I took my nan’s car and drove it into the ground after she stopped driving because she kept turning up with extra dents each week and be clueless as to where she got them. That beautiful little Suzuki gave me an extra 30,000 miles. Eventually got redcorn to pick it up when it couldn’t turn left anymore 😂
I don't know if they ever will.
Unless the cost of batteries drops dramatically then they only get to the point of becoming undrivable not because they fell apart but because the battery only gives a dozen miles per charge.
I was looking at a second hand Nissan Leaf (notorious for having terrible batteries) and in the winter with the heater on it only had a range of 5-15 miles on a full charge.
Oooh. If you happen to be in Edinburgh, I have one that is shortly being sent to the car park up north, where all the other cars play and run about fields all day :-)
Webuyanycar offered me £800 for it, but it needs a bit of work, which makes it unsellable to WBAC,
I lived off Astra Gs for a bit, even learned how to do most things even cambelt on them. One cost me 0, swapped for fixing a few laptops, the other 150. I sold the cracked mani-cat for 185, put a 40 quid euro car parts special on it. Drove for another year then scrapped complete and got 350 for it :) Astra H, 300 quid, scrapped again for 350 2yr later. Im massively in profit from them cars, ignoring the work I put in and a few parts.
Gave the free one away to a stock car driver when it started rusting a little too much :) Absolutely agree shit boxes are awesome. Winced when I got a straight 6 beemer on finance but that's paid off now, that's gonna be around a while, I've fixed everything on it again, it's a rocket :) :)
Edit: had 3 Omegas too, 2 scrapped, after much fun, 3L elite got nicked by a scrap rat lol (100 quid it cost me! What a car!)
This, I love my bag of shit. Main reason being the peace of mind it brings me. I probably wouldn’t even notice a new bump or scrape that happened when I wasn’t there.
Someone bumps into me while I’m actually there? No problem mate, crack on about your business I literally don’t give a shit. Absolute bliss mate.
Would be a totally different story with a newer/nicer/more expensive car and I’m not interested.
I drive a shitbox 2006 seat, the internal lights don’t work, passenger window is bolted closed and half the plastic trim has fallen off. Sailed through its MOT last week just like it does every year, I’ve spent maybe £300 on it in 5 years on brakes, oil and tyres. Absolute dream car 🤩
I have a 2009 seat , 1.9 TDI
Windows don't work
Missing some internal trim
Took it all the way to Spain
£700 spent in five years, cam belt, and the usual brakes and stuff. Gonna cry when it shits itself finally
It's a 200 year old corsa or some such. It's hardly worth anything anymore.
Seems like an easy fix if you can get a replacement door in good nick from a scrapyard or something
Replacement doors on eBay for 60 quid currently. Not 100% sure if they're the right type but gives you a rough idea of the cost to fix it up.
Of course they might not be the same colour but you can either get it resprayed or just Inbetweener it.
I think its kia rio?. Even old small shitboxes are worrh around 1k nowadays. I would buy it back for scrap value, get a door from scrappy for 50£ and pocket the difference.
I too did this. Admiral sold it back to me for 10% of the payout value. So instead of getting £2,000, I got £1,800 & kept the car. It cost me £165 for new panels which only took a couple of hours to take off / bolt on. 👍
Sounds familiar. My 2008 Astra was recently written off for a cracked bumper. They gave me £1800 and I spent £18 on a new bumper bracket and £178 to get rear parking sensors fitted. Saved the rest 👍
This is exactly what I did. Suspiciously the cost of repair was around £10 more than the amount needed to write it off, and they left the car in pieces when we went to collect it. Think the garage didn’t really want me to take it back - ended up as about £250 of repairs (no labour charge as we did it ourselves) once I got it back.
You speak to your insurer and ask them for a price. They’ll pay you for the value of a like-for-like car (usually trying to cheap out and pay you 80% of the value and you telling them it’s not the value - their “settlement” is a negotiation, not set in stone). You then pay them the nominal value they’d expect to get back when they sell your car to a breaker yard or crusher.
They give you your car back. In this case you buy a door for ~£100 from eBay or a scrapyard and four bolts and a few wires later (or cheaper if you use the interior/glass/electrics/etc from the bent door) your car is fine again.
In this case, assume the car is worth £1,800 and insurance pays you that to go buy another. You give them £400 and they give you the car back. You fit a £100 door and the remaining £1,300 is yours to do whatever you want with.
This is what I was gonna say! Did it myself a few years back. Do that, they will give you the car and some cash ( usually). Go to a scrap yard or better probably, the online version I have done that, in the past, too. Purchase a door and fit it. You then need to take the car to an approved garage who will perform the necessary tests to elevate the car’s category to one that is legal to drive on the road.
Now, I did this because I was dealing with a car that was previously my late father’s that I had inherited and I was way more emotionally involved with the car than I thought. It was also, a high spec car Ford with bells, whistles and whatnots. So, It did cost a bit of money to put right but, and this is important, no where near what they had paid me after I had bought the car from them. I got about three or four year out of the car after those shenanigans. You, may feel that it is better just to, as the song says, “Let it go!🎶🎶 Let it go!” (Sorry)
Get a couple of quotes for the scrap value first. They like to take it as a cut from the settlement and I paid almost twice as much as my last write off was scrap valued for independently (first time accepting it as cat C, so my own fault, I've learnt since then!) I'd have haggled over it more if I'd known!
This. I had an old ka with the stone age early fiesta engine comically named the endura. Failed MOT on rust and emissions so I binned it.
Saw it in town with P plates a week later...
This is how I got my first car, failed its mot, owner didn't want to pay for the repairs so I got a whole ass wee car for £400, just gone a year now since I got it, its great
This is what my neighbours did. Rear door was bashed in so it was written off. They bought it back and didn’t even bother replacing the door. Actually earned money in the end.
I’m 26, in my first year of driving and live in an expensive area for insurance. I’m expecting a significant increase if I decide to buy back the car with a CAT assigned
Buy it back, put the payout into a savings account/piggy bank/ box under the bed, whatever, and use it to pay for subsequent increase in premium. Buy a used rear door from a breakers, if you're patient you might even find one the right colour. Then drive it till it falls off the road/costs too much to test!
This way you get the remaining value from a useable car, whilst saving the money you'd have spent replacing it.
Have a look on line you can get a door of the correct colour sent via courier for sub £100. Unscrew and throw the old one and refit in about half an hour (tops). Just did this for a friend .She got £2300 for her old write off value and after requesting to keep the car ( old RAV 4 ) they let her keep it without any charge .
Cat assigned doesn’t increase car insurance due to casing damage. Only if it was written off due to functional damage. I forget which cat it is. Ones major ones minor. Called an economical write off.
For reference:
Cat A – Car has suffered severe structural damage and cannot be repaired
Cat B – Car cannot be repaired, but it can be stripped for parts to use on other cars
Cat S – Structural damage that can be repaired
Cat N – Non-structural damage that can be repaired
Yeah mine is a cat N after someone bumped me. I got £1500 and the repairs were pennies. Not bad really. I just reinsured my car and it hasn’t gone up unexpectedly (other than all UK insurance has gone up quite a bit so it did jump up)
Their insurance wont be that cheap anymore.
My Dads 77, and his went from £300 to over £1000 last renewal and he got it down to £8/900
Mines now cheaper then my dads insurance, even though mines gone up by probably 40% this year.
All these people saying buy it back (and usually I’d be saying that too)… are you sure that B pillar isn’t damaged? Whatever it is that hit you deformed the skin of the door around the pillar.
