Insurance car repairs

[lotus_esprit_s1]

My wife has managed to prang her car and it will be requiring at least a new front and rear bumper, plus possibly some paintwork. She is at fault and there is another car involved so I am going to have to pay the excess anyway so they might as well repair her car too.
The car is 9 years old and probably worth £5k now, but I want it to be repaired properly as it was absolutely immaculate beforehand. Never having had any experience of insurance repairs, is it likely the bumpers will be replaced with new genuine parts or do they try and fix the old ones? (They are colour coded so will need painting to match)

Or are they just likely to write the car off (it was a sub 5mph bump so I don’t think there is any structural damage)

 

[Ruffian]

Useless without knowing what car it is and pictures.

At the moment a 9year old car can range from 3k to 30k.
Dependant on prices and damage to bumpers will depend on if repaired or replaced.

 

[qwakers]

you dont have to pay your excess if only the 3rd party claims..

Do I have to pay an excess on my car insurance policy if only the other party is claiming?

www.lv.com

 

[angellonewolf]

it used to be they will use pattern parts on cars over 5 years old

 

[brightspark]

or write it off if the repairs cost as much as what the car is worth . we had an imaculate 10 year old car 45 thousand on the clock. we spent on new tires battery radiator and exhaust someone pranged in to it and it was wrote off all we got for it was a grand it was a **** take

 

[Alan Reynolds]

Buy it back and repair it yourself if they write it off. Keep hold of the documents.

 

[brightspark]

Buy it back and repair it yourself if they write it off. Keep hold of the documents.

some insurance companys wont let you do it

 

[James1979]

some insurance companys wont let you do it

Complain. Then they will.

There loads of BS with repairs. Like you can only use their bodyshops. Had this argument with Norwich Union on behalf of my mother.

Anyway. im going off topic

 

[angellonewolf]

and normaly they do a very good job and go over the top but that costs and parts and laber charges are extorinate for insurance work its written off meny cars over the years id expect

some one bumped in to the back of me the my car i guess was 1500 i wanted them to sort the car so took it to there garage in my area the bloke looked at it said nothing to me even after a chin wag declined to say anything (id guessed at that point its not going to be good news)

waited 3 days and had a call from the insurance they said the car was beyond ecomomical repair i said hows that its a bumper repare the boot lid (there was a small crease could be pushed out easy poss with no paint needed) and spray to match

there estimate was new tailgate 700 bumber 500 towbar 400 badges 70 each there was 1900 or parts and then there was the paint work in total 3200 was there qoute twice what my car was worth

 

[dan treg]

as above if it is written off dependent on the catagoty you may not have option

 

[James1979]

as above if it is written off dependent on the catagoty you may not have option

This is true.

For the OP I’d suggest it’ll be damage repairable or whatever the new one is called. It was easier when it was A-D!

 

[angellonewolf]

mate bought a new to him van and while ill brushed the side of the van door and side door and rear panel on the edge of the wall marking the paint and a few slight lighter creases had near the whole side of the van painted after getting qoutes from 1500 900 700 450 and 350

and he said it looks like is never been done

 

[gt6s]

Complain. Then they will.

There loads of BS with repairs. Like you can only use their bodyshops. Had this argument with Norwich Union on behalf of my mother.

Anyway. im going off topic

My mate and I did on the QT a pretty serious insurance repair job by undercutting all the estimates so much so insurance were HAPPY TO PAY OUT even told being done on the QT. We made very good money on this ( We pulled panels really sucessfully not replace them hense our quote , owner aware ) even giving some decent cash in hand back to the cars owner.

 

[angellonewolf]

as above if it is written off dependent on the catagoty you may not have option

This is true.

