Another Silver Gti Bites The Dust

[soundguy 13]

Well, my little pride and joy, the car I chose to name 'The Silver Hound' (D'Argent Levriér) was involved in a non fault traffic accident this morning (PH2 1.6er on a J plate).

 

It's the first accident I've had and I'm yet to meet up with an engineer/assessor to examine the damage. But I've already been told over the phone by the insurers that it's probably a write off from the description I gave over the phone.

 

Obvious damage, as far as I can tell:

 

Front bumper/trim

Lower valance

Slam panel

Bumper mountings

Both headlights

Both indicators

Both driving lights

Radiator

 

What is the process and likely outcome/s? Should I start to collect ads for similarly aged examples to strengthen my case? What options do I have/what should I do?

 

Like I say, this is unknown territory for me so all advice gratefully accepted....

[welshpug 1,657]

99% going to be written off, however perfectly repairable.though a few members on here have been able to get their 205's repaired by the insurance companies.

 

Do not let it go out of your sight, DO get examples of other 205's for valuation purposes, book value is a few hundred if you're lucky ("just gti's" is ideal for this ) this will help against getting it repaired.

Edited December 2, 2011 by welshpug

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

I'll have your drivers door

 

Sorry to hear about this.

[soundguy 13]

99% going to be written off, however perfectly repairable.though a few members on here have been able to get their 205's repaired by the insurance companies.

 

Do not let it go out of your sight, DO get examples of other 205's for valuation purposes, book value is a few hundred if you're lucky ("just gti's" is ideal for this ) this will help against getting it repaired.

 

Thanks for the advice. Just to clarify, when you say 'this will help against getting it repaired' - I should get a load of prices together to support it's true value rather than book, giving it a stronger chance for repair by the insurers rather than it being written off and crushed? Do I understand that properly?

[soundguy 13]

I'll have your drivers door

 

Sorry to hear about this.

 

 

Thanks, was my first accident and luckily, not my fault or serious so I count myself pretty fortunate.

[welshpug 1,657]

Thanks for the advice. Just to clarify, when you say 'this will help against getting it repaired' - I should get a load of prices together to support it's true value rather than book, giving it a stronger chance for repair by the insurers rather than it being written off and crushed? Do I understand that properly?

 

yes, exactly that

[soundguy 13]

Ta, got an engineer coming out Tuesday so all will be revealed.

[Baz 421]

Not good!

 

As it wasn't your fault i'm told you can actually demand the car is repaired even if beyond economic worth, i'm not sure how true this is however, perhaps someone could confirm.

[davepug205 7]

Front end damage but not your fault. How does that work?

 

As I understood it, if a car pulls out right in front of you, or slams its brakes on. or comes in contact with anywhere forward of the wing mirrors.

 

You should of braked. or avoided it

 

Maybe wrong?

 

hope this isnt the case.

 

 

As said dont let them take your car anywhere!!!

Edited December 2, 2011 by davepug205

[soundguy 13]

Not good!

 

As it wasn't your fault i'm told you can actually demand the car is repaired even if beyond economic worth, i'm not sure how true this is however, perhaps someone could confirm.

 

Interesting (a ray of hope!), will look in to that.

[soundguy 13]

Front end damage but not your fault. How does that work? .... As said dont let them take your car anywhere!!!

 

It works when someone abruptly accelerates from the opposite direction into and across your lane! Let me explain:

 

Two lanes north and south, built up area, at traffic lighted crossroads with a yellow box junction marked out. Stationary truck in right lane turning right, I'm in the left, we're both southbound.

 

There's two lanes of traffic northbound, with the right hand lane stationary as it's waiting at the lights to turn right.

 

The truck beckons the woman, who is directly in front of him, that it's safe to go - so she quickly becomes visible to me as she accelerates out from in front of the truck, thinking the way is clear, turning to her right - and drives quickly and directly in to my path.

