Glad to hear you are all ok LCFC. Receiver of threatening letters from Overfinch.

Many thanks everybody. My wife is fine - if a little sore today - baby is absolutely fine and the 'negotiations' with insurers have started. I have also been inundated by calls from claims management firms - how do they find out about this so fast? I have turned down my insurers replacement vehicle - a Vauxhall Corsa - due to the fact I can't get three child seats in the back! If that is their response on the policy courtesy car I am holding my breath on the value of the RRS - hey ho a small matter in comparison. I think I will be changing insurers. Have got my solicitors onto the case and things are being sorted.

Nick - The thread is entitled 'Apologies to my RRS' as I feel bad about all the negative comments I have made about the car on this forum (and to LR customer services). I am an engineer by training - the force suffered by the RRS through that rear wheel must have been immense. I got under the car and the wishbones were visibly bent and they are fairly chunky bits of steel. I will be surprised if the chassis isn't bent - the roof was bent and all kind of weird gaps had appeared in the boot space - although the other side of car looked normal. The rear passenger compartment on the impact side was luckily empty - my wife was on her way to pick up the two children who normally sit there - but only minimally compromised. I shudder to think what would have happened to a traditional monocoque chassis in these circumstances - the rear wheel would be somewhere under the back seats and the door and c-pillar would have taken a lot more of the impact.

It was sad watching the RRS drive onto the flatbed - like a wounded dog dragging itself with its front paws. An immensely strong car - if only it was more reliable........I swore I would never buy another one......

The last non fault accident I had was in my old lexus my insurers wanted to give me a fiesta or something, I contacted a prestige vehicle claims company who provided me with a brand new lexus and handled the claim with my insurers

Well, just heard today that my insurer is thinking about repairing it. A visual inspection has estimated repair cost at £14k plus VAT. They want to proceed and do a physical inspection to check for mechanical and structural damage before finally deciding.

I am happily driving around in a FFRR hire vehicle so happy for them to take their time.

Can somebody explain the maths of how they work out whether to write off. I would have thought parting it out would raise £15k plus? Not to mention the costs of storing it for another two weeks while they wait for the inspection and hire cost of the FF.

I would guess they deem it a total loss when it reaches 60 or 70% of replacement cost? They would sell the remains for scrap / spares so this could be the tipping point when they are quids in just to replace it for you.

And knowing insurance companies it will be heads they win, tails you lose!  L405 P400e Autobiography (MY2020)... Silicon Silver / Espresso
RRS TDV6 HSE Lux (MY2011)... Nara Bronze / Arabica - now gone!

Great to hear everyone was ok, and that these cars can stand up to such a big impact, however I wouldn't want it repaired after that, just don't think it would ever feel right.

I've been thinking of swapping mine lately...............not so sure after reading this

The formula for writing of a car isn't straight forward. It used to be 50% of the vehicle but that has changed and it's now done by the price of labour and parts verses the value of the salvage. A Cat D car is worth 65% of straight car, Cat C about half so if the insurers know they can recover over 65% of the value they will write it off. If it can't achieve this they look to repair.
Guessing your car value is @ £40000/45000 so they will elect to spend £15000 to fix it. Doesn't help you having a car with that sort of history, so you need to ask to add some depreciation when filling out your personal losses.
Hopefully the chassis isn't damaged, the arms are designed to fold as they did to protect the chassis but I would be asking for the repairs to be done by a LR approved body shop and not one of their choice. Having owned a Vw and BMW approved body shop, we had to use genuine parts, factory original paint and painting methods and provide a 5 year guarantee on body repairs, 12 months on mechanical.
Wish you luck and hope it all pans out. Given that air bags have gone off, that isn't a bad price for parts, paint and labour. 2x TDV6. SE and HSE. Both returned to sender with issues👀
TDV8 Sport HSE...... Gone. Loved it but it didn't love me!!
Now rolling in MY10 Fullfat TDV8 Vogue. Slammed it to go round corners🙈
Cruising daily #56 mph in a Volvo V8. 😱
Lots of other toys in the cupboard...😜

Well something doesn't make sense then as they said the glass value was £31k. I would argue higher as it has RSE, surround cameras, fridge, privacy glass and adaptive suspension. Wouldn't have thought it got as high as £40k. It is a MY11 HSE with 40k miles.

