24
« on: 10 September 2024, 12:40:29 »
A couple of weeks ago my brother left his car in the local railway station car park and while it was there, a woman with a disability car reversed right into the front offside wheel area, bent the wing, bonnet/damaged light and whatever else damage done underneath. It doesn't look that bad on the face of it but imagine it might have damaged the steering/suspension as there was a big puddle of what looked lke steering fluid on the ground.
The front of the car was shunted about 3 feet sideways out the parking bay. Apparently the woman driving it was the friend of the actual named driver and she said she had drove it as her friend wasn't well, but turns out she wasn't insured to drive it.
The car is a VW passat 15 plate 1.6 diesel with just shy of 50k miles and I think valuation is around the 7 grand mark thereabouts. Insurance company said they were willing to cover it but have now said it is deemed a write off. I think it can still be repaired but is deemed a certain category of repaired write off.
I am no expert in this but how do they determine the car is written off, is it if the cost exceeeds 70% of the value of the car or similar?
I think there is also the option he can get the car back from the insurance and use the valuation the insurance give him to get it repaired himself. He is currently on the sick, needs the car for dialysis and would potentially have to pay any difference in repair costs over the book valuation he gets from insurance, if that's what it comes to.
Just wondering what his options are, he'd prefer to keep the car and not sure if he's get one the same with such low miles unless he forked out a premium.
Thanks
G