Crash!

Found out, from the repairers, the extent of the damage and estimate of the cost of repairs to my car.

They told me it needs repairs to the front and rear wings, a new door and front suspension strut knuckle hub bearing and lower arm. And they estimate the cost of repair at £2500.

The insurance engineer has been out to assess it and he is now waiting on an agreed valuation for my car from the insurance under-writers. He will then be able to tell the repairers whether or not to repair my car. That's what I'm waiting on news of now.

Surely £2500 is less than 60 percent of the value of my car. What do you think?

How much does a new door from Renault cost?

Does anyone know of anyone with a un-damaged second hand (Right hand side) door for sale?

If i can source one cheaper myself, I thinking this will help bring the cost of repairs down and help my cause, should they start debating whether to repair or not. I've already spent too much money on it over the years to fail now! Probably be quicker than waiting for one from Renault too!

Cheers.

[simontaylor]

Only a suggestion..... but if the current repairers are not non-metal-car specialists, why not try a TVR/Lotus/kit-car or such like repairer for a specialist quote. I've heard that some TVR dealers have done great body work for others, they might have specialist repair skills rather than just want to replce expencive panels to be resprayed????

Doors : £823 + VAT each
Wings: £323 + VAT each
Wisbone £59.99 + VAT
Strut Knuckle £39 + VAT


Say, they come back and say £2500 is more than 60%, don't suggest cheaper parts second hand to he insurance company..it may be worth trying to haggle a settlement of a lower amount, say £2000, and getting the work done your self. Rupert and myself have/had second hand wings, Rupert has a door, strut knuckles are cheap, and lower wishbones aren't expensive either.

[Alpineandy]

Surely £2500 is less than 60 percent of the value of my car.

If they say it isn't, then you can offer info/proof that the value is higher than they say.
Insurance is supposed to be 'indemnity' i.e. giving you back the same, rather than gambling which gives you more than you had before. You can give them as much info as possible on the cost of a car which is a similar standard to yours.
If they say you can pick one up for £4g you can give them examples of why yours is better etc etc...

Good Luck

Thanks guys for your info and comments.

The engineer phoned me late this afternoon.

He's downgraded the door from a replacement to a repair and offered me a settlement payment of £1572.47+vat (minus my excess) to have it repaired, either by the garage where it's currently at (Howard Basford), or at one of my choice.

So they basically seem to be saying: 'Here's what we're offering you to take it away and fix yourself'.

They broke the costs down like this:

25.7hours panelling and mechanical work-

4 hours work to repair the front wing
8 hours work to repair the rear quater panel
8 hours work to repair the door
5.7 hours mechanical(suspension)
10.5 hours paint work

I spoke to a local bodyshop to see if he could give me a quote to do the work. He has a good reputation and I've used him before.

So, basically I now need to speak to both bodyshops to work out the best cause of action. As long as what the insurance are offering me covers the cost I'll accept it. I'd prefer to use the local guy because I've more faith in his workmanship.

The local bodyshop reckons he could do it for £1200+vat, based on Howard Basfords time estimates, but he'd really need to see for himself. So I'm going to ask Howard Basford if they will email their digital pictures to the other repairer. I don't know how willing they will be to do this.

At least things have started moving now! I'm pleased they haven't written it off!

I'll keep you posted of developments, for those who are interested!

Cheers.

My advice would be to try to push the settlement figure up towards the £2500 they originally estimated it at. Of course the insurance company are going to try to pay you as little as possible. Say that you don't want to accept a repaired door, you want a new one to restore the car to its original condition.
You are taking a risk by accepting a cash settlement. I once had a car damaged in an accident, and I let the insurance assessor and repairer know that I was keen to repair the car and not have it written off. The settlement figure proposd seemed quite low and I was convinced there was more extensive damage than had been quoted for, so I let the car go. When I collected my personal effects one of the lads at the garage said the car was clearly a write-off as the gearbox casing had been smashed - this wasn't included on the estimate!
Why are you so averse to having the car declared a write-off? I recently had a Porsche 944 on a policy with an agreed value of £5000. Repairs were estimated at more than £4000, and the insurance company declared it an 'uneconomic repair'. They let me keep the car for £1000, paid me £4000, and I repaired it myself for about £1500 - good deal! Because it wasn't 'written-off' I only had to have it MOT'd to put it back on the road.
Clive

You could also push for costs that they didnt disclose, such as cost of a hire car while your car was in for repair. On my first GTA, because I had a letter from Renault saying the parts required could take up to 6 months, the insurance company would have had to supplied a hire car for this length of time. They did offer a settlement instead which I took, but I will say that the money they offered in lieu of the hire car, came to more that the cost of the damage on the vehicle (which was quoted at £2000!)

