Had a rear end shunt on motorway and now rear of car somewhat shorter than before! (had light front end damage to, bonnet/bumper grill, radiator etc.) Insurance company is taking an age, so I’m trying to find out whether my car would be repairable or a write off. Apart from rear tailgate and rear bumper, the inside of the boot (where the spare wheel would live) is deformed.
Wonder whether this is considered structural? Car was driveable-ish. Car was Skoda Octavia estate 4×4 2010.
Thanks

It’s not just about the cost of repair, it’s associated costs.
I had my beloved Civic written off, took them ages to decide if the car was fixable or not, apparently they couldn’t decide if the chassis was damaged or not. Anyhow after having a hire car for 2 months they just decided to write it off in the end! Hire car bill alone was £3.2k.

hi i work for a bodyshop feel free to email me pics etc. if you have them / want further advice.

from what you’ve described it does sound perfectly repairable and although boot floor / rear chassis damage could be considered structural this doesn’t mean it’s not repairable.

email robinharrison@sytner.co.uk

Costs of hire car etc isn’t usually counted.

have you got a hire car in the meantime?

to be a writeoff, the cost of repair, plus the salvage value of the vehicle needs to be more than the vehicle is worth. Being a 10 plate car, without major damage to engine, price 4wd drivetrain, doors etc, the salvage value is probably quite high – lets say £3k. Value of the car at the time of the accident was what – 15k? so 12k of damage to write it off. Boot floor damage doesn’t indicate on its own that it’d be a write off but its probably a pricey repair

third party claims can be a nightmare as more and more “claims specialist” companies get hold of it and add there 10% on and recomend the next “specialist” to do the next bit of work.

my best advice is to take it to a bodyshop you trust or a dealer recomended Skoda (VAG) approved bosdyshop and let them deal with it.

general rule of thumb a car will get written off as beyond economical repair when the repair estimate reaches approximately 60% of the cars value. this doesn’t include car hire / associated recovery costs.

Parents estate was written off because of a buckle in the boot floor. As Robob said, this was considered structural. The rest of the car looked absolutely fine.

I seem to remember something about cars with tow bars being particularly suseptible to this kind of damage as the tow bar is fitted to the chassis and normal gets bent when hit from behind.

my Dad’s A4 had to have every body panel replaced after a spinning battle with an armco barrier at 70mph. cost of replacement was £8k on a car valued at £10k. surely that was beyond economical repair??? apparently not.