Facepalm

[Welly]

I'm sure there's a chance of a cash deal out of this if they do write it off and let you keep it, kinda thing.

Has the Woman who hit it started to get the impression it'll cost HER too much so she's pushed it towards the insurers?

The Bodyshop next to me at work told me the 'approved repairers' do fixed-price packages to the big insurance co's it sounded bizarre but the shoddybop would get paid, IIRC, £1,200.00 per car regardless of damage in a kinda win some lose some business model.

[trufflehunt]

Wow, that's weird.

Just over 3 and a half years ago, I owned a 106.
One snowy day, someone skidded into me, smashed up a front wing. He put his hand up for it,
and I got onto his insurer, Aviva.

They produced a free car for me for the next fortnight,
and hauled the 106 off to their designated repairer for assessment.

They said it was a write off. Aviva offered £400. I declined.
Aviva immediately said they wanted the free car back.
I went to the repair/assesors, and retrieved the 106.

I bashed the wing back in to some kind of shape, and that afternoon drove down
to the local convenience store. A bloke came up, and remarked on the damage.
He was German, and said he'd been an insurance assessor there, and was trying to learn the
business here in the UK. He offered to find out, as a learning exercise, how much it would cost
to fix the car.

I was more concerned about what I was going to do next, but said OK.
I had a think overnight, remembered that when I reported it to my own insurer, the RAC,
the number on the insurance certificate actually took me through to people who were more interested
in whether I was injured. I'd said no thanks at the time.
So I got back to them, and asked what they were actually offering. They said they would negotiate with Aviva,
on a 'no liability for future injury claim' settlement.

That afternoon, they called back , and said Aviva offered £800. Was that acceptable to me.
Yes.
I then called the Aviva assessor's people, and said I would now accept the £400 settlemt on the car.
Deal.

Total : £1200

About a week later, I was again parked up outside the convenience store.
The German guy was there when I came out of the shop.
He'd done some research, he said.
The cost to repair my car would be £1200.

Do you ever get the feeling that it's all a merry go round ?

[highlander]

... well, just had the assessor visit ...

Everything went a lot better than expected - I'll be receiving a cheque for £714 for "cash-in-lieu repairs", and the car will not be classed as a write-off.

I've got the wing and headlamp from Ade, and the car is booked back in to the bodyshop tomorrow morning at 8am.

I mean, I'm delighted, obviously, but utterly shocked!

[trufflehunt]

Nice one.

[steve_earwig]

Woo! That's a bluddy relief, I had serious doubts the insulters, sorry, insurers would play ball. I hope you make out of it

[GingerMagic]

Good news, its nice to hear of an Insurance company using a bit of common sense - its a shame about the rocky road to settlement though, and I hope it doesn't affect how you feel about the car?

[Doggy]

Great news Graeme, well done.

[dirtydirtydiesel]

That's a great result

[Welly]

Drinks on Graeme!

[highlander]

Drinks on Graeme!

Unlikely! I'm getting the back bumper done too

[Welly]

Drinks not on Graeme!

[highlander]

I got my car back this morning; for repair and respray of the front bumper, fitting of a replacement wing and headlamp, and respray of the rear bumper = £780 all-inclusive, plus the £70 I spent buying the wing and the headlamp from Ade = £850.

Churchill's cheque for £714 isn't here yet, but the car was only inspected on Tuesday and they did say it'd be 7 - 10 days.

I'll post up pictures later, but the car hasn't looked this good since I bought it. The new wing has some light scratches in it that may come out with some T-Cut or something, and there's still some lacquer peel on the boot lid, roof, and bonnet, but I don't have the money for a full body respray. I'd quite like to get the alloys refurbished, too.

[Doggy]

More good news.

Drinks on Churchill then?