driver reversed into me - refusing to pay for repairs

[lifeisacarcrash]

A man reversed into me the other day. I parked behind him, a normal distance away. He went to pull out and didn't look in rear mirror, and revved up his lamborghini and crashed back into me. He has damaged my front bumper and grill.
It was caught on dash cam, he admitted full responsibility in writing and didn't want to go through insurance.
I got two quotes to get it repaired, agreed to go with the lower one but he's now refusing to pay it saying my car isn't worth as much as the quote. Fair enough it isn't, but it's my car, that though ancient was in good repair, and now the front bumper is cracked.
If I go through insurance it will be written off as it's so old and not worth as much as the repairs would cost. It is still completely drivable.
I just find it so frustrating that this man can basically get away with making a mess of my car and walk away from it and though it shouldn't matter I do find it particularly galling that if he's driving a Lamborghini he's clearly not short of a penny.
Any advice?

Go through insurance. Then he doesn't get away with it. If your car is written off, buy a replacement with the insurance money. I've had a few older cars written off by insurance (other people to blame!). I've only once had to dispute the value offered by the insurance company. It should be the cost of replacing your car like for like.

Go through the insurance as you can claim off his insurance. Your insurers may write it off but I know of people who have bought their car back as they prefer or know that it is reliable or whatever.
The other driver is pulling a fast one - don't let him get away with it. He pays as agreed or watches his insurance go up next time around because you have claimed against him.

Insurance. Of course he doesn't want to pay. Different if it was a small ding that a touch-up would have fixed but he was driving recklessly if you couldn't see a parked car behind him! Or if he was supposed to go forward and was in reverse by mistake he's gone fast enough that imagine that had been forwards and someone had happened to be walking. He should be paying for your damage!

You can still get it repaired as a category....C(??? There's definitely a worth less than repairs cost category) so it's known that it was technically a write-off but not because it was totalled.

Go through insurance. That way he doesn't get away with it.

If you have evidence it’s his fault, contact your insurance and they will clam on his insurance. Your car will be written off but you’ll get a payout.

If you don’t want your car to be written off, I would tell him that is what you plan to do then he will likely cough up. His insurance will be high and a claim will presumably make it higher so it’s probably more cost effective for him to pay for your fix.

Threaten you'll go to his insurance. He knows perfectly well he'd be paying more that way.

I had a similar situation, but agreed to go through insurance right away.

The other driver took full responsibility, but his insurers wanted to write it off. But that was if they used their own repairers. They allowed me to use my own repairer. I got a quote, they agreed to it and the money was actually in my account before the repair was done!

Although I had to arrange myself, and was without a car for a few days, it avoided the hassle of having it written off then buying it back (as write offs have to be declared when selling/insuring).

So take your quote to his insurance company and you might be in luck :-)

If you’ve got dashcam footage, he’s way out of line but this shouldn’t be reported by you to insurance

Could you get a bumper from a scrap yard, would that be cheaper?

Obviously your fear is that the money you’ll get from your “written off” car from the insurance won’t pay for a suitable replacement, it rarely does.

But the threat of him losing his no claims/the future rise in insurance of a high-value car if you do go through insurance may push him into action.

So try saying “you either pay this price or we go through insurance” and that may make him change his mind.

why not sue him in the small claims court? It sounds like he’s admitted liability so it should be straightforward?

Insurance all day. Wouldn’t like to see the premium rise on his Lambo

You've got no option but to go through the insurance. If they write it off at least you'll get something and his premiums will go up. He's probably broke, all top show.

I've said you are being unreasonable but only because you haven't gone through insurance- let them deal with it, it's what it is for. He doesn't have to get away with it.

Insurance obviously

It’s not like for like, it’s current market value (before accident).

Go through insurance. Sure, they might write it off, but you should be able to buy the car back if it’s a Cat N or S writeoff, then you can get it repaired but you may need to apply for a new logbook. If the car is nothing special this may not be worth your time, though.
My DH has recently done all of this, same circumstances too, but that was for a rare, though currently low value, Japanese sports car he really really wanted to keep on the road as he’d spent the previous summer rebuilding it.

He's being a dick, maybe give him one last chance to pay up before you go through insurance (and take full advantage of the courtesy car and everything else that really bumps up the size of the claim...). It will cost him a bomb next year but if he's too thick to work that out for himself now, it's not your problem!

I'll bet he's not insured.

Apologies, that's what I meant. Your car should be valued based on what it would cost to go and