Copart

[overrun]

Spoke to copart and the guy was well helpful. He said a 'safeguard programme' is in place to stop anything at all happening to the car and they will await instruction from my insurer. Might get insurer to confirm in a email

 

I hope for your sake that they are true to their word - and have not used an FLT to transport it!

You could just tell them to keep it, and buy back the engine and box for £340. That would be ideal, eh? If only.

 

I got a 2K mile and year old new style 1.0 Vauxhall 3 cylinder and box from there for that fixed price. Sometimes you can get a right bargain!

[smellmycheese]

^ Thanks for that bangerfan

[Guest bangerfan101]

I've had dealings with copart myself. My Mrs stacked her fiesta on the a64, A1 round about. Arse ended a fitti 500 good and propper. I managed to limp it back to her parents house in Leeds no lights no water in it with front slam panel rite into the manifold.

 

Rang insurance. Admitted liability. Fully comp on an 02 plate fiesta. My Mrs decided not to claim for her car as it would cost more in excess than the car was worth.

 

A few days later we get a call from copart. Were coming to collect your car. 5 minutes later I've got a recovery driver banging on my door. After explaining to the thick cunt the cars in Leeds. Not York and he's not having it anyway he starts getting arsey.

 

Told him to FRO and ring the insurance company. He'd come to pick it up as scrap before it had even been assessed.

 

What ever piss pot 3rd party mong they were using to recover cars that day God only knows. I've seen rough arse banger drivers lorries in better condition

[Tam]

It's only when things go wrong you find out if your insurance company is descent or not! The only time I've had to deal with them was when I wrote off my Land Rover 90 in 2014. We grabbed the first offer of £8700 as was in a bit of a panic due to the fact the MOT had run out 2 weeks before the accident. Even the police weren't sure if I was insured without an MOT. Turned out was all OK and any claim was unaffected by the MOT status but after thinking we might get nowt just grabbed the first offer!

After agreeing the money I immediately asked to buy it back. That was when I could here the panic in the insurance guys voice and some drivel about "it's category C you know!" Short argument later and we bought it back for £1600.

To be fair it was delivered back to us a week later complete with the hastily scrubbed out yellow writing from the screen, so can only presume it had been passed from the local recovery company to Copart or someone like them before checking if we wanted it back or not.

On the recovery cost thing I got stung for £250 for the recovery of my trailer which I picked up the next day!

All in all it was a descent deal. Ended up with a reasonably straight Land Rover with a galvanised chassis for a couple of hundred quid albeit a Cat. C.

 

[New POD]

RAC include accident recovery. Others don't.

 

BUT it costs them nothing because they get a recovery/repairers to collect it, who then charge your insurance company.

 

Ask me how I know

 

[Timewaster]

There is a local guy with a couple of brand new Peugeot flat beds and I'm told that most of his work is for copart.

Flat fee for each recovery. We expect him to go broke any day now.

[AlabamaShrimp]

It's all this category C/D whatever stuff I don't get. My Fiesta has really very little damage on the front but, after ringing the insurance as they haven't bothered to ring us, they want to put it cat C, there's sod all wrong with it!

 

If it was 'worth more money' or newer they wouldn't even bother...

[sierraman]

There is a local guy with a couple of brand new Peugeot flat beds and I'm told that most of his work is for copart.

Flat fee for each recovery. We expect him to go broke any day now.

This is where these type of outfits get people. Do an unattainable amount of drops in a day and you'll get £xxx. Then they specify you've got to have a van of X age etc.

 

I used to drive a van for a company where you had to do 10 drops across the south of Sheffield in an hour and a half. Trust me you had to take the van within an inch of its life and know Sheffield off the back of your hand. I see these self operated things with Amazon at something like 50p a drop, how anybody could make that pay I do not know.

[Guest Hooli]

It's all this category C/D whatever stuff I don't get. My Fiesta has really very little damage on the front but, after ringing the insurance as they haven't bothered to ring us, they want to put it cat C, there's sod all wrong with it!

 

If it was 'worth more money' or newer they wouldn't even bother...

 

I forget what the categories are exactly, but isn't just a marker to say you claimed & they repaired?

[AlabamaShrimp]

I forget what the categories are exactly, but isn't just a marker to say you claimed & they repaired?

I understand why a car might need a marker if it's been totally smashed up and put back on the road but I don't understand is why an insurance company can mark a car forever just because it's got an arbitrary 'worth'.

 

Strip a car down, change everything, do more work then my car will ever need. But no one wants to know or care and it doesn't get any kind of mark affecting its resale or future insurance policy.

[Guest Hooli]

Yeah that bit doesn't really make sense to me either. After all, if it's been done through the insurance it should* have been done properly & be in pre-accident condition.

[vaughant]

Yeah that bit doesn't really make sense to me either. After all, if it's been done through the insurance it should* have been done properly & be in pre-accident condition.

But that way round it will have no marker on it as it was repaired by the insurance company, ie they deemed it "economical to repair".

 

It's still a lottery really, ice seen cat c's where you can't see anything other than a scratch and cat d's that look like they've done a bank holiday weekend in the banger ring!!!!

[Guest Hooli]

I thought there were markers for -

 

Repaired by insurance

Not worth repairing by insurance

Fucked for parts

Proper fucked

 

?? But like I said, I can't actually remember.

