How do I keep the payout insted of reparing?

[bmouthboyo]

Hi,

I recently had some women bump into the RNS corner of my Mk3 Gti. She dented the panel at the back corner under the light, scuffed the bumper and scratched the arch plastic.

I reported to my insurance company etc and they asked me to get a quote. Went to a good local body restoration company and they quoted £650.

Now I bought my car for £500 2 years ago, it has high mileage (170000) and condition isn't that great, although not poor.

Is there anyway I can have the money and not repair it, or because that's probably more than my car is worth have it as a write off and buy back cheap with cash to spare?

The damage isn't much at all, and seems silly spending that much on it when I would prefer to have cash and sort it myself.

Thanks

[Deano2711]

You will probably find the insurance company will write it off anyway Mate for that repair quote. I had someone reerse into mine before and caused damage to the rear tailgate. Bodyshop quoted £800 and the car was wrote off. I could have fixed it myself for £35 !!!!

[bmouthboyo]

So what did you do mate? How much did you get?

I hear if its a write off you can buy it back cheap? Is this true? And how cheap based on my car?

Cheers

[Deano2711]

Mine was a nice clean P reg and was valued at £1200 by me on my policy and the insurance company neer haggled and gave me the £1200. Trouble for me was that my excess was £600 so I got £600 in May and had to wait till December for the rest. I was offered the car back for £247 but needed the money to fund the replacement so let it go in the end. Just remember that if you have the car back then you will need to repair it and then get it re tested and it will be registered.

[bmouthboyo]

Excess? Surly if it was not your fault you don't pay excess? I thought that is just if it's your fault??

[Deano2711]

I had to pay the excess and then claim it back later. Whatever happens you have to pay your excess but as it was a non fault claim I had a like for like hire car, claimed back my excess and had a full pay out but it just took some time.

[Bellend]

Normally you can get an agreed insurance pay out. Basically you can give them a figure, say £300 to get it repaired. However they will give you that £300 on repairs and no more, even if hidden things come up.

So you can get second hand panels or whatever. We deal with them at work when customers don't want their cars written off.

[kuvalee]

Just get the cash from the woman who bumped you that's what I did just told her a price and that I would get it fixed myself.