first ever accident - advice please?

[StealthClio]

not sure if this is in the right section or not.

basicially i had my first acciddent yesterday, and the insurance company have said that the car was a total loss. this seems a bit exsessive to me, but im not sure what my option are. the only real damger seems to be a new radiator needed and metal bent behind the front light (in pic)

iv seen that some people buy their car back from them, but would that mean it would be a cat D / C etc?
can i just say to them that i want it fixed?
any advice would be very much appreichated. im only 20, have 2 years no claims and have been told i wouldnt loose this as it was the other guys fault.

guy i hit: hardly any damage to his rear quater where i hit him

you can see the bent metal in the last one. is this serious?

thanks

 

[Silent_Scone]

I lol'ed at the first picture. It's pretty grim the first time so no disrespect but LOL

I'd buy it back, it looks nay bad really.

 

[StealthClio]

yea, i no it isnt the worst crash lol. good brakes made the difference between hitting him or the fence, so i went for the fence mainly. how much does it cost to buy it back usually?

 

[LiamR172]

Hope you've listd all your mods

How did it happen?

You could buy the car back for pennies and fix it for pennies! Doesn't look much more than a wing, radiator and maybe a grill and bumper spray?

 

[Beef-Mc]

Some insurance companies don't allow you to buy the car back, just a heads up.

 

[StealthClio]

the galaxy pulled out at the cross roads and i braked and swearved to miss him, hit his back left and ended up through the fence.

if i buy it back and fix it, would it be a cat c or anything like that?

 

[Silent_Scone]

Yes as it will have been written off by the insurer

 

[warwickstingray]

The problem is that accident repair centres charge ridiculous amounts to do any work. Although the cost of the parts wouldn't be too bad the cost of them plus the time for a normal garage to do them is probably more than the cars worth and then you add the repair centre "premium" on top....

Buy it back if you like but i doubt they would fix it.

When i used to work driving mercedes sprinters the amount to fix some of them that came back from accident repairers was unbelievable. Vans were being written off for such minor things.

I once got quoted £500 quid from two dfifferent approved repairers to replace a corner bumper section and spray it up and replace a light unit on an XR2. Parts cost was less than £100 from ford! XR2 bumpers aren't the huge things we have now either! Needless to say i dropped the claim against the asshole that reversed into my car when it was parked because i didn't want the car written off

I only managed to drop the claim as the other guy had no damage and wasn't making a claim himself.

 

[_Tom]

That'd be Cat D i would have thought.

 

[Duffman_172]

So it was the Galaxy's fault then?

 

[StealthClio]

yup, he pulled out from the right and he said it was his fault at the time too.
not sure if i want a cat d car, would be quite difficult to sell on surely?

 

[Christopher]

How is it hard to believe that's a total loss?

Your car's worth about a grand and there's about a grand's worth of damage.

Gutted though.

 

[pastieman]

Buy it back last time I done this it was 5% of the paying out amount

Then yes it will Be put on a cat d... Or a cat c if it needs a Vic test

 

[Knuckles]

doesnt look too bad, £500 minimum id expect to fix, new wing, new (that bit of metal behind the wing), spray, remove that dent in the drivers side bonnet.

if they write it off dont they give you the cars worth? maybe itd be better to take that and buy something else... youll always know its not as perfect as it was and itll be money wasted... plus insurance charge extra to insure write offs iirc :dapprove:

 

[StealthClio]

doesnt look too bad, £500 minimum id expect to fix, new wing, new (that bit of metal behind the wing), spray, remove that dent in the drivers side bonnet.

if they write it off dont they give you the cars worth? maybe itd be better to take that and buy something else... youll always know its not as perfect as it was and itll be money wasted... plus insurance charge extra to insure write offs iirc :dapprove:

this is kinda wat i was thinking. i guess it depends on how much they payout i spose

 

[Steven103]

Accident repair companies are obliged to return the car to it's original condition exactly. This means all genuine parts. Though it's not a lot of damage the list of things needing to be replaced is probably longer than you think as they have to replace anything with even the slightest damage. When I tried, you couldn't neogiate with them either (e.g. say forget about the 4 scratched panels & bodywork to save ££££ thus not making it a write off).

You can say you don't want to claim and will repair it yourself. That's fine.

You can say you'd like to claim, get a payout, and then try to buy it back to repair yourself. This will mark the car as a cat C/D though. If they will sell it back to you, £450 seems to be the going rate for a 182 (from Admiral, Bell, etc anyway) In theory it's scrap metal value not "how much can I break it and sell parts for" value so any other clio should be very similar. You'll also have to pay your excess obviously and it could be £100 or £700, I don't know, but the point is you could end up spending thousands if you claim all for what, a 1.5k to 2k payout (complete guess admittedly) for a 1.2/1.4/1.6 non sport, 10 year old clio.

Go on your insurer's website and create a new quote. Add a year to everyone's age, put details of your crash in and play about. See what difference having a non fault claim makes.

 

[StealthClio]

thanks steven, ill do that. cheers

 

[Revels]

It doesn't look much to fix yourself, but when you add parts and labour/paint, it all adds up very quickly.

It's just a standard 172. Let them pay you out. Then buy another one. Or buy something else.

Buying it back, fixing it etc. It's just a load of hassle really and there's barely any point to it.

But now you've mentioned it to your insurance, regardless of fault, your insurance is going to go up next year.

Let them sort it. Rag around a courtesy car for a bit. Buy something that's not broken. Done.

 

[mace¬]

It doesn't look much to fix yourself, but when you add parts and labour/paint, it all adds up very quickly.

It's just a modified 1.2. Let them pay you out. Then buy another one. Or buy something else.

Buying it back, fixing it etc. It's just a load of hassle really and there's barely any point to it.

But now you've mentioned it to your insurance, regardless of fault, your insurance is going to go up next year.

Let them sort it. Rag around a courtesy car for a bit. Buy something that's not broken. Done.

come on Rev look closer.

 

[Aydon182]

I had an accident back in January , some t**t wrote off my 182, admitted responsibility at the scene and then two weeks later I got a phone call claiming I was responsible and the third party had a witness against me (even though noone was there) obviously one of his mates, and the whole claim bolloxks is still on going.. Just a heads up of the typical human scum we live with.

 

[Revels]

come on Rev look closer.

Ha. How didn't I see that?

Are all your mods declared?

I had an accident back in January , some t**t wrote off my 182, admitted responsibility at the scene and then two weeks later I got a phone call claiming I was responsible and the third party had a witness against me (even though noone was there) obviously one of his mates, and the whole claim bolloxks is still on going.. Just a heads up of the typical human scum we live with.

Admitting liability at the scene doesn't count for anything.

 

[Stig182]

i doubt your covered anyway, your reg plates look illegal to me.....................................

 

[Mister_Lee]

Such a shame mate. Buy it back if you can, buts its likely itll be recorded. You'll easily get some parts in the same colour from a breakers and if you come to sell it on you have pictures of the damage anyway and it looks minimal. Hope claim goes through with no problems!

 

[StealthClio]

all mods are declared thankfully.
a local garage is taking it and is going to repair it and the costs are gonna come from the other side, so im pretty happy with the result no cat d and no loss of my car

 

[Mister_Lee]

happy days!

 

[James28]

all mods are declared thankfully.
a local garage is taking it and is going to repair it and the costs are gonna come from the other side, so im pretty happy with the result no cat d and no loss of my car

So they haven't written it off? Great result!

 

[StealthClio]

nope, got a call saying that i can have it and get it fixed, so no write off thankfully. might take the oportunity to fit a sport front bumper seeings as it will need a new one anyway