Well now, a sorry tale: one cold night in late November I was on my way home in Neville. The roads weren't icy (oh yes they were!) until I reached a sharp right over a little bridge at the bottom of a hill. It's a known ice pocket and I should have known better.... Anyway, as I turned the back slid out and bashed into the stone bridge. Bah! Got home, had a look: dents and scrapes over the NSR wheel arch and a chipped alloy. Double bah! Anyway, had the damage repaired by a good local guy I've used before; sort the alloy later. All drives OK except that the steering wheel is no longer level when going dead ahead. Took Nev for 4-wheel alignment last week. The fact that the rear axle is fixed means that there's no adjustment and with the best they can do the tracking's out by about 4mm. Ah. Clear damage to the rear axle - insurance job. Contacted Quote Me Happy - all good. Things going ahead. Then my son worried me: "Might they write it off Dad?" Surely not! It's a 59 plate with 31K on the clock. Well, now I'm properly worried. Market value's about £4.5K or so, value to insurance co. rather less. I've no idea how much replacing the rear axle would be but they've got to come from the repair centre in Dumfries to collect it (more expense) and leave a courtesy car. What do you reckon - what's the cut-off point before they deem the repair "uneconomic" in terms of the percentage value of the repair compared to the value of the car? Neville drives fine, except that he's going to wear tyres unevenly. Obviously I'm in the loop now, but I'd really appreciate the Copenworld community's wisdom on the likely outcome and, if it's bad news, the best way ahead. Thanks so much, in advance!
Small cars like ours generally don't do too well in these sort of crashes, I know from experience with an mx5 I had in (what I thought) was a minor crash. Best to cut your losses, if the insurance company r leaning towards writing it off it's probably best u suck it up and move on.
The Copen is quite safe for its size, but the repair costs are always huge. I do not know the legislation in the UK, in Germany the repair can even exceed the value of the car a bit and will still be covered by the insurance
I had a Nissan Figaro that was written off but I was lucky to have a good assessor, who knew the type of car, sent by the insurance company. He did end up writing it off but valued it (and paid out) at £2000 over market value because it was in good condition. It was very close to being repaired and it had been squashed while parked on the ice - hit in the back, shunted forward into another car, then while I was taking details from a person who saw the accident someone else skidded into the side of it I wouldn't have minded so much but I parked on a bus Route so that the gritters would have been out Hopefully you will get a good assessor who recognises Neville's value to you.
Hey, @BUZZBOX, @Salieri and @ClareL ! Thank you so much for your valued advice. It is very much appreciated. As we stand, I dropped in on Sam who fixed up the wheel arch - he checked the gap between the rear wheels and the arch (same both sides) and checked for uneven tyre wear (none) and suggested I get a second opinion on the damage to the rear axle before we look at getting Neville repairs he doesn't need and might cost him his life! So, off to another 4-wheel alignment on Tuesday and we'll take it from there. Fingers crossed, huh?
Do you have the print out from when it was alined ? Does the car drive straight, no pulling to one side, also if you are on the flat can you let go of the steering wheel and will it continue going straight, if so I would get the wheels dead straight and remove the steering wheel and re centre it if the splines on the column will let you.
Hi Jules sorry to hear of your woes.The problem may be them sourcing parts for repair and the price of them. In the worst case afraid they may write it off sadly. However there is good news ,make sure before it goes to the insurance repairer that you register your desire to by back the salvage IF its gets written off. I know your love for the car so you can get the insurance money then get it repaired with good quality second half bits if needed ,you get to keep the car that way. Hope it all works out for you,good luck
Well, Juk, I've added the two alignments (before/after) from Gates Tyres who showed that whilst there's a problem, it's not that great and gave an alternative (hub shims) to replacing the rear axle. To be honest, the adjustments they've made have left the steering wheel nearly level and the only slight downside of the misalignment is that the tyres might wear slightly unevenly. Driving-wise, Nev is great - if you sat in him, Juk, and gave him a proper blast I don't reckon you'd find anything wrong. He keeps straight (more-or-less) with hands off and what we've agreed is to go back to the insurance company and say that there's no need for major work and see if they'll reimburse the bodywork costs and maybe dig in their pockets to have the alloy refurbed. We'll see. Thanks a lot for your interest!
You star, @hiramscodd! Thanks a lot for your concern and, if you look at my reply to @Juk, we've decided not to go ahead with major work - after all, he drives fine, and if things are just slightly out of kilter, apparently that's pretty common in brand new vehicles, so who am I to complain? I really appreciate your wise words regarding insurance and shall hang on to those for any future unwanted incidents!
Hi Jules, Sorry to hear about Nev. There are a couple of things that might help put your mind at rest, or otherwise, depending on the outcome. Get someone else to drive Nev on a straight flat stretch of road while you follow in "hot pursuit" and look to see if he's crabbiing i.e. it drives straight but back end is slightly off centre. Find a nice quiet shopping mall carpark, ideally top storey, and do a few wide circles at moderate speed and listen for any "dukes of hazard" tyre squealing. Obviously if you start doing doughnuts, you make get noise from the rubber bits ! Hope it goes well and you can continue to enjoy your driving. If not, I've got a list of lemons to avoid while I've bee on my quest.
