(car accident) My 996 convertible will never get to Cornwall!

Hi guys Well a year ago I took my convertible 996 to Cornwall with my daughter, it never got there, it broke down near Salisbury (Variable valve solenoid) and I didn't see it again until returning home from the holiday and picking it up from Williams Crawford £1600 lighter (plus a hire car). This year I'm going to Cornwall with my daughter again and took a week off 15th to 19th when I had the car serviced (Reason Porsche) and spent the week detailing the car so it would look nice for the holiday on 12th August, all went well until the last day on the 19th when as I am nearly home from a supermarket run I saw a Royal Mail van (the car type) stopped ahead so I slowed down and stopped behind him, as you do (a farm vehicle was trying to come past), suddenly he slammed it into reverse and came at me at speed, I only managed to get it into reverse before CRUNCH! So the car's not going to cornwall again <sigh> Now to the insurance questions: Damage is non structural which is good, basically the rubber bumper of the post office van rode up the bumper doing mainly cosmetic damage with a few cracks, it then hit the bonnet and moved it enough for the bonnet to be bent, so the lock and the panel below it will be toast, wings are untouched, lights are largely untouched (the offside one has a very slight crack on the front edge). The engineer visited today and I expect the insurance company to receive his findings tomorrow morning. I am expecting them to try to write the car off for a ridiculous price so am preparing letters from the last 3 Indies who have serviced it with their own valuation. The engineer said often they write off as a cat N (cosmetic only) but I really don't want a write off on the cars history for such little damage. A repair garage on seeing the photos estimates £7000 (but now the light would be included at £1300 so £8300), which is obviously for all new Porsche parts. Any thoughts or advice?

So unlucky, I hope it works out in your favour

This is worth a read and helped when I needed to repair my 996. I took Cash in Lieu and the insurance company tried to fiddle me out of money. cash-in-lieu-of-repairs-as-part-of-motor-insurance-claim - Motor Claim Guru motorclaimguru.co.uk

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Good advice here. I've used CiL before. The insurer has the option to give CiL value up to the write off value of the car, rather than the typical 60% value they will repair to - in my case it required a manager to okay this as the case handler didn't know it (or at least pretended not to). It's not uncommon for them to withhold the 20% VAT element until you provide an invoice. This isn't actually legal, but you may or may not decide to argue that point if you get it repaired with some used parts for less. If the latch panel is damaged the repair could be more expensive than expected, so I would get it to your indy and/or a Porsche approved repairer ASAP to get quotes prepared.

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Did the Royal Mail driver say why he reversed so quickly ?

take lots of photos of the damage - then should it get listed as a Cat of any form you have the images to support exactly what the damage was to aid should it ever become a conversation at selling time. Also and this is the important bit - not only can you request CIL, but you can argue for Diminished Value, so the difference between what it was before the accident and what it would be worth post repair - have a look here https://clifford-james.com/what-is-vehicle-diminution/

Thanks for all of the help everybody, looks like they are going to repair it, have sent the estimate to their engineers. The odd thing is that once the engineers have received the estimate they have the right to call it a total right off and attach an non removable CAT rating to the car if they don't like the estimate and without discussion!

They don't, they just tell you they do. It really is a negotiation, try and get a number for the estimator and you could ask for an in person review, making sure you're present. If the frunk tub needs replacing the estimate will be large, but hopefully under the value of your car.

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Well, when an insurance company says to me "it is important to understand that once you put in your estimate, if the engineering team decide it is a write off they will immediatly mark the car as CAT X and will absolutely not remove it" I feel it is prudent to believe them. Re: damage No it is just the bonnet the panel with the lock on it, the lock itself, the bumper, the bonnet hinges and a few rubber bits.

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They did it with Szymon77's C4S. It was in a mild bump and he went through the insurance. They wrote it off before agreeing anything with him. Only option he had was to buy the car back as a write-off or take the payout. Personally I'd be whacking my reg plate in Autotrader write now as a seller and see if it comes up with a cat rating.

Maybe I've been lucky then, I had a good conversation with the agent and made it clear that I didn't want it written off, and certainly not before we'd discussed it. Fingers crossed for you though.

Bit of an update. I'm actually going to win over this (bar my holiday) turns out on examination that there was zero structural damage and the insurance company will pay so car value will be better not worse. My 911 gets a brand new bonnet (old one was getting a bit chippy), brand new bumper (old one was showing Tesco car park love), brand new lock plate (that which holds the bonnet catch), brand new catch mechanism (the old one was showiing its age) and a top notch £2000 respray of the bonnet, bumper (and blend into side panels) Also various new plastic panels. I have decided to have the BBS wheels renewed in Weissgold and a couple of minor dents removed at the same time, oh and a wing mirror was peeling laquer coat so that as well. Can't wait to get her back, driving a hire Audi A5 3.5 TFSI sport has been a bit .. dull.

RESULT!!!

Nice result, I can imagine they'll want to get this sorted ASAP if you're smoking around in a hire car at their expense!