To Write Off or Not??

Some years ago a relative crashed his brand new Capri 2.8, the last of the marque. In France - his fault. The insurers recovered it to uk and instructed that it be repaired. He fought long and hard and they eventually capitulated and he received full market value. One of the few occasions when a solicitors letter might focus the mind of the claims dept. daveK.

Nigel Smith made the world a better place for us by saying..

That's not major damage!

Not necessarily major damage.

It's a Vectra, therefore it had the handling finesse of a slightly mouldy raspberry jelly at the best of times.

you bought a Vectra, nuff said..

Seriously, I'd make sure it's written off, and not just because I *despise* Vectras. It's been stolen and chased *and* crashed. Therefore it's probably got a knackered clutch, been revved half to death, and otherwise mistreated by the half brained muppets who nicked it.

Best thing to do is insist that every *tiny* little mark on the car, the wheels, the seats, the steering wheel, the headlining, every single part of the car you look at wasn't there before it was stolen, if it was dirty when it was nicked make out it was a completely unusual thing for the car to be dirty ever, that you always spent at least 3 hours on a Sunday morning scrubbing and waxing. The insurance company won't want to replace the whole car. ;-), so you'll get paid out instead. If the battery is still connected, insist the speakers used to sound better, that kinda bollocks.

That would be enough for me. Repairing wings & things is one thing, but

1) If it's been crashed that hard, the chassis will be hosed 2) The engine will be _utterly_ shagged (probably). They may not have done anything overly nasty to it, but if they've been chased, they may have done a couple of attempted 4th to 3rd changes, which may have taken it past the rev limiter.

I'd fight tooth & nail to have it written off. Shame you can't sneak into the pound, and "help it along" with a bottle of petrol and a match!

As for it appearing to be a stolen & recovered - I don't know. The only ones of these I've seen are un-repaired ones, I.e. they've been written off. If it was recovered and repaired by the same insurance company, it may not go onto the register. I think the main issue is that if it's declared a total loss.

It almost certainly won't be the same car it was. Given the damage (both back doors, bonnet, wing, looks like the suspension may be out - it may need a whole new front end. It'll introduce squeaks & rattles that it didn't have before.

A friend of mine was rear-ended in a Nova once. Due to a c*ck-up, the insurance company _insisted_ that it be repaired (despite the fact that the boot ended behind the front seats!).

They ended up putting a new body on it!

The result was effectively a brand new/second hand car, a few years old, at twice the cost of a brand new one!

Pete.

New front sub frame, if the lower arms have moved then the subframe ends will be bent too. Putting new arms in a bent subframe means they have to put excessive loads in tension arms and the like to pull them straight. Results in the rubber bushes failing very quickly. Damage to steering rack.

Does he say what it will cost? They will spend up to 1.5 times the car's value on repairs before delaring it a write off.

If you can't get them to write it off. When you go to collect it demand the print out of the chassis alignment check. If any item is out of spec refuse it. If they suggest you get it checked, refuse it.

If the place repairing it is a dealer offer it as trade in before actually collecting it. If they reduce the trade value on grounds of it being repaired tell them to repair it to the standard they would accept.

-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!