Couple of weeks ago I posted on here that some reprobate had thrown a bottle through a 4th floor window onto my Boxter parked in the street below. Damage was minor, small dent on the wing  a few minor chips in the paint, and a few nicks to the soft top which were barely noticeable

Obviously I was a bit pissed off given its a nice car, so contacted the insurance company who told me to take it to the assessor to check the damage. Was also told my excess was 500 quid, and given damage was so slight I thought a body repair shop could fix it for a couple of hundred quid.. So thought probably not worth it. Can live with the roof issue, as it’s so minor and the car is 14 years old so not immaculate anyway.

So today I got a call from the insurance company. Apparently their official repair company can’t undertake the work but rather than write off the car they would give me some cash to fix it myself. First thought was.. Why would they even consider writing off a car that you have to look closely to spot any damage.

Then they told me how much they would give me after my excess for repairs.. Five thousand pounds!! I actually had to ask the woman to repeat herself as I assumed I had misheard her. 5 k to fix a couple of mm wide paint chips and a dent the size of a golf ball. Sure I won’t get a new roof, but there is absolutely no reason to replace it anyway.

Car only cost me 8.5 k 4 years ago! Utter madness..

They’ll have written it off because they’ll have phoned up porshe and said how much for a panel fix and panel respray.

Porche will have said ONE Million Pound!

Hence the Wright off.

Of course minor panel damage and respray can be sorted by any decent body shop for a lot less, but that’s insurance companies for you.

I won’t get a new roof, but there is absolutely no reason to replace it anyway

I imagine a hefty chunk of that cash would be to replace/repair the roof with original Porsche parts. It’s a specialist job and on a 14 year old car original parts might be scarce and/or expensive

Then they told me how much they would give me after my excess for repairs.. Five thousand pounds!!

They really see you coming … they must be having a laugh.

My local garage can fix that easily as he used to fix Lamborghini etc …

I recommend this place for body work if you are in the North East.

Alspray

They really see you coming … they must be having a laugh.

Not at my expense they aren’t.. They have given me 5 k to fix a couple of minor chips and a tiny dent.

So the 5k isn’t to write it off?

Wtf indeed.

Not at my expense they aren’t.. They have given me 5 k to fix a couple of minor chips and a tiny dent.

When my car got dented (longish dent and deep scratch of about 10 inches) I did not even bother to contact the insurer because I knew my next renewal quote would sky rocket so paid for the fix myself.  Think it was £370 or something like that.  It required the dent to be fix and respray. Nice guy and he even polish my dull headlights for me.

I’m under the impression that insurer’s approved garages routinely inflate costs, invent delays and add extra work that needs doing. Car owner doesn’t question it because they’re not paying directly, insurer doesn’t care that much as long as they can pass the costs on in their premiums averaged out across millions of policies.

They’ll get their own back. Even if you don’t claim, your premium will go up as you notified them. You’re now a higher risk.

So take the money, get a cheap fix and buy a new bike 😁

Legally the insurer must return you to the position you were in before the incident.

I’m guessing most of that money would be to replace the roof.

Porsche parts are not expensive – thats a myth – I have been running a 944S for 12 years and I can say VW parts (like for like) are more expensive – yes I have had a VW for 8 years too.

I agree with the OP we live in a claims culture that those of us with morals are boggled by – and those with out morals exploit.

I once worked with a retired policeman who regularly walked into moveing cars to claim off thier insurnce and Disability Allowance also!!

Insurance is a scam industry through and through. Didn’t use to be but it is now.

My work collegue rolled forward in a traffic jam and lightly touched the van in front with our van. No damage to ours, but unfortunately a tiny dent in the rear door of theirs. 4 burley scaffolders jump out and start joking about whiplash as they check the minute dent.

We work next to a body shop and they guy looked at the photo of the damage and reckoned £350-500 tops so we reckoned the insurance claim would come in at 2k-3k with the usual hire car nonsense etc etc.

28k

All 4 criminals inside the van had put in for whiplash and been awarded 5k each plus all the associated costs. Plus they had the entire van re-signwritten – thats despite the rear door where the tiny dent was not having any wrap on it.

Scum the lot of them and that goes for people who game the system as well

You could get a new soft top fitted for under £1000. Not genuine but who’d go there on a 14yr old car.

https://www.jasmine-porschalink.co.uk/porsche-replacement-hood-68-c.asp

TBH convertible hoods are a bit of a consumable and there’s a lot of companies that can retrim one or sell you one.

BAS do the hood with glass for 510+ vat

not sure if it’s easier to remove hood assembly or do in-situ

(OTOMH Boxster roof is release some trim unclip the roof arm either side and 4 biggish bolts and disconnect a plug if you have rear glass window. )

You could have hours of fun in your living room refurbishing  your hood 🙂

Roof is absolutely fine.. The damage doesn’t even show in a photo. The marks are tiny, certainly not going to spend any money fixing it. But useful to know its so cheap if I do replace it one day.

In the meantime, what carbon wheels for my mtb.. Budget.. 5k..😉

Its more the idiot drivers causing the issues.  The idiot that knocked me off is gonna cost us probably 6 figures on our insurances.

Pity the insurance company who’ve got to sort out the payout for the loss of a brand new fire engine on its first shake-down run from the builders, and the likely write-off of the artic tractor unit that drove into it and knocked it onto its side this week near where I work. Fire engine was apparently £500,000…

It completely blocked a main road through the estate, which is very busy, and is also part of a road closure diversion, I spent twenty minutes diverting traffic at a junction where the traffic comes into the main estate until the cops got their act together and took over. A fun way to spend part of an afternoon.

http://bigwnews.com/world-news/fire-engine-worth-500000-was-wrecked-in-a-crash-just-minutes-after-it-left-the-dealership/

All 4 criminals inside the van had put in for whiplash and been awarded 5k each plus all the associated costs. Plus they had the entire van re-signwritten – thats despite the rear door where the tiny dent was not having any wrap on it.

Scum the lot of them and that goes for people who game the system as well

The insurance companies are as much to blame for just paying up and not challenging all the obvious spurious claims, they don’t care as they just pass on the cost via higher premiums. Although Whiplash claims are now limited by statute to try and stop this.

All very daft but not too suprised as it’s a high end car etc etc.

Only thing I’d make sure about before taking the money is will they put it on any registers as written off etc, meaning future insurance and sales might be a bit difficult?

If you have to paint the wing and replace the roof I’m guessing it’s not a small job to replace the roof and would have to use genuine suppliers if specified in the contract.

Also if you have to paint the wing. You would probably have blend the door. So more hours to strip and refit door and front bumper etc.

It’s not just a quick flick with a spray gun and it’s done . You can do that. But it’s not the right way of doing it.

And that’s not including a like for like hire car etc valeting costs etc

Nope it’s not getting written off.. Car worth far more than 5k..thats just for damages. Its totally ridiculous.. You have to squint to see the damage, other than the small dent by the wing mirror. The chips are literally 1mm wide. They are obviously quoting 5 k to remove the panels and respray. Given its an old car I’m assuming the old paint on the other panels has faded anyway so I’m kinda glad they won’t be doing that. I think it would look worse than leaving it alone.