Thanks for your comments.

Time will tell if I've done the right thing, but I've accepted the cash offer to repair it myself.

My car is back home now. I had it transported from Howard Basford to my home. I'm going to u have it repaired by the local repairer. They are only literally round the corner from where I live so I drove it round to show them. He gave me an honest appraisel of the work he reckoned it needed. I've got to wait for a phone call back with a definate quote. His initial guess of the costs before he saw the car was a bit less than the settlement figure, so if it's around that I'll be happy. I'm expecting his actual quote to be more now though because I've asked him to fix the rest of the flaking paintwork too. Which I was due to see him about before the accident anyway!

Only problem is I will have to wait over a week before he can book it in to do the work, they're so busy.

The insurance courtesy car has to go back Monday too! My policy only entitles me to 14 days courtesy car and I've already talked them into extending it by 6 days. The repairer I'm using now is only a small local business that don't provide courtesy cars, so I just have to fend for myself!

I just want my Alpine back! lol

On a plus note, just driving my car round the corner, even with slightly wonky steering, felt brilliant after driving the dreadful Daewoo Matiz I've been given! A spell without it makes you realise just how brilliant they are to drive when you back behind the wheel!

I really feel for u Juzz, and I can relate to whats happened.
I had a SEAT Ibiza TDi that I had just sold to a fella at Christmas past (after trying for 8-10 weeks). There was no MOT on it at the time, and a condition of the sale was that I had it MOT'd before collection, and I was getting £2300 for it. I was driving down the road to get it MOT'd, and a woman pulled out in front of me and wrecked the bonnet, bumper, radiator etc. The insurance company only gave me £1600 for a car I had sold the night before for £2300!!!!

I HATE INSURANCE COMPANIES!!!!!!!!

Juzz.....now is the time to bite the bullet and buy a cheap everyday car....it will save your Alpine and if you are careful you may even save money! Lots of MPG and cheap fixing costs.

[simontaylor]

Yup, you will also get cheaper insurance on the GTA as a 2nd car and or limited milage.

Or do what I've just done. I was using my GTA as my one and only daily driver, but now I've bought a motorbike to cut down on the miles I put on the GTA during the summer. I hadn't ridden a bike for more than 20 years. My last bike was an AJS 500cc single, and the nearest equivalent I could find amongst modern bikes was a BMW F650, which is a water cooled 650cc single. I got a good 1998 one for not much over a grand. It's fantastic! And there's a website just like this one specifically for F650 owners! In fact there's a lot of similarities between the 2 vehicles, they both have great style and handling and are relaxing to drive if you're not in a hurry, but give you an adrenalin rush when you want to go fast.
Clive

[Alpineandy]

Yup, you will also get cheaper insurance on the GTA as a 2nd car and or limited milage.

Or if you want more space:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 19439&rd=1

Now that would be cool!!! You could use it to transport all the Alpine bits you buy!!! Or convert it to a camper and hold up traffic all over the UK

I must admit, I haven't seen one of those before! By the sound of it though it seems you need another van for all the spare parts for that one!

About the second car idea. It's something that's often been suggested to me before. I've always believed in running my GTA as regulary as possible. I think too little use can be worse for the car. Nothing beats regular use and maintenance in my opinion. That said, perhaps, they have reached the stage where using them every single day is perhaps a bit too regular! And as my current situation has highlighted, using them for the daily commute is fraught with unecessary risk! A cheap daily hack just for commuting would probably be much more sensible. I suppose I'm just hopelessly addicted to driving my Alpine and need to cut down on the habit!

So, once I get my car back sorted, I think I will look onto buying a cheap daily driver for work etc and still use my GTA regulary at evenings and w/ends. It makes alot of sense and I can see the advantages: cheaper insurance if I put the GTA on a classic policy, cheaper overall running costs, less wear and tear on the GTA, less risk of damaging it again and yet it should still get enough regular use to keep it running properly.

Also, the more tedious the car I use for the everyday commute, the more fantastic the Alpine will seem everytime I drive it! Those Daewoo Matiz's don't seem bad!