , i can keep the car and they will give me an amount to get the repairs done myself or the value of the car to replace it .
On autotrader the car could be worth anything from 1 to 2000 but who decides the value ?
Any advice or experiences would be welcome so when i speak to them on monday i am a bit more clued up

I’m not an expert but if it’s recorded by your insurers as any sort of write off (even if you buy it back from them following a pay out and repair it) any future resale value may well be lower and you may struggle to shift it when people do an HPI check.

Even at £1k for the repair it’ll be pretty uneconomical as it’ll be worth at or below the bottom end of market value as a repaired write off. Only really worth doing if you pocket the cash and live with the scrape. Also reject their first offer.

They’ll work it on bottom book price in Glass’s guide, which is probably around 800-1000 at a guess, and want to pay you that.

Go on autotrader, find a few examples of the same car in similar condition, try and find 3 close as possible to your car, and in your area and ask for an average price showing the 3 you can get.

Shouldn’t have much trouble doing that, i’ve done it this way a couple of times. You’ll lose your excess though.

I bought the car less than 6 months ago off my dad , so although it was an older car i knew where it had been and that it had been looked after . I am inclined to replace it but i am not sure i will be comfortable with whatever i can buy with what they are likely to offer me

You’ll get no where near £2k for it. I’d be surprised if they offer £1k.

Good luck haggling but they’re not worth anything despite being reliable things (assuming petrol).

There are countless doors on ebay, there’s bound to be one in your colour. Take the payout buy a door, get if fitted and run the car into the ground would be my way forward.

mcmoonter – Member

There are countless doors on ebay, there’s bound to be one in your colour. Take the payout buy a door, get if fitted and run the car into the ground would be my way forward.

^^^ this one or get a door from the knackered yard.

If you know the car and it is reliable then it is worth fixing it up – who knows the state of the car you will be able to get for the money.

Wo cares about resale value if you are going to use it for a few more years anyway and get your value out of it – and it’s not worth a lot now anyway.

how scraped ?

is it driveable/MOT failure ??? – ie do you need to repair it to use the car ? (man who drove a car with quite a few massive dents on it for a long, long time )

here are some pics , part of the problem was the guy was marking down every little mark on that side of the car bumping up the price of the repair . To be honest i would be happy with a new door and the rear arch repaired so taking the payout and getting the work done myself is a good idea . The only thing is i have a young son and would need to know the car is safe

Insurers differ in their policy, mine were happy to keep it insured provided I got it MoT’d to prove it was roadworthy. It doesn’t look the kind of damage that would make it unsafe but an MoT should put your mind at rest?

The valuer did the same for mine, I found out afterwards, every little thing they could find to bump up the repair cost. I assume it’s because they get the job if you have it repaired, and either (a) it’s good money and they want to bump it up or (b) the repair will be a pain and they didn’t want it so forced a write off! My insurer said I could buy it back for 23% of their valuation.

In terms of the consequences for future, not much, look up what Class D write off means. You’ll not be able to sell it for as much, but if you can repair it for £600 less than the cheque they give you that may be OK.

I used to work for an assessor’s firm, and so I’ve got a rough idea of how things work.

1) Cash in lieu of repair is better than keeping a write off. Because it doesn’t get recorded as a write off.

2) They will offer you something in the region of 75% of Glass’s guide, probably one of the poorer condition valuations or even a trade in value. They will forget to add options when valuing your car. So if they’ve offered £1600, your car is probably worth £2k

3) Get your own valuations – CAP is free for private people, and has a similar standing to Glass’ with insurers and the trade.

4) Find out what similar cars are actually selling for – ie, ebay and autotrader. Glass’ and CAP can be massively out, particularly on anything with low sales volume or for the fast edition of pedestrian cars.

4) Either be prepared to spend some time arguing with insurance companies, or employ a claims management company. Some of them are awful, some are fine. I used Europa consultants last year, and they were fine, no pushing for an expensive hire car, and pursued the other party for me, which saved a huge amount of legwork on my part. The claims management boys normally take it straight back off the third party insurer, which saves you losing your excess.

As someone who’s had a few cars fixed, anyone quoting you on that job needs to be pulling the door frame into line and probably putting a used door on. You’ll want that gash in the arch welded back up, not just fillered. And an MOT only tests for big holes near vital components and sharp edges – it doesn’t give you any idea of how well repairs were done, so find someone who’s willing to explain how the repair will be done, not just say “£600 guv”.

If it helps i had a quote for a mates 206 with similar damage but no welding (which is no big deal, theres no fabrication for rust chasing.)
we’ve already got a second hand door. £500 cash thats blending in the whole rear corner.

This happened to me a few years ago some scrotes nicked the car and basically stripped it of all the bits that made it better than the cooking version – wheels, some exterior trim even the seats/steering wheel etc. a lot of expensive bits but no actual damage. Despite being a current model it was destined to be a write-off the folks at the garage were surprised I even wanted it back. I was insistent and they told me the insurance assessor was coming out to have a look at it so I went and met him at the garage, explained I’d like it fixed and he was OK about it £5,500 of repairs all cosmetic

Seemed genuinely surprised I wanted it back most people prob not interested after their cars been stolen.

good luck

Thanks everyone , much appreciated

pocket the cash and live with the scrape.

Be aware that if you do this then they won’t be paying on the same car again. me and the OH spent the cash. then the car was written off again – no payment, as no repairs made!

Also reject their first offer.

+1. push for the price you think it’s realistically worth (with evidence.)