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Collision Advice


michael74
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Hi all, first post and all that, been lurking for a while now.

Anyway a bit of advice please if anyone has been in this position before, I got T Boned at a Junction last week (the offending driver has admitted full liability fortunately), and my drivers door has been totalled but my concern is the door frames (pic attached), its a 2004 Mk 2 Focus, which I like, just this last 3 months had to replace the CAT, a full service including timing belt and a tow bar, spent some money on it, don't want it to go :-( One good thing though it was low speed and the side airbags didn't deploy

I have a sneaky suspicion its going to be a write off, has anyone had a similar experience? The garage is taking it away on Tuesday.

post-57592-0-94881000-1408791170_thumb.j

post-57592-0-34149100-1408791187_thumb.j

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If you claim off your own insurance and they write it off you can ask to keep the car and be paid out less the salvage. Your excess etc is then claimed back off the other driver and you keep the car to repair.

If you don't claim off your own insurance and direct your claim only against the other driver their insurance will either repair it or write it off but either way you get to keep the car-they won't take it off you.

Obviously if the car is too dangerous to repair rather than just being economical then you can't keep the car to put back on the road.

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Hi SandyCat, thanks for the reply. My question is really has anyone else on here had experience of this type of damage and the likelihood of a repair (obviously ensuring the car stays structurally safe) to a 10 year old car worth no more than £3000.

Thanks

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I know what you mean and as it's part of the chassis and needs straightening it's about cost and maintaining structural rigidity. The door is pretty straightforward but I think that the labour costs in putting the frame back right could render it uneconomical. Someone here may have similar experience but it all depends if they also had the same car, same age and mileage as yours.......

I think you just have to wait and see what the repairer says.

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Indeed you are correct SandyCat, Just done a quick scan on Autotrader, the prices make for depressing reading..... I was less nervous when my kids were born lol

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  • 3 weeks later...

don't know if this helps but I used to drive a 95 toyota starlet until some nut decided that the red light actually meant go and crashed into the front of my car which was worth 800euro, My insurance company gave me two options,

option A, I keep the car and receive half the salvage.

option B, allow them to take the car and receive the full money back.

I chose B, as the damage done would have cost me 1300euro to fix it was an easy decision for me.

I think you need to ask yourself these question, Do I really want to repair this car and drive a car that was crashed? Can I afford the cost of the repair? (cause if you keep it obviously you wont get as much as the car is worth back) there the questions I put too myself, I know its different to your situation being a door of a ford and mine being the front of a starlet. It is up to you best of luck man

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Sadly I think you are at the point of having it written off, the door panel would be fine, but your going to be looking at a weaker chassis after repair. I think this will come down to a CAT-C write off. In all honesty, you could stick a new door panel on it and sell it on, it doesnt look too bad, but the chassis is weakened and you would need to be honest. Altnernatively I would hand it over to the insurers, but only if you dont have the space or time to strip the car for spares!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, would you Adam and Eve it! I got the car back yesterday, apparently was a fraction under the 60% value cut off......

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So did they repair it? I assume so, did they tell you what they did? I would assume they cut the whole B pillar out and welded a new one in. I would have said it was definitely repairable, but I wouldn't have been comfortable guessing that it was economically viable. However, great result you have there!

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Please share pictures of the repair! I recon it was at one point written off but the garage wan the day the repair work so cut the costs down to just save it.

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Please share pictures of the repair! I recon it was at one point written off but the garage wan the day the repair work so cut the costs down to just save it.

That wouldn't surprise me, back in the day I have assisted in putting right many a wreck, including a Vectra that needed a jig but never saw one, forevermore did it look lopsided on the front...

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I forgot to ask what they did (so giddy with excitement to see it back lol), but looking at it as a guess, yes a cut out was done, did a good job though, the only way you would know its been done, the paint is fresher.....

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That wouldn't surprise me, back in the day I have assisted in putting right many a wreck, including a Vectra that needed a jig but never saw one, forevermore did it look lopsided on the front...

No it all looked straight, this I think is what saved it, the uniframe must have been undamaged.

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By the looks of the original photo, it looks as though it took a glancing blow and deformed as designed, but didn't afflict enough to write it off. Looking forward to seeing the pics!

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post-57592-0-85519700-1412518845_thumb.jpost-57592-0-95509700-1412518858_thumb.j

Here they are, other than the paintwork looking fresher than the rest you wouldn't know.

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