Van got boshed :(

[PapaW]

So there's me minding my own way home in the correct lane out of Coleraine and some guy pulls accross the front of me frm the left hand lane trying to tunr into the Exit of KFC... *B0sh* All his fault of course...

and now I get the call from repairers telling them the damage (which isn' that bad really, just the bumper bashed off, indicator smashed and a bit of front wing damage) they say cause its a 1996 its not worth repairing.. FFS there is barly anything wrong and its only cosmetic... fleshin' give me the money and i'll put a new bumper on and indicator then paint he dents ffs...

*sigh*

Has anyone had any experience of writing a vech off but keeping it and re-roading it? The guy is coming out 2mos to inspect it to see if its 'worth it' Its insured for 2k so I'm wondering if i do write it off get settlement from the 3rd party for that value and then fix it myself... christ i can deal with a bit of a dent... and its only the indicator and bumper thats making it 'unroadworthy'

[Sillysausage]

Bad news huh. My bro had a similar problem...just his was a car lol. it needed a new bumper, bonnet and wing. me and him both did it ourselfs after getting parts from the scrappy for 40 quid in the same color. looks as good as new now.

tbh really easy to repair as its mainly just clips and screws so if you can get hold of the parts then well worth it.

although we didnt take it to a garage to see if it was a right off just did it ourselfs. and also needed a headlight

[PapaW]

oh repairing it isn't a problem for me... its dealing with the insurance side of things when it might be classed as a write off...

[drowningbitbybit]

A common thing thats done with bikes (which I know quite a lot about writing off) but can be done with cars/vans is that the insurance company write it off and you buy it back.

They say its not worth it, and pay out the value of the van (well, whatever they say the value of the van is), but then you buy the van back from them for peanuts and fix it up, and re-register it. The downside is that the van is forever marked as an ex-write-off, but thats only a potential problem when you come to sell it. So basically you get the money but get to keep the van.

Some insurance do this without any problems, others wont, so ask them if its a possibility.

[tree4]

Sorry to hear about the hassle anyway bro.

[soops]

When you speak to the ins company you need to try and convince them not to write it off in anyway otherwise you will lose a lot of its value.

I know of people that have done deals with the ins companies to get them to just give them a bit of cash towards fixing it and doing it themselves. But if they are going to give it a Cat B/C write off I'd just take the cash and get a new one myself

[Real Pol]

As far as I'm aware it is only a potential problem when you come to sell it. But if it's only insured for £2000 how much are you going to lose? The van is obviously more important than the value.......hang on, I'm getting confused with that purple monstrosity which used to rattle around here a few years ago.......who has that now?

See what the insurers say and take it from there. Good luck.

[CHarvey]

Tell them you want to buy the vehicle back as a salvage title. You can use the pay out for the vehicle to buy it back from them, get the salvage title, and you are good to go.

[PapaW]

Its the custom interior I built thats worth the money to me and i'm not likely to sell it ever so thats not an issue either... not to mention the new clutch and just gone thru mot etc..

Well its been taken away today so I'll hear back from the repair people soon.

[Dr Rev]

Sorry to hear that mate, hope it all works out ok...

[thaya]

^^ditto. hope things work out.

[parrysurf]

I bought a wrecked car back from my insurance company once...it was mangled, but the interior was new, and so was the drive train. I bought a run down version with my insurance left overs, and transferred all my good stuff to it and had it painted...I was out a little in the long run, but I had a totally fixed up rig, for way cheaper than buying one.

I also purchased a salvaged Mercedes once..it was cheap, and the salvage title was still insurable.
I am aware you are in a different country, but hope it helps.
Good luck.

[libby]

Booo, hope your van boshed him back!

[PapaW]

Got me van back and its all sparkly

Just waiting on insurance people to confirm that 3rd party aren't being knobbers