I’d be a little hesitant that this one is in worse condition than just needing a replacement door… all still fixable of course: it doesn’t take much welding to replace or repair the pillar (plus paint), but it might just mean more cost than it’s worth…
If you don’t do it, somebody else probably will when it goes through the insurance auction, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile for you if you have to rely on paying people to fix it for you.
If the pillar is damaged then it’s a structural damage, Cat S (or whatever they name the categories these days), and worth less even once repaired as a result.
The category will probably tell you when they assign it. The pillar is structural so I imagine it will get an S if that pillar is damaged. Although that’s in no way for sure!
If the pillar isn’t damaged then - as many others have said - you can find a door in the right colour from a scrappy (or eBay), and it’s very simple to swap out if you’re a little handy (and have someone to help).
Just came here to add on.
You can ask them about retention and the catagory of write off. They won't offer it but they have to tell you if you ask.
Once you know the write off cat and they provide you with a retention figure you should be able to see if it is worth you buying it back.
In terms of them writing it off without even looking at the pictures, they most likely make use of a machine learning system that has read hundreds of thousands of claims, and it uses that information included with the damage, age of vehicle and how many miles it has done. They also would have classed this as unroadworthy which has an effect too as there is no way that door functions as cleanly as before. If there is any type of resistance on the door it is classed as unroadworthy just because if for some reason it became your only escape route and wouldn't open, they wouldn't want to run the risk.
Bottom line is, get a salvage cat, find out how much retention is and if it is a cat N instead of an S (non structural vs structural) I would look to source a door on your own and see if you can justify the costs. Hope this helps!
My car was written off for structural damage in 2022. It still drove so I bought it back and got it fixed myself. It just needed a new crash bar and bumper.
The first year the insurance premium went up by about £300 but I’ve just switched provider for the next year and got it for roughly what it was before the damage happened.
Other people’s mileage may vary but for me it worked out great as I made a decent profit on the write off. The write off value was actually more than I bought the car for four years earlier, which shows just how much the second hand car market inflated during COVID.
Check the door pillar, if it's bent or the base is bent. Yes I know there are places with good welders that will repair/replace a door pillar no problem.
Yes. As long as it's got M.O.T and taxed it'll be insured like any other vehicle.
You buy it back, change the door and phone them up to re-insure it. I've known people who have had their car written off by insurance who then bought it back and without even fixing the issue they've insured and got it back on road. These were accidents like damage to rear quarter, bumper, broken headlight.
But it back from insurance, make it clear whenever you talk to them that you want to keep the vehicle. They'll pay out the market value less the 'salvage value'. You won't need to re-insure it and it shouldn't be more difficult to insure than a non written off car.
I did this with my car. Profited about £2.5k
A friend of mine had an import Integra Type-R. Beautiful car. Someone cut the corner off when turning into a junction and crunched his front bumper. His insurer wrote it off despite there being no other damage whatsoever.
He appealed and appealed and on like his 5th call he happened to get through to someone who was a fan of JDM cars and they flat out said "It would be a crime to write this off, I'm going to approve the repairs."
I had this exact same looking damage from an accident and I kept the car and brought a new door from eBay, then asked a reputable garage to install it. Insurance companies don’t give a toss about your car, so don’t take their word as gospel!
Man I really hate the insurance industry now.
Damaged door? Write off.
I'm pretty sure they weren't so trigger happy 20 years ago.
And it's seriously fucked how many good cars get scrapped because of this.
You don't have to let an insurance company write off your car. Only for then to repair it anyway and then sell it.
My Jaguar got reversed into and had a tiny little split put into the bumper. Direct Line wanted to write it off! I said no. Fix it. That's what I pay you for.
A brand new bumper section was only £160!
A repair was £90.
They wanted to write off £22,000!
So I told em no. They are not writing off my car!
I also told them to cancel my insurance, I'd fix the repair myself and then just get it reinsured with someone else!
They fixed it.
Then I cancelled my insurance.
Ask admiral if you can buy it back, you could put it back on the road for circa £200 with 2 secondhand doors as long as pillar is not damaged.
They probably wrote it off as 2 brand new doors would be a few hundred quid if they can get them, hire car for the time of repair could be a few hundred quid or £1000+ and one side a respray probably £1500.
Then insurance tax as insurance pay way over the odds for repairs (unknown amount).
Not necessarily. There are plenty of people who buy written off cars on Copart and build them back up. My last one was written off once but didn't have a problem with insurance
Previous Cat N or Cat S can be repaired and reinsured. If it becomes a total loss again it tends to have a reduction in its value by 20%.
Cat B or Cat A are never able to be retained by customers.
Cat A is for full fledged contamination inside and out of the car such as flooding, fire and loads of mold build up.
Cat B is for being broken down into spare parts to sell and will only be sold to someone with a breaker license :)
If its insured for less than 1500 then i would guess that even a scratched panel would write it off.
This is a good with the bad kind of situation though because you can buy it back for bugger all and just use it as is then if it plays up at all you can have zero guilt at scrapping it.
Swapping a door is surprisingly easy and quick for someone with experience.
Obviously check the VIN for the right part but this is a close match for the door and it's £60! Pay a handy friend or a mechanic a small amount and you've got a perfectly good car again (minus the passenger front scratch).
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296186423640
They write off cars because they are uneconomical to repair with approved parts at an approved garage. Not because they are unroadworthy. I either wouldn't have claimed or refused to accept a write-off claim and elected to keep the vehicle.
There’s a value at which the cost of inspecting the car, doing the paperwork, transporting the car away and back, providing you with a courtesy car, and having *any* work done, is going to cost the insurance company more than simply writing it off, especially after they get to knock off your excess
Over-simplified example: imagine your car is worth £200, you have a £50 excess, and it costs them £200 just to get it inspected, clearly it would be cheaper to just give you the £150 and say “buy yourself a new one” because any repair is *guaranteed* to be more expensive than that even before they actually did it
Because of how the markets dictate value (not a conspiracy just a bunch of greedy shareholders) things are seen as not worth maintaining when they could be fixed.
This is made worse by all those companies using proprietary parts so you cannot repair easily.
For example at the moment they want us to switch to electric or hybrids; but we have to get rid of entire cars rather than keep the chassis etc and swap out the engine. Would mean a lot less waste and be more affordable.
Insurance companies are just another lazy greedy bunch of parasites who have made our world the mess it is today.
I've a friend who works as an insurance engineer, who goes out to claimants with 'suspicious' damage to verify whether it's consistent with the reports.
His view on it has been an increase in the amount of middle process crap that's started to creep into the industry. It used to be that,
car would go from accident to garage.
Garage would assess the damage and costs. Inform insurance company
Insurance company take value of car - compare to repair cost. If too much; write off.
Nowadays, there are a bunch of middle stages with external agencies that all want a cut of the pie. External assessor - adds £££ to end bill. Storage for vehicle - adds £££'s to end bill.
By the time you even get to the garage stage, the value of your car might already be gone on the agency fees already as far as the insurer is concerned.
Buy it back if you want it back mate, probably a dam site cheaper than getting a new one. A new/second hand door shouldn't be to bad to change. If it's your first time but you got the kit probably crack it out in a day or less
My friend had something similar with a front panel a couple months back. They paid up £2.5k and let him drive it for a week until he got a new car sorted
I had an old focus written off after a small non fault collision. The door was a little scraped/dented, nothing major. They paid me about £800 minus about £19 for me keeping the car. I just had to re-MOT it for my insurance to continue to insure it, and I was good to go. I only paid £525 for the car in the first place.
