Repair costs

[Skylarking]

Looks like both front guards are fecked as well.

From the photos, it looks like he hit the rear tray of some tall 4x4 ute at an angle where most of the force would have been taken by the bonnet and the radiators and radiator support panel. The visible damage looks to only be the bonnet, front bar (& its bits) along with the right headlight. There also seems a little bending in the front of the fenders around the headlights with the left side looking worse, so i wouldn't say the fenders are fecked. Oddly the left headlamp looks ok...

So the visible damage actually looks simple but the real interesting bit is what parts that aren't visible have been damaged and why did the insurance assessor wrote the car off?

The problem with modern cars is that everything within the crumple zone is structural in one sense and one doesn't really know what's bent until the cars front is dismantled... There may be an element of over cautiousness from the insurance assessor through experience but it's always worth questioning.

Having said that, I'm with FU in that bits from a white front clip will see this repaired in short order while avoiding paint.. again as long as there is nothing structural going on that is...

So I'm iterested and curious to see more pics

 

[Skylarking]

i wanna get it repaired cause it’s one of the last lot of commodores to be made in australia and it’s my pride and joy, as long as the damage is all hidden i don’t mind

You're probably too young to remember cars that crabbed sideways because some shoddy repairer didn't mind damage that was hidden. So dont be that type of guy...

If you want to repair the car, repair it correctly and fully and be at ease... that way if you ever sell it, you're not selling at best a defective vehicle at worst a potential death trap to someone else...

 

[Skylarking]

It's the same in SA. Many who repair cars that are technically repairable write off's, try to buy them directly from the owners without insurance intervention. This can be worse in some instances enabling sub-standard repairs on cars that don't show up on record as ROW's.

The write off rules are based on that national doc i linked and the rules around repairing a write off are for the most part consistent across Australia and very much a PITA.

IIRC, NSW repairable write offs involve some more bureaucracy than in the other states as permission to repair needs to be first sought and granted..

 

[losh1971]

If it's a repairable write off then be prepared for inspections at every stage. It's no simple process and will likely need to be repaired better than when it rolled off the line. This is how fussy they are here and I'd be thinking most if not all other states will be the same.

 

[losh1971]

Not sure if it will bother you but once it's on the RWO register it will remain there when you eventually want to sell it. Insurance Cos will also know it's a RWO.

 

[Forg]

If it's a repairable write off then be prepared for inspections at every stage. It's no simple process and will likely need to be repaired better than when it rolled off the line. This is how fussy they are here and I'd be thinking most if not all other states will be the same.

That only applies to the panel work … they can still apply paint which looks Smurfy on day one, but is peeling by this time next year. At least being white they should get the colour right.

 

[Skylarking]

That only applies to the panel work … they can still apply paint which looks Smurfy on day one, but is peeling by this time next year. At least being white they should get the colour right.

Yes, paint can be one of the biggest issues with any repair and often becomes a problem years later. This is why i like to deal with insurance companies that stand by their repairs with a lifetime guarantee…

Sure it’s a PITA having to go back and discuss/argue with the insurance assessor’s some years after the repair but in my experience they come around and take ownership of the issue and fix it. (Or in my case they stupidly decided to write off the car and pay me out which was great as the policy at the time of the accident some 9 years earlier, a doc I still had, stipulated the payout to be made… which they subsequently honoured… )

The insurance company’s game is that most people don’t hold on to their cars too long and as the lifetime repair isn’t transferable to the new owner they see it as a win for them (in the most).

Insurance repairs can be a better gig than doing the repair privately which may be why some insurance companies have a tendency to write the car off and have the owner repair it themselves… maybe

 

[RevNev]

This is why i like to deal with insurance companies that stand by their repairs with a lifetime guarantee…

You've got to be a bit careful with the "lifetime guarantee" thing, as it often means they'll guarantee the job remains crap for a lifetime! Choice of repairer is best and if they don't offer that, insure with someone who does if it's a nice car.

 

[Skylarking]

You've got to be a bit careful with the "lifetime guarantee" thing, as it often means they'll guarantee the job remains crap for a lifetime! Choice of repairer is best and if they don't offer that, insure with someone who does if it's a nice car.

Yes choice of repairer can be good for some but for most who don’t know the difference between chlorophyll and blue let alone what a good or bad repair is, the life time guarantee can be their best option. And one doesn’t need to preclude the other.

As is, I’ve had a very good outcomes using the lifetime repair warranty guarantee would these issues not have occurred if I went to a different repairer, I’m not sure

 

[Forg]

You've got to be a bit careful with the "lifetime guarantee" thing, as it often means they'll guarantee the job remains crap for a lifetime! Choice of repairer is best and if they don't offer that, insure with someone who does if it's a nice car.

Yeah a mate of mine who’s usually pretty cluey made the Bad Decision of letting the Suncorp repairer fix his Shannons-insured car.
It has definitely ensured nearly a decade of a job that’s remained crap for a lifetime; he has to take it back to get the next disaster that pops-up fixed again every 18-24 months, and every time is a complete PITA.