claiming depreciation?

Dizzyblabla

Hey Guys,
I was involved in a crash on Saturday and she's caused over €5200 worth of damage to my '05 Micra. I've been told by a friend that I can claim the depreciation value of the car as I won't get as much for it because it's been in a crash? Does anyone know anything about this, how do I go about it, will the insurance companies assessor tell me the depreciation value or do I have to bring it to a garage or something?

thanks!

Mike2006

I am pretty sure that it is 10% of the cost of repair.

So, if your repair cost €5,000, you can get an extra €500 for depreciation.

This is insufficient in my opinion as when you go to trade the car and tell the person that it has been crashed, they will expect to get a whole lot more that €500 off the price.

Mike.

FuzzyZoeller

Same thing happened to me, car was only 3 months old. You'll get 20% of the ex VAT value of the FINAL repair bill, if the car is less then a year old.

Henry Ford III

I'd get it written offf tbh. Hire an assessor.

Kinetic^

Henry Ford III wrote:

I'd get it written offf tbh. Hire an assessor.

Yeah definately

Eoin

Henry Ford III wrote:

I'd get it written offf tbh. Hire an assessor.

Looking at carzone, the cheapest 05 micra is over 10K, most of them around 12K or more - can you get it written off when it would cost twice + the amount it will cost to fix it?

maidhc

Henry Ford III wrote:

I'd get it written offf tbh. Hire an assessor.

Does non-sructural damage make any difference to the resale value of the car? You can spend a lot of €5k on new bumper/headlights/bonnet/ radiator and the multitude of other things that will be broken, not to mention labour.

My grandfather "spent" €4k on an audi that had a very very minor accident with mere cosmetic damage to the front (it did get a lot of parts though). The resale value of the car was not affected.

Henry Ford III

eoin_s wrote:

Looking at carzone, the cheapest 05 micra is over 10K, most of them around 12K or more - can you get it written off when it would cost twice + the amount it will cost to fix it?

Ask the assessor

50% of the value would be plenty big enough for a write off imho.

Henry Ford III

maidhc wrote:

Does non-sructural damage make any difference to the resale value of the car? You can spend a lot of €5k on new bumper/headlights/bonnet/ radiator and the multitude of other things that will be broken, not to mention labour.

My grandfather "spent" €4k on an audi that had a very very minor accident with mere cosmetic damage to the front (it did get a lot of parts though). The resale value of the car was not affected.

Yes I'd imagine it still would.

Suppose you went to look at 2 seemingly identical cars, one of which had had a smack with a €4 or €5k repair bill, and the other one that hadn't.

Which car would you prefer to buy?

Eoin

Henry Ford III wrote:

Ask the assessor

50% of the value would be plenty big enough for a write off imho.

I suppose that would make sense. Out of interest, would the insurance company value a car less if they know it has been crashed?

Henry Ford III

Yes they would. How much less depends on the severity of the impact obviously.

I would never buy a knowingly crashed car unless:

1/. I could be assured and also guaranteed of the quality of the repair, and that it could have no bearing on structural integrity and strength of the vehicle.

2/. It was discounted by a minimum of 25% of it's value, even if I was happy with 1/. above.

There are plenty of good used cars out there. If somebody throught their own fault hit mine (6 months old) and caused it even moderate damage, I'd want a new one and no excuses.

maidhc

Henry Ford III wrote:

Yes they would. How much less depends on the severity of the impact obviously.

My grandfathers car was a 2yo A4 when he traded it in. We never mentioned anything about the accident to any dealership, but we got the best trade in price by far from the garage that carried out the repairs, and who knew full well the history of the car.

Dizzyblabla

maidhc wrote:

You can spend a lot of €5k on new bumper/headlights/bonnet/ radiator and the multitude of other things that will be broken, not to mention labour.

humm...
€5k is being spent on a new:
bonnet
bonnet badge
front bumper
r/f bumper grille
r/f bumper indicator
chrome strip (grille)
right bumper clip to wing
r/f wing
r/f splash guard
washer bottle
chassis leg f/vertical
bumper bar
r/f headlight panel top
r/f headlight panel side
r/f valance stay top
r/f valance stay lower
road wheel
wheel trim
bridge stone tyre
right lower arm
right shock
right stub axle
hub
bearing
and last but not least the tracking...