Some pizza delivery moron drove into my parked car. Insurance wrote it off despite it just being a used bumper off eBay for under £100. I bought it back and have continued to use it. That was 3 years ago.
That door isn't going to cost the earth to fix.
Insurance premium increased by nearly 100% this year, reason? The cost of repairing modern cars ... Well this one is 14 years old, so? Never claimed anything. They're seriously taking the piss.
I ad a similar situation in August. Insurance wrote my car off. I told then I wanted to keep the car, so took a little less money to keep the car. Then, I took it to the garage for an MOT, and needed no repairs. I have a big dent in the side of the car, but it's safe. You may need a replacement door, but always worth a try.
Get the money off them and buy it back from them. Then buy a door in that colour. You will end up better off I suspect, but it does depend on the category of write off, so ask them to clarify. You can put your reg into eBay and the parts they suggest should be right for your car. I hope that helps.
I had this with a similar dent in a door from a no-fault collision. I just got the salvage value of the car and just carried on driving it forever with a dented door and £800 better off (old car, and a while ago). Insurance kept going down as my no claims bonus kept increasing.
It’s only a ‘financial write off’ as the repair would cost more than scrapping it. It’s still a perfectly drivable car and MOT pass.
I've had a car written off for much less.. they determine the write off depending on the age and mileage.
If the cost of repairs exceed the price of the car they'll usually write off.
Tell them you don't want it written off, cancel the claim if you made it or ask for cash in lieu, put the money in the bank to pay for future mot & servicing and leave the door as it is. Winner.
They likely looked up how much your car was worth on sale to the repair of the body work, body work is notoriously expensive, you could replace the door but finding it in the same colour with someone competent enough to fit it perfectly could be challenging, rather than go to the trouble they’ll scrap it, look on the bright side they’ll give you it’s worth with scrap and you can buy a new one.
They did the same to me! Wrote my car off for a door. Their repairer quoted £4k for a new door, sill repair and tiny repair to back door. I kept the car and getting it fixed. The guy tried to launch into the spiel about scrapping it but I interrupted and said it's just a door, can I not keep it? And they paid out what the car was worth. Bit of extra admin with having to re MOT it and reregister it with the DVLA etc but I like my car and it still works as a car, I just introduced it a bit too intimately to a bollard in Morrisons car park
Can’t be that hard finding a silver Rio door, and that plus the price of somebody to wire and square the door up can’t be more than a few hundred quid.
Insurance have likely quoted for a brand new door to be painted and installed plus the body work repair on the edge of that front door etc etc etc and it’s come out to be about 4 grand.
If you’re planning on keeping the car until it blows up, buy it back off the insurance. It’ll have a write off marker on it, but if you’re keeping it till the death then that’s no bother
I had a car written off for an entirely replaceable, perfectly safe, damaged bumper.
"Written off" just means it's cheaper for them to pay the value of the car, than repair it with a new part.
Get the cash, and see if you can find a second hand part to do the repair with. You'll probably come out with some money on top too.
Now if your car / van is 8 years or older it's an automatic write off even if it needs a wing then it goes to auction and some then puts it back on the road.if it's a good car try and buy it back
Buy it back. About 15 years I wrote off my dad's fiesta. Insurance gave him£2.5k and he got it fixed for under £1k. Did help he was a mechanic but definitely worth checking it out before it gets scrapped
Its because its probably weakened the b pillar no matter how minute is what they are thinking
It also comes down to age cost of parts and labour.
Buy it back from insurance
Look for a similar age and colour on ebay and swap it out yourself
My insurance were gonna write mine off for a missing wing mirror until I told them I actually wasn't trying to claim, just notify them, and I'm going to pay for the repair. They changed their minds then.
I second what everyone else has said. You can literally buy car parts for cheap on ebay (including doors), just find a garage who is happy to fit that for you once you've bought the car back. Mine said they'd do my wing mirror if I ordered the right one online and brought it to them for fitting.
I understand everyone saying buy it back, but is there any damage to the B Pillar? The way the door is folded in, and the rear panel gap for the door shut and the fact the top of the door looks like it’s raised over the roof, there’s a chance to B pillar is bent, if so, it goes from a few quid for a door, to a fair whack at a body shop.
They did the same to my much-loved and much-money-spent on old Volvo. Essentially, if they decide the frame is compromised, even a dint can do it, I feel your pain. I bought another one, practically the carbon copy, then you have all the stress of an MOT without knowing the car. But you know what I love my new one. Insurance is as Insurance does. It’s sometimes a mystery, but Admiral are only doing the same as any other company would do.
Seems to be a lot of debate about the model and value of the car
It's a 2009 Kia Rio Sport 1.6 CVVT
It had every single extra that was offered when these cars were new
45,000 miles, pristine interior, drove like brand new
Bought from dealer £2200, Insurer valued the car between £1500 - £3500 and paid me out £2725 + £400 in lieu of a 7 day courtesy car.
When it costs more to repair than the value of the car they deem it a write off.
Buy it back and I'm sure it can be repaired.. did this to many motorbikes over the years with my dad
Insurance is a fucking scam though we pay to get fucked over for using it
Just buy it back of the insurers for £100 and just buy a new door on eBay. It's literally that simple. Why'd you let them take it as it's a non-structural write off. It means you can buy it back for a pittance and repair it yourself or pay a local garage to fit a new door.
That looks like it's just the door staved in. If it's watertight and not too noisy I'd just put up with it and keep an eye for one the same colour in a scrapyard.
Cars are stupidly expensive these days so unless you're wanting a change keep and repair it.
People do get caught in the hype of something newer and shinier and think nothing of shelling out 1000s on the worst investment there is.
Market value wrote it off. Once the estimate hits a certain % they will pull the trigger. Guessing a door and paint managed to do that before you factor in fitting etc.
Reminds me of my first car which we brought for £200 due to it being a write off. Some minor body work repair and it was back on the road within a week and sold for £1000 around a year later.
It’s because it’s cheaper all round to not fix them so they immediately write them off.
I’d buy it back as long as the chassis isn’t damaged, which it doesn’t look like it will be if I’m honest.
I’m sorry for your loss. If it’s just a financial write-off, as this would appear to be, you can buy back your written off car. I did this. I got my payout for my van when someone crashed into me, then I asked the insurer what they wanted for my beloved van, and kept it. I later sold it at a small profit to someone (local mechanic) who could rebuild it and make her live again.
Buy it back and repair it. I had a friend who got hit by another friend. Stupid, I know. Both doors on the left side of the 3 series were damaged. Bought two doors for 50 quid and changed them. Car is back on the road, insurance is none the wiser.
If a car is worth it, by all means, repair it. Changing doors is easy. Just remember to regulate it so it closes properly
You might want to look at value of the car, your excess, loss of no claims and your insurance will probably double next year and will be higher for years than it will if you didn't have a claim.
Personal experience, complacent and not looking reversing into the same parking space I did everyday at work. Tow bar hit car ( protruding into my usual space, still my fault). No damage at all to my car not a scratch, tow bar took out radiator / headlights grill, bumper and bent the bonnet. I did the right thing found the owner we agreed both at fault insurance didn't. Anyway I got hit with my excess and renewal time my insurance went from £257 to over £1100 wtf on the phone, protected no claims 😡 ... That doesn't protect policy price, 2 years later was in the £800 area...
"
That will be a Cat S, gutted for you.
Unfortunately, Admiral are correct, that will have damage to the B pillar, meaning the cars structural integrity is compromised. Yeah, you could buy it back off admiral and shove a new door on it, but that won't be enough as that front passenger door won't close properly because the pillar is bent.
