OT acquiring an insurance write off.......
Turbo Mini Forums

Right, seeing as you guys know alot about everything thats interesting I was wondering what your thoughts would be on this one.

A guy I work with has a 98 escort (S reg) 1.6 petrol, manual estate in green, in which he had a little, shall we say, coming together with a fellow motorist.

Now the damage is the passenger side headlight glass broken and front bumper missing the end. The wing has a push in it and a scuff runs along the bottom of the door but i reckon that will polish out.

The good bit, he wants nothing at all for it as long as I can take it away.

The bad bit is the insurance co know about it, so what do I need to do if I decide to sort it out to sell on???

Its got to be worth 950 once repaired hasnt it (looking on autotrader) for the sake of about 80 quids worth of bits from flea-bay!!!

You need to find out if he has claimed on it. If he has, and been paid out, it will have most likely been written off, and put in a category. From memory cat D (lowest category) can be put straight back on the road, cat C cars need a VIC check which is only about £40 and if the car is genuine (e/g not a ringer) will pass easily, then it will need another MOT. On an older car it takes very little damage to be a cat C, and I'd guess this car will most likely be cat C.
Personally from the value of other cars of that kind of age I think £950 is optimistic, but it probably is worth repairing, and there certainly sounds like there is some profit in it.

Edited by Tom Fenton on 4th Jun, 2009.

Tom is correct about putting a write off back on the road. Cat D is easy, cat C needs an extra test to make sure it's safe and is still the car it claims to be.

I agree that £950 is optomistic, after all it's an 10/11 year old escort. I think you would easily shift it for 3 or 4 hundred quid with a new MOT if it hasn't been written off.

VIC is nothing to do with being safe they dont look at the repairs at all, they look at making sure the car is what its supposed to be

yep wolfie is correct. So long as the VIN colour and engine numbers match the logbook it will pass the vEHICLE iDENTITY cHECK check. My red 205GTi had to have one when I acquired it.

realisticlly if someone was spending only a few hundred quid on a car would they check if it had be written off??

Team Racing

its stated on the log book now Jim bottom of front page

When i sold the subaru i stated to the new owner that its had a VIC, he couldent give a toss as it was priced right

Edited by wolfie on 4th Jun, 2009.