General Write off??

[Harrysmom]

Good job her insurance has expired..

 

[chris3234]

Do you have any idea how they had bypassed the immobiliser? I know there used to be a way pressing pedals in a certain way with the key in the barrel the older cars would fire up.....one of the reasons why Ive turned off keyless entry on my Ford is due to just how easy they can be to open with a laptop

Laptop into obd port and read imobliser code from bcm


Pretty easy with correct software less then 2mins break steering lock and then get to work

 

[vexorg]

Pretty dumb bug in that case.
The early corsa C has similar bug where you can read the security code from the instrument cluster that lets you access all the critical ecu parts. It was sorted on the later corsa.

 

[FiatMatt94]

And just in case you're interested, this is a picture of the kind of damage that would result in a car of similar age and value to your daughter's being written off by an insurance company.


View attachment 440119

That's silly isn't it being written off over a bumper, a friend of my dad's had a beautiful Coupe 20v Turbo in scotts green which he'd owned from about 6 months old, the insurance company wrote it off over a bumper & bonnet, it only had about 45k on it with all new belts, cambelt & water pump along with the hose of death having just all been changed a few days before

 

[jrkitching]

Pretty easy with correct software less then 2mins break steering lock and then get to work

Let's not post too much detail about how to steal these on a public forum, folks!

 

[AndyRKett]

Insurance companies will often write cars off even when the cost of the repair is significantly less than the market value of the car.

From their perspective, they want to minimise the total cost of settling the claim. A significant element in the cost equation is the scrap value of the salvage, which can be considerable, particularly if the car is only lightly damaged. Another consideration is that if they scrap the car, the insurance is terminated at that point, and they will have no further liability; if they repair it, the insurance runs until the end of the term. Not wanting to continue to insure a driver who's just had an accident can also push them toward a writeoff.

If they scrap the car, they'll get the salvage value, the value of the remaining term of the policy, plus the notional value of not having to insure a driver who is now a higher insurance risk. If they repair it, they don't get any of that.

it gets way more complicated than even that. for example in the event of the car needing a part that is hard to get, that can mean the car is sitting around in storage for quite some time before a repair can begin.

I have a brother who owns a body shop and he can make quite a bit of money from having cars sitting around doing nothing. He was telling me only recently how he made £2k on a car that he didn't even repair because the insurance company could not decided what they were doing with it.
This also has a massive impact if a part is difficult to get. For example if someone broke into my mk1 punto even if the value is say £3k and it has a broken door lock and linkage costing no more than £20 potentially. If that part is not available through fiat or thought any aftermarket component manufacturer then a car costing £xxxx can be written off for the sake of a £5 part. This has been a big issue over the last couple of years with all the factories that shut down in China making parts for the automotive industry. A friend of mine had to buy a new car when they could not get a replacement for a AdBlue tank that had split. Vauxhall were forced to buy their car back off them for what they paid for it, as they could not repair it under warranty. if that was accident damaged the car would be a right off for a £200ish part as scrap yards were selling them for over £2k if you could even find one.

any of these costs could double if they are paying for a rental car while waiting for the car to be repaired


Car insurance is far more complex than car worth ..... repairs cost..... therefore write off or not.

 

[Harrysmom]

Total loss...

 

[AndyRKett]

Total loss...

predictable sadly

 

[jrkitching]

it gets way more complicated than even that

Absolutely. I was just pointing out a few of the myriad reasons why cars with seemingly easy repairs get written off.

 

[jrkitching]

Total loss...

The good news is that she won't have to keep the car, which I understand is something she didn't want.

Now you need to get a settlement figure from the insurers.

Did your daughter pay a single annual premium, or did she pay monthly?

 

[Harrysmom]

Spent over an hour the phone with the insurance being passed around backwards and forwards, they assumed she knew it was a total loss, settlement figure will come next week, mind you they said they'd let her know about assessment but didn't.
Policy actually expired today trying to find out how this affected her NCB was like getting blood from a stone!
But yes, I suppose a result ( If you can call it that) I suppose saves her hassle of a repair and drawing out getting rid.
Getting her belongings another story, no weekend collection and last appointment 2-3 in the day and it's 35 miles away....