For the OP I’d suggest it’ll be damage repairable or whatever the new one is called. It was easier when it was A-D!

i asked that question he said the damage was cosmetic no structural

you need to ask this if your buying the car back as you might have to take it for a cheak to see if its safe before driving on the road

 

[gaz1]

My wife has managed to prang her car and it will be requiring at least a new front and rear bumper, plus possibly some paintwork. She is at fault and there is another car involved so I am going to have to pay the excess anyway so they might as well repair her car too.
The car is 9 years old and probably worth £5k now, but I want it to be repaired properly as it was absolutely immaculate beforehand. Never having had any experience of insurance repairs, is it likely the bumpers will be replaced with new genuine parts or do they try and fix the old ones? (They are colour coded so will need painting to match)

Or are they just likely to write the car off (it was a sub 5mph bump so I don’t think there is any structural damage)

why involve insurance to repair your own car up

if minimal damage and at your fault just get it done yourself

only reason why you need insurance is to let them know youve had an accident and you could be faced with a claim against you

 

[lotus_esprit_s1]

I’ve never claimed for anything in my life, I was under the assumption that as she has damaged a third parties car that I would be paying the £500 excess on the policy.

I am away from home and just have photos to go by but it does just look like front and rear bumper damage. I think she thought the “auto hold” handbrake switch was on which always applies the handbrake when stopped but I presume it wasn’t and the car very slowly rolled backwards into another car, catching the front bumper on something else and tearing it off in the process. There doesn’t seem to be any panel damage to her car

 

[atomant48]

I’ve never claimed for anything in my life, I was under the assumption that as she has damaged a third parties car that I would be paying the £500 excess on the policy.

I am away from home and just have photos to go by but it does just look like front and rear bumper damage. I think she thought the “auto hold” handbrake switch was on which always applies the handbrake when stopped but I presume it wasn’t and the car very slowly rolled backwards into another car, catching the front bumper on something else and tearing it off in the process. There doesn’t seem to be any panel damage to her car

Glad no one was hurt and it all sounds repairable. I don’t believe how some designs of electric handbrake ever made it through the concept stage. We had a Volvo estate (manual) with electric brake - you could stop, leave the car in neutral, get out and lock the doors and still the handbrake logic wouldn’t tell it to engage (ask me how my wife discovered that!!). I struggle to think of the logic that said “some day in routine use someone might want to do this….”

 

[AVI_8]

My wife has managed to prang her car and it will be requiring at least a new front and rear bumper, plus possibly some paintwork. She is at fault and there is another car involved so I am going to have to pay the excess anyway so they might as well repair her car too.
The car is 9 years old and probably worth £5k now, but I want it to be repaired properly as it was absolutely immaculate beforehand. Never having had any experience of insurance repairs, is it likely the bumpers will be replaced with new genuine parts or do they try and fix the old ones? (They are colour coded so will need painting to match)

Or are they just likely to write the car off (it was a sub 5mph bump so I don’t think there is any structural damage)

It’s much less likely that they’ll write your wife’s car off with an own fault accident I would imagine as credit hire will not be an option.
When I owned a car rental company back in the 90’s credit hire was very lucrative, it’s when the owner of a car who has had a non fault accident goes to a car hire company and gets a like for like car, the car rental company then bills the insurance company direct and charges their maximum daily rate, heavens only knows what that daily rate is now but 30 years ago it was around £200 per day for something like a Golf VR6.
This is one of the main reasons why insurance company’s will very quickly write off a car nowadays with very minimal damage, they don’t want to be hit with a £10,000 bill for 3 weeks car rental on a replacement car.

 

[James1979]

It’s much less likely that they’ll write your wife’s car off with an own fault accident I would imagine as credit hire will not be an option.
When I owned a car rental company back in the 90’s credit hire was very lucrative, it’s when the owner of a car who has had a non fault accident goes to a car hire company and gets a like for like car, the car rental company then bills the insurance company direct and charges their maximum daily rate, heavens only knows what that daily rate is now but 30 years ago it was around £200 per day for something like a Golf VR6.
This is one of the main reasons why insurance company’s will very quickly write off a car nowadays with very minimal damage, they don’t want to be hit with a £10,000 bill for 3 weeks car rental on a replacement car.

That’ll explain why the premium is stupid on my work truck for like for like hire if mines involved in an incident.

We settled on minimum of van or 4x4 hire and the quote was about a tenth.

 

[Robotstar5]

Buy it back and repair it yourself if they write it off. Keep hold of the documents.

That's what we did with Mrs Robo's car, can't remember the exact figures, but got it back plus a cheque for £900, it cost me a couple of hundred in parts and we pocketed the rest