Accident damage on Citroen Xantia

Hi,

I got involved in an accident yesterday (no one hurt, luckily) but my cars in a bad way. Drivers door smashed in (including window) dent in rear door and damaged trim under drivers door. The bloke that picked in up reckoned it might be written off. It's only 3 years old, and I've had the car only 6 months. I'll be devistated if it gets written off! Anyone here have any ideas to put my mind at rest?

Marky P.

Reply to
Mark Parrott
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Message i.d.: news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, by author Mark Parrott aka inspired me,

Written off only means the insurance company will not give you anything more that the actual value of the car. If it costs more to repair you can add the money yourselves. Usually you have the choice where to repair the car so you can shop around for a cheep repair guy.

Being a write off is not allways a bad thing. You get the max pay possible.

Reply to
2Rowdy

Cheers! The insurance company (eagle star) has already taken the car off to a garage of their choosing (aparently, they phoned around for me!). An independent assesser will contact me in a couple of days & let me know the full story. Thanks for the info!

Marky P.

Reply to
Mark Parrott

Mark Parrott ( snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Hmm. The "trim" under the door is actually the sill. Major structural component. What about the door pillars? Any floor damage? Rear wing (welded on)? Seat belt tensioners or airbag fire off?

Sounds *eminently* feasible.

Probably not a bad thing. At least you've not had it long, so you've got a very good basis to argue the value. A major accident will seriously damage the resale value of the car, of course. If it's written off, let it go and get a replacement. If it's got a Cat D writeoff against it's history, that'll make it damn near unsellable.

Reply to
Adrian

Air bag didn't go off (actually, it has been faulty for a while, light on dashboard) this may have been a good thing! Door pillars look sound, no floor damage as I can see.

Cost me £6000 which I thought was a good deal for a 3 year old HDi with only 21000 on the clock. Thing is low mileage models like this don't come along too often. I bet to start looking, just in case. Cheers for the info.

Marky P.

Reply to
Mark Parrott

Forgot to mention what hit me! It was a motorcycle, a small 125cc fibreglass / plastic thing. Not sure what speed he was doing, but it wasn't that fast (maybe 20mph). He did attempt to brake, to still slid into me.

Marky P.

Reply to
Mark Parrott

snip

It was a small motor-cycle that wrote off my dear old 2CV - but she was coming towards me doing 60 (to my 30mph) on a long sharp bend, and skidded sideways into my 'undercarriage'. That was in 1981.

Get yourself checked out for injuries; some can take a few days to start hurting, and it's best to get treatment early.

Reply to
Whiskers

Mark Parrott ( snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I'd keep quiet on that one....

Good. Might just be panel damage, then, but the sill damage sounds difficult. You don't want it just filling, but equally, you don't really need the whole outer sill replacing, because that won't be "invisible".

You're in with a chance, then. An HDi is about the only Xant that's still worth anything much.

There's a few on citroen.co.uk's Used Car Search, but the insurance won't pay out that kind of money. Parkers £4-5k is probably a lot nearer what you'd end up with, and that'd take a fight.

If they do write it off, laugh derisorily at their first offer.

Reply to
Adrian

Mark Parrott ( snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

*ouch*

I'll bet that stung the daft sod a bit. One of those little plasticfantastic scooters? Tend to be ridden by mental 16 year olds - they're 50cc, legally limited to 30mph, but easily derestricted to about 4-50mph+... Little sods are absolutely suicidal on the bloody things. Still, it's better than when they hit 17 and get Corsas/Polos/Saxos...

Reply to
Adrian

The biggest hassle with it being written off is getting the car stereo gear out, getting a new car & bunging it all back in again. Have to drill a hole in the roof for the DAB aerial as well.

Marky P.

Reply to
Mark Parrott

Phoned garage today. They've sent a quote & photo's of the damage to my insurance company. All I have to do now is wait. Got a courtesy car. A Ford Ka. It bloody shifts, but I wouldn't trade it in for my Xantia.

Marky P.

Reply to
Mark Parrott

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