 

Trust me, I braked! But it's not like I could see her start to move from her position, as she was hidden by the truck.

 

If she'd slowly poked her nose out from in front of the truck to see if there was anything oncoming, I could have just swerved around - but she just went for it, thinking it was safe.

 

Anyway, point taken about the car staying put, ta.

[harryskid 193]

Sorry for your misfortune, hope it turns out ok and don't let the other insurance mess you about !

[soundguy 13]

Sorry for your misfortune, hope it turns out ok and don't let the other insurance mess you about !

 

Aye ta, could have been worse, that's the way I'm looking at it - just hope things go smoothly, eh.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Have a good read of that

 

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=121710&st=0&p=1095451&hl=transit&fromsearch=1entry1095451

 

Never accept the first offer, moan and complain A LOT and send them details of other similar cars for sale (only send them expensive ones such as that £7k one on piston heads!)

 

And good luck.

[soundguy 13]

Have a good read of that

 

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=121710&st=0&p=1095451&hl=transit&fromsearch=1entry1095451

 

Never accept the first offer, moan and complain A LOT and send them details of other similar cars for sale (only send them expensive ones such as that £7k one on piston heads!)

 

And good luck.

 

Great to be able to learn from other people's similar situations - thanks for the link, and really glad you got such a good result. Thing is, mine's nowhere near as good as yours was pre accident. I reckon the best I can hope for is a reasonable settlement and buying it back.

 

Perhaps I can ask a favour from you? I've never had to deal with an insurance company after an accident - how would you feel about giving me some pointers on what to put in any emails about rejecting the offer, like what did you say to strengthen your case? Was it based on the work you had done or was it coming from a modern classics angle, or something?

 

Any info you can give me will be more than I know right now! Feel free to PM if you prefer.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

 

Perhaps I can ask a favour from you? I've never had to deal with an insurance company after an accident - how would you feel about giving me some pointers on what to put in any emails about rejecting the offer, like what did you say to strengthen your case? Was it based on the work you had done or was it coming from a modern classics angle, or something?

 

 

I'm no expert but I'll tell you what I did and what happened.

 

Intially they tried to right it off, give me the car and about £300 if I remember, now that not really that bad considering the market value of a standard UK Rallye isn't a huge amount (the time of the accident the car had the 1360cc engine, spax shocks, 106 steeles, arches and gti brakes). After the engineer had come around and they had given me this offer I phoned up as soon as I recieved it and had bit of a rant, the conclusion of which was they suggested I send them details of similar cars on sale. Some of the reason for this was that I really pushed the rare factor and the classic car argument plus the work I had done, also I quite bluntely said they know nothing about these cars and whats its really worth. In the emails I commented on how hard it is to find these cars for sale and ended up sending them details of full rally prepared Rallye's and genuine euro Rallye's £2k+. They seemed to fall for this and shortly after contacted me saying they are fully reparing it with a courstey car and will pick up the rallye for repair. The work came to twice the value of the car and gave back their car in awful condition as I had taken it away surfing for a week in wales and gave it hard time and put it in a ditch .

 

Put up some photos and keep us updated as its really useful for other people in the same situation, as your finding out

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

There's some good examples on Piston heads and Ebay all £3000 + so use them, But as said if not your fault you can get it done, What if you where driving a SLS or something then they would have to pay £10,000's to fix it

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Have you got any pictures of the damage, it may not be as bad as you think.

[dee205 3]

Front end damage but not your fault. How does that work?

 

As I understood it, if a car pulls out right in front of you, or slams its brakes on. or comes in contact with anywhere forward of the wing mirrors.

 

You should of braked. or avoided it

 

Maybe wrong?

 

hope this isnt the case.

 

 

As said dont let them take your car anywhere!!!

 

If you run into the back of someone else yes. As you are supposed to keep a safe stopable distance. A woman lost control of her car at a low speed corner and understeered into the o/s front of my wife and I. Law saidher fault clearly. Again a few years back a guy pulled out in front of me at a crossroads to whom I hit square on. His fault also.

