General when a marea meets a daf articulated lorry

[drivingscot]

today on the way back from picking my son up at work, coming round a blind left hand bend (20-25mph)to be confronted by a daf articulated truck coming wide the other way , stepped on the brakes but as the road was wet and slippery the car began to slide right for it but stopped just before impact but the daf kept coming with the result drivers side front bumper, lights, wing were ripped open like a can opener had been to work on it (see pics) I suppose I should be lucky to have survived at all but the upshot is that the age of the car makes the repairs too expensive for the insurance company and I fully expect their assesor to write it off, meaning not only do I lose my car (which still drives as sweet as ever) but that I will need to replace it, so all in all im the loser though it wasnt my fault and im properly insured, etc.. etc...

im sure if I salvaged the car from the insurers that using second hand parts and labour I could probably put her back on the road for about £800 - 1000, any one any opinions on what I should do?

 

[Hellcat]

Owch.. Some pretty significant damage there with the chassis rails being bent.

Surely your whiplash claim + insurance payout should get you a nice replacement Marea + cash to fix all those little jobs that spring up on a 'new' 2nd hand car.

 

[drivingscot]

reckoning on £1000 after excess taken off from the insurance company and no whiplash claim as police were called and reckoned as there were no injuries that its up to the ins comps to fight it out.

 

[Venters]

Nasty! Just as I thought Forum cars had stopped getting written off!

Edit doesn't whiplash take a few days to appear?

 

[mountainmachine]

Nasty!

 

[nissanmansco]

250 quid and i can get you a 20v marea thatsa had a rear end shunt. Front is all fine and would have everything you need.

 

[Tomasso]

Good you're in one piece!

 

[Hellcat]

reckoning on £1000 after excess taken off from the insurance company and no whiplash claim as police were called and reckoned as there were no injuries that its up to the ins comps to fight it out.

Police are not trained physicians. You should get excess back as it's lorry's fault.

 

[bandido41]

buy spares and fix it.At least you know what you have got and wont have to worry about cam belts e.t.c on another car

 

[polecat]

Wow nasty. Glad you're ok.
If you can buy it back and fix it for £500 then go for it. Anything more and I would think carefully about it.

 

[jug]

that would be cheap enough to fix

 

[faster4_tec]

unless the rails stoved in, which case = scrap.


insurance compaies don't understand about reliability and trust, a car is just a number figure no matter what, I mean my car is worthless technically, but its the most reliable thing I've ever owned, and to get one just AS reliable would be a neigh on impossible (and expensive) task.

point being, if rails aren't damaged, fix it

 

[drivingscot]

Insurance company have offered me £1300 minus excess (which is a real offer of only over £1000) which I have turned down as liability has still not been decided yet and I feel the car is worth more to replace than the bog standard model, it had only over 45000 miles from new with a full fiat service history, metallic paint and an electric sunroof, so hopefully they will look at their offer again and increase it something realistic and reflective of the cars history, condition and extras, something in the region of £1700 + is a more realistic starting figure I feel.

 

[crazydave]

Insurance company have offered me £1300 minus excess (which is a real offer of only over £1000) which I have turned down as liability has still not been decided yet and I feel the car is worth more to replace than the bog standard model, it had only over 45000 miles from new with a full fiat service history, metallic paint and an electric sunroof, so hopefully they will look at their offer again and increase it something realistic and reflective of the cars history, condition and extras, something in the region of £1700 + is a more realistic starting figure I feel.

Depending on the insurance company they will want to see proof that the car is worth the value that your say it is they will want proof that other cars like yours i.e. reg and mileage are the same and go for the higher amount, which can be hard to prove in some cases but you have your right to decline the first offer

 

[Hellcat]

Insurance company have offered me £1300 minus excess (which is a real offer of only over £1000) which I have turned down as liability has still not been decided yet and I feel the car is worth more to replace than the bog standard model, it had only over 45000 miles from new with a full fiat service history, metallic paint and an electric sunroof, so hopefully they will look at their offer again and increase it something realistic and reflective of the cars history, condition and extras, something in the region of £1700 + is a more realistic starting figure I feel.

What model Marea did you have? Lets see if we can sort you out some evidence of prices.

 

[crazydave]

What model Marea did you have? Lets see if we can sort you out some evidence of prices.

shouldnt be hard i dont think, some companies look at autotrader