Someone has gone into the back of my car in stationary traffic and broken the bumper/bent boot etc.

I know that I am likely to be able to buy the car back for a cash settlement if it is written off, but if they want to repair it do I have the option of accepting a lower cash settlement than them repairing it?

The car is still road worthy, although I obviously want to be compensated for the reduction in resale value.

Thanks for your help.

Miss_spooky_b329

Mmm, tricky one. Possibly not but would need to have a mull over it.

May I know why you would want to take this route (I’m an insurance underwriter by trade so have a good working knowledge of the ins and outs).

Cheers

Danny B

If you claim direct from the third party insurer they have no rights to your vehicle, therefore you can retain the vehicle.
If the vehicle is roadworthy there is no need to total loss it (& the TPI place it on the MIAFTR register)so you should be able to agree a cash settlement.
A cash settlement being the net repair cost or the PAV less a salvage deduction.

If it goes to a bodyshop it will need a new bumper and brackets at £450 from Ford, plus the rear impact beam has been dented so the bracket points have moved forward and up, this has also caused the boot floor to go up slightly so the trim doesn’t fit, and the boot lip has bent down.

I can live with the damage as long as I can get the distortion in the boot floor pulled out outwardly the bumper just has a hairline split and has popped out by the rear wing.

The car is worth (a realistic) £2500, 10 years old and its done 103,000 miles and is clocking up 35,000 a year so its not going to be easy to sell on anyway as most of them are doing school runs and on 50,000.

Be nice if its written off but due to the mileage we’d have to spend a another £3k to get something reliable and that is a ‘keeper’, so it would be nice to have a bit less cash towards the replacement, then wait another year. Plus we’d still have a car that can be traded in.

What are the ins and outs of claiming direct? How does it affect things like a courtesy car? Train travel costs for the past three days? (wasn’t sure the bumper was secure)

Unfortunately there is no way the car is worth £2500.

Looking on Autotrader there are a number of similar age / mileage Escorts for between £500-1000.

The write off value (as insurers for reasons I have never been able to figure out are allowed to give you the trade not retail price) is £300-500 I would have thought.

Run it through webuyanycar.com (exclude the damage so you know what it was worth) and deduct 25% or so will give you a good idea of the true trade value.

No insurer is going to give you more than the car is worth so whilst the third party insurer can’t keep the car that is the most they are likely to give you.

With regards to courtesy cars etc, if you go directly to the other insurer they may sort you a courtesy car but as these costs on known as what are called uninsured losses, you may have to foot the bill up front and then claim them back. There are likely limits as to how long you can claim a courtesy car / travel expenses for also. You need to speak to the insurer for exactly what their process is.

Cheers

Danny B

Escort? Looks more a focus to me? Pretty sure they stopped making escorts more than ten years ago… If its a tdci with 100k on the clock it’s worth a damn sight more than £300, although maybe not quite £3000, unfortunately. I’ve done what you want to do with an old superficially damaged car hit by a third party, really does make most sense. Just contact the other insurance company direct, and state that you want a cash settlement in lieu of repair. They’ll probably jump at it, much simpler to settle, and therefor cheaper.

Surprised no one has suggested that your neck might be getting stiff yet…

Apologies – I must be going mad. I’m sure I read it was an Escort. My wrong.

10 year old Focuses (Foci?) are going for around £1500-1800 with 80k on the clock.

Around £800-£1200 write off value I would have thought…

webuyanycar.com as a guide less 25% is still a good guide.

Cheers

Danny B

So, with Dannyb’s revised evaluation, I’d suggest going to the 3rd party insurer and requesting £1500 cash in lieu of repair, with a view of accepting £1000-£1250 settlement, with keeping the car on the run. Then you can sledgehammer the boot floor back, and run it into the ground. Last thing you want to do is actually spend money on repairs…

A word of caution also – modern bumpers, impact beams etc form part of the deformable crash structure and lessen the impact quite considerably.

Yours is well and truly toast and if you get rear ended again you may end up quite badly injured (severe whiplash) and the car Fubar’d – particularly in a higher speed collision.

Not really something I would not look to replace to be honest.

Cheers

Danny B

Its a 53 plate Ford fusion. Thanks for the advice guys 🙂

The beam is just dented, looks like there is still plenty of squish in it.

I guess the other insurer would want to assess it and not just take our word for estimated repair costs?

Any ideas what sort of excess an accident prone taxi driver would be lumbered with!? He wants to avoid the insurance route but he doesn’t seem to want to realise that its not just the bumper thats popped out!

The destructible foam in the bumper will be knackered though and although it just looks a little bent you can’t tell just by looking how much ‘squish’ is left.

Personally I wouldn’t risk it and would get the car properly checked out for other damage. I ain’t no mechanic and wouldn’t risk driving my car until I knew it was ok.

He won’t pay an excess on his insurance for your claim against him. This is to avoid third parties (in this case you) not being able to pay the excess leaving the third party out of pocket.

It will whack up his premium and possibly excess if you do claim which will affect him in the future.

Personally, it was his fault – go the insurance route. You have no come back at all if you settle with him direct and it all goes Pete Tong you’re screwed.

Cheers

Danny B