 

Within good reason you can't be held at fault if you are driving within the law and with due car and someone else's 'mistake' causes the front of your car to make contact.

 

Bummer about your car too mate.

[gruffa 7]

If they decide to write it off, they will give you the oppertunity to buy the car back, so haggle a good pay-out which includes getting the car back as part of the deal then get it repaired with the claim money and make a few quid yourself knowing that the car is still in good condition.

[Andy_C 50]

Not good!

 

As it wasn't your fault i'm told you can actually demand the car is repaired even if beyond economic worth, i'm not sure how true this is however, perhaps someone could confirm.

 

Almost. If on agreed value then if repairs are even a quid within then you can insist on repair. If not then sadly you're buggered.

 

It's worth, if the car is too good to write off, basing repairs on secondhand part prices - of course with much now NLA and here and eBay being full of parts and even cheap complete cars to break it's worth doing IMO (it's certainly the route I'd take)

[soundguy 13]

I'm no expert but I'll tell you what I did and what happened.

 

Intially they tried to right it off, give me the car and about £300 if I remember, now that not really that bad considering the market value of a standard UK Rallye isn't a huge amount (the time of the accident the car had the 1360cc engine, spax shocks, 106 steeles, arches and gti brakes). After the engineer had come around and they had given me this offer I phoned up as soon as I recieved it and had bit of a rant, the conclusion of which was they suggested I send them details of similar cars on sale. Some of the reason for this was that I really pushed the rare factor and the classic car argument plus the work I had done, also I quite bluntely said they know nothing about these cars and whats its really worth. In the emails I commented on how hard it is to find these cars for sale and ended up sending them details of full rally prepared Rallye's and genuine euro Rallye's £2k+. They seemed to fall for this and shortly after contacted me saying they are fully reparing it with a courstey car and will pick up the rallye for repair. The work came to twice the value of the car and gave back their car in awful condition as I had taken it away surfing for a week in wales and gave it hard time and put it in a ditch .

 

Put up some photos and keep us updated as its really useful for other people in the same situation, as your finding out

 

Some good ammo there allye, thanks for some good angles. I've got a nice little list of 1.6ers for sale around the country and they're looking a lot thinner on the ground than 1.9ers so I'll definitely try that when/if it comes down to it. There'll be some pics going up soon - plus, the damage is a bit less than I orginally thought - valance might be OK, maybe a couple of other items might be less damaged than anticipated. Hopefully the engineer/assessor might take pity. Thanks again for your clear answers.

[soundguy 13]

Have you got any pictures of the damage, it may not be as bad as you think.

 

I've had a closer look tonight, torched up, and despite what I said earlier about it maybe being not as bad as it seemed, now I reckon it looks worse than I thought - although I can't see the damage causing the problem, there's now a significant amount of water coming in to the pax footwell, from somewhere up toward the A pillar. I'm starting to feel bad about this.

 

I'll take some decent pics tomorrow and upload them after I've finished a couple of other jobs - depending what time the assessor guy is arriving.

 

Do you think maybe a seam has split or something?

[soundguy 13]

There's some good examples on Piston heads and Ebay all £3000 + so use them, But as said if not your fault you can get it done, What if you where driving a SLS or something then they would have to pay £10,000's to fix it

 

Thanks for the encouragement Miles, will do. Not sure if it's just me but none of the images on Just GTis are displaying? Was going to use those too.

[soundguy 13]

I'm no expert but I'll tell you what I did and what happened.

