[dumpvalve]

Hi, I had a run in with a discovery, he was reversing at full pelt on a main road and hit me as I came out a right hand junction, the front left of the car is knackered, basically, the bonnet / wing, all lights and bumper, some bent brackets that hold the lights too. A garage told me that there was 2 k worth of damage, I got a quote from 2 garages for between 1800 and 2000 + VAT, it was his fault so it is in the hands of my insurers.

Do you think they will write it off, bearing in mind that I had a new hood put on last week and the car was in A1 condition and was on the books for TV work.

It is K reg (1992) 105k and (was) immaculate.

If they did right it off, I could buy it back and repair myself as a category D (someone told me) it's only cosmetic damage.

Any advice?

Thanks
Matt

By the way I am absolutely sick

 

[Paco]

That sucks, but you should be able to demonstrate to the insurance co that an equivalent replacement would set you back lots more than £2k. Bear in mind it will be worth a little less in the future having been repaired.

If they offer to write it off, find out if you can buy the salvage back, not all companies allow this automatically, but I did very nicely out of this a couple of times now, so you never know!

You will probably find your repair costs drop when an insurance co gets removed from the equation....

Good luck!

 

[James Bond]

I really feel for you - this is my nightmare too.

May I ask if you had agreed value?

 

[dumpvalve]

Thanks for your reply, the value I actually declared on my insurance was 4k but they said only the market value of the car will be paid out in the event of such a ([email protected]*dy catastrophy) i don't know what the market value is. for an A1 condition car? any ideas?

What can I say, I am just so gutted, the quotes I got were private ones, from local accident repair centres, so when my insurance company gets the car assessed, the costs will be alot higher probably. they hike them up me thinks.

Last week I spent 675 on a new roof, supplied and fitted.

What a disaster !!

 

[Jezzadee]

Really sorry to hear it. Unfortunately I very much doubt that the insurance company will consider it economical to repair, and the insurance value is not going to be £4000. No way near. Don't let them shaft you though. Trawl the classifieds on here, autotrader, Saab Trader, get evidence and pictures of the going rate for one of these cars. They will try and use main dealer rates for a repair quote so you can imagine what that's going to be at £80 an hour. I feel for you because have a 1991 900 S Aero in Le Mans Blue, valued at £2000. That's a bit optimistic as well. However, my car was a Cat D write-off (prior to my ownership) and it is still going strong, so you might be lucky. Link to my car's history here.

 

[fliptopbin]

So sorry to hear about this

My nightmare too...

I would give them a really hard time over it. Remember, YOU own the car and they cannot take it away from you if you don't want them to. If they do write it off and won't sell it back to you you can always tell them to get stuffed. OK, you won't get the settlement but they would try to fob you off with a tiny payout. If you did go for this then turn down their first couple of offers. Getting together a portfolio of similar cars for sale will help too. IMHO your car is worth 5-6k, late convertibles hold their value very well. My dad has a K-reg 900s vert, 80k miles, gorgeous, and very nice to drive (gearbox much tighter than mine ;oops, he paid 7k from a dealer last summer (over the odds, but still...)

I MUST check with my insurer (Footman James) whether they will offer me "buy back" as unless it was terminal I would certainly spend 2-3k fixing mine after a smash. These things are modern classics and the insurance cos treat them like bloody Ford Mondeos :evil:

Why do we pay these gits so much money every year? :x:evil:

Don't forget, you are entitled to be put back into the position you were in before the smash.

So either they fix your car up, or they settle with 6k or so so that you can buy an equivalent. Mind you, say 5k plus the salvage would be a nice deal

BTW, I would go to a decent Saab indy rather than a bodyshop to get the car fixed up. It's a long way, but you won't put a foot wrong with West Midlands Saab Specialists in Erdington (B'ham).

Good luck, hope it works out OK, keep us informed...

 

[trackside]

If you were hitfull pelt by a discovery I'd be very suprised if it was only cosmetic - get it thoroughly checked as any chassis damage and you won't be able to buy it back. It's no use saying this now but these cars must be insured on an agreed value basis if you are ever to get anything like a descent settlement.

 

[Eugene]

A friend of mine who owns a D reg T16S recently went through what you are about to, he was navigating a roundabout when some joker thought he could join the traffic without colliding with him, you can guess what happened, anyway the insurance company offered him £400 and were adamant that was all he was going to get... The car had just had a gearbox rebuild and was mechanically excellent, being an older T16S it had some of the well known rust problems and was not in the best condition cosmetically but come on....£400 ??

