Is this can be fixed by body filler?

[Vlady]

HI all, the main thing everyone is alright!

What is everyone's opinion, will this be fixed by insurance or it is a write off? Coolant got lost too so the I could not drive the car and had to wait for a Rescue 911.

Left passenger door can't be open as it catches the front wing!

It is not my fault, at least I think so, as I was in outside lane overtaking when the car in left lane decided to overtake too without checking mirrors!

 

[paulrnx]

New wing, new bonnet and a new bumper for a proper repair I’d say. Possibly a new headlight? That lot would come to between £2k and £3k I’d guess based on a claim I made on a 3rd generation IS after an animal hit. Whether the wing and bonnet could be repaired depends upon whether they’ve lost any structural integrity I’d guess. Hope you get a good outcome 👍

[Vlady]

thanks @paulrnx, I think it would be about £5k. The bonnet was not open yet so I am not sure what damaged underneath but the coolant is lost. Lets see what insurance have to say tomorrow. 

[Shahpor]

Sorry to hear that Vlad ☹️

I hope it can be fixed and look as good as new afterwards!

[Vlady]

12 hours ago, Shahpor said:

Sorry to hear that Vlad ☹️

I hope it can be fixed and look as good as new afterwards!

Thanks, I hope so @Shahpor. I hate dealing with insurance.

[paulrnx]

15 hours ago, Vlady said:

thanks @paulrnx, I think it would be about £5k. The bonnet was not open yet so I am not sure what damaged underneath but the coolant is lost. Lets see what insurance have to say tomorrow. 

Ah yes, forgot you said the radiator/cooling system was damaged too. Hope it works out ok.

[Malc]

At 8 years young and that damage I think thy will write-her off tbh .....  maybe depends on your mileage too !

They write lots of stuff off almost willy nilly I feel BUT that might give you the opportunity to buy-back the car and have it fixed privately at maybe 50% or so of the insurers likely cost ...  that's if you wanted to do that .....  and know someone who could do the repair to proper standards ...  and trust

The insurers will for sure just pop it into an auction to recover what they can and someone will buy it for peanuts and repair it to on-sell ......  assuming it's NOT an insurance structural write-off coz that would be illegal to put back on the road ( probably )

Good everyone is safe and sound and I wish you well with your negotiations with the insurers adjusters etc ...  that can be so so frustrating, costly in time and mental fatigue too .....  been there, got the T shirt 😈

You might be lucky and it all runs smoothly, car gets repaired, while you have a free hire car and no loss of your No Claims Bonus or whatever it's called these days 

Best wishes whatever

Malc

 

[Vlady]

Hi @Malc, mileage is just under £60k (£59920 miles or thereabouts).

Unfortunately, I do not have connections with repair body shops. I heard people buying the car of the insurer somehow if the car is a Total Loss, get money for it and then fix it for 50% of the price as you say but I never understood how it works.

For example, if it is a Total Loss and insurer offers me £10k, how can they sell my car back to me? What price would that be?

My policy says, they will try to swap it with the same car, offer money for it as per local market prices, I can add more money and get an other car with them be it cheaper or more expensive car.

Sounds like a lot of hustle if it beyond repairs, plus I am not ready to buy something else, unless it is much cheaper for a year or two as a runner. Now every used car is bloody expensive!

Will see, hope to hear tomorrow from the garage wrt to damage and the cost. So far it will cost me £700 as an excess, if car is repairable, I might get these money back if other part will admit their fault, however, I doubt that.

[Malc]

7 minutes ago, Vlady said:

I never understood how it works

ok so my Ls400 is ancient but Fully Comprehensive insce

Long story short .....  my fault accident ..  wrote her off for cost of a new replacement rear door --  @£1500 all-up

Cat N write-off .  OK to put back on the road with a fresh MOT after repair

I bought the write-off from the insurers and from the gross £££ insce payout ......  end of the day after paying my excess of £350 and buying the car back from them, the  insurers pay me £850

Cost of repair, luckily pennies .  no paint damage just a huge dent in the door . my indy pushes it out with his twinkle toes and hey presto .  back to nearly new ( well 25 years young anyway )

I keep the car and get £850 cheque .  have to have a new MOT tho at £55     BUT still Cat N write-off

I'm happy with the " repair " ...  the insurers would have insisted on a brand new door, which was never going to be available methinks ........ to do the repair under the insurance cover .....  it was always going to be a write-off for such a huge dent in the door

The same insurers very happy to continue with the insurance for the car with same premium at renewal last March and Fully Comprehensive too 

That's how it all worked for me at the time

 

Hope this might help in your negotiations somehow

Best wishes

Malc

[Vlady]

@Malc, Is it like if they offer you for damaged car £15k but repairs would cost £5k, then they can sell you your car for £10k and give you £5k cheque? Or basically you keep the car with £5k cheque. 

[Malc]

12 hours ago, Vlady said:

Or basically you keep the car with £5k cheque. 

up to you to negotiate their rules and their aspirations too and the minefield to get the best deal available ...  that's if they do write her off ..........  but any free car hire will cease at some point and you could be without a free car until yours is back on the road .....  a bit of nifty footwork might be required and might not be so simple as my experience of course 

My accident involved a very bad driver hurtling round a roundabout at god knows what speed in his ancient classic Porsche with his damage absolutely tiny BUT @£4500 it seemed ....  My Fault tho' they assured me 😭

Good luck with your negotiations

Malc

[Malc]

Oh I forgot to mention .  my car was never off the road, always driveable and the errant door opened and closed fine all the time ...  these old Ls400s are well built for sure !

Malc

[Vlady]

Morning @Malc, I am waiting on insurance verdict later today.