 

Intially they tried to right it off, give me the car and about £300 if I remember, now that not really that bad considering the market value of a standard UK Rallye isn't a huge amount (the time of the accident the car had the 1360cc engine, spax shocks, 106 steeles, arches and gti brakes). After the engineer had come around and they had given me this offer I phoned up as soon as I recieved it and had bit of a rant, the conclusion of which was they suggested I send them details of similar cars on sale. Some of the reason for this was that I really pushed the rare factor and the classic car argument plus the work I had done, also I quite bluntely said they know nothing about these cars and whats its really worth. In the emails I commented on how hard it is to find these cars for sale and ended up sending them details of full rally prepared Rallye's and genuine euro Rallye's £2k+. They seemed to fall for this and shortly after contacted me saying they are fully reparing it with a courstey car and will pick up the rallye for repair. The work came to twice the value of the car and gave back their car in awful condition as I had taken it away surfing for a week in wales and gave it hard time and put it in a ditch .

 

Put up some photos and keep us updated as its really useful for other people in the same situation, as your finding out

 

Okay, here's an update - sorry it's a bit long winded. Might edit it down for clarity if needs be:

 

 

 

Following on from ally's request to update the thread with results as my cal progresses, here's what's happened so far.

 

As expected the engineer/assessor came out to do his assessment. After reading the linked post which ally kindly supplied further back in this thread, saw some advice given to him re: making the car look it's best.

 

So what I did was get out in the snow with a couple of buckets of hot, waxy water and give the Hound a good bath (must have looked a right upped, washing my car in those conditions…)

 

Gave all of the external trim a good going over with Autoglym Vinyl & Rubber Care - wasn't sure whether this would work due to the snow melting and running down the side of the car but it did as good a job as I needed.

 

Going back to the weather, I was REALLY lucky the conditions were bad that day/the proceeding night. See, the Hound's got a few dings here and there and the roof's not as straight as the day it left the factory.

 

I was worried this might've given more leverage for a smaller settlement cheque. Struck up a bit of a conversation with the assessor and he commented on how it looked like a particularly decent example, which to be honest, made me even more determined to get the car back up to standard.

 

He did actually notice the roof but said, "I'll never get a decent picture of the roof in these conditions" - there was a slight layer of sleet/snow, the rest of the bodywork was spattered with rain/droplets masking the odd dent and scrape - but in all honesty after washing it before he came, it was looking really good considering.

 

He was only there 10/15 mins tops, like I say we had a quick chat about how many GTi's he'd repaired over the years as he used to own a body shop/accident repair place.

 

So as he was taking his pictures and confirmation that it was was pretty definitely a write off, I mentioned I'd be happy to source used parts where I could to build it back up via a buy back. He took this on board, didn't say much about the used parts but said he wouldn't expect the buy back figure to be high at all.

 

Then he left, telling me he'd give me a call soon - which he did, later that day. And what he basically said was, he'd looked in to the valuation which was £410 taking into account the relatively low mileage. The buy back figure was £80. Excess £200.

 

He said he was using Glass's guide to draw up the figure - and I replied that I deserved to be put back into the same position I was before the accident - which incidentally wasn't my fault.

 

I also played the honesty card stating there was no whiplash claim, no courtesy car and the figure he had provided wasn't accurate, as I wasn't in the trade, wasn't about to trade in the vehicle, and the cheapest similar example I could find was £800 - with other examples being advertised as up to £6k.

 

So having been 'lowballed' so hard I have to say it caught me off guard initially - bearing in mind the original £410 offer - minus £80 buy back and £200 excess, I was beginning to feel well pissed off that I was going to be well out of pocket because of this other drivers' fault.

 

I underlined that I only wanted to be put back into the position I was in before the accident - which I didn't cause, I stated - and bringing this up to date, we've now arrived at a settlement figure which I think is an honest reflection of the car's value once repaired (all I'm saying is it's over £500 and under £1k!).

 

What I still need to do is claim back the excess from the other party. I always buy my Motor Legal Protection separately from the main insurance policy, as they're usually about £25. I pay £12, so we'll find out if it's worth making the saving for (http://www.bestadviceuk.co.uk/). I'll update the thread as and when I get info about this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 13, 2011 by soundguy