Just a quick question, what's the normal threshold for a vehicle to be written off by a third party insurer? Unfortunately I was knocked off and the bike has gone in for repairs with an estimated bill of £6000 and the bikes valued at £8500-9000. Apparently it could possibly be a total loss/write off or is this just crap? :S Any advise welcome! Matt
Usually the cut off point is c60% of the value of the bike, if there are hire bike charges etc as well then I suspect this will go as a right off, also if I had a 9k bike that needed a 6k repair I wouldn't want it back and would be pushing for it to be written off.
Okay, looking through the estimate and there seems to be a few things which are just not needed and its such a shame because the bike only has cosmetic damages!
That soon adds up unfortunately. The guys that were looking at my last bike after I 'dropped it' called me to say it was going to be a write off, they hadn't even started to look at it in too much detail and got to just over 6k
Might have to just face the ugly truth then! Haha! It's unfortunate that it has to happen to someone's pride and joy, it's not even the fact it's happened it's more the inconvenience! Got to then fart arse about buying a new bike
about 2k will be cosmetic damage (fairings etc), so you're still looking at 4ks worth of damage to the bike. If its an 's' then if then forks have been mullered then that's another 2k, leaving at least 2ks damage to the rest of the bike. As much as it hurts to see the bike go, that's a serious amount of damage in anybody's book. Hope the rider is okay, that is the main thing :smile:
But it could easily be a scrape or scratch, purely look no functional impact, but all adds up Sounds like an opportunity for a track bike, depending on what bike it is....buy back cheap and track fairings and boom. Then use or sell on
I bought an insurance write off 748S back in 2000. It was only 2 months old with 500 miles on the clock and it was written off. I repaired it for less than £200 and it was perfectly fine. I ended up doing 6k miles on it over the following year before selling it for twice what I paid for it. Apparently the reason why it was written off was that besides smashed headlamp, damaged fairing, the frame had some scratches on it and the ducati labour costs of stripping a bike down and replacing the frame simply instantly wrote it off.
I had an off on a 2003 R6 back in 2004. The bike had minor damage in my opinion. Nothing I couldn't fix myself. The insurance company were refusing to allow me to buy it back. Whilst arguing with them, they arranged for it to be moved to a local salvage company where it supposedly got stolen... I ended up getting a pay out, but not to the value of the bike. I still to this day feel I was robbed!
Basically it is my bike (just trying to seem sneaky haha) and I got knocked over by a bint in a car park. Damage is basically Left and right fairing panels, tail, belly pan, left hand clip on, clutch lever and gear lever and a scratched swing arm. All of that has come to the joyous estimate of £6300, with nearly £2000 of it being a new swing arm because the current one is scratched! I'm basically thinking I don't want to have this bike written off, I love it way too much and I'm Just thinking about forgetting the swing arm and asking for a cover so it doesn't show. I'm really in a mix because I can't be asked in having to hunt one down as good as the one I had!
Man, that's a long list As its mostly cosmetic, then you should be able to buy it back. You'll be able to pick up a swing arm if you really want one, for well less than two grand for example
Thing is with the swing arm is that it's just scratched! So why does it need a new one?! I actually spoke to the garage and they said it isn't needed so I think I'm going to just ask for a carbon cover to be fitted to hide it, it's not even a big scratch!
When a bike gets assessed for damage, the garage/insurer look at returning it to like new condition, hence the new swing arm etc. They will look at getting as much money out of the other insurer as possible. Just another reason premiums are so f-ing high
It's such a ball ache, all I want is my bike back haha! Currently riding a 2013 ER6 and it's well, not as much fun haha
If they didnt pay out the full cost to replace the bike for an identical one then you were robbed. Normally the first offer the insurance companies make is way off the mark and they hope people will just take it. What you then need to do is to prove to them what the actual cost of replacing the vehicle is. When my brothers Golf GTI was written off a few years back, his insurance company`s first offer was about £2000. We looked on autotrader and the actual cost for that car, same year, same extras, mileage & condition was more like £5000. We wrote back to the insurance company and included actual adverts showing them the real cost and they immediately increased their offer to £5000 without even blinking. Very true. Most repair shops ive been to ask me if its through insurance or not. If it is they double the cost straight away. My wife had a low speed bump in her car last year - nudged into the back of someone at a roundabout. I priced up the bits it needed and incl paint I could have repaired for £500. But, cos it went through insurance the repair shop`s bill came to nearly 3grand! And even then they did such a shocking job of the repair I had to send it back 3 times for them to fix!
Cheers for all the advice guys! Just need to make sure I have a strait head when I call them. Was referred back to there engineers to basically decide if its a write off or not on Tuesday so should find out tomorrow hopefully why they think!
In January this year i had my 1098s stolen, 2008 with 13,500 miles on the clock. It was insured fully comp, with a full termi system listed on the insurance as well. The insurance's first offer was £7000, as you can imagine, i was mortified. A few phone calls latter and a conversation pointing out to them it was there responsibility to put me back in the position i was in before the bike was stolen and they saw sense. I also challenged them to find me a red 1098s in the uk with a full termi system, same year and millage as the stolen bike for £7000. Push for what you want and for what the bike is worth and don't take any crap from them.
