Font of all knowledge - Car body repairs - How much?

[BBROWN1664]

Some plonker managed to stop on the M3 the other night by using the rear of my car as some additional braking mechanism. The car is now in the body shop whilst I drive round in a very nice hire car (glad the plonker admitted liability).
Trying to work out if my car might be written off or not so trying to guess how much the repairs will be. The car is a Hyundai Santa Fe. The damage from what I can see is:

Tailgate
Rear bumper and all the mountings etc
both rear wheel arch liners
possible twist to chassis (car hit us in the rear quarter at an angle)
rear quarter panel has some waves in it (ie not straight)
Roof where tailgate mounts to appears to have been pulled down a little


With a 4 1/2 year old car worth around £13-14K I am guessing it will be a borderline write off.

What's your thoughts?

[red98]

Had a very small knock in my golf earlier in the year, nowhere near your damage, mine was borderline  ....got it repaired in the end..........EXUPNUT is an insurance assessor.........at last , something usefull he can post about 
   My moneys on write off....sorry 

[BBROWN1664]

The Mrs had a shunt in her Saab last year. Car was worth about 6K but they added over £2K of parts that were not needed to the bill and tried to write it off. I fought that one and won as the car is a good car.

This one though, if they write it off I am not bothered. Was contemplating changing cars soon anyway. Would be nice to have a better guess though to see if I am wasting my time looking at other cars yet.

[Exupnut]

Insurance company's repair if the total price of the repair is less than 60-70% of the value of the vehicle. What u estimate as its value may differ from the book value of the car for that year.

The rear of modern cars are designed to be much tougher than the front to take a hit from another vehicle. If you have a spare wheel well in the back get it out and check the bonded joins and surrounding floor for dents/warping.
I doubt chassis damage from that angle but rear subframe/crossmember may be bent. Get ur bonce under the back with a torch and have a looksee.

Plastic bumpers and arch liners are very cheap and repairers will be able to get much better prices for spares than u and I and obviously if the price of the repair exceeds the price of a new part it will be replaced.

Rear quarter panels are designed by manufacturers to maximise aftermarket profit as there are hardly any joins on most of them so that would entail removing doors/ possibly centre pillars to get the whole panel off. Remember 20 year ago when car side panels had joins in them to make it easier and cheaper to repair? Car companies low profit margins put that to bed. If it's out of align and not to badly damaged it could be "magic pulled" and repaired.

Tailgates are quite easy to repair like doors as they can be removed and stripped quite easily. Sometimes they move out of alignment and that can fool the eye into thinking the roof is out due to gap movement but I doubt it would have moved.

I would say 4-5 grand repair and dependant on mileage ....say under 60k then the car will be repaired.

WAS THAT A USEFUL POST RED U OLD DOG ?

[red98]

Very good EXUPNUT.....did you get a grown up to help you ?

[Exupnut]

I'm surprised at 98 u ain't been written of u old fart lol

[Hedgetrimmer]

Never thought I'd see the day when Exupnut featured in a thread entitled "Font of all knowledge" 

[red98]

 

[Exupnut]

Hahahahahahahahaha........I gonna stack that triple in a hedge u bastid :-)

[BBROWN1664]

Thanks Exup.

Regardin the roof, running my finger from left to right I can feel dips in the roof of the car where above where the hinges are fitted. The hinges themselves are not bolted directly to the roof so not sure how, but something has pulled the roof down in these points.
For the tailgate, it will need replacing. The outer skin and the frame are both creased.
The reason I think the chassis may be twisted is the car hit us at an angle, he was trying to get to the left of us as we avoided a car by swerving to the right. His o/s bumper hit my n/s bumper. In addition, the 3rd row seats now have a larger gap between them and the side of the car to the left than to the right and the car now pulls slightly (only slightly) to the left. With the steering wheel slightly off centre I can go in a straight line but this was not like that before the impact.

[Exupnut]

Rear tracking probably out but not difficult or expensive to repair. Still don't think the chassis bent but just rear subframe which can be jigged easily enough.  If the roof/hinges need a fix at 13-14 k value @ 4.5 years old I would still say it will go again. If you have liability in your favour and you get it repaired thru his insurance it will up that probability aswell. Did u report it to your insurance company?

[BBROWN1664]

I would agree the tracking is out, the question is why but I am sure they will find out if they check it properly.
I reported it to my insurance company. He is insured with the same company (Admiral). He admitted liability and the claim is being covered by his policy including a hire car (Audi A6 estate - very nice) rather than the repair shop Vauxhall Corsa.  They have even agreed to pay the uplift on the hire car to cover my trip to France and started paying my passengers compo for whiplash.

[Exupnut]

If u were hit behind square on the chances are the rear axle/wheels and all linkages would be ok say up to about 35/40 mph. If ur hit on a rear corner the kinetic energy will travel down one side of the car and will obviously kind of double. That's a lot of force to soak up so rear tracking will always be checked. By us anyway.

The fact u both have the same ins co is unfortunate because u have to declare it now for 5 years. That MAY put ur premium up even though u were not at fault. I can't say which ins co's do that but I know it happens. At least u won't have to cough up ur excess though. I think that part of it is really unfair.

Policy holder not at fault and liability not sorted yet but ins co take excess anyway. PH found not to be at fault and has to claim his excess back even tho his/her ins co has their money in THEIR ACCOUNT!!!!

Fukin rip off cunts.

[BBROWN1664]

The only people that make money out of insurance are the insurance companies.

[dickturpin]

Try getting a quote with details of this claim provided and see what happens to your premium.
We recently had a car hit on our drive and the other drivers insurance paid in full. I intended to embark on a claim for future years premium increase but the quote I got did not go up
D

[sadlonelygit]

Firstly glad nobody seriously hurt, although proper whiplash isnt fun.
secondly, swmbo had the saab door (scrape) and bumper chin splitter repainted................... £450 @ mates rates so i'd hazard a guess that the labour charges may cat c it

[fazersharp]

I had a no fault claim in the car and although had to declare it for 5 years it did not affect the premiums

[BBROWN1664]

When the Mrs Saab convertible was parked in the back of an Astra the same body sho that has my car took that in. The quote came back at over £4k. When I queried it I got the breakdown of the parts they had quoted for and instantly saw £2k of parts (radiator, condenser and intercooler) that they claimed needed replacing but hadn't even been damaged.
The only damage on that was the bumper, bonnet, headlights and slam panel. Nothing behind the bumper had moved or been touched.
The car got repaired in the end. The Santa Fe however, is worth more so may not come close to a write off. I guess I will find out more next week.