Car backed into - Need Insurance advice/quote (Pics)

[HarlemSessions]

Ye old KE70 was backed into last night while my brother was driving it (He was stopped in a carpark when she backed out of a car bay without looking), he grabbed the woman's details and that of two witnesses.

I haven't rang the lady that backed into it yet, but considering that she was around 50 years old, driving a brand new Mini and the crash happened inside Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club car park, I'll presume she's insured.

I went to three panel beaters this morning looking for a quote to send to the lady (Is this what i should be doing?) but 2 of them wouldn't give a quote without her insurance details and the third looked it over for five minutes and said he would email it to me.

Now...as much as i wan't the car fixed (the body is/was in good/excellent condition), id prefer the money to put towards more pressing financial issues, and just give the offending damage a quick once over with a mallet.

#Can i do this?

#Will the insurance company just give me a cheque to do with as i please?

#Will the old smelly fat ho's insurance company need to send there own assessor around or will they take a couple of reputable panel shop's quotes (seems unlikely)?

#Considering the initial purchase price of the car before mods was $1300 3 years ago, would they argue it's now worth less (even though it's had engine transplant/rebuild, suspension/brake/rim mods etc) and they will only give up to that amount or write it off?

#What do you think a fair price would be for a panel beater to fix the damage (pic's attached)?

Thank's for your time lad's.







Door slightly open.

[AJPS]

she will have insurance

you will need quotes 3 in most states

and an assessor with most likely come out - which isnt bad, they just make a low ball offer (if the quote is $3000 they will offer $1600 or something, which you should probably take)

you can say the car has sentimental and its not structural damage etc etc

you should get $1500-3000 for that, the money is yours to do what you please with

[johl]

considering her age and likely excess she will have to pay im sure she will go through her insurance company, but if she was younger with a higher excess then you could settle it between both parties and just get a cash payment.

[Matt]

Had a similar thing happen not that long ago, and as you experienced most panel beaters won't even quote on it without charging 100-150 for their time. The easiest hassle free way of sorting it is find out who the lady is insured with, take it to her companies assessment people and get it fixed by them.

It could result in the car being written off and de-registered dependant on your states laws

As for $$$ i wouldn't be surprised if it is between 2-3k.

[timbo]

All I can say is best of luck. Insurance companies and panel beaters in my experience don't give two shits about "old" Corollas. I would say you will have to get it fixed if it goes through insurance. A 50yo females excess surely wouldn't be more than $500.

[HarlemSessions]

Deleted my long winded post and i'll add this.


After mucho fucking around, I was cut a cheque.

I just rang the insurance company and said I was going to sell the car before the panel beater had time to fix it.

It ended up around $1250.

20 valve time?