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Renault 4 accident on the road

Thanks Malcolm - given the opportunity I shall try my hand at roller-painting Rustoleum Combicolour paint on the old dear - reports suggest it's remarkably good at pretending to be a spray finish given a little care. At no cost except a few gloss rollers.

Maybe I should try white - seems to be a safe colour, along with yellow and red (AA research, 2011).
 
Unfortunately the assessors have declined my request to change the write-off category from B to S, saying that the van is too badly damaged to justify a lower category. This means that the van will be crushed.
 
Gutted for you. Can you buy back the vehicle as it is, then rebuild it on different chassis/plates from a rusty van that you might be able to buy?
 
AdamWilkes said:
Unfortunately the assessors have declined my request to change the write-off category from B to S, saying that the van is too badly damaged to justify a lower category. This means that the van will be crushed.
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Is there a chance for someone to buy it for spares? Bits of R4 are getting rare these days and your van probably is a van full of them. Such a shame they are being idiots. If you can buy it back one of us will pick it up and save it. Or at least most of the bits of it.
 
malcolm said:
Is there a chance for someone to buy it for spares? Bits of R4 are getting rare these days and your van probably is a van full of them. Such a shame they are being idiots. If you can buy it back one of us will pick it up and save it. Or at least most of the bits of it.
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SAVE THIS VAN !

The van is illegal to put back on the road, but can be bought back for spares for £240 salvage (I thought it was less than this, but that's what they say now). Probably reason for category B is the slight body bend under the windscreen, where I guess my 30mph momentum was finally stopped by the other car embedded above the wheel.

Anyone want to collect it from the salvage company in the south of England they can have it for that price and use as they wish, but only for dismantling. Nothing chassis or suspension-wise seemed bent - nor the wheels - except front bar behind bumper. Is drive-able, albeit noisily because of a damaged exhaust somewhere at the front. MOT passed this June.

Let me know if you want it - first come first served (trailer required of course). It needs to go soon, or they'll start charging me storage as well, otherwise to the crusher.

I also have a new distributor vacuum advance unit (ordered before the crash), which would make the engine run far better!
I don't have the facilities to strip this, so I won't be salvaging it. Still has fire extinguisher, battery (12 mths old) and radio! Service history for last four years (some previous-owner history to 2011).

Car is at Copart, Northacre Business Park, Stephenson Rd, Westbury, Wiltshire, BA13 4WD. I will need to notify them before anyone can collect.

Download the PDF engineer's report by clicking below:
 
  • 20191007_Engineer's_Total_Loss_Report(13635553).pdf
    4.7 MB · Views: 26
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I've had a look into rules and regs and the info might be helpful to others. There seems to be no law that Cat B cars have to be scrapped, and it is possible to repair and insure them for the road, but a year or two ago looks like the DVLA changed their policy and will no longer supply registration documents to new owners of a cat B car.

Cat B seems odd when no structural repairs are specified on the repair schedule and looks like it will prevent the identity from being retained.

But the car has Speedline wheels!
 
From: https://www.gov.uk/scrapped-and-written-off-vehicles/insurance-writeoffs
"Category B: Cannot be repaired; Body shell has to be crushed, but you can salvage other parts from it."

However, the salvage company and insurer say that the car can be collected (whole) from the salvage yard for recovery of parts, slightly contradicting the above. I assume that DVLA would flag the registration and 'chassis' numbers (under-bonnet bulkhead-mounted number) so as to prevent re-registration - of the body (!). I guess that the actual (under-body) chassis can remain legally at large, being devoid of noted serial/chassis numbers, as far as I am aware - is that so?

It's always possible that the assessor wasn't aware that Renault 4's have a separate chassis - I did clearly state that as one of the reasons for contesting the Category B designation, but I can't be sure that that message reached the assessor. Frankly I am tired of arguing with everyone involved, and am not going to pursue the matter further. I also expect that the assessor's professional pride will block any category change by now.

(dead sexy example chassis shown below to illustrate that the 'chassis number' actually isn't on the chassis)

1024px-Chassisroulant.jpg

So, if one was to remove and scrap the now written-off body (with 'chassis' number) as required, then a complete under-car as above is still re-useable (assuming it's in decent nick!), plus interior, glass, doors, lights, mirrors etc.. It's just bolts holding the body to the chassis, let's not forget!