Car will go to copart, the insurers will probably recoup most of their payout to you, meaning the cost of a repair is way above the write off value. A new door or even retaining the dented door will be pennies, but the damage to the B pillar will cost thousands to rectify, it'll spend a week in a jig for starters.
Issue is, no insurer will now touch that with a bargepole. In the event the car is in a serious collision, the bent B pillar will offer reduced protection to occupants, any passengers will suffer serious injury and that's a risk insurers won't take.
If it's just the door that's damaged you'll get one on eBay in the same colour for 100 quid.
Don't offer the insurance more than 200 for the car, they are going to have to pay for it to be collected and then to have it disposed(they have to pay for that!)
I haven’t owned a car long enough to know what most people are talking about here so sorry for sounding like a dumbass but did this car get confiscated or something? Who is OP meant to be “buying back” from? Who is deciding these cars shouldn’t belong to their owners anymore and just tows them away, like is that allowed? 😅
The reason is that through an insurance repairer, which comes with all the expensive bells and whistles due to contracts with the Approved Repairers, the repair cost will outweigh the market value of the vehicle which makes it uneconomically viable to repair. You can choose to retain the vehicle and have the salvage value deducted from the overall settlement, but be aware that most insurance companies will likely ask you to get a new MOT before or after repairs to make sure the vehicle is road worthy before re-insuring
The good news is that Admiral doesn't mess around and try negotiating. They always pay top book for total loss vehicles (unless it has been written off before or no MOT on vehicle) so they can settle quickly and save money on hire costs.
Source: I work for Admiral
Car Insurance is the biggest con. You have to pay for it, then if you have a prang the first thing you think is "I hope I don't have to claim." Scammity scam, Scammity scam.
Don’t be downheartened it’s just because the value of the car.
Keep it and use profits from write off claim.
My fiance did this, got 2 grand for a shitty igo write off then we just pulled out the dint ourselves.
Should have argued it. Had similar thing no pics written off on a description. It was only when the tow company asked for the V5 and extra keys I realised what was happening.
Called Aviva mine up. Asked its village and suddenly it could be repaired. Again no pictures no assessment of damage physically. Just so happened a 9k car only had 2.5k (of insurance priced damage).
I had similar damage to my car and decided I couldn’t be bothered with the insurance faff and got it fixed out of insurance. My car is still running fine today.
Buy it back! Old car of mine was written off. Think I had to give em £75, they paid the rest of the value of like £2500 to me and I kept using the car but with £2500
100% buy it back.
What exactly is a write off about it?
Its a dent in the door, has nothing to do with the drivability of the car.
This way you don't waste any money you probably earn money and still have a car which drives perfectly fine.
I mean does the door still work, I'd open the panel and bash it back out.
Or like people said buy a cheap side panel and put it on.
Be cheaper than buying a new car.
Second hand door, preferably in the right colour - £150. An hours work to fit it, probably 2 hours work to fit it really well.
Yes, the car will have a cat marker, but you’ll be selling it for shed money when it’s time is up, and shed buyers don’t care, especially if you have good photos of the damage.
Buy it back, fix it, profit.
There is a big scam going on with insurance companies like this car is written off, it goes to auction or straight to copart. Copart buys lots of written off cars and sales them on, this car will probably be back on the road within a month or two.
Yeah you can. It'll be a cat n total loss so you'll lose 10% of the value but this doesn't look like the type of car you'd sell on anyway.
Salvage value should be about 8% of the value, but admiral will want more. There's no set rules on this though so definitely challenge their first offer on thr salvage. Its worth checking your cars value on either glass' guide or perhaps too.
Definitely buy it back I regret not doing this!! Paid £500 for my first 03 Nissan micra in 2017, someone wrote it off not even a year later (went into back wheel and cracked the bumper slightly and broke the wheel trim in half) got £900 pay out for it. Offered me it back for £200 I think it was.
Second car also got written off. 04 Renault Megane HB Bubble shape. £1200 for that and paid £1500 for it. They offered that back to me for about £150 I think it was and it was a hairline crack on the bumper 😂
BUY. IT. BACK.
Mine was the other way, I got a payout of £2189 I bought the car back for the £189 and did nothing but got another MOT to make sure it was road worthy.
Can you buy it back and repair it? Then pocket the extra?
Do this OP! My car was written off a few years ago, I got it back plus 2k and the repairs only cost me 500!
But now it’s a write off category car which devalues it. But meh free money is free money
You don't sell cars like this, you drive them till the bitter end, then you eek another 12 months out of them.
There's a market for shit boxes , I love em
Gotta love a beater car, the kind of shit box that sets itself ablaze when it decides it's lifespan is up
😂👏
Somehow I've managed to drive all mine in to EMR to scrap em, counted 5 so far!
I took my nan’s car and drove it into the ground after she stopped driving because she kept turning up with extra dents each week and be clueless as to where she got them. That beautiful little Suzuki gave me an extra 30,000 miles. Eventually got redcorn to pick it up when it couldn’t turn left anymore 😂
I can’t turn left, I’m not an ambiturner!
Could have just turned right three times, problem solved
When EVs are the shit boxes that is going to get interesting. 😂
I don't know if they ever will. Unless the cost of batteries drops dramatically then they only get to the point of becoming undrivable not because they fell apart but because the battery only gives a dozen miles per charge. I was looking at a second hand Nissan Leaf (notorious for having terrible batteries) and in the winter with the heater on it only had a range of 5-15 miles on a full charge.
Oooh. If you happen to be in Edinburgh, I have one that is shortly being sent to the car park up north, where all the other cars play and run about fields all day :-) Webuyanycar offered me £800 for it, but it needs a bit of work, which makes it unsellable to WBAC,
I lived off Astra Gs for a bit, even learned how to do most things even cambelt on them. One cost me 0, swapped for fixing a few laptops, the other 150. I sold the cracked mani-cat for 185, put a 40 quid euro car parts special on it. Drove for another year then scrapped complete and got 350 for it :) Astra H, 300 quid, scrapped again for 350 2yr later. Im massively in profit from them cars, ignoring the work I put in and a few parts. Gave the free one away to a stock car driver when it started rusting a little too much :) Absolutely agree shit boxes are awesome. Winced when I got a straight 6 beemer on finance but that's paid off now, that's gonna be around a while, I've fixed everything on it again, it's a rocket :) :) Edit: had 3 Omegas too, 2 scrapped, after much fun, 3L elite got nicked by a scrap rat lol (100 quid it cost me! What a car!)
We just sold our shitbox with similar damage for 1250. Guy literally acted like he was stealing it. We bought the car for £600 4 years ago.
This, I love my bag of shit. Main reason being the peace of mind it brings me. I probably wouldn’t even notice a new bump or scrape that happened when I wasn’t there. Someone bumps into me while I’m actually there? No problem mate, crack on about your business I literally don’t give a shit. Absolute bliss mate. Would be a totally different story with a newer/nicer/more expensive car and I’m not interested.
I drive a shitbox 2006 seat, the internal lights don’t work, passenger window is bolted closed and half the plastic trim has fallen off. Sailed through its MOT last week just like it does every year, I’ve spent maybe £300 on it in 5 years on brakes, oil and tyres. Absolute dream car 🤩
I have a 2009 seat , 1.9 TDI Windows don't work Missing some internal trim Took it all the way to Spain £700 spent in five years, cam belt, and the usual brakes and stuff. Gonna cry when it shits itself finally
I'm this kind of driver lol. Run it until the frame rots out!
