General Car was written off. 2 weeks of work and she's back on the road!!

[Tessia]

My car was hit whilst parked outside my house a few weeks ago and was written off (3 cars written off in total). Luckily, it was only a Cat N. I took the payout and fixed her up with some change left over.

Took me 2 weeks on and off to get her back to where she is now, but in a way, it worked out for the best. I enjoyed working on it, I had a few hundred left from the payout, and she looks even better now than she did before the write-off. I'm not worried about re-sale value, as I plan on having her until something catastrophic goes wrong that isn't worth fixing.

I was very lucky to find a bonnet and bumper used in the right colour, incredibly lucky, in fact, as while I see a LOT of Fiat 500's, I've only seen about 5 in 2 years that are this colour.

Guess this is just a little reminder, always look into fixing things yourself if you're good with a wrench. I'm no mechanic, but anything I didn't know, I found easily enough on YouTube.

 

[bugsymike]

View attachment 465200

My car was hit whilst parked outside my house a few weeks ago and was written off (3 cars written off in total). Luckily, it was only a Cat N. I took the payout and fixed her up with some change left over.

Took me 2 weeks on and off to get her back to where she is now, but in a way, it worked out for the best. I enjoyed working on it, I had a few hundred left from the payout, and she looks even better now than she did before the write-off. I'm not worried about re-sale value, as I plan on having her until something catastrophic goes wrong that isn't worth fixing.

I was very lucky to find a bonnet and bumper used in the right colour, incredibly lucky, in fact, as while I see a LOT of Fiat 500's, I've only seen about 5 in 2 years that are this colour.

Guess this is just a little reminder, always look into fixing things yourself if you're good with a wrench. I'm no mechanic, but anything I didn't know, I found easily enough on YouTube.

That's good , but what is your renewal quote like now it is Cat N? Insurance companies are not known for generosity.

 

[Tessia]

That's good , but what is your renewal quote like now it is Cat N? Insurance companies are not known for generosity.

Well, they sent me updated insurance documents, the price didn't change, and it just continues on until the end of the original insurance. Wether the price changes at renewal or not, I don't know. I know when I had a similar thing on my motorbike, I phoned to ask about that, and they said a Cat N won't affect my insurance. I'm just crossing my fingers that it's same in this situation.

 

[bugsymike]

Well, they sent me updated insurance documents, the price didn't change, and it just continues on until the end of the original insurance. Wether the price changes at renewal or not, I don't know. I know when I had a similar thing on my motorbike, I phoned to ask about that, and they said a Cat N won't affect my insurance. I'm just crossing my fingers that it's same in this situation.

Fingers crossed, I know some insurance companies refuse to insure them, but if you are staying with your original it should be OK as they have all the details.

 

[jrkitching]

Took me 2 weeks on and off to get her back to where she is now, but in a way, it worked out for the best. I enjoyed working on it, I had a few hundred left from the payout, and she looks even better now than she did before the write-off. I'm not worried about re-sale value, as I plan on having her until something catastrophic goes wrong that isn't worth fixing.

Well done for making the best of a bad situation. You now have a car which will cost you nothing in depreciation for the rest of its life!

 

[steveras57]

Well done you! -and how lucky can you be to find yellow panels to fix it as they are one if not the rarest colours to source! not many of us have the yellow colour and as it did not sell particularly well from new used parts are "tricky" you have to get lucky -which you did!- both happy and slightly envious of your luck! wanna go half on a lottery ticket with me?

 

[Dan at Adrian Flux]

Well, they sent me updated insurance documents, the price didn't change, and it just continues on until the end of the original insurance. Wether the price changes at renewal or not, I don't know. I know when I had a similar thing on my motorbike, I phoned to ask about that, and they said a Cat N won't affect my insurance. I'm just crossing my fingers that it's same in this situation.

Hi.
When your policy comes up for renewal if you have any issues with insurance then please feel free to drop me a line.
The majority of our insurance schemes have no issues insuring preciously written off vehicles.
Regards,
Dan.

 

[AnthonyH]

Credit to you.

I can't help feeling that your payout was stingy if all you had left over was a few hundred pounds. Repairing that took a lot of effort! But at least you have the car you know and like.