Bike write off advice

[badger]

Hi All,
I have managed to throw my bike down the road and into the back of a car. I am ok but dealing with the insurance and repair companies is turning out to be more painful than the accident.
The bike is an 03 600 foxeye and the damage sustained was a smashed front mudguard; scuffed and scraped front wheel, scuffed fork lowers; heavily scraped LH fairing; heavily scrapped LH engine cover, bent LH foot peg. bent radiator.
The bike went to 4th Dimension in Egham Surrey and has been with them for 3 weeks. The have called me today to say it is an uneconomical repair which has surprised me as the bike was rideable after the accident. They have said there is £3K worth of damage.
They have offered me £2k in settlement minus my excess of £300 which will leave me £1700 towards a new bike. As I have never been in this situation I have a few questions
1. Can I ask for my bike back in the condition I gave it to them and will I incur any costs?
2. If they do give me it back can I repair it and put it back on the road?
3. If they have written it off can it go back on the road?
4. Can I ask for parts off the bike [it had a system 3 alarm on it]
5. Is the £2k negotiable [if I think it is worth more than that]
As I said I am a bit green in this area and would like others experiences or advice before I go back to them?
Thanks Badger

[ChristoT]

You should be able to get it back, and repair it, although the HPI may show it as being a Cat C or Cat B (unsure on this one). I am 90% sure you get your bike back though. And I mean all of it.

There are others more knowledgeable than me though!

[BBROWN1664]

dispute the valuations first off. Get ads from ebay, autotrader etc to show how much a replacement would cost (same age, mileage etc) to get the price right.
Then ask about buying it back. As an uneconomical repair it will be a Cat C/Cat D so will need either a VOSA check or just a straight MOT to get it back on the road.

[Hedgetrimmer]

I have done estimates for insurance repairs and it is surprising how easily everything adds up to make repairs uneconomical. For instance, if the frame is marked, a dealer will add a new frame into the estimate, even tho' it may only be a bit of damaged paint. Parts prices in an estimate are obviously for new parts, and if much of this is genuine Yam, well we all know what those prices are like. Using the frame as perhaps the worst case scenario, you would then have the labour to strip everything off the damaged one, and rebuild the bike around the replacement frame, at the hourly rate your dealer charges. Dealers will put everything on that estimate they think has been damaged in the accident, however lightly marked. There may be some room for discussion with them about what goes on to the estimate.
 
 What happens then is that the insurance company will send an assessor to view the bike. Armed with a copy of the dealer's estimate, he will examine the machine and negotiate (or insist on) repairs to, rather than replacement of, some parts on the estimate, whilst giving the thumbs up for the rest, assuming a repair is economically feasible. The dealer will then agree a new final estimate with the assessor.
 
If the dealer regards the repairs as uneconomical, i.e., a write off, he might not write up the estimate in full, but simply state that in their opinion it would be uneconomical.
 
Well, that's the side of things I've seen first hand, so maybe gives you some idea of how the repair bill came to be so high in yours and similar cases.
 
I'm sure others can answer your other points.
 

[badger]

Thank you for the advice so far, I'll have a trawl through the classifieds, a very quick look seems to bring up an 03 600 at more near £2500. The chap from 4th dimension has tried with non OE parts and cant get the price down.
 

[Dead Eye]

To try and answer your points;

1. Yes, you can get your bike back but I'm uncertain as to any costs associated. I have heard the term "buy it back" but again, unsure on the actual cost

2. Depends on the write-off category. But its likely to be Cat C or D in which case its either a VOSA check or MOT to get it back on the road after any necessary repairs

3. See point 2

4. Not entirely sure on this one. I think it tends to be an all or nothing when reclaiming the bike but I could be way off the mark

5. Yes, it is completely negotiable but you will need to have evidence to back it up. Having said that, £2k for an 03 600 isn't far off the mark in my opinion, maybe up to £2.5k for a very good condition low mileage example

[Punkstig]

I'm assuming you're fully comp and claiming off your own insurance, if so then whatever value you decide to settle with your insurance company the bike then becomes their property,


I'd aim to try and get £2000 after your excess, I bought my '03 with 12000 miles for £1750, so essentially that's the roundabout market value!


After you've agreed a price you can ask them if they have a price for you to buy it back off them, which tends to be pretty cheap, but do you really want to spend money on a knackered bike when you now have the money to replace it for an unmolested one?


If you are looking at getting the bike back without claiming on your insurance the insurance company will charge you whatever the charges were for picking the bike up and any storage charges if they have been incurred, not forgetting that now you have informed them of the accident it will be on record and have to be declared in the future which will affect your premium. Now that you have told them you're better off going through the whole claim process!


