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Old 03-10-2015, 08:48 AM
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cossynut2
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Originally Posted by Redeye Jedi
So basically I got hit up the arse a few weeks ago. I was stationary in traffic at the front of a few cars in traffic and the car behind me hit me as a result of being hit by the car behind. Very minimal impact.

Picture below showing the resulting damage...



To my surprise its been declared a total loss from the insurance company and now I am in the position of possibly having to replace it or retaining it and getting it back on the road.

I have since received the assessment from the insurance detailing the required work so I need to know whether its worth retaining the salvage and if I do what is required in order to get the car back on the road!

My plan is to get it on the road, do the bare minimum of the required work and just run the car until it dies. Not fussed at all by the cosmetic side of things!

The assessment has been broken down as follows...

Parts/Panels Requiring Renewing:
Rear crossmember
L.Side Panel Reinf
L.Vent Grille
L.R Out Bumper Bracket
L.R Reflector
Rear Badge
Badge Fiesta
Badge
Badge
Rear Bumper

Parts/Panels Requiring Repair
Repair Rear Panel
Repair Lower Tailgate
Repair L/R Side Panel
Repair L/R Floor Panel
Repair L/S Side Member

(All remaining work is painting the above)

Pretty much £2000 worth of work, £500 for parts, £500 for paint and the rest for labour!

What I really need to know is out of the above work, is any of it actually essential for the car to be classed as roadworthy? I guess I need to get the car MOT'd, as coincidently that has run out since the car has been in salvage storage, but I am hoping I wouldn't need to touch and of the above if I chose not to. Possibly only the cross member although from what I can see its only function is to support the bumper!

To add, the car was driven for almost 2 weeks after the accident with no issues hence why I am keen to get it back as I believe there is little or nothing actually wrong with it!

Anyone got any advice?
Take the money and buy it back. Take it as it is for an MOT and see if it fails on anything. If it does it will be something minor, fix that and just keep driving it, the damage is all cosmetic and as you said it still drives fine.

A friend of mine had an old Mercedes 190 e, some vandals scratched right around it with a screwdriver. The Insurance company wrote it off as they said a respray would cost more than it was worth. He settled on a deal with him buying it back for peanuts, got the scratches taken out by his mate who is a spray painter for just £200 and pocketed a very nice amount of money!