Goddamn. Rear Ended And Insurance Company Mention 'Total Loss' To Me. [UPDATE 2]

[Thom89]

iirc

Cat D is economic repair
Cat C is uneconomic repair

Its Cat C because its £200 for a new bumber and at least another £100+ for a new rear panel. Rear panel needs cutting out and welding back in (as long as the boot is stright as someone else said - which it probably is). Then a rear spray on the rear end which is another £300. The labour will be north of £300 as well. So you are looking at the thick end of a grand to get it done properly. Economic is worked out on 60% of the cars value.

I would get it done properly as well - not this banging it out and then sticking in filler rubbish. The reason is that the rear panel has a curve and you will never get close to what it was originally, and although no one else will notice it - you will notice a huge uneven shut gap where the new bumper meets the bodywork.

If you love the car, get it written off, buy it back, get the back sorted out properly and keep it for the rest of its life.

Tinman, Im not being funny, but you must know some pretty poor panel guys that cant repair a small dent like that! with a block of wood and some gentle tapping from the inside with a heavy rubber mallet would almost see that done!... without breaking the paint
To suggest cutting out the rear panel, to replace with a new one is madness! to compromise the origional VW autolinked welds, and the sealer, grinding back the boot floor lip to re-spot weld, or even worse to migweld a new panel back, just doesnt make any sense.. you cannot beat VW originality

If Mookie can get the car repaired, without it being "written off" and the car kept as origional as possible.. surely that is the very best thing!
Tom

[mookie]

Okay update time. Just got off the phone with four different departments in India somewhere... and finally a fifth transfer to a Welsh fella called Alan 

Anyway, its a mix of good-ish and bad news.

First off, the repair bill has been provided as a (staggering) £1161.51. This roughly breaks down to £220 for a new bumper, £497 for general labour, £171 for paint materials, plus VAT and misc costs. The panel at the back has been costed as requiring cutting out and rewelding a new one in - plus painting it. Seems excessive to me...

It is also now officially considered a Cat C write off - I had expected D instead.  :embarassed:

After some haggling and pursuasion, the value of the car has been increased from £800 to £1000 - which is fair I suppose as I paid a grand for mine, and for the milage and age it seems about right I think (although I was lucky to find one like mine for the price I did pay, come to think of it).

Which leaves me two options:

• Take the £1000 and buy another car.
• Take £750 plus the car and get it fixed.

I really can't decide what to do. On the one hand I would like my car repaired and back to how it was, but the hassle that is likely to now be involved in getting it fixed for less than £750 seems offputting - as does the required list of checks and the additional MOT needed (not to mention apparent additional problems with insurance and it's future value if I did decide to sell it on).

My current car is far from perfect, it does have a number of areas I need to look at and sort out. But then again is that not just an excuse to go for a new-used car? 

[[han]]

so what they r saying is that the car, as a Cat C is worth £250, so you could theoretically sell the car as is for £250, and ten you would have a grand to play with.

I wqould definitely be tempeted to purchase a new car. With my payou the deal was, the car was valued at £625, they said i could sell the vehicle written off, for £125, so there fore they would pay me £500, which i thought was reasonable, and sold the car for £525.

I'd be tempted to push for mor than £750 darl, and then break ur current golf to fund/fix the new one?

Ball is in your court!

[Thom89]

Although your estimate was to include a new rear panel, I very much doubt that it would ever get one fitted!! Its common practice to over inflate the cost of the work, and the amount of work required.. why, this type of repair on an older car is a nuisance to fast turnover body shops, to make up for it they want £500 for a days labour! nice work if you can get it!
personally, if they offered me a grand, I would stick out for another £125 then cut and run!! especially if I still had issues with the car after the work was completed
You can always find a better car, better colour etc
Tom

[mookie]

Yeah I'm thinking the same way. I'm fairly set now on getting the grand and looking for something else. Basically that way I won't feel bitter and twisted when I look at it and know it's a write-off, I won't have to be hassled with getting it repaired on the cheap and tested/approved, a new-used car will be worth something if I sell it.

At the end of the day, bumper aside, it needs some lovin' anyway to a variety of relatively minor areas that would probably cost me a reasonable amount of money to sort and/or a fair slice of my spare time. Doing that to a kosher car is fine - doing it to a write off leads me to suspect I feel reluctant to part with the cash.

The hard part is going to be tracking down a car I like. 16v is preferred but there seems to be nowt available the right side of £1300 at the moment so I may go 8v instead.

[Uruk Hai]

If it were me I'd buy it back and get it fixed with the money, mite be worth getting a few quotes for cash if you can so at least you'll have some ideal of the cost before you make your mind up 

[mookie]

Well after spending the last few days trawling every VW related site and forum I could find on t'internet, I have tracked down and bought a car in record time. I won't be able to pick it up for atleast as week as it was registered on a private plate and it's being re-registered back to it's old one  but it seems to be a beaut so I can't wait. I'll post some pics when I get it, but for now it's a J-reg '91 8v, 3dr, in Tornado Red and I was drooling the moment I clapped eyes on it 

One last question based on this threads original topic: as my existing car is being written off, does that therefore absolve me of my obligation to my current insurer? I'd quite like to shop about as they're disappointingly sticking to my 16v's premium of £67 a month, despite the fact I'm buying a younger, less powerful car. I tried querying this with the chap in Bombay I got through to at Norwich Union, but I don't think he could understand my Geordie accent and I was probably confusing the poor chap 

[[han]]

i'd ask them for a requote as they shd lower wuote for diff car, or atleast justify why its still the same!! some people wont let u change carson policy (in my case, so cab has to wait) so you may lose a year (or just not gain) 1yrs NCB. Coolie on new car!!

[mookie]

Thanks, I can't wait to post some pics of it  looks proper lush, like!
 
I just assumed that if you no longer have the car you are insuring, then you would have some means of ending your policy early. Hmmm. I need to summon up enough patience to brave the Norwich Union phone system and do it sometime tomorrow....

[Thom89]

Well done on the new "find"
You might find that the best thing to do as regards your existing policy is to let it run its course,  this could be 10 months after you took it out.. check if you don't know! and renew your insurance starting from fresh with another company after this period, in theory if your paying monthly, you could cancel at any time, though they might penalize you for doing so!
Before jumping ship though, consider this.. did NU look after you! where you dealt with promptly, and did you think that you got a fair price for you old car, if so, then thats worth paying a few £Â£Ã‚£ extra each month, there are some real shark like companies out there.. you seem happy with the outcome!
Its also worth looking into an "Agreed value" policy, if your new car is worth it.. (no offence intended) it could save a lot of trouble in the future, if the same thing happens again!
Best of luck with the new wheels!
Tom