Rear-ended!

SO was driving her 2012 auto SZ4 yesterday and was rear-ended quite hard while waiting to enter a roundabout.  Exchanged details, etc.  She described the damage to her insurers and they determined it to be a total loss.  However, she was in shock and not thinking straight at the time - I saw the Jimny later when taking her to be checked at A&E (she's fine, just had some painkillers) and the spare wheel has been pushed into the tailgate but I can see no distortion or damage to the main shell or boot floor.  The car still shuts and locks. The bumper and chassis haven't been touched; it was a fairly tall Vauxhall Antara that hit it.

We called the insurers again taday and asked for the damage to be assessed, as it's £12k for an equivalent 2012 50,000 mile car (hers even had a totally clean MOT last week!).  They agreed to do this and said send photos so they can make a more infirmed decison.

I have a garage in which it can be stashed in case it's not rainproof with the bent tailgate, and we'll see what happens.
 
Had anyone suffered a similar rear end impact to the spare wheel, and does the main body generally survive intact? 
 

My last jimny suffered something similar and just needed a back door but obviously each instance will be different. Good luck with your assessment.

There is a suggestion that Admiral may have jumped the gun and already logged it as a cat D, N or S, which I need to check on Monday. If they have, there's no point is getting it repaired (although someone will) as its resale value will be halved.

Rogerzilla wrote:

There is a suggestion that Admiral may have jumped the gun and already logged it as a cat D, N or S, which I need to check on Monday. If they have, there's no point is getting it repaired (although someone will) as its resale value will be halved.
 

But you will have been paid out the value of the car, less salvage, so it would owe you the salvage cost plus a back door. Anything above that it sells for is "profit".
A CAT S is worth about 75% of an unmarked car, if you keep it long enough it won't matter....

Facade's view is the best yet and closely follows a deal I arranged with my insurance company. I bought the damaged car back from the company, I repaired it and ran it for a further few years before selling it to the chairman of the Midlands Land Rover owners Club.
And yes, it was my old SJ 413!

Roger

I have no.idea what a new genuine tailgate costs, but I would assume about £1,000.  With paint, labour, and a few other bits (the spare wheel cover is slightly cracked and the spare wheel bracket may not have survived) maybe £2,500 or £3,000.  They really shouldn't write it off as the replacement cost is around £12,000.   This is the damage.

We could get it repaired for far less with a black rear door from a scrappy - probably under £1,000 all in.

 

Update: they are going to fix it, and the repair shop is around the corner and, ironically, on the road where it got bumped!

Good news indeed!

Very good news

Good news indeed. The write off cost would be book price and that would fall well short of £12k.

I should imagine the other vehicle is a mess, I had always thought that the spare tyre on the rear would be quite strong, but perhaps not?

Robin

Also gets rid of the rust that was creeping from under the rear window rubber, and impossible to treat without remiving the glass.  I will try and get a new rear screen as the heating elements are iffy.

It's back and I can see why car insurance is so expensive.

What it needed: tailgate, window seal, plstic spare wheel centre cover.

What it got: tailgate and absolutely everything on it including the badges and wiper, bumper (it had some ancient scuffs, but was untouched in the crash), two rear light clusters, numberplate and other sundries. 

I mean, it's lovely to have an unrusted tailgate and a new HRW (a couple of the elements on the old one were dead) but two-thirds of that was unnecessary.  I bet it was a £5,000 job.