Jimny and Insurance

Hi folks - been enjoying my Jimny and thought perfect for this cold snap, driving down a country lane, come round a corner and a car on it's side (black ice EVERYWHERE) and I manage to just about stop in time (by turning into the bank) and avoided a head on with overtaking cars oncoming - all good, though slid for about 40ft at 20mph!

Unfortunately the car behind me didn't quite have the same stopping distance and rear ended me   - piccies below - my issue at the moment is that insurance are on it and attempting to get me a replacement car.... however.... they class my Jimny as a "small" car and anything potentially 4WD is in a different class!  I'm sticking to my guns and saying that a like for like is an automatic 4x4 and I do actually need the 4x4 to access woodland property - Enterprise though are in a tizzy as in their mind Jimny = small car - anyone else had this battle with insurance company?

 

The common factor with all insurance companies is they want your money, but don't want to pay out.
This "Small car" thing is nonsense, they insured your Jimny and happily accepted your money and the risk. Keep arguing and the next time they mention "small car" ask them to point out where they told you this would be a limiting factor when you took out the insurance for a replacement vehicle.
It's not unreasonable to ask for a replacement of a similar spec whilst yours is being fixed, ask them to provide a Jimny! It is after all a small car   
 

Auto insurance = legalised theft
Nothing really more to say

tbh i wouldn't have even involved insurance company (for so little damage)
I would have sorted it with the offending driver 
you will pay for this not your fault rtc with raised premiums for next 5 years 
But happy you came out of it without injury 

Thanks, yes, could have been a lot worse - outside of the shot is a car on it's side that I helped a young lady out of, and the porsche is there after 360'ing and clipping both ends after he couldn't stop either - Jimny did drive itself from out of the ditch like a champ though!

On the sorting outside of insurance, unfortunately accordingly to road traffic act you have to notify insurance of an accident anyway even if no claim, or run the risk of 8 points and revocation of future insurance if they found out so the damage is done as far as impact on renewals - the Porsche driver took details to make an insurance claim (I'm assuming he thought the fact he couldn't stop in time and lost it on the ice was somehow someone else's fault!) so didn't want to also risk defending a frivolous claim by him by myself if it comes to that

So far damage to the Jimny is a wrecked rear bumper and arch, upper/lower rear light clusters, a dent/scratch on the boot door, dent/scratch on rear wing, dent on front lower bumper and suspect something off with the rear wheel alignment - hate to think what the repair bill will be - Enterprise are still silent on like for like replacement

you could be looking at beyond economical repair 

There won't be a repair bill it will be written off, 

 - a write off would be a crying shame - it's an Auto SZ4 with 28k miles on it, one previous owner, full dealer service - took me ages to find 

If the rear axle is out of alignment then it has been hit hard and a minimum would likely be brackets on the chassis or the actual axle is bent. Not a cheap one to fix.

Axle out of line you mean it's off to side tyre closer edge of the driver side arch will be bent panhard rod 
Guessing impact speed was around 20mph 

well the mystery of why they think a Jimny isn't an SUV has been solved... so finally spoke to the accident management team (Enterprise) and apparently "the two insurance parties have entered into a mutual agreement to minimise the costs and downgraded the replacement vehicle class" .... which just so happens both involved parties are the same insurer!   Bit of a joke really, I did get admittance of liability on the same day but turns out they now want to do it as cheaply as possible

Was tempted to go via a 3rd party but firstly, they are a bunch of ambulance chasers that add cost and secondly, if they do write it off you can't dispute the valuation with the Ombudsman if you use a 3rd party

I think it was quite a close call - the final cost of repair is £6770!

A threshold of <50% of the value of the vehicle means that it was definitely on the edge... I had an expected value of £12k>£14k so survived by the skin of it's teeth!