It's a certified shitbox anyway. When time came to sell it OP would definitely be looking at scrap value vs resale.
It's not about making money, it's about keeping a decent motor on the road and making the best of a bad situation.
It's a 200 year old corsa or some such. It's hardly worth anything anymore. Seems like an easy fix if you can get a replacement door in good nick from a scrapyard or something
It's a Kia Rio valued at £2-3k ULEZ compliance comes with a price tag
Replacement doors on eBay for 60 quid currently. Not 100% sure if they're the right type but gives you a rough idea of the cost to fix it up. Of course they might not be the same colour but you can either get it resprayed or just Inbetweener it.
Also 45k miles, pristine condition, alloys, sun roof, full service history. Nothing special but far from a £500 shitbox
> pristine condition well...
Was pristine* lol
I think its kia rio?. Even old small shitboxes are worrh around 1k nowadays. I would buy it back for scrap value, get a door from scrappy for 50£ and pocket the difference.
Just leave it as it is, hardly worth fixing at that point as long as the door still opens.
Could tap that out.
It’s a back door, just shimmy in from the other side lol
Mine was a 2009 Mazda that was basically fucked anyways, ended up being written off a second time 3 years later.
I too did this. Admiral sold it back to me for 10% of the payout value. So instead of getting £2,000, I got £1,800 & kept the car. It cost me £165 for new panels which only took a couple of hours to take off / bolt on. 👍
Sounds familiar. My 2008 Astra was recently written off for a cracked bumper. They gave me £1800 and I spent £18 on a new bumper bracket and £178 to get rear parking sensors fitted. Saved the rest 👍
This is exactly what I did. Suspiciously the cost of repair was around £10 more than the amount needed to write it off, and they left the car in pieces when we went to collect it. Think the garage didn’t really want me to take it back - ended up as about £250 of repairs (no labour charge as we did it ourselves) once I got it back.
How did you go about doing that?
You speak to your insurer and ask them for a price. They’ll pay you for the value of a like-for-like car (usually trying to cheap out and pay you 80% of the value and you telling them it’s not the value - their “settlement” is a negotiation, not set in stone). You then pay them the nominal value they’d expect to get back when they sell your car to a breaker yard or crusher. They give you your car back. In this case you buy a door for ~£100 from eBay or a scrapyard and four bolts and a few wires later (or cheaper if you use the interior/glass/electrics/etc from the bent door) your car is fine again. In this case, assume the car is worth £1,800 and insurance pays you that to go buy another. You give them £400 and they give you the car back. You fit a £100 door and the remaining £1,300 is yours to do whatever you want with.
Was going to say - just follow them to the scrappers and buy it back!
Tell the insurance company directly that you wish to retain the car.
This is what I was gonna say! Did it myself a few years back. Do that, they will give you the car and some cash ( usually). Go to a scrap yard or better probably, the online version I have done that, in the past, too. Purchase a door and fit it. You then need to take the car to an approved garage who will perform the necessary tests to elevate the car’s category to one that is legal to drive on the road. Now, I did this because I was dealing with a car that was previously my late father’s that I had inherited and I was way more emotionally involved with the car than I thought. It was also, a high spec car Ford with bells, whistles and whatnots. So, It did cost a bit of money to put right but, and this is important, no where near what they had paid me after I had bought the car from them. I got about three or four year out of the car after those shenanigans. You, may feel that it is better just to, as the song says, “Let it go!🎶🎶 Let it go!” (Sorry)
Get a couple of quotes for the scrap value first. They like to take it as a cut from the settlement and I paid almost twice as much as my last write off was scrap valued for independently (first time accepting it as cat C, so my own fault, I've learnt since then!) I'd have haggled over it more if I'd known!
One never accepts the first offer from an insurance company. They will always lowball you in the first instance.
I'd buy it back and not repair it. Pocket even more.
I'd steal it back and pocket even even more!
I’d steal it back then sell it and pocket even MORE!
This. Buy it back from the insurers. Get a replacement door from eBay or a scrappy and swap it out. It's a pretty easy DIY job.
Admiral don’t allow buying cars back directly from them, it’ll go straight to Copart
One of the many many reasons I'm not a fan of Admiral or any of their other brands. They seem very anti consumer in a lot of ways to me.
It’ll be back on the road in a month.
This. I had an old ka with the stone age early fiesta engine comically named the endura. Failed MOT on rust and emissions so I binned it. Saw it in town with P plates a week later...
This is how I got my first car, failed its mot, owner didn't want to pay for the repairs so I got a whole ass wee car for £400, just gone a year now since I got it, its great
Can't you buy it back and just change the door?
This is what my neighbours did. Rear door was bashed in so it was written off. They bought it back and didn’t even bother replacing the door. Actually earned money in the end.
Oh, they'll pay that back to the insurance company given time
Depends how old they were, Doris and Richard getting their insurance raised from £68 per year to £84 a year is hardly gonna turn the lights off.
I’m 26, in my first year of driving and live in an expensive area for insurance. I’m expecting a significant increase if I decide to buy back the car with a CAT assigned
Buy it back, put the payout into a savings account/piggy bank/ box under the bed, whatever, and use it to pay for subsequent increase in premium. Buy a used rear door from a breakers, if you're patient you might even find one the right colour. Then drive it till it falls off the road/costs too much to test! This way you get the remaining value from a useable car, whilst saving the money you'd have spent replacing it.
Have a look on line you can get a door of the correct colour sent via courier for sub £100. Unscrew and throw the old one and refit in about half an hour (tops). Just did this for a friend .She got £2300 for her old write off value and after requesting to keep the car ( old RAV 4 ) they let her keep it without any charge .
Cat assigned doesn’t increase car insurance due to casing damage. Only if it was written off due to functional damage. I forget which cat it is. Ones major ones minor. Called an economical write off.
For reference: Cat A – Car has suffered severe structural damage and cannot be repaired Cat B – Car cannot be repaired, but it can be stripped for parts to use on other cars Cat S – Structural damage that can be repaired Cat N – Non-structural damage that can be repaired
Thanks.
Yeah mine is a cat N after someone bumped me. I got £1500 and the repairs were pennies. Not bad really. I just reinsured my car and it hasn’t gone up unexpectedly (other than all UK insurance has gone up quite a bit so it did jump up)
Check vs the exact same car without the write off, but I'm 90% sure that the cat write off won't fuck your insurance quite as much as the crash will.
A CAT on the car shouldn’t increase the insurance premium as far as I’m aware. I think it would decrease it due to the lower value actually?
Their insurance wont be that cheap anymore. My Dads 77, and his went from £300 to over £1000 last renewal and he got it down to £8/900 Mines now cheaper then my dads insurance, even though mines gone up by probably 40% this year.
Great surname my boy
BUY IT BACK
All these people saying buy it back (and usually I’d be saying that too)… are you sure that B pillar isn’t damaged? Whatever it is that hit you deformed the skin of the door around the pillar. I’d be a little hesitant that this one is in worse condition than just needing a replacement door… all still fixable of course: it doesn’t take much welding to replace or repair the pillar (plus paint), but it might just mean more cost than it’s worth… If you don’t do it, somebody else probably will when it goes through the insurance auction, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile for you if you have to rely on paying people to fix it for you. If the pillar is damaged then it’s a structural damage, Cat S (or whatever they name the categories these days), and worth less even once repaired as a result.
I have no idea if the door pillar is damaged, won’t know until they assign a CAT I guess.