Apparently it has to go to one of their approved body shops if they decide to proceed with a repair. But they are a decent insurance company - not cheap insurance and it will be third party recoverable in any case. I will see what the final engineers report says and if necessary bypass my insurer and claim direct from the third party for a fix of my choice.

Some more photos I took before the car went. The insurers didn't seem to know about the distortion to the rear wheel - 15 Degrees of toe out and and the distortion to the internal boot space on the impact side. Seems all they had done was a fairly simple look at some pictures taken by the vehicle salvage company.

Glad the family is OK.

Off-centre impact can twist the chassis which would be quite hard, if not impossible to see with the naked eye - before you agree to a repair you might want to ask how they are going to assess the chassis alignment and confirm it to be OK?

Replacing the chassis is not the end of the world since the body will probably need to come off but it would jack up the costs.

I think that is the point of the physical inspection. So far they have only costed the visual damage from photos - apparently there is a standard tool for doing this - glassmatix? The engineer is going to assess for chassis and mechanical damage that would add to that cost - it was implied in the conversation that this would tip it into write off territory.

So far I am dealing with my fully comp insurer as I didn't want the hassle to chasing the third party insurers. I may need to change that tactic if they don't make their mind up soon.

Would suspect inner quarter is distorted and boot floor too. The cross structure behind the seats is the strongest part of the shell, and a separate chassis below which is in line with chassis mounting. So if the floor has bent, so has the chassis
I am surprised at the value........ Having looked at cars to buy, I couldn't buy a car for what you quote, some companies offer a direct replacement, might be worth asking if they will provide you with a car rather than the cash if they do write it off. Having seen photos, and knowing how the cars are constructed, I don't see it being fixed. 2x TDV6. SE and HSE. Both returned to sender with issues👀
TDV8 Sport HSE...... Gone. Loved it but it didn't love me!!
Now rolling in MY10 Fullfat TDV8 Vogue. Slammed it to go round corners🙈
Cruising daily #56 mph in a Volvo V8. 😱
Lots of other toys in the cupboard...😜

SingeRRS wrote:

Apparently it has to go to one of their approved body shops if they decide to proceed with a repair.

^^^ think the man wins a cigar.... You are at liberty to choose who repairs the car as long as the quote is comparable. We were paid £18 an hour by insurance companies under contract, £30 outside contract so have a word if you pick a LR approved garage for some discount  2x TDV6. SE and HSE. Both returned to sender with issues👀
TDV8 Sport HSE...... Gone. Loved it but it didn't love me!!
Now rolling in MY10 Fullfat TDV8 Vogue. Slammed it to go round corners🙈
Cruising daily #56 mph in a Volvo V8. 😱
Lots of other toys in the cupboard...😜

Well after much to'ing and fro'ing it was written off - every time the insurers looked at it they spotted another thing and the bill kept climbing through the £20k mark. My RRS is officially spare parts.

I have defected and picked up a 62 plate Westminster with 11k miles - and whilst it does not have the gizmos of my RRS it does have a 4.4 TDV8 which is absolute bliss compared to the 3.0TDV6 - and amazingly it does about 20% better mpg than the Sport (I think because it is only turning over at about 1200rpm on the motorway at 70).

So farewell - I don't think I will be back in a Sport but it was fun, frustrating and irritating.

SingeFF

You will love the 4.4 with hopefully the newer 8 speed box, my business partner has just upgraded his TDV8 Vogue to a 2011 Westminster. It is miles more refined than my MY10 Vogue. Now I have finally accepted it's not a sports car and drive more like my age would expect, it's faultless and apart from a service and rear brakes hasn't needed to visit a garage in 14 months which is unheard of in my world . Will never love the car as I did my Sport, it is good and you will cover distance effortlessly in great comfort. Health and wealth to enjoy and let us know how you getting on with "the barge"  2x TDV6. SE and HSE. Both returned to sender with issues👀
TDV8 Sport HSE...... Gone. Loved it but it didn't love me!!
Now rolling in MY10 Fullfat TDV8 Vogue. Slammed it to go round corners🙈
Cruising daily #56 mph in a Volvo V8. 😱
Lots of other toys in the cupboard...😜