To cut this epic short, he haggled with them and sent back the cheque, eventually they agreed to pay him £1000 minus his £150 excess and let him keep the car.... He bought another car and is keeping the damaged one for parts and also selling bits and pieces on ebay. He didn't have classic car insurance which would have been a better bet what with the agreed value.. It's a b***h and through no fault of his own, like you he has had to fight for some sort of decency, I feel for you and hope you get satisfaction... don't let them bully you.....

Good luck.

 

[dumpvalve]

thanks guys for all your input, basically the discovery went over the bonnet rather than pushing it in, and slipped off the corner, the wing is only slightly v'd, only slightly to the naked eye at a certain angle. It will defo need a new bonnet, wing, bumper and left hand lights. The garages that have done close examinations and quotes say that the type of accident was very lucky, because nothing else has been bent only the metal brackets on the front cross bit, these can be easily pulled out.

I'll keep you updated. with photos shortly too.

 

[fliptopbin]

Agreed value / classic insurance is all very well, but try getting that on a modified car that's not garaged, does 14k miles a year, and with class 1 business usage.

Some of us use our cars every day

 

[James Bond]

If its any use, my convertible is L Reg, 50k miles, LHD with Abbott bits and the agreed value is £8k.


Good luck.

 

[Eugene]

Agreed value / classic insurance is all very well, but try getting that on a modified car that's not garaged, does 14k miles a year, and with class 1 business usage.

Some of us use our cars every day

yeah the criteria for being accepted for classic car insurance is a bit on the excessive side, I got an online quote and had to have a garage, 2nd car, very limited mileage and the car had to be over 10 years old with social and pleasure cover only. I met all these conditions and the cover note arrived with an application form of which I filled in, on the form I stated the garage was a communial secure garage. They nearly didn't accept me, they said they thought it was a single garage attached to my house, they then asked me the type of cars that were garaged there, I told them there were Rolls Royces Cadillac limo's (which is true), I was thinking, if these sort of cars are garaged here my old saab would be in good company....... WRONG!! they were worried that my car would catch fire and set fire to the other cars, lol and they would be lumbered for massive payouts. I argued that my car could catch fire anywhere and set fire to other cars, in the end they accepted me and I got insured, but boy, talk about minimising their risks...... come on now! play fair..:nono;

 

[GPT27]

Just a little ammo for your fight, your car's gotta be worth more than £4k at these prices:

http://www.justsaab.co.uk/Convertibles%20Stock/K667-NGO.htm

http://www.justsaab.co.uk/Convertibles%20Stock/J56-DYM.htm

For what it's worth, my '93 N/A C900 worth about £1000 got gently reversed into by a dust-cart, the only damage was a smashed rear light and a dented tailgate, the council's insurance paid out £900 to my massive suprise and delight, only cost me about £50 to put right too.

I'll second what paco said about the repair quotes dropping once the garages know it's not paid for by insurance, as I once heard a bodyshop guy say: "Oh you're paying for it yourself, we have a whole different list of numbers for that".

Good luck.

 

[Jezzadee]

To post an image, when you post a reply scroll down a little and you'll see an option called Manage Attachments. This allows you to upload an image from your computer. If the image is too large it will tell you and you'll have to resize it.

 

[dumpvalve]

Some pictures. Click on the pictures for larger versions.

 

[dumpvalve]

Just a couple more

 

[trackside]

Agreed value insurance, with mods, not garaged, unlimited mileage - Chris knott has provided this for a long time for me. All you have to do is provide some pics every year - hardly a great chore concidering the peace of mind you get.

 

[Matthew]

Yes this is the worst event for any who has a lovely 900 that they care for. Really sorry to hear that someone's damaged your car :evil:

On an upside the damage looks fairly minor. You can apparently buy a brand new (bare metal) bonnet for £130.

Haggle for a payout, take the money and get it repaired yourself. It's a bit of a trek, but Jam Saab in Bristol do excellent repairs and their rates are very good. Look them up on Yellow Pages.

PS: I can host larger pictures for you if you like. PM me.

__________________
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[trackside]

The bonnet could be repaired rather than replaced as I had mine badly mashed once and it was repaired - much to my amazment.

 

[cdaly]

It's not clear from your third pic if the wing panel is damaged or not. If so, you'll have some body filling and paint work needed. Otherwise, it's all bolt on parts. Yeah, I know you'll have to have a bonnet painted too but it doesn't look like any structural stuff. Even welding in a new wing shouldn't cost that much. I'd suggest you go shopping for the {lights, wipers and possibly bent top front crossmember {this just unbolts at front of wing and bottom of rad}} bits in a breaker's yard. The bodyshop won't have to spend time sourcing them and can focus only on the repair. If you're competent to fit the bits yourself, you'll reduce the bodyshop's bill {since they charge you the same for a master painter spraying and for an apprentice unbolting things}.

Best of luck!