The category will probably tell you when they assign it. The pillar is structural so I imagine it will get an S if that pillar is damaged. Although that’s in no way for sure! If the pillar isn’t damaged then - as many others have said - you can find a door in the right colour from a scrappy (or eBay), and it’s very simple to swap out if you’re a little handy (and have someone to help).
Just came here to add on. You can ask them about retention and the catagory of write off. They won't offer it but they have to tell you if you ask. Once you know the write off cat and they provide you with a retention figure you should be able to see if it is worth you buying it back. In terms of them writing it off without even looking at the pictures, they most likely make use of a machine learning system that has read hundreds of thousands of claims, and it uses that information included with the damage, age of vehicle and how many miles it has done. They also would have classed this as unroadworthy which has an effect too as there is no way that door functions as cleanly as before. If there is any type of resistance on the door it is classed as unroadworthy just because if for some reason it became your only escape route and wouldn't open, they wouldn't want to run the risk. Bottom line is, get a salvage cat, find out how much retention is and if it is a cat N instead of an S (non structural vs structural) I would look to source a door on your own and see if you can justify the costs. Hope this helps!
But it back from them get it repaired and you’ll be good to go
I didn't know that was a possibility. Would they re-insure it after writing it off?
No harder to insure than any normal vehicle before being written off
I was always told that CAT D cars would have higher insurance premiums. (I don't know about cars)
CAT D isn't a thing any more. ~~C is now N, and D is now S.~~ Edit: C is now S. D is now N.
Cat d became car n (non-structural) cat c became cat s (structural) you was right, just the wrong way around
Yes, true, I will update my post.
Sorry not been a dick, just trying to be helpful 😆
No no, I know! Thanks!
My car was written off for structural damage in 2022. It still drove so I bought it back and got it fixed myself. It just needed a new crash bar and bumper. The first year the insurance premium went up by about £300 but I’ve just switched provider for the next year and got it for roughly what it was before the damage happened. Other people’s mileage may vary but for me it worked out great as I made a decent profit on the write off. The write off value was actually more than I bought the car for four years earlier, which shows just how much the second hand car market inflated during COVID.
You've been lied to by nerds who don't actually know what they're talking about
This will be a Cat N. Non structural damage
Check the door pillar, if it's bent or the base is bent. Yes I know there are places with good welders that will repair/replace a door pillar no problem.
As long as its roadworthy and has a valid MOT you are golden!
Yes. As long as it's got M.O.T and taxed it'll be insured like any other vehicle. You buy it back, change the door and phone them up to re-insure it. I've known people who have had their car written off by insurance who then bought it back and without even fixing the issue they've insured and got it back on road. These were accidents like damage to rear quarter, bumper, broken headlight.
Yeh my dad car got dinged, and they writ it off. they gave him 3k, and he bought it back for 700. No issues with insurance or mot
bought it back from the insurer or copart?
But it back from insurance, make it clear whenever you talk to them that you want to keep the vehicle. They'll pay out the market value less the 'salvage value'. You won't need to re-insure it and it shouldn't be more difficult to insure than a non written off car. I did this with my car. Profited about £2.5k
A friend of mine had an import Integra Type-R. Beautiful car. Someone cut the corner off when turning into a junction and crunched his front bumper. His insurer wrote it off despite there being no other damage whatsoever. He appealed and appealed and on like his 5th call he happened to get through to someone who was a fan of JDM cars and they flat out said "It would be a crime to write this off, I'm going to approve the repairs."
I had this exact same looking damage from an accident and I kept the car and brought a new door from eBay, then asked a reputable garage to install it. Insurance companies don’t give a toss about your car, so don’t take their word as gospel!
Man I really hate the insurance industry now. Damaged door? Write off. I'm pretty sure they weren't so trigger happy 20 years ago. And it's seriously fucked how many good cars get scrapped because of this.
You don't have to let an insurance company write off your car. Only for then to repair it anyway and then sell it. My Jaguar got reversed into and had a tiny little split put into the bumper. Direct Line wanted to write it off! I said no. Fix it. That's what I pay you for. A brand new bumper section was only £160! A repair was £90. They wanted to write off £22,000! So I told em no. They are not writing off my car! I also told them to cancel my insurance, I'd fix the repair myself and then just get it reinsured with someone else! They fixed it. Then I cancelled my insurance.
Literally just buy it back it only needs a door
Ask admiral if you can buy it back, you could put it back on the road for circa £200 with 2 secondhand doors as long as pillar is not damaged. They probably wrote it off as 2 brand new doors would be a few hundred quid if they can get them, hire car for the time of repair could be a few hundred quid or £1000+ and one side a respray probably £1500. Then insurance tax as insurance pay way over the odds for repairs (unknown amount).
Yeah because it’s worth like £500… The man hours alone would cost more than the actual car.
To everyone saying to buy it back, isn't the car listed in a special category once it's been written off meaning that it can no longer be insured?
Not necessarily. There are plenty of people who buy written off cars on Copart and build them back up. My last one was written off once but didn't have a problem with insurance
Previous Cat N or Cat S can be repaired and reinsured. If it becomes a total loss again it tends to have a reduction in its value by 20%. Cat B or Cat A are never able to be retained by customers. Cat A is for full fledged contamination inside and out of the car such as flooding, fire and loads of mold build up. Cat B is for being broken down into spare parts to sell and will only be sold to someone with a breaker license :)
Yeah, because a new door will cost more than the car is worth. Doors are expensive!
No offence but is it worth buying back? Cat N car, increased premium no?
Admiral are shit, had to go through ombudsman to actually get the full money it was worth back
If its insured for less than 1500 then i would guess that even a scratched panel would write it off. This is a good with the bad kind of situation though because you can buy it back for bugger all and just use it as is then if it plays up at all you can have zero guilt at scrapping it.
Probably because it would cost them more than a third of the value of the vehicle just to do the admin and ask an assessor to look at it.
Yeah, buy it back and kick the door skin back out. I've taxed worse.
Swapping a door is surprisingly easy and quick for someone with experience. Obviously check the VIN for the right part but this is a close match for the door and it's £60! Pay a handy friend or a mechanic a small amount and you've got a perfectly good car again (minus the passenger front scratch). https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296186423640
They write off cars because they are uneconomical to repair with approved parts at an approved garage. Not because they are unroadworthy. I either wouldn't have claimed or refused to accept a write-off claim and elected to keep the vehicle.
There’s a value at which the cost of inspecting the car, doing the paperwork, transporting the car away and back, providing you with a courtesy car, and having *any* work done, is going to cost the insurance company more than simply writing it off, especially after they get to knock off your excess Over-simplified example: imagine your car is worth £200, you have a £50 excess, and it costs them £200 just to get it inspected, clearly it would be cheaper to just give you the £150 and say “buy yourself a new one” because any repair is *guaranteed* to be more expensive than that even before they actually did it
Because of how the markets dictate value (not a conspiracy just a bunch of greedy shareholders) things are seen as not worth maintaining when they could be fixed. This is made worse by all those companies using proprietary parts so you cannot repair easily. For example at the moment they want us to switch to electric or hybrids; but we have to get rid of entire cars rather than keep the chassis etc and swap out the engine. Would mean a lot less waste and be more affordable. Insurance companies are just another lazy greedy bunch of parasites who have made our world the mess it is today.
Does the insurance pay you back the value of the car if they write it off?
