Perseverance pays off
After two months and much chasing, Sainsbury’s insurance (finally) concluded that, yes, the van driver who hit my parked car was at fault. At that point, they handed it over to my insurance company to deal with the rest.
After a phone call, it was quickly assumed the car would be a write-off, because insurance companies usually can’t be bothered to find an economical way to repair older cars. Even more worryingly, they wanted it to be collected by Copart – which runs salvage car auctions – to be inspected.
I pointed out that this would be a massive waste of everyone’s time and money compared with a person coming round to look at the car, or me sending over some pictures, but they wouldn’t budge.
My experience with Copart wasn’t too bad. The guys collecting it with a big car transporter were nice enough. The following week I was called to be told they wanted to declare it a Category S (for structural damage). I argued that a bit of panel damage is not structural, so they listened and changed it to Cat N (non-structural), bumping up the payout slightly.
Just over £2000 promptly appeared in my bank account (I wonder if I can claim Nectar points on that), with the Mini due to be delivered back to me.
As a car reviewer, I get delivered cars quite often, but I’ve never been as excited as I was for the Mini to return. It came on a multi-car transporter, and in the same condition it left. They even washed it – not very well, but it’s the thought that counts.