[Kiltox]

A - crush it without any salvage

B - salvage parts only

C - insurer decided not to repair because the cost exceeded the pre accident value

D - insurer decided not to repair but the cost did not exceed the pre accident value

 

 

There's no marker for "it was fixed"

 

"Cost" isn't always straightforward either - expensive hire cars etc can tip the balance

[Timewaster]

I did some work (not car related) at a large breakers a couple of years ago.

You could clearly see how the cars were stored in sections.

Cat D Looked like a car park.

Cat C Had mostly had a reasonable smack. Obvious damage.

Cat B Nasty accident damage. Rolled Roofs cut off. A few fire damages.

Cat A Stomach churning. Fatals. Mangled unrecognisable wrecks and burnt outs.

[Kiltox]

This was a B

 

[SiC]

This was a C.

 

Airbags deployed (hence cracked windscreen) which pretty much what did it. Only the driver and passenger airbags mind. The others (all 8 others) only deploy in a bigger accident. However I believe when they repair it, they are supposed to replace all of them, with the wiring, sensors and Airbag ECU. Then fix the actual crash damage. Of course being OEM only parts and requiring dealer time to program it in, it would be pricey.

 

According to the MOT history it's been fixed and still on the roads though.

 

[vaughant]

As kiltox quoted above cat c/d is not necessarily down to accident severity but more cost.

 

A/B can be some nasty sights, I recall from many many years ago a fiesta Rs turbo that actually didn't look too bad from a side ender and everyone was trying to buy it.

 

Scrappy revealed that it had been hit while racing anther car but said owner had his arm out of the window taxi driver style, judged a narrow gap badly and said arm was well, not there anymore.

 

Not nice.

[SiC]

This was a C.

 

Airbags deployed (hence cracked windscreen) which pretty much what did it. Only the driver and passenger airbags mind. The others (all 8 others) only deploy in a bigger accident. However I believe when they repair it, they are supposed to replace all of them, with the wiring, sensors and Airbag ECU. Then fix the actual crash damage. Of course being OEM only parts and requiring dealer time to program it in, it would be pricey.

 

According to the MOT history it's been fixed and still on the roads though.

 

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I forgot to mention, this ended up at the local coparts around here. 2 guys with a beavertail picked it up.

 

 

I remember them distinctly looking for the radio, as they got told to make sure it was still in there - with them being very confused with the fully integrated setup in the Saab. On copart website it said they'd lost the key. Actually in hindsight, I wonder if it was "lost" as someone in the trade there fancied it. Was in very good nick for the miles visually and even had 4 nearly new Michelins on it!

 

After the accident, the insurance company had the car recovered and asked if it could be left on my drive to reduce costs. I was happy with this as it meant I could recover all the bits I needed (kept the mats+service book and I even think I still have the spare key still).

[vaughant]

Makes as much sense as ringing the owners of vehicles in storage months after they've been assessed to ask what's happening and finding out it's all been sorted and paid out on. Invariably the insurance company had 'forgotten' and got told to keep the vehicle as payment for storage. Oddly it was always low value stuff....

I got stung with this (as the storer) with three vehicles, all scrappers.

 

The company involved were called Fortis and this must have been part of their business model as they'd totally ignore anything of scrap value/chod for at least a week until fees far exceeded the value of the vehicle then just say that "they never instructed me to recover it" or " I should have contacted them before collection". Nightmare.

Then your trying to chase the punter who also says " just keep the car mate, it's only worth £500". Double nightmare.

 

However if it was anything of value and you got the call to collect it through the accident management company then they would start ringing at 7am saying their driver was "waiting outside to collect the car" or was "less than ten minutes away, therefore we refuse to pay for a days storage, only the collection fee".

This was all guff of course as we weren't 24/7 recovery, it was more a sideline to accident repairs and generated work but I was regularly the first person in the yard that day and no recovery driver was seen or heard of until 10 am at best, it was just a trick to try and save £25 storage.

 

Fools never read the small print that said it was £225 recovery INCLUDING first day storage, so they were always going to pay that no matter what.

 

You often had assessors trying to beat you down on price, I had one refuse to pay because the vehicle wasn't under "covered storage".

<pedant> Oh I'm sorry, shall I put it under a blanket and tuck it in at night? <pedant>

 

It sounds like money for old rope but it's hard work unless your getting paid regularly from a source and totally keep on top of it, in the end I refused to recover anything that didn't get cleared by insurance first and then I rang them first thing the next day to ask for an approx eta of collection, this seemed to go down well and yes maybe I lost out on a few days storage but at least I didn't get involved with major disputes.

 

Glad to be away from it all personally because it felt like a thankless task despite these boys/girls working all hours in often tragic circumstances then receiving abuse afterwards because they didn't keep someone's Justin beiber cd.

[Barry Cade]

Yup to the above. It is hard work,and a lot of outlay to do it properly,especially for the police who need areas for forensics etc, and a big forklift, mega security, staff vetting,correct vehicles and plenty of room. Then you have to deal with all types, from the meek old woman to the drug dealer with everything to lose.24 hours, 365 days a year. Fatals,blood,guts,needles,pish,AND Justin Bieber CDs.