The Passat is no more!!

[Wobby]

Proudly took this picture the other day!

http://www.tyresmoke.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=32604&stc=1&d=1207777228

The same day a f**king bus crashed into the back of me knocking me into a car in front . Car has been in for assessment and has been written off as "beyond economic repair", i had decided to keep the car and run it past 300k.

Its a 2001 Passat estate with 250k on the clock, is a value of £2700 reasonable? Its more than i expected.

My Question. Will there be a "buy back" option on the car and is it worthwhile? Or am i stupid?

Repair would be complete new towbar (excluding electrics), new boot door and glass, new rear bumper, inserts and spraying. New front bumper and inserts and spraying.

Anyone with insurance knowledge that can advise of "buy back price" and any pitfalls. One worry is someone has told me there is a new test for written off cars and it sounds similar to an SVA (have knowledge of this from kit cars). I think its a VIC for a Cat C and costs £35.

Any help appreciated

[Pa55aT]

Hi Wobby,

If the car is registered as a cat d, you can buy it, repair it and put it back on the road with no problems. I would say the salvage is worth about 25 - 30% of its pre accident value.

If it is a cat c, The DVLA will not release a log book to you until it has had a VIC check. AFAIK it is only a quick check to confirm the identity of the vehicle and look for evidence of repair. This is so they can confirm that it is the written off vehicle that has been repaired rather than a stolen car with the identity of the written off vehicle.

As long as there are no obvious safety defects then it is not a problem.

I would look to pay around 20% of the pre accident value.

Hope that helps

Chris

[Wobby]

Thanks for the reply Chris, would have been happy with 20%. Spoke to my insurance today and they can only sell it for 75% of its pre-accident value! So they want over 2k and leaving £600 or so to rebuild the back end and repair the front.

Told them its not worth it and was told thats the best they can do as even with very high milage its considered a "desirable car" to salvage companies and its components will sell quickily!

So its being written off and i am looking for a replacement

[Rustynuts]

Oh bad news mate. Hope you're not injured, cos whiplash can take a while to come out y'know.

Did you ever get that cambelt changed?

[Wobby]

My passenger (my dad!) did hurt his neck and had to go to A & E. I blamed it on him being old

My neck hurt the next morning and has caused considerable pain since, have been to the doctors and its soft tissue damage and will heal with time.

I think i posted about the belt change, it took 2 years off the car (feel of to drive) and the mpg shot up so i was averaging 50+. Look in the picture, 250,000 miles and 54.4 mpg. Not bad really, a bit gutted the cars written off but at least we wern't splattered all over it and dead!

[Rustynuts]

What sort of machine are you looking for to replace it? I'll keep my eyes open.

[Wobby]

Not sure yet. Was hoping to run the old one a bit longer then buy a 3 year old new shape passat.

Do you know what the earliest new shape passat is? Have seen a few on a 55 plate (has to be estate). Would be looking for similar to old one, 3 years old ex company car and around 100k on the clock. Seem to be a good price and plenty of miles left to go, no warrenty issues and a few bits to repair! Thats i good car!

Other makes are an option but must be an estate, fairly economical (45k+ miles per year) and man enough to tow a reasonable sized *cough* caravan *cough*

Ps. managed to post a picture on first post, can they be incorporated into the text?

Where are the emocon thingys on here?

Ps2. Really like the new forum, soooooooo much faster

[Rustynuts]

There's your pic.

For Smiley's, go to "User CP" up top left of the page, then "Edit options", and then go all the way down to the bottom of the page and choose "Standard Editor - Extra formatting controls".