I need a car, even though we have 2 cars (1 of them is Lexus) we use both of them, my wife works from office 3-4 times a week, I am still working from home and therefore responsible for kids being dropped of in school and nursery and with the current Scottish weather walking is out of question. 🙂

My eldest daughter (9YO) is the most excited, now she tells all her friends that she was in a car accident and everyone is asking her if she is ok and how it happened! 🙂

[Malc]

7 minutes ago, Vlady said:

walking is out of question

consider a taxi drop-off .  might be less expensive than a car hire !

Malc

[Vlady]

7 minutes ago, Malc said:

consider a taxi drop-off .  might be less expensive than a car hire !

Malc

For a week or two I might ask couple fo neighbours to drop the kids of at school. Anyway, I will cross that bridge when I hear from the garage and insurance.

Thanks Malcolm.

[Shahpor]

Hey @Vlady

Any updates?  Fingers crossed for some good news..

[Vlady]

4 minutes ago, Shahpor said:

Hey @Vlady

Any updates?  Fingers crossed for some good news..

Hi @Shahpor, nothing so far, I got a courtesy car yesterday - Skoda Octavia, will do for now. 

Garage which might be fixing my car contacted me, they just got car today, it will take them couple of days (I hope) to evaluate the damage, contact insurance and see if it worth fixing or make it as a write off.

If it is a write-off (I hope not) than I will have (I am already having one by thinking that's my GS might be a write-off) a headache to decide what my next car can be, V90, Superb etc? Prices for GS, RX and ES models are so much higher than they were a year ago and I don't think I can afford it!

I won't have much money to spend just now, it will be about £20-£22k and I am not looking forward to sign a new PCP deal for 3-4 years without knowing what to expect in a near future wrt to petrol prices, job etc.

[Vlady]

Quick update from the garage - the car is repairable! I am so glad! She needs a new bonnet, headlamp, bumper and front left wing and may be other small things under the bonnet.

The garage have done a wheel alignment and it is all good, means the body had not been deformed!

Now, lets wait and see what insurance will say wrt to whose fault the accident was.

[LenT]

9 hours ago, Vlady said:

Now, lets wait and see what insurance will say wrt to whose fault the accident was.

Delighted to hear that the car is repairable. 🙂

I don’t think you’ve mentioned it, so I presume you didn’t have a dashcam fitted.

Might be worth getting the garage to fit a dual camera setup while they’ve got it - unless it’s something you can do yourself.

When my car was written off by a lane-swapping HGV, the driver’s insurers were dragging their feet - until they got the footage off my camera.  They then settled in full with days - and that paid for my Lexus!

[Vlady]

1 hour ago, LenT said:

Delighted to hear that the car is repairable. 🙂

I don’t think you’ve mentioned it, so I presume you didn’t have a dashcam fitted.

Might be worth getting the garage to fit a dual camera setup while they’ve got it - unless it’s something you can do yourself.

When my car was written off by a lane-swapping HGV, the driver’s insurers were dragging their feet - until they got the footage off my camera.  They then settled in full with days - and that paid for my Lexus!

Len, I meant to buy and install a dash cam for a while now but always had an excuse not to! Now I regret that badly, I could get it done for £100-150 instead of paying £700 excess! Once the car is fixed, the dash cam goes on next asap! 

[Shahpor]

12 hours ago, Vlady said:

Quick update from the garage - the car is repairable! I am so glad! She needs a new bonnet, headlamp, bumper and front left wing and may be other small things under the bonnet.

The garage have done a wheel alignment and it is all good, means the body had not been deformed!

Now, lets wait and see what insurance will say wrt to whose fault the accident was.

Excellent news Vlad, glad to hear it 👍

Now, apart from the insurance wrangles, the only thing left to do is to make sure they do a good job on the repair! Having had personal experience of several badly done insurance repairs, all I can say is look very closely when it is done and don't take anything for granted.

[Vlady]

@Shahpor you have no idea how glad I was when garage called me and gave me the update! 🙂

1st thing  I did when I knew what garage will be performing repairs is checked online for reviews, based on these the garage is very good! I hope they will do a good job @Shahpor, will be checking as close as possible, luckily it is not a silver car which is very hard to match the paint. 

Provisional day is 3rd of December but that all based on parts availability, I can wait longer if needs be as long as they do a good job!

Now I need to pop in to Halfords and see what deals they have on dash cameras! 🙂

[LenT]

1 hour ago, Vlady said:

Len, I meant to buy and install a dash cam for a while now but always had an excuse not to! Now I regret that badly, I could get it done for £100-150 instead of paying £700 excess! Once the car is fixed, the dash cam goes on next asap! 

Well said, Vlad.

Sadly, you’ve had to ‘take one for the Team’, but hopefully that will demonstrate to everyone else the value of these systems.  Like all safety-related products, they’re really investments that you hope you never have to call on. 

I had BlackVue cameras (other makes are available) in a number of cars but only had to call on it the once.  But that more than repaid everything I’d ever spent on them.  

The only other point I’d make is to get a system that has a Parking Mode’.  This ensures that the camera is still functioning when the ignition is off.  It’ll help to catch those careless parkers and mindless vandals. 

[Vlady]

Thanks @LenT for advice. I bought my wife slightly more than 2 years ago a Nextbase 422 or a 522 which she moved from her old car to her current car and it has a parking mode, great!

As you say, this technology pays for itself and should be installed, especially with the drivers nowadays who are very inconsiderate, arrogant and dangerous.

This dash cam is like winter tyres - you might drive for years without needing it but one day it will save you lots of money! 🙂 

[Malc]

Vlad, are you telling us that the car is economically repairable and that the insurers will actually repair your car ok ?

Malc