Ask the Expert: Can I keep and repair my written-off Ford Probe?
Dear Alex,
After a recent non-fault accident, my 25-year-old Ford Probe was badly dented but drivable. However, my insurer says it is a write-off and cancelled my insurance. I have had the car for 21 years and it was in immaculate condition; it was a rarely used second car. Is there a way I can keep it and get it fixed? I’m also disappointed the insurance has been unilaterally cancelled, which means I can’t take the car to a garage. Do I have any redress?
– CG
Dear CG,
It is standard practice for insurance to be cancelled when a car is written off, because it isn’t legal for it to be driven on the road, so your insurer has done nothing wrong here.
Even if you were to get your car repaired, it would need to pass a fresh MOT test before you’d be able to get it insured again – so driving it to a body shop to get a quote for repair is out of the question. You’d have to get someone to come to you to inspect it (keep in mind that this will probably cost you a call-out fee).
Some insurers therefore cancel your insurance immediately the car is declared a write-off; others include a clause which says that if you do not choose to re-insure another car with them within a certain number of days of the car having been written off, the policy will be cancelled.
As to whether your beloved Probe is repairable, it depends on the severity of the damage.
There are four grades of write-off, according to how much damage the car is found to have: Category A and B (with A being the worst) are assigned to cars that have suffered quite serious structural damage, to such an extent that it would be unsafe for them to be put back on the road. It is therefore illegal to do so.
Category S and N refer to cars which are badly damaged, but not to the extent that they cannot be repaired. Category S is for cars whose damage is structural, but repairable; Category N, as you may already have guessed, means non-structural damage. (These two categories used to be known as C and D respectively, but were changed in 2017 to make them clearer and more understandable).
If your car is a Cat A or B write-off, you'll have no option but to let the car go. This is always especially hard to stomach when it’s a cherished or rare model, particularly when it’s no fault of your own, but there’s no way around it.
If the car is a Cat S or N write-off, however, contact your insurer as soon as possible and explain that you are thinking about keeping the car and having it repaired.
Then, get a quote for the repair work as soon as you can, so that you have an idea how much it will cost; you can balance this against a) the payout you’ll receive on the car and b) the amount the insurance company wants to charge you to buy it back. (Some insurance companies will simply pay you the difference between these two figures and you’ll keep the car).
Armed with that information, you’ll be best equipped to work out how much it will cost to get the car repaired. And don’t forget: you can always haggle on that settlement figure if you’re not happy with it.
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