First Car Help

[dominic M]

Hi I'm 16 and am a bit of a novice on cars. :-/

I'm looking at a 2009 ford fiesta Zetec S 1.6 (1st car, group 4 insurance... how???). Its been in a crash obviously and is mangled on the passenger side, all I want to know is if you can still fix body work to the car and if I am able to replace: bonnet, front wing, and bumper and whether it will need to go on a jig or not? As I have said I understand a small amount about cars and my dad has a much better understanding but is not a professional, I will spend as much time as possible to restore this car...

here are the pictures and thank you for any help or advice possible :)

[MRC89]

Not sure about restoring cars, but there's a thread here that may be of some help to you. http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20389&st=0&p=119253&fromsearch=1entry119253

Is it a Zetec S TDCI? The petrol model is insurance group 6

Good luck restoring the car :) No fiesta deserves be left in this state

[dominic M]

thank you I will look into this and yes it is Zetec S and is insurance 4 lol says on autotrader, you can have a check if you like Auto trader then click vehicle summary :P

Thanks again

[Mark M.K]

If you decide to fix that car up, at your age you will be looking at a good few thousand a year on the insurance for a car like this

[dominic M]

heya one more question please, I also haven't any experience of buying cars, so what do you think of the price, do you recon I could whittle it down?? :)

Mark, that's for every car I have tried, I have used 4 comparison websites and even 1.1 renault clio its £3800!!!

I have one way around it though and thats my dad being the named driver and me a second driver or whatever it is called :-S

and thanks for your input, much appreciated :)

Edited April 4, 2011 by dominic M

[Mark M.K]

All very well in doing that, but please don't do insurance fraud. What you are planning to do is called "fronting" and is very much illegal. I know getting cheap insurance is near impossible at your age (i had the same problem) but doing insurance fraud is not the way to go.

I'm not having a go, which it may look like i am but trust me im not :) I wish you all the luck with the car :)

[dominic M]

ooh I didn't even know it was fraudulent :-S, I don't see why it is if it is.

well thanks anyway and is it an easy job, fitting the panels?

[MRC89]

Put anyone who lives with you on your insurance policy as long as they have more driving experience than you, You being the main driver, and everyone else named drivers. From the insurers view you spend less time driving the car, which brings the price down, this brought mine from £1300 to £580 by just adding my mum and dad as named drivers.

Also having a parent being the main driver on the policy is illegal (although hard to prove) unless they drive the car the majority of the time.

The TDCI which you linked is insurance group 4 as you said :)

Not too sure on prices, but 4,300 seems a bit steep considering the damage and the car having 20k miles on it

[dominic M]

yeah and they do a good job at taking a picture of dashboard area as I should think the airbags had deployed in an accident like that which means about £300 replacement as well :( So I would like to offer £3500 as a reasonable price, what do you recon?

[DanGull]

Is the car a cat C or D write off? If so, the insurance will be even more than a new or used but undamaged zetec S - and the write off will be noted on the car's details if it's a cat C. Most insurers will ask if the car has ever been a cat D.

As Mark has said - fronting is illegal. Many people (including users of FOC) will say 'how do they prove it?' and 'it's not fair that insurance for young drivers is so much' and whatever you feel about that, it's still illegal.

[dominic M]

I know that now Dangull so thanks for pointing it out again and I wont be doing it now as I didn't know it was against the law.

Here we go though... what if my dad and I actually share the car, he drives to work monday- friday and I use it at the weekends? Harmless, surely?

[DanGull]

If he has another car - it will cause problems as most insurers will not allow one person to be main driver on two cars.

However - if he doesn't, then what you suggest isn't fronting, because he will genuinely be the main driver.

[iNath]

I know that now Dangull so thanks for pointing it out again and I wont be doing it now as I didn't know it was against the law.

Here we go though... what if my dad and I actually share the car, he drives to work monday- friday and I use it at the weekends? Harmless, surely?

If your Dad uses it 51+% of the time then there isn't an issue - as long as that's the truth.

EDIT: Also carrying on from what DanGull mentioned above - if your Dad is currently using a no claims bonus on another car he cannot use it on this car as well (so when getting quotes you have to declare him as having '0' years which may increase the price)

[dominic M]

Ok thanks, as I have already asked, do you recon I could whittle price down to mid £3000 as I haven't any experience of buying cars. Thank you iNath

[DanGull]

To be honest - I think the idea is brave, admirable but somewhat foolhardy. What's the car going to cost you to repair?

I'm going to assume the car was written off by an insurer, so effectively the cost of repairs would outweigh the cost of replacing it like-for-like. A 59 plate with 20K on the clock can be had for £7000 or there abouts after a quick Autotrader search, so their opinion is that it would be more economical to do this than repair it.

