On or around Wed, 08 Sep 2004 11:36:05 GMT, "Lee_D" <
[email protected]>
enlightened us thusly:
>"Lee_D" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:Ee0%[email protected]...
>> and still no sign of the assessor.
>>
>> I've now got a new benchmark for my stressometer.
>
>Assessor came yesterday morning... His initial comments were it's an easy
>fix and that he thought I'd overestimated the level of damage on the phone.
>I asked him if he'd noted the sills and the running board being 4 inches
>lower at the front than it should be. He then felt the underside and said
>"Oh... right.... that tips the balance a little.. I'll have to go and price
>all this up.. I think itmay be a write off."
some fecking assessor. which insurance company, so we can all avoid 'em
like the plague?
>Now I don't know if I should have just kept shtum and let them get on with
>it and fix it "easily". Nothing heard yet.
they'd only have decided later to write 'er off, I betcha.
>The thought of fixing the Rangie myself has me very depressed, the thought
>of shopping for another motor has me equally depressed and the though of the
>loss of £1600 in cosmetic non essential stuff spent on the rangie alone
>since purchase has taken the shine off purchasing someone elses tat if you
>see what I mean.
mind, if you buy another rangie, I assume at least some of the cosmetic
stuff can be transferred if necessary?
>And to top it all some git posted a machine mart catalogue through the door.
there y'go, then, buy a welder and get busy
seriously, though, is the chassis straight? If so, bodywork is not a major
issue for a competent body shop, they'll just cut out the damaged bits and
replace. IME you need to push for having it repaired by a local shop which
you're on good terms with - you then get to discuss it and to supply S/H
panels etc. which makes a lot of difference to the insurance verdict. When
I had the Citroen crunched a few years back, the recovery lot employed by
the insurer took it off to their garage, quoted about 3500 quid to repair it
including all manner of stuff that I suspected highly. I told 'em to send
me a copy of the written quote, then had it hauled back to the local garage,
whom I trust, and we looked at it. Unnecessary work they'd quoted for
included:
remove dash panel
replace alternator
remove/replace engine
and some others I forget - bearing in mind that the doors still shut in line
the cage of the car was sound, so there was no need to remove the dash, the
alternator was in perfect order, and the engine didn't need to come out to
repair the panel damage. The guy at the local garage, on reading their
quote, thought they were taking the **** and hoping to get the vehicle cheap
for salvage.
I bought another car with a blown engine to get the panels off it to repair
mine, for 50 quid, and in the end the claim went through at just over 2
grand, which they OKed and repaired it. If I'd just accepted the original
verdict (which included putting new panels on an 7-year-old car - good S/H
were more than adequate to restore it to the condition it started in) I'd
have lost it, and got paid out not enough to buy another.
