Sad sad day

Well, hi guys. Long time lurker.

I feel ill, I crashed my Coupe earlier in the snow, it is (was) a lovely Moon Plus X reg.

I'm crapping myself about reporting this to my insurance company, I'm afraid it will get written off because of the bonnet. The van I hit looked totally undamaged but he will let me know tomorrow if he will need any work doing.

If he thinks it needs repairing then I suppose I'll have to claim unless it's a minor repair that I would pay for myself.

Basically I was coming down a hill in thick snow (with my Mom in the car so was going very slow). The van in front of me stopped due to parked cars on our side of the road, I started to brake and front wheels looked up. I'd estimate my speed was 10mph with about a 30 meter gap. ABS kicked in, I came off the brakes back on gently and it was still looking up, then the reality hit home that I was going to hit it. For some reason I decided it'd be better to hit it with the corner to save the radiator, not sue if that was a good move or not.

Well this was the van:

Van

And this is my Coupe

Poor car

Here are a few more after I got home (drove fine btw)

pic 1
pic 2
pic 3


The other thing I'm worried about is if the car is slightly twisted, see the skirt on this pic, this side has never fitted 100% but you can see the dirt where it used to sit. It seems unlikely to be twisted due to the slow speed though. You can see it with the door shut above (pic 3). Door opens and shuts fine.

side skirt

Here are a few between the rad and heat shield, does the gap look reduced (Heat shield 1 shows the gap as well)

Gap 1
Gap 2

Also I noticed this leak on the heat shield, it is new, but last time if topped the oil up 10 days ago it was dark so might have been there two or three weeks. Do you think it is just the rocker cover gasket.

Heat shield 1
Heat shield 2

To fix it, bare minimum I'm looking at bonnet, bumper, fog light/indicator, slam panel, grill and possible a new head light as the brackets are broke.

Do you agree it'll be a CAT D? Please say no!

If it looks like it will be, do you think it's worth fixing and not claiming?

It took me so long to find this Coupe, I don't think I could face the search again.

Country Crusing if you have any of these parts especially in Moon Grey PM me ASAP pls with prices.


BTW here she was only last Friday ;(
Moon by the moon
Moon by the moon 2
Moon Sunset
Sillouet

(no requests for parts please, can't even consider that)

Sorry to see this Tom

All depends who your insurer is and what the garage you are going to use is like

Cost including new parts and labour would probably be anything between £2.5 K and £4K, so shouldn't be enough to write a Plus off really, but again, it depends.

If they do decide to write it off, then Cat D isn't that bad and you can buy it back and get it fixed yourself.

If you can use someone like Joe for secondhand parts, etc., then it would all help.

Thanks Theresa. i will definately sleep a bit better tonight with the knowledge that it may not be a write off.

A lot of coupes are cat c/d. They shouldn't write it off but like T said if they do buy it back and fix it,

Sorry to read about your bump Tom, looks a lovely coupe, especially in those last pictures

With reference to whether an insurance assessor will write her off, it'll depend on whether there's any damage to the front cross member and the drop leg by the air box. If these are straight then I see no reason why a loss adjuster would view this as beyond economical repair, looks like an easy repair, bumper, bonnet and a couple of odds and sods but until a closer inspection has been carried out its hard to tell.

I can help with all of these parts if needed but I doubt I’ll be able to supply Chroma as it’s quite a rear colour for me to dismantle.
Keep us all informed and please pm me if I can help further.

Oh dear! That's bad luck, at least it happened at slow speed, your mum & yourself are not hurt.

If it got written off, buy it back and get it fixed plus a re-spray. If the repair job is done properly, she will be just fine!

Bloody hell, hope this isn't written off.

Stunning pics, by the way - especially the last one.

Good luck.

Hedge

if they want to write it off, fight them. they book at £2600 in parkers and insurance will go by that. The repair bill shouldnt be that high, so i think you'll be lucky.

IF they do decide to write it off, show them that a repalcement car is NOT £2600 but more like £4995.

You'd be amazed at how you can persuade insurance to do what you want.

I got paid out £2800 for a P-reg 20VT with 130k on the clock, there first offer was around £1300 or so.

Thanks for your messages guys. Started to feel a bit better last night but when I woke up this morning it felt like it had just happened again, I'm still tearing myself apart and going through the 'what if' stage lol.

No injuries, and at least my Mom was there so she wont give me an ear full (your never too old) thinking I was going to fast.

From your expert advice I'm going to take the risk and put it the hands of the insurance Gods. Fingers crossed it'll be fixed. I'll keep all you posted on the progress.

Rog - £2800 wow, I paid £4500 after making the seller cry not even a year ago, and I thought that was a good deal because of the condition and all the history.

It's Moon Grey btw Country.

hi tom,

Your coupe is worth £4500. Is just parkers and CAP (who value used cars for the trade and insurers) list it at £2600.

We know you cant buy one for that, so if they write it off then you may need to just send some autotrader adverts over to them of simliar cars at £4500+. There are no plus models for sale less than £4000.

It'll be alright, i reckon you have gotten away with just outer cosmetic damage and it should be repaired.

Hopefully it'll be ok, i think the way a coupes bonnet crumples like that always seems to make crash pics look worse than perhaps they may be.

Tom, have a read here

http://www.fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=56031&Number=685586#Post685586

It *can* be done! The biggest problem is that you can't buy new bonnets (AFAIK? there was talk of a small batch being made recently but I don't know whether those materialised?) and that's what drives the insurers towards write-off. However, if you tell the insurers that you're prepared to sign a waiver to allow them to use 2nd hand (non-structural only) parts and put a bit of effort in yourself to source a decent bonnet, headlight, etc....AND you can find a decent sympathetic local bodyshop, then if you really want it repaired (and I did, totally) then it should be possible. That's (part) of what I did.

