Dezzy needs help

[Dezzy]

I need some advice from someone in the know.

I won't go into too much detail but the wife's car has been hit, at fault accident. Ok no major everyone is ok an all that but the car looks a bit sorry for itself.

It's been taken away and i've had a call from the matey, and he's going to CAT B it. Now thats taken me by surprise a bit as it's doesn’t look twisted, inner wings have no stress marks ect, ect. I was thinking in the worst case they write it off and i put it back bla, bla, bla, wing, door, bumper, headlight and front suspension and a bit of paint, as i can't replace it for anywhere near what they'll pay out.

Now i asked him how twisted the car is and he's said he doesn't know. He’s not going to jig it. So how can he be so sure it’s unsafe / fit to ever go back on the road if he’s not going to check it?

Apparently it’s down to his experience. I thought we were trying to stop living in these throw away societies and reuse recycle but apparently not.

So I suppose my question is this right and how can I make them check to see if it is NEVER to be allowed on the road again.

[ainarssems]

Anything is allowed back on road as long as it is safe to use and passed VIC check. After all you can build car from nothing and register it. If there is not much left of original car like if chassis is changed DVLA might decide to give it new identity instead of using old as long as you can prove ownership of chassis i.e. not being stolen. If there is too much modified from standard spec it might require SVA test.

My S8 was Cat B writeoff in 2007

[Adrian E]

Dezzy

Suspect all he's suggesting is that the sum of the parts required, plus labour, plus a fudge factor for what he's missed equates to over half the car's value.

Is it your insurer that's assessed it, or the other party's?

If the car is worth £4k or less, give or take, anything more than a wing or a bumper is going to get uneconomic very quickly. Had this happen to our old Xsara VTS which was repaired, but badly as they didn't stick it on a jig to check it was straight before putting new panels on, which then didn't fit right. It took 2 body repair shops to get the job even half way right and cost about £500 less than the market value of the car (about £4k at the time). It got sold on ebay shortly after we got it back as we'd ordered a Leon Cupra R new while it was in being repaired as we were sick of the sight of it!!

[Dezzy]

Thanks guys.
Adrian i agree it will be an uneconomic repair for the repairers but what I don’t understand is how it is CAT B and not CAT C. Now I realise because of the damage to the driver’s door i.e. pushed in quite a bit that the safety cell has been compromised so a CAT C not D.
But if it doesn’t matter what CAT and I can repair it myself then I won’t argue too much with him. I was just finding it really hard to understand how they have come to this conclusion without checking it is all.

[Adrian E]

Cat c generally reserved for cosmetic/bolt on parts damage whereas structural repair would be cat b. our xsara would prob have been cat b if they'd written it off, whereas the next owners were none the wiser it'd been jigged and repaired as it was repaired and not recorded...

From the insurers point of view they're covering themselves if the car does go back on the road as it'll require a vic inspection to confirm its road legal

[Conan_the_Librarian]

I agree with Adrian and the title of the thread!