Just to be clear - the photo above is NOT from my van ! MY van chassis will have old-age-related 'patina' and stuff . . . . .

Returning to the issue at hand, if anyone wants to collect my Category B written-off van for salvage only (which will cost £240), please get in touch asap! Else it gets scrapped.

Car is at Copart, Northacre Business Park, Stephenson Rd, Westbury, Wiltshire, BA13 4WD. I will need to notify them before anyone can collect.
 
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Chassis number is on the chassis by the way
I feel your pain with this as really unnecessarily being written off
I have been told it is,part of a directive to get old cars off the road
 
Too much to repair otherwise, other option would have been to not claim then it won't get written off as it's only your insurer who can write a car off as far as I'm aware.

Also CAT b can go back on the road just can be a pain to insure, Adrian Flux will insure them. So if you can fix it go for it.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw10skFL1BwIi8NVMbT5Rk6h

Also might be worth contesting the value, when I looked there was only a LHD one for 4k available so RHD should be more. This is also a factor they look at when deciding what to do as it's money at the end of the day to them.
 
alewis said:
Too much to repair otherwise, other option would have been to not claim then it won't get written off as it's only your insurer who can write a car off as far as I'm aware.

Also CAT b can go back on the road just can be a pain to insure, Adrian Flux will insure them. So if you can fix it go for it.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw10skFL1BwIi8NVMbT5Rk6h

Also might be worth contesting the value, when I looked there was only a LHD one for 4k available so RHD should be more. This is also a factor they look at when deciding what to do as it's money at the end of the day to them.
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Although Adrian Flux say they do on their website, they don't in fact insure Cat B written-off vans - they referred me to Commercial Vehicle Direct (https://www.cvd-insurance.co.uk/ ), who say they do insure such things, after suitable VIC Check (engineer's report) and MOT after the repairs. DVLA does not automatically allow vehicles back on the road, but will 'consider' it given the above reports. Maybe I will recover it myself ! ? !

It is apparently quite legal to resurrect this van despite it being a cat B write-off (contrary to what my insurer told me), and is insurable after repair but it will always have DVLA note of Cat B write-off against it, so end value if repaired would be lower (maybe half) than market value. Cat B vehicles are usually broken for spares because of insurance and market value hurdles and encouragement from the powers-that-be. It seems quite legal to repair and drive them, albeit financially questionable in some cases (and I'm not sure how high insurance would be).

I checked with the DVLA (online chat) and cvd-insurance (by phone) to confirm the above.
 
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Andy McGhee said:
Adam
Great news - best of luck with the restoration!
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Just to add add that tidying up yesterday found a complete set set of front suspension top and bottom wishbone should you find there is a problem with either hopefully an inner wing and a bonnet will sort you out
 
Hi Adam, I'm so pleased you've decided to keep your van and fix it yourself, and as I said in an earlier post, my car was in a similar condition after it's accident but it got fixed and lives on. Your van is far to good to scrap, and it would have been another of this dwindling number of these vehicles gone, so well done for making this decision. Good luck, and I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of your progress, and of it back on the road.
Regards Brian.
 
Well, I've just received this email from my insurers - does anyone know the real story???

"We note your intention to retain your vehicle which has been declared beyond economical repair, Category A/B.

Category A vehicles must be destroyed.

Category B vehicles can only be broken for spare parts.

With effect from the 26 October 2015, the Department for Transport have introduced new Legislation, The Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2015 ,and you need to be aware that you will not be permitted to submit your vehicle for MOT or obtain Road Fund Licence, even in the event that you have had the vehicle repaired. We must also warn you that the DVLA will not issue a replacement Vehicle Registration Document. As a consequence, you will not at any point in the future be able to either use or sell the vehicle. "
 
That's an annoyance. No way it should be a CAT B, but that clarifies the thing about DVLA not sending out V5s, and if they don't allow tax or MOT either that would restrict options.
 
I have again phoned DVLA, this time they are sure that a Cat B cannot ever be re-registered with them, so I give up.

Many thanks for everyone's truly kind and generous offers and advice. Unfortunately, I have to concede to the law's juggernaut of legislation; the van will be recycled, but only as scrap.
 
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