Mine clearly had an awful lot more work and effort than "just" an accident repair but I can say that for the work you need, you would very comfortably come inside the value Rog quoted above.

Alternatively, if you go down the write-off/buy-back/rebuild route, I do know someone who may be able to do the work if you sort the parts. Wouldn't be via insurance because he's not a VAT-reg garage but he's good - currently repairing a trashed 355! That's in Kent btw.

Was a bit of effort in terms of the insurance co, etc, but they can be saved! Good luck.

Yeah when i had my accident, i was shocked how much damage it caused to the bonnet, are they really fragile and easy to crumple? Mine was quite similar: http://s424.photobucket.com/albums/pp326/tommy_coop2008/?action=view&current=08-10-07_1509.jpg

Really gutted for you mate, i know how you feel When you're a car enthusiast and love your coupe its one of the must gutting feelings when you have to see it smacked up like that....Best of luck sorting it.

tom, mine was worse than that, twice - once when some old woman drove into me and the day after i got it back a lorry pulled out on me. i went through the insurance both times, non-fault claims of course, but never was the write off word used and mines "only" a std 20vt.

second hand bonnets and bits, nice spray job and bob's yer uncle. chin up mate, she'll be back on the road in no time at all. where are you based?

Yes sorry about that, I was half asleep when I wrote that this morning

If and when you need any parts keep in mind that I have a brand new Bonnet is stock

on pic 3 it DOES look like a chrono lol

Hope it all goes well, stunning looking car.

Cheers mate, almost broke a smile then

I'm near Leiceter, it's going to Drive Vauxhall toady.

What a shame.

Will need to go on a jig with that reduced gap at the front by the radiator.

Looks like a keeper to me though despite looking like a total loss.

Heart goes out to you, everytime I drove mine in the snow/ice I worried.
Fingers crossed it will all work out fine.

man, sorry to hear this, hope you can get it fixed up, what a gorgeous car too

i dont think that will be written off mate!

thats looks like its a bonnet bender and a head light.
Dont worry your self to bad.

you could repair it your self if you know the right people.

Try to chill out mate! its a lovely car and chrono's are still going for GOOD money so you will have her on the road soon.

p.s if it is written off i will eat my shirt.

unlucky mate,i feel for ya
nice couler to,if im not mistaken 3 were write off in the last month.
dropping like flys,comes to mind

I must get my camera looked at lol, your the second person who thought it's a Chrono.

I ran Elephant back this afternoon after it had been picked up as I felt a bit helpless and didn't want things moving to quickly with out them involving me.

I mad it clear (in the nicest possible way) that it will cost me what I paid for the car to replace it so that will be the figure I'll be looking to claim from them in the event of total loss, thus IMO they should be using that figure to work out what an economical repair is, not a price guide.

I also made it clear that I will offer assistance sourcing parts if they have a problem with the bonnet.

The girl was helpful and seemed to understand my position. She will personally call me back next week when she has received the report from the repair centre to talk me through the options.

Also she said that if worst came to worst and they wont pay for the full repair they could decide to give me the maximum amount they consider economical and let me take it to an other garage and fix it myself. This will not go on the record as a CAT D either.

I might go to the repair centre tomorrow and put some friendly pressure on them to do all they can to help as well.

So while I don't want to sing their praises to much yet, they are being very helpful (at this stage).

So thanks guys for all your kind words - they have helped. Just got to wait until next week now.

Sorry to hear this mate, I think this must be any keen, enthusiastic car owners nightmare. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I saw mine like this. Best of luck with it mate.

My coupe was hit by someone reversing into it at work http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb265/ovlov480/IMG_1142.jpg the repairers sourced a new bonnet from Fiat within a few days and the total repair bill came to £2300. The only thing I would say is when they give you the option of a few different repairers do some research on them before giving an answer, when I got mine back it was half detailed with one side indicator hanging out a new scratch on the back bumper the indicators didn't work the bonnet didn't stay closed and in several areas they had clearly sprayed over dust and they had clearly put one of the headlights face down on concrete, also something metal fell out of the engine bay as I drove off. After taking the car back another two times and the bodyshop manager saying "you're just trying it on" they finally got it right. I won't name and shame Pentraeth automotive but just a word of warning!
P.S. if you look at the 'plus' side your bonnet was probably stone chipped anyway and when you get it back it will be like new http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb265/ovlov480/Coupe/16072008090.jpg

Well just rang the insurance company as I know that they have been in possession of the quote for over 24 hours. While it's not been reviewed yet I think I can safely say a repair bill of £5600 wont be authorised. I'd obviously must be twisted but I've asked them to send me the report.

Now I suppose I'll have a drawn out battle with them on my hands over the value. Ahh happy days.

That's utterly ridiculous. Perhaps because it went to a main dealer?

You could have a full repair, glass-out full body repair and respray, wheels, engine bay, etc etc done for less than that. Someone's taking the p155 big time.

Similarly, I know someone who ran in the back of a car at about 10mph, car was less than a year old (not a Coupe obv), needed full front end and lights, inc radiator etc, and a front valace which cost £1250 unpainted, and that was repaired for £2400 at a main dealer.

Can you get it moved elsewhere for a real estimate rather than something generated by GM's computer system?

Well I've asked to see the bill, as I thought Drive Vauxhall may have totally exaggerated the quote as soon as it got over the £1000 mark as some grease monkey may have thought it was only worth £2000.

They can offer me a cash-in-lieu for me to have the car repaired else where as long as there is no structural damage, however I suspect that the chassis is twisted as my comments about the side skirt looking as thought it had moved. If that is the case then I think I should admit defeat. Will just have to wait now for them to send me the report.