Pothole damage to my car! BIG UPDATE.

[JanB]

Oh berlimey

Best of luck finding another one.

[cromwell]

UPDATE: What a morning! My car has been written off as the repair is more than its value. I have now had to hire a car in order to get about and buy a new one - well, new to me. I have to sort out all sorts of things in order to get the insurance to pay and also to make a claim from the council. I could scream!

Oh, what a pain!
I remember you saying what a good car it was, too.

[TheOstrich]

Oh good grief!

Give the Council hell, WM.

[Workingman]

It is more than a pain, folks, it will cost me £thousands. and let's not forget the hours I / me will have to spend sorting things out. That used to be the job of the insurance companies.

I am retired, so have the time, but what if you are working and have to do the same things during working hours? It's all via an app or chat, and both are crap. Talk to someone, a person, forget it.

I can't even get a taxi to get me to the hire car place tomorrow without a bl**dy app. The world has gone mad.

[JanB]

without a bl**dy app.

Makes me mad that we MUST have a phone that has an app to contact people.

I know people who don-t even have a phone, let alone one that does all singing and dancing stuff.

I don-t and Grumpy has only had a phone for the last couple of years and it-s used for emergencies only. It-s normally switched off and he has a paper by it, telling how to turn it on, off and answer calls

[Suff]

I missed this. I would not have advised on contacting my insurance for this. There is a growing industry of vehicles "administratively" written off which are sold off to garages who do the repair work and sell them on.

My son had a range rover damaged here in France. It was €900 to get the panels fitted and painted here. It was over £4,000 in the UK. On top of that the insurance was hassling for hire car and legal representation and hotels and everything else. Anything to drive the cost up to write off so they can make money off it. If they actually have to repair it they lose money. If they write it off they can actually make money.

I don't know if you can talk to them and buy the car back from the money and get it repaired yourself? Sometimes that is an option.

I had a lot of hassle with tyres. One puncture on the road and cost me £300 to call out a mobile repair service on a Sunday. Bad part was the tyre only lasted 15k miles and I had to change it. Then I noticed that the other three tyres were very close to the wear bars (probably why I lost the first tyre), so I had all three tyres replaced also. That took me to £920. A month later I went through a pothole in the dark and ran both front and rear nearside tyres through it. Fortunately only the front was damaged but it broke the side wall and left an egg on the tyre. Another £130 for a tyre with less than 10k miles on it. Yes I could probably have driven it for quite a while but I do long fast runs on the Autoroute to get home and it is imply not worth the risk.

About a month after that I was going into a service area in the dark and rain and they had changed the access road and I ran it up the invisible but rapidly narrowing kerb. Took a chunk out of the rim and a scoop out of the tyre bead but at least it was not damaged as an MOT fail. £1,050 is enough for just now.

Best of luck with the car hunting. It sucks. You could have gone for something like Cazoo but they went bust....

[Workingman]

Suff, the car is (was) 17 years old. I saw it on the ramp and the front off-side quarter was a mess. There was the wheel and tyre, brake disc, calliper and shield, broken suspension spring, shock absorber, wishbone, CV joint and drive shaft, camber out. It really was not worth the cost of the repair.

The insurance payment really is more than the car was worth for me to buy it back and affect the repairs. It is quite generous, all things considered. And then I also have the council claim to come in. The garage might be able to get some bits off before scrappage, but do I care? No!

[Suff]

That was one hell of a pothole. Around £500 in parts at ebay/autoparts cost Possibly less at scrap dealer but I've noticed their prices have been creeping up to China parts prices. I have all the tools for making that repair but most people don't. I also have a garage to do it in.

Our C3 is now in the 17 year old bracket. I do most of the work on it because it is simply not worth paying someone else to do it.

Good luck with the search.

[Workingman]

Suff, a deregulated 70 MPH dual carriageway. It does not take much of a hidden hole in the dusk and rain to cause damage - lots of it. I was a specialist equipment techy in the RAF, I do understand these things.

[Suff]

Yes the speed angle does make a big difference. I was doing 45mph when I hit mine. But that pothole was really deep which did the damage.