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Advice needed - crash and repairs


katu

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Hi all,

Could do with some advice/ your experience of any similar situation. On Saturday my 350z was hit by another car (their fault)  - nothing massively serious, we both walked away but my z is not so lucky.

Took the hit to the front passenger side, damaging the front bumper, light (internal breakage and skewed though not shattered itself) and body panel above the wheel, gently leaking washer fluid presumably from the light washer, anything under the hood next to the light took a little damage though engine block and all the rest looked unharmed and the bonnet seems fine. The wheel arch is crushed against the wheel so it's undriveable and I had it recovered from the scene.

 

The other driver has admitted fault and everything is being sorted by the insurance BUT I just had a call from their insurance to say that based on the description of the damage and the age of my car (2005) it is possible it might be a write-off (!!!) But they won't know until their engineer has seen it and it could take a week for me to hear back about what the engineer says so I'll be worried about it until then.

Obviously in my mind it would be ridiculous to write off the z for the sake of a couple of panels, some tubing and a light, but they've got me worried!

What are your opinions? Do you think it's possible they'll try to say it's not worth the repair?

Has anyone been in a similar situation, or have any advice on what to watch out for with repairs after a crash - it's my first accident so any advice would be greatly received to make sure my baby comes out ok the other side!

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

Katu

 

Pics for reference:

(Looked slightly worse in person) what looks like a line on the tyre is actually the wheel arch baseplate pressed against the tyre in pic 2

IMG_20170702_004502315.thumb.jpg.be7fcc8a4d460bc58491037077a1dcde.jpg

IMG_20170702_004525973.thumb.jpg.071c2fa5b48fc6c26557d4862e99e56b.jpg

IMG_20170701_225049236.thumb.jpg.6ebbcc61fd4248c272f0c1b5f7e74ef8.jpg

Edited by katu
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That is a £4000.00 fix + any thing else unforeseen behind the bumper.

However providing the chassis leg is okay then an easy fix.

All parts are in stock at the moment if required.  :thumbs:

Good luck.

Alex. :)

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Have they collected the car already?

My advice would have been to take any mods off prior to collection especially if there is a chance of it being written off. Either way as it's in the hands of your insurer/3rd party insurer then you'll just have to wait it out for the engineers report and go from there.

Sorry to see your pride & joy like that btw. 

 

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As it's their driver's fault, they have no right to write off your car (you have no contract with them that enables them to condemn the car). They are obliged to put it back to the condition before their driver ruined it.

Naturally, there are circumstances where it would be a bit ridiculous to push for this, but I'd have thought it would be worth a go with that damage. Won't be easy if they do want to 'write it off' though.

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Not true, they can write the car off exactly the same as your own insurer can sadly. Look at it this way: If the TPI (third party insurer) wants to write it off but you don't agree, then you go through your own insurer and ask them to repair and claim back costs. They look at it, then agree with the TPI that it's a write off financially, so you're back to square one and it's in every insurance contract that you agree to let your insurer handle each claim as they see fit.

 

The only alternative you have is to cancel the claim completely and repair yourself. Sometimes this can work out for the best, especially if the car is worth peanuts or you don't want to lose NCB (although you still have to declare the accident regardless), but I don't think that's a realistic case here.

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Thanks for the replies. Ach, looks like it'll cost more than I thought then. Just hoping they say it's worth fixing - really don't want to deal with any more stress! Not to mention what a waste it would be - it's such a beautiful car and was in really good shape :/

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Not sure if you can do it ? but if its close to write off, buy the parts from Alex and ask they just do the paint and fitting etc.  All genuine parts so they can't argue that and will be a fraction of the price of off the shelf stuff.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thought I'd give an update on the final result: my car was a cat D write-off as the cost to fix it was just over what they deemed it was worth (plenty of arguing done there). But they deemed no damage to the chassis leg and that it'll only need body panels, a light, wheel and tyre, and the suspension checked. In the end I took the partial payout and bought back my car at scrappage value (£1375, for anyone that's interested, which I thought was low). Was delivered back to my door this morning, looking slightly worse for wear in terms of mud and contents strewn about the car but otherwise it's a relief to have her back!

Just wish I'd declared SORN on the day of the accident - it's a taken a month to the day to sort out and I could've saved £30 ;)

So after work calms down I'll have the time to invest to get my baby all fixed and back on the road.

 

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