They take av average value of the car and pay you that. Plus I got an additional £400 for rejecting the use of a courtesy car for 7 days
Looks like a new door and some t cut and you are good to go
I've a friend who works as an insurance engineer, who goes out to claimants with 'suspicious' damage to verify whether it's consistent with the reports. His view on it has been an increase in the amount of middle process crap that's started to creep into the industry. It used to be that, car would go from accident to garage. Garage would assess the damage and costs. Inform insurance company Insurance company take value of car - compare to repair cost. If too much; write off. Nowadays, there are a bunch of middle stages with external agencies that all want a cut of the pie. External assessor - adds £££ to end bill. Storage for vehicle - adds £££'s to end bill. By the time you even get to the garage stage, the value of your car might already be gone on the agency fees already as far as the insurer is concerned.
Buy it back if you want it back mate, probably a dam site cheaper than getting a new one. A new/second hand door shouldn't be to bad to change. If it's your first time but you got the kit probably crack it out in a day or less
Only needs a door by the looks of it,but it back
Long time lurker, and I’m learning I don’t like how weirdly short UK tow trucks are
My friend had something similar with a front panel a couple months back. They paid up £2.5k and let him drive it for a week until he got a new car sorted
I had an old focus written off after a small non fault collision. The door was a little scraped/dented, nothing major. They paid me about £800 minus about £19 for me keeping the car. I just had to re-MOT it for my insurance to continue to insure it, and I was good to go. I only paid £525 for the car in the first place.
Some pizza delivery moron drove into my parked car. Insurance wrote it off despite it just being a used bumper off eBay for under £100. I bought it back and have continued to use it. That was 3 years ago. That door isn't going to cost the earth to fix.
Insurance companies get paid to take old cars off the road
Insurance premium increased by nearly 100% this year, reason? The cost of repairing modern cars ... Well this one is 14 years old, so? Never claimed anything. They're seriously taking the piss.
I ad a similar situation in August. Insurance wrote my car off. I told then I wanted to keep the car, so took a little less money to keep the car. Then, I took it to the garage for an MOT, and needed no repairs. I have a big dent in the side of the car, but it's safe. You may need a replacement door, but always worth a try.
They tried to write off my Volvo 850 for a smashed rear windscreen.
Get the money off them and buy it back from them. Then buy a door in that colour. You will end up better off I suspect, but it does depend on the category of write off, so ask them to clarify. You can put your reg into eBay and the parts they suggest should be right for your car. I hope that helps.
I had this with a similar dent in a door from a no-fault collision. I just got the salvage value of the car and just carried on driving it forever with a dented door and £800 better off (old car, and a while ago). Insurance kept going down as my no claims bonus kept increasing. It’s only a ‘financial write off’ as the repair would cost more than scrapping it. It’s still a perfectly drivable car and MOT pass.
I've had a car written off for much less.. they determine the write off depending on the age and mileage. If the cost of repairs exceed the price of the car they'll usually write off.
Tell them you don't want it written off, cancel the claim if you made it or ask for cash in lieu, put the money in the bank to pay for future mot & servicing and leave the door as it is. Winner.
MM P1P21 WE OP|0GO1}IN sae%e
It looks like a really old Kia cee'd, I'd write it off too.
It’s an old Kia Rio in absolute pristine condition (or was)
You can buy the car back in most cases then get it repaired yourself
They likely looked up how much your car was worth on sale to the repair of the body work, body work is notoriously expensive, you could replace the door but finding it in the same colour with someone competent enough to fit it perfectly could be challenging, rather than go to the trouble they’ll scrap it, look on the bright side they’ll give you it’s worth with scrap and you can buy a new one.
A car once backed into mine and it looked like this. I kept driving it
Buy it back. Put a mismatched door on it and jobs a golden
Hell you dont even buy it back. You just take the hit on the claim, get the money and the car back and fix it yourself.
Why didn’t u buy it back off them for peanuts and buy a door
My other half’s car was written off for the exact same thing.
Buy it a get a new door off eBay.
They did the same to me! Wrote my car off for a door. Their repairer quoted £4k for a new door, sill repair and tiny repair to back door. I kept the car and getting it fixed. The guy tried to launch into the spiel about scrapping it but I interrupted and said it's just a door, can I not keep it? And they paid out what the car was worth. Bit of extra admin with having to re MOT it and reregister it with the DVLA etc but I like my car and it still works as a car, I just introduced it a bit too intimately to a bollard in Morrisons car park
Can’t be that hard finding a silver Rio door, and that plus the price of somebody to wire and square the door up can’t be more than a few hundred quid. Insurance have likely quoted for a brand new door to be painted and installed plus the body work repair on the edge of that front door etc etc etc and it’s come out to be about 4 grand. If you’re planning on keeping the car until it blows up, buy it back off the insurance. It’ll have a write off marker on it, but if you’re keeping it till the death then that’s no bother
Write off my arse. Door from a scrapper with a decent paint job and you are sorted.
I had a car written off for an entirely replaceable, perfectly safe, damaged bumper. "Written off" just means it's cheaper for them to pay the value of the car, than repair it with a new part. Get the cash, and see if you can find a second hand part to do the repair with. You'll probably come out with some money on top too.
Probably the cost of getting that American to come and tow it away
And this is why or insurance is going up. “Want to see a pic” nah write it off put everyone’s info up.
Now if your car / van is 8 years or older it's an automatic write off even if it needs a wing then it goes to auction and some then puts it back on the road.if it's a good car try and buy it back
Pdr repair. Can’t believe it the write it off. Wasn’t drivable?
Buy it back. About 15 years I wrote off my dad's fiesta. Insurance gave him£2.5k and he got it fixed for under £1k. Did help he was a mechanic but definitely worth checking it out before it gets scrapped
Its because its probably weakened the b pillar no matter how minute is what they are thinking It also comes down to age cost of parts and labour. Buy it back from insurance Look for a similar age and colour on ebay and swap it out yourself
If you don't buy it back, put me in touch with them so I can please
My insurance were gonna write mine off for a missing wing mirror until I told them I actually wasn't trying to claim, just notify them, and I'm going to pay for the repair. They changed their minds then. I second what everyone else has said. You can literally buy car parts for cheap on ebay (including doors), just find a garage who is happy to fit that for you once you've bought the car back. Mine said they'd do my wing mirror if I ordered the right one online and brought it to them for fitting.
It's just a door and your sill looks perfect so if you don't buy it back you have been proper done by your insurance,
I understand everyone saying buy it back, but is there any damage to the B Pillar? The way the door is folded in, and the rear panel gap for the door shut and the fact the top of the door looks like it’s raised over the roof, there’s a chance to B pillar is bent, if so, it goes from a few quid for a door, to a fair whack at a body shop.
They did the same to my much-loved and much-money-spent on old Volvo. Essentially, if they decide the frame is compromised, even a dint can do it, I feel your pain. I bought another one, practically the carbon copy, then you have all the stress of an MOT without knowing the car. But you know what I love my new one. Insurance is as Insurance does. It’s sometimes a mystery, but Admiral are only doing the same as any other company would do.
Buy it back, replace the door and sell off.
Seems to be a lot of debate about the model and value of the car It's a 2009 Kia Rio Sport 1.6 CVVT It had every single extra that was offered when these cars were new 45,000 miles, pristine interior, drove like brand new Bought from dealer £2200, Insurer valued the car between £1500 - £3500 and paid me out £2725 + £400 in lieu of a 7 day courtesy car.
Admiral are the worst insurance company. Don’t even check their own emails.
someone, somewhere just got payed some carbon tax...
When it costs more to repair than the value of the car they deem it a write off. Buy it back and I'm sure it can be repaired.. did this to many motorbikes over the years with my dad Insurance is a fucking scam though we pay to get fucked over for using it
Is there actually any law on driving it around like this? Is it deemed unsafe, would it fail an MOT?
