So I've driven the Jimmer into a fence post, at speed... What next?

Tragic news. On Sunday I went for some accidental off-roading. I don't know exactly how but I lost control exiting a roundabout in the wet and slid into oversteer (I think). It could have been my speed, pooling water, braking at the wrong time or all of the above (or something else entirely) but it happened.

I collided with a hedgerow / fence post at maybe 15-20 mph. My ego and heart are broken but I am otherwise physically ok. A few people stopped to help (I was the only one in the car) and it has now been recovered & sent to Copart for evaluation. No airbags deployed.

Aside from seeking sympathy, I am now wondering what to do. It was / is a 2005 automatic 55k miles in good condition because infuriatingly I just had substantial welding / rust treatment done. The insurer has written it off and is paying out £4200, less my £295 excess, but I am going to try to squeeze for more.

I've got some pics below, what do people make of the damage? Is this likely to be deemed unroadworthy i.e. category A/B? It was able to be reversed out and had no warning lights on the dash ( ) but the bonnet was too mashed to be lifted up and look properly. I could see that my washer fluid reservoir was mashed & leaking and I think coolant too from that reservoir also being crushed but that part of the bay doesn't actually house much else of importance (other than brakes at the back)... Right...? I am just in the 'bargaining' stage of grief tbh and hoping I can get her back but bleh, at least I'm not dead!!!

Thoughts?

Ouch.

Very good to hear there was no injuries.

I do doubt I would bother if it was mine. What worries me the most is the damage to the inner fender and possibly the A pillar, firewall and windscreen frame. The sum of it all like the bumper, bonnet, fender, headlight and all the bits and pieces will add up to what would be a bit too much I guess. Unless youi can find a donor with the right color or accept the difference.
But then, might be better to find a project that this one could be a donor for? either way, most likely too much work compared to price of another working car unless this one very low milage, no rust and the complete picture so to say..

Frame of the car, axles and supsension most likely could survive this but must be inspected thoroughly of course. and if there is damage too..

And there is most often more than what you see at first glance..

Depending what category you end up with it looks like it might be doable with second hand parts, depending if the chassis is straight. Hard to say from the pictures.

I think it’s more do you think it’s worth it and have the love for it to spend a lot of money on it which you won’t see back. My instant thought it is it’s probably easier to replace and start again. However if the frame work for the car is intact which from the pics I would be surprised then you might be able to get it back on the road and save the car from its fate.

Thanks all. Ultimately whether it's doable hinges on it going down as a Cat A/B or not. I think it will be a cat S (i.e. repairable but uneconomical) but I am no expert. Just looking at the parts involved it'd be at absolute minimum:

• Nearside wing
• Bonnet
• Bumper
• Windscreen
• Headlight
• Fluid reservoir(s)

That's before we worry about the chassis or anything else that could be implicated like the radiator... Add in labour and yeah, it's looking a bit grim to me. But at the same time, if I manage to squeeze them up a bit to say £4.5k it's a good chunk of cash to play with. And up here in Scotland the likelihood of me being able to find a comparable automatic is virtually nil.

First you have to buy it back from the insurers. If it is classed as a write off, it will be scrap ie cheap. Then you have lots of spares incl. an auto box so you can look for another motor with a manual and do a swop job. You will also have lots of spares to keep or sell on.
There are lots of options.

Roger

I think ir's too far gone.  Other Jimnys will live on from its spares, though.

Thanks again everyone. What's really paining me is that this is a VVT automatic with relatively low mileage. Finding something comparable to this with the ~£4k payout is just impossible. Even if I got them to push it to be more like £5k it's realistically not going to happen. I'd buy a new one if the money covered it but it just wont and then there's the logistics of me actually getting to a seller when my partner is working. 9-5 with the other car.

Really, really glum about it all. Only had her a bit over 6 months

It could be worse. I got loads of gear and mods in my car and it is not insurable here in Norway because of the prices. The extra gear and mods is not possible or too expencive to insure here in Norway.
Any cars with a pricetag under 10k is not economically to pay for the insurance here. why pay 1000£ insurance for a car that would give me max 6000£ in insurance pay out. Better to put that money in the bank or better investments.

It is insured from theft or fire or if someone else drives into me, but not insured from me.

If I where to crash it, it would be a total loss except for any salvegable parts..

Sounds like you should look for a donor and take it from there if you get to buy the wreck for a sensible price.

I think it’s probably dead. The way the door is opened at the front suggests that either the screen pillar or the door post has moved. 
That’s going to take it beyond bolt on repairs. I guess you could spend a day with a porta power and see where it gets back to, but I think it’s time to look for something new. 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! 
 

I just got off the phone with a friendly mechanic / panel beater at a local accident repair garage who did some welding work for me in the past. I sent him the same photos as in this thread and his outlook was basically "professional opinion 'give us the work' but personal opinion really sorry mate but it's better to just take the loss".

For all the reasons my head knows but my heart doesn't want to accept. I.e. it's a multi-panel repair, the A pillar could be misaligned, who knows if it's still tracking straight, maybe a brake line has ruptured, hell it could have actually been a catastrophic mechanical fault that sent me off the road in the first place so that'd maybe need repairing too... Then there's fixing the windscreen, replacing the headlight, even the fluid reservoirs. Then consider that it'll be forever a Cat S/N so resale value will be worse and insurance will be higher (well even higher considering I just claimed). Even the absolute best case of zero structural damage still sucks from a repair perspective.

So yeah, a dose of reality from a third party who was also quite clear in expressing his hatred for insurance companies (despite working with them every day) because of their propensity to screw people over. He also strongly advised contesting the valuation given the spec, condition and the fact it has had recent remedial and rust preventative work done on it (for which I have receipts). Lastly he anecdotally shared he had a write-off a few years ago where the initial value was £6.5k but because of his contesting it they eventually gave £10k - so basically just keep pushing and pushing giving all evidence possible.

I'm still absolutely gutted and sick thinking about it at all but looks like head will win over heart. I just need to get as much from the insurer as possible.

Don't forget that the Jimny is a body shell mounted on a chassis, unlike most cars these days that don't have a chassis, just the body shell and if the body shell gets an impact it writes the car off.

So the A-pillar and the rest of the body shell on your Jimny could be badly damaged, but the chassis might well be still straight and the shell un-bolts. It is a lot of work but if the engine, chassis and most of the drive train is fine it might still be worth it.