Car hmph

[bunn]

On the 10th day after the day I trashed my car, the garage finally deigned to look at it.  They have valued repairs at £2,800.  I now have to wait for the man from the insurance company to come and look at it and decide if it is economical to repair it.

There is 1 (and only one) Saab 95 estate on Autotrader of comparable age, model and mileage for £2750, so I suspect I may need a new car.   Of course, if I wanted to buy the damn thing it would cost me far more, what with having to travel 185 miles each way without a car, so I suspect I shall either have to pay more money that I don't really have, or buy something cheaper. :-(

Comments

[firin.livejournal.com]

The percentage of estimated value that cars get written off at is disturbingly low, hence my troubles with my car last year, after I was rear-ended.

Good luck though, I hope you get yours fixed!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I strongly suspect that this is linked to their practice of only using a very small number of garages that do nothing but insurance work, and I'd put money on those garages charging way over the odds for the work, thus pushing cars into the 'uneconomic to repair' category. But what can you do?

[tovaglia.livejournal.com]

Oh no... Hope it all gets sorted out soon! (and if you do have to get another car, I hope you get one you like - if it's any comfort, I've been hearing from friends of some amazing bargain car purchases recently).

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

You could ask if they would be willing to settle the cliam on a "Cash in lieu of repairs" basis and then use the money to get your car repaired by someone cheaper. Do check what the situation would be with your car possibly being declared and insurance write off though.

Incidentally, cash in lieu of repairs would be the value of the car, minus the policy excess and scrap value.

I used to work for a legal expenses insurer, so I might be able to give you a bit more inside info of you need it, in terms of valuation etc.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I feel confident enough of my assessment of the situation to do that: I don't have a friendly mechanic who can take a look at it FOC or anything like that, so it would be a gamble based on not much more than gut feeling. I imagine that the local independent specialist garage that I usually use and would trust, would charge me to go to Plymouth to look at it.

Still, I'll see what the insurance company come back with. Thanks for the offer of inside info, will post more if I need advice!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I'm thinking positive about it. I'm not sure I shall be able to get a *better* car, but maybe I can get one that is interestingly different to the current one, or lower mileage or something. After all they don't last forever, maybe I needed a prod to change it.

Problem with car shopping down here is that the Westcountry is where old cars come to die, so they tend to hold their value better down here: I had to go to Bristol to buy this one.