I've had cat c and cat d damage classed payouts and never been told to have the bike inspected before going back on the road.

[AdieR]

Having had my bike decked twice at work by other people, it's amazing how quick costs mount up.

The first claim on mine (10 days after I bought it for £3500) were £1400 (footpeg, brake pedal, bar end, headlamp, fairing & bracket, rear panel, clutch cover). £900 of that £1400 were parts alone, then add on labour and VAT.
The second were £1200, with a similar selection of damage.

You mention a scuffed front wheel; to buy that from Yamaha you'd be looking at £500+ for that alone.

Whether you can buy the bike back will depend on what write-off category it gets (if it's A, it must be scrapped entirely, B must not go back on the road but parts may be salvageable, C / D are usually repairable and written off on cost grounds).

When I bought my bike, there was an '03 plate 600 for sale (same dealer where I bought mine from) at around £1800, final price will be condition dependent; if you have service history / bills for parts, you could try putting that forward to get a few extra quid (evidence the bike has been cared-for) - if you have aftermarket parts (end cans for example), they won't necessarily increase the bike's value.

HTH.

[rustyrider]

Never done it with a bike but done it with a couple of cars.  They will almost certainly allow you to buy it back as they then don't have the hassle of disposing of it.  They will give you the value, less your insurance excess and less what they value the remains at which will probably be no more than a couple of hundred quid.  You then have the choice of sourcing your own parts, new or secondhand, to repair it yourself or taking off what you want to keep and flogging the rest off as spares.  If it is classed at Cat C, it will need a VIC check before they will let you tax it, if Cat D then it won't.  One other thing to bear in mind if you repair it yourself is that some insurers won't cover a rebuilt write off so that will limit your choice of insurer.

[badger]

Gents, Thats brilliant advice thank you all. It has now made the process alot clearer in my own mind. I will try and see if I can squeeze a few more quid out of them which will help source a new bike. I think a couple of things stand out form the above comments, 1. Once you have decided to let your insurers deal with it, you have to go with the flow and let them deal with it, with the final outcome not always being to your liking. 2. If you go alone and decide to do your own repairs there are other pitfalls, i.e. getting the bike insured, repaired ok. and the biggest learning of all out of this is dont throw your bike down the road !
p.s. if anyone knows of a lowish mileage foxeye for around £2k let me know 

[noggythenog]

Badger youll easily get one for under 2k, but if you take your time you could be at least a month finding the right one.that will take you to October territory & not long after most bikes will be layed up for the winter, if you hang on you can get yourself a bargain during the winter months, especially closing in on xmas time.

[seangee]

Bast!ds cat B'd mine because of bent forks    so I couldn't buy it back. Estimate was about 5k - and they quoted everything on the bike that wasn't perfect (it was a 10 yr old bike FFS). Could have got it back to its original condition for about 1k if I did it myself (well better cos that included R1 forks).


Unfortunately had no choice about telling the insurance because I couldn't afford to fix the car I damaged. Still paying on the premiums today! Would not tell insurers if I didn't have to - but you are right. Once you tell the insurers you are completely at their mercy

[Dead Eye]

Very very glad I didn't tell my insurers about my crash then... I had bent forks on mine - so far costs have come to about £40 and that's including the new seals and fork oil I bought :P

[chaz]

When I wrote off my 8 month old BT1100 bulldog (with the help of a nice lady who pulled out of a side road) I went to the yamaha dealer that I bought it off, he told me the price he would sell a bike of that age, out of the showroom, that is the price you should get, less your excess, I got £25 less maybe because it was 6 weeks before they made me an offer so I think they did it from this date and not the date it happened? I did complain but was told I could pay for an independant valuation at some stupid amount.
I claimed off my own insurance (carole nash) who were slow to say the least, it took well over a year to claim off the other partys insurance, remember that unless you get another bike quickly you will have to start a new policy and you will loose some of your NCB depending how many years you had, every one is out to screw you, good luck?

[badger]

Thanks for the additional comments gents. I'm not in much of a rush to replace so can afford to wait and have a look around. I have seen an FZ6 for £1800 on an 06 plate which i thought was quite cheap!
I will drop a line on here when I get my full settlement.

[sadlonelygit]

I'm surprised noone has mentioned storage costs yet, as the garage is entitled to charge @£30 a day storage if you decide to buy back. If you do buy back, the offer will be less

[Punkstig]

If you are looking at getting the bike back without claiming on your insurance the insurance company will charge you whatever the charges were for picking the bike up and any storage charges if they have been incurred,

Erm

[sadlonelygit]

Skim reading on a tablet, soz!