Ford Focus - Accident and what happens

Honest John Back Room » Legal matters
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Sun 26 Jun 2022 11:16
Ford Focus - Accident and what happens - david campion

Good morning, last week my wife's car was hit by a car transporter, the car was parked legally and she was not in it. The vehicle has been taken away to be assessed by the insurance company. If it is repaired and then becomes a Cat D, and we get the car back do they recompense the difference in car value, as a 12k car becomes instantly devalued by no fault of our own. If I wanted to trade it in a dealer wouldn't want to know.

Thanks David

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Sun 26 Jun 2022 11:54
Ford Focus - Accident and what happens - RT

Cat D is an economic write-off for which you'd get the market value of the car at time of accident - if you choose to buy the damaged car from the insurer and have it repaired, then you'd need to take into account the loss of value at future trade-in

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Sun 26 Jun 2022 14:12
Ford Focus - Accident and what happens - Palcouk

The car will not be repaired unless the insurance company believe it is economical to do so, if the insurance company considers its a right off, uneconomical to repair, it will give you a settlement figure, which you can challenge if you believe its too low.

On right off the car becomes the property of the insurance company and you "may" be able to pay them for it.

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Sun 26 Jun 2022 14:48
Ford Focus - Accident and what happens - sammy1

If the insurance company decide to repair your car it will NOT be a cat car and will retain its full market value. If they think the repair is not economical for them they will right it off as a cat N or cat S and pay you market value. This is where it can be tricky as your value might not agree with theirs so challenge it if not happy. If the car is written off it becomes the property of the insurance company who may agree to let you buy it back at what they consider to be a salvage price. Very often when damaged cars are taken away from a customer they are not treated with a lot of respect by the salvager but only you can decide if the damage to your car was minor or not and if it is written off can you get it repaired at reasonable cost should you buy it back. A well repaired CAT car is worth about 25% LESS that a straight one

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Sun 26 Jun 2022 17:24
Ford Focus - Accident and what happens - Andrew-T

If your insurer decides the car is a write-off, but you choose to have it repaired, they will have lost the salvage value of the car so will pay you less than full write-off value. But if you make that choice early, 'salvagers' are not involved as the car will stay with you. I did this about 5 years ago for the car which remains parked outside (in full running order). You just need to keep your options open, including choice of repairer instead of one chosen by your insurer.

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