What happens when your car is written off
For some people, their car is like a family member. It’s been doted on and has given reliable service for years, which is why parting can be such a wrench. So what happens when that car is written off through crash damage, which may be only minor? The problem that owners have when a car is assessed after a crash, is that there’s no sentimentality where insurance companies are concerned. They see your car as a commodity with a fixed value – it doesn’t matter how reliable it’s been or how much money you’ve sunk into it over the years. When a car’s value is assessed after a crash, it’s based solely on what it would have fetched on the open market before the collision. So if your decade-old car is worth £2000 and you spend £1000 on servicing it and fitting some new tyres, it’s still worth only £2000. Every year around 450,000 cars are written off in the UK because of accident damage; what happens if yours is one of them?