Does anyone know if any of those things would cause it to be more write-offable?? my poor car....

colm_mcm

a write off basically means it's not economically a good idea to spend €5200 on fixing it. As it stands your car could be worth €2000 - €2500. Spending €5200 would be economical, as a replacement would cost €9-10k

Gary ITR

I had a smack in my (Jan) 04 focus(company car). A motorbike ran into the side of it and caused €4000 worth of damage. They didn't even think about writing it off. It was the old model focus hatch with around 60000 miles on the clock. Don't think they'll write off your micra.

BrianD3

Just looking at that list I see no mention of replacement airbags and seatbelts. Did any airbags go off? AFAIK they can cost a lot to replace.

Most of what is on that list is cosmetic bolt on or mechanical stuff. Even stuff which may not be bolt on (eg bonnet slam panel) is not such a big deal.

Now if the car had main chassis rail, roof, floor, sill, inner wing damage then it would be lot worse and would certainly be written off. Things like subframes and steering racks can add a lot to the bill too, no mention of those either.

colm_mcm

if there's extensive damage, eg. roof or major chassis damage, you could argue that you didn't believe the car would be structutally sound as it was before the crash. impossible to argue that point given the (relatively) small amount of damage on your motor

Dizzyblabla

my airbags didn't open and the seatbelt just bruised the hell outta my shoulder - don't think it broke or anything?
I like my car, so I'm glad I'll get it back, but I am worried about selling it on in a few years...

JohnCleary

Dizzyblabla wrote:

my airbags didn't open and the seatbelt just bruised the hell outta my shoulder - don't think it broke or anything?
I like my car, so I'm glad I'll get it back, but I am worried about selling it on in a few years...

Just be honest when selling your car, you might not get as much for it but at least you know you wont have some fecker screaming down the phone at you 3 weeks after you sell it to them...

I had a motorbike which I crashed (cosmetic damace) and I mentioned it when selling it. It was back to 100% showroom condition and I ended up selling it to the person who I bought half the parts from! Hasn't given him a days bother since!

drdre

thats one long mother fcukin list.:D .i think you could write it off with that much to do with it.

Henry Ford III

colm_mcm wrote:

a write off basically means it's not economically a good idea to spend €5200 on fixing it. As it stands your car could be worth €2000 - €2500. Spending €5200 would be economical, as a replacement would cost €9-10k

No way. Once c. 50% of the post crash trade value is reached on repairs, a write off occurs.

The repacement cost is irrelevant.

Informatiom from an assessor btw.

JohnCleary

I thought a write off was either:

a) Economical write off. When the repair cost exceeds the book value
b) Structural write off. When the car is beyond safe repair to put back on the road

??

Dizzyblabla

just found this on the Hibernian website:

New car
Have you bought a brand-new car and are you the original and only registered owner of the car? If your car is less than a year old when it is stolen (and not recovered) or when it is damaged (in a single incident resulting in a repair or reinstatement cost of more than 50% of the value of the car when new), we will offer to replace the car with a new car of the same make and model, if such a car is available in Ireland.

Guy:Incognito

eoin_s wrote:

Looking at carzone, the cheapest 05 micra is over 10K, most of them around 12K or more - can you get it written off when it would cost twice + the amount it will cost to fix it?

I'd say theres a fairly sizeable difference between what they go for privatley and what the insurance value of it is. For example, theres a few 01 A classes on carzone for €12k. If you check the vrt site (ot how come this only works mon -fri 9-5 now?) the OMSP will be around €9k.

Dizzyblabla wrote:

my airbags didn't open and the seatbelt just bruised the hell outta my shoulder - don't think it broke or anything?
I like my car, so I'm glad I'll get it back, but I am worried about selling it on in a few years...

I thought once the seatbelt has been involved in an accident (a decent sized on) that they get replaced?

Dizzyblabla

I'll have to say it to the guy in the garage then tomorrow before the assessor gets there... I'll know all tomorrow anyway, but I think the guy in the garage is pretty sure that he can work on it after the assessor leaves...

What's the vrt website? /edit found it! https://www.ros.ie/VRTEnquiryServlet/ShowVRT

Dizzyblabla

just to let people know what happened, the insurance company rang me to let me know the total agreed price etc... and just before she hung up the phone, I told her that I had been advised to ask about depreciation. She just said, oh, no problems, industry standard is 15%, but because mine was a new car, she would give me 20% (that's of the cost of repairs) - so I got a cheque for €1060 from them and bought me a shiney new laptop!
it's definately worth asking anyway!