Let's say you only costs you a grand to repair it - that's £4K spent on it. You can get a great first car for £4k with no accident damage at all...

[dominic M]

I don't know whether I sound silly saying this but I have 5 months till I can start driving and I would like A newish' car that I can look after and some what do for as a project and to help pass the time. It has everything that I admire for a new car (apart from large chunk missing from the front) But what I am trying to get across is that it seems the perfect car for me and for a first car I don't think anyone would turn a blind eye.

[KeithC]

Personally I think you're throwing good money after bad. Also, things like this are best left to proffessionals and should be done properly and not on the cheap. I'm not saying you would do it on the cheap and if you're not, then it's going to cost a bit of wedge to get it back on the road and when you do, it will always be a Cat D and valued and insured accordingly.

From what I can see, it will have to go on a jig just to check it, never mind if it needs straightening. New bonnet, wing, bumper, spoiler, side skirt, dashboard, damaged parts in engine bay, steering parts checked/alligned, paint etc etc, it all adds up.

I know all you young 'uns want a nice new shiny car as your first car but the costs can be prohibitive. Why don't you consider buying a Cat D (you're obviously not put off by one)that's already been repaired, there are a few new shape 1.25 Fiesta's around for less than £5000 now that have been repaired, an ideal engine size for insurance purposes until you build up your no claims.

[Londongirl8]

Personally I think you're throwing good money after bad. Also, things like this are best left to proffessionals and should be done properly and not on the cheap. I'm not saying you would do it on the cheap and if you're not, then it's going to cost a bit of wedge to get it back on the road and when you do, it will always be a Cat D and valued and insured accordingly.

From what I can see, it will have to go on a jig just to check it, never mind if it needs straightening. New bonnet, wing, bumper, spoiler, side skirt, dashboard, damaged parts in engine bay, steering parts checked/alligned, paint etc etc, it all adds up.

I know all you young 'uns want a nice new shiny car as your first car but the costs can be prohibitive. Why don't you consider buying a Cat D (you're obviously not put off by one)that's already been repaired, there are a few new shape 1.25 Fiesta's around for less than £5000 now that have been repaired, an ideal engine size for insurance purposes until you build up your no claims.

That's a good idea - the amount of damage you'd be taking on is definitely best left to a professional. By the time you spend all that money fixing it, you could have just bought something already in decent shape and insured it in your own name.

[AntonyJ]

I don't know whether I sound silly saying this but I have 5 months till I can start driving and I would like A newish' car that I can look after and some what do for as a project and to help pass the time. It has everything that I admire for a new car (apart from large chunk missing from the front) But what I am trying to get across is that it seems the perfect car for me and for a first car I don't think anyone would turn a blind eye.

It would help if you know someone in the repair business who can do a deal on the jig work, welding, etc, especially if you're prepared to help do a lot of the work yourself. In any case you should find out how much that part is going to cost you. The labour costs will be high. If you're still up for it, you then need to go around scrappys looking for a Fiesta (that's been hit somewhere else, obviously) and find out how much all the parts are going to cost. The biggy is the dashboard and airbags - and make sure it's the right colour! That's all assuming there's no damage to the engine, transmission, front subframe, etc which you can't tell from that photo. The rim of the alloy looks damaged as well, so add that to the list...

Even with all that, I doubt the total bill will come to less than £2000, and possibly a lot more, and as a repaired write-off it's resale value will always be reduced. To give some context, when my Fiesta was shunted (and needed straightening and a new boot floor, tailgate, bumper, lights, but no mechanical damage) the bill was £4000, though of course as an insurance job that was full price.

[dominic M]

thanks to everyone who helped me making my decision, as I took the picture to the body repair shop at the top of the road and they said it would cost "Thousands".

[briggsy]

buy yourself a 58 plate style or style+ otherwise the cost of insuring that car which looks like a CAT D writeoff will be more than buying a new working car, it looks to me that you see the idea of buying a cheap car thats damaged and fixing it up cheap and having an ice car, what you actually have is a cheap write off that will cost thousands to repair and even more to re insure especialy as you have no experiance.

[mark t]

It looks like a front corner hit, my 03 Zetec was written off, and all I did was to try to steer out on to the verge, hitting at an angle slightly so twisting the chassis, and that was why they wrote it off!

doesn't look much damage, but they wouldn't fix it! 3 years old too!

edit:

done a reg check and looks to be in use!

Vehicle Identification

Manufacturer: Ford

Model: Fiesta Zetec Tdci

Year: 2003

Colour: Silver

Fuel Type: Diesel

Engine Size (CC): 1399

VIN: Not available

V5C Issued: Not available

Tax

Tax Status: Licence Not Due

Expiry Date: 01/07/2011

Registration Date: 30/06/2003

6 Month Cost: £0.00

12 Month Cost: £30.00