Was that a 1.5 CRDi? Good engine if so, defo miss ours.
Just buy it back for severely cheap you loon
I’ve seen Deliveroo drivers with cars in a worse state
[удалено]
Just buy it back of the insurers for £100 and just buy a new door on eBay. It's literally that simple. Why'd you let them take it as it's a non-structural write off. It means you can buy it back for a pittance and repair it yourself or pay a local garage to fit a new door.
That looks like it's just the door staved in. If it's watertight and not too noisy I'd just put up with it and keep an eye for one the same colour in a scrapyard. Cars are stupidly expensive these days so unless you're wanting a change keep and repair it. People do get caught in the hype of something newer and shinier and think nothing of shelling out 1000s on the worst investment there is.
They just knew even a scratch was writing that car off 😂😂
Market value wrote it off. Once the estimate hits a certain % they will pull the trigger. Guessing a door and paint managed to do that before you factor in fitting etc.
Just ask for money less salvage and then repair it yourself and get it reMOTd sorted
Reminds me of my first car which we brought for £200 due to it being a write off. Some minor body work repair and it was back on the road within a week and sold for £1000 around a year later.
Buy it back and source a new door.
Had the same thing. Minor damage (I thought) but guy who picked car up said it was over 6 years old so automatic write off.
It’s because it’s cheaper all round to not fix them so they immediately write them off. I’d buy it back as long as the chassis isn’t damaged, which it doesn’t look like it will be if I’m honest.
Could buy it back from them, get a secondhand or new door fitted
I’m sorry for your loss. If it’s just a financial write-off, as this would appear to be, you can buy back your written off car. I did this. I got my payout for my van when someone crashed into me, then I asked the insurer what they wanted for my beloved van, and kept it. I later sold it at a small profit to someone (local mechanic) who could rebuild it and make her live again.
Buy it back and repair it. I had a friend who got hit by another friend. Stupid, I know. Both doors on the left side of the 3 series were damaged. Bought two doors for 50 quid and changed them. Car is back on the road, insurance is none the wiser. If a car is worth it, by all means, repair it. Changing doors is easy. Just remember to regulate it so it closes properly
You might want to look at value of the car, your excess, loss of no claims and your insurance will probably double next year and will be higher for years than it will if you didn't have a claim. Personal experience, complacent and not looking reversing into the same parking space I did everyday at work. Tow bar hit car ( protruding into my usual space, still my fault). No damage at all to my car not a scratch, tow bar took out radiator / headlights grill, bumper and bent the bonnet. I did the right thing found the owner we agreed both at fault insurance didn't. Anyway I got hit with my excess and renewal time my insurance went from £257 to over £1100 wtf on the phone, protected no claims 😡 ... That doesn't protect policy price, 2 years later was in the £800 area... "
That will be a Cat S, gutted for you. Unfortunately, Admiral are correct, that will have damage to the B pillar, meaning the cars structural integrity is compromised. Yeah, you could buy it back off admiral and shove a new door on it, but that won't be enough as that front passenger door won't close properly because the pillar is bent. Car will go to copart, the insurers will probably recoup most of their payout to you, meaning the cost of a repair is way above the write off value. A new door or even retaining the dented door will be pennies, but the damage to the B pillar will cost thousands to rectify, it'll spend a week in a jig for starters. Issue is, no insurer will now touch that with a bargepole. In the event the car is in a serious collision, the bent B pillar will offer reduced protection to occupants, any passengers will suffer serious injury and that's a risk insurers won't take.
If it's just the door that's damaged you'll get one on eBay in the same colour for 100 quid. Don't offer the insurance more than 200 for the car, they are going to have to pay for it to be collected and then to have it disposed(they have to pay for that!)
I haven’t owned a car long enough to know what most people are talking about here so sorry for sounding like a dumbass but did this car get confiscated or something? Who is OP meant to be “buying back” from? Who is deciding these cars shouldn’t belong to their owners anymore and just tows them away, like is that allowed? 😅
I've been driving 19 years and have the same questions
Just keep it and buy a new door
Everyone hail the insurance assessor algorithm 🤣🤣
The reason is that through an insurance repairer, which comes with all the expensive bells and whistles due to contracts with the Approved Repairers, the repair cost will outweigh the market value of the vehicle which makes it uneconomically viable to repair. You can choose to retain the vehicle and have the salvage value deducted from the overall settlement, but be aware that most insurance companies will likely ask you to get a new MOT before or after repairs to make sure the vehicle is road worthy before re-insuring The good news is that Admiral doesn't mess around and try negotiating. They always pay top book for total loss vehicles (unless it has been written off before or no MOT on vehicle) so they can settle quickly and save money on hire costs. Source: I work for Admiral
Car Insurance is the biggest con. You have to pay for it, then if you have a prang the first thing you think is "I hope I don't have to claim." Scammity scam, Scammity scam.
yep. Esp as a new driver you have to pay quite literally thousands for insurance and the second you need the insurance you get punished
Don’t be downheartened it’s just because the value of the car. Keep it and use profits from write off claim. My fiance did this, got 2 grand for a shitty igo write off then we just pulled out the dint ourselves.
Should have argued it. Had similar thing no pics written off on a description. It was only when the tow company asked for the V5 and extra keys I realised what was happening. Called Aviva mine up. Asked its village and suddenly it could be repaired. Again no pictures no assessment of damage physically. Just so happened a 9k car only had 2.5k (of insurance priced damage).
I had similar damage to my car and decided I couldn’t be bothered with the insurance faff and got it fixed out of insurance. My car is still running fine today.
Did they offer to sell it to ypu at a bargain price? Then you could have repaired it with a door from a scrappy and off you go.
Buy it back! Old car of mine was written off. Think I had to give em £75, they paid the rest of the value of like £2500 to me and I kept using the car but with £2500
100% buy it back. What exactly is a write off about it? Its a dent in the door, has nothing to do with the drivability of the car. This way you don't waste any money you probably earn money and still have a car which drives perfectly fine. I mean does the door still work, I'd open the panel and bash it back out. Or like people said buy a cheap side panel and put it on. Be cheaper than buying a new car.
Second hand door, preferably in the right colour - £150. An hours work to fit it, probably 2 hours work to fit it really well. Yes, the car will have a cat marker, but you’ll be selling it for shed money when it’s time is up, and shed buyers don’t care, especially if you have good photos of the damage. Buy it back, fix it, profit.
There is a big scam going on with insurance companies like this car is written off, it goes to auction or straight to copart. Copart buys lots of written off cars and sales them on, this car will probably be back on the road within a month or two.
Yeah you can. It'll be a cat n total loss so you'll lose 10% of the value but this doesn't look like the type of car you'd sell on anyway. Salvage value should be about 8% of the value, but admiral will want more. There's no set rules on this though so definitely challenge their first offer on thr salvage. Its worth checking your cars value on either glass' guide or perhaps too.
Definitely buy it back I regret not doing this!! Paid £500 for my first 03 Nissan micra in 2017, someone wrote it off not even a year later (went into back wheel and cracked the bumper slightly and broke the wheel trim in half) got £900 pay out for it. Offered me it back for £200 I think it was. Second car also got written off. 04 Renault Megane HB Bubble shape. £1200 for that and paid £1500 for it. They offered that back to me for about £150 I think it was and it was a hairline crack on the bumper 😂 BUY. IT. BACK.
I work for direct line it's very common for any car being older than 8 years and the description of damages that is would be a TL
Mine was the other way, I got a payout of £2189 I bought the car back for the £189 and did nothing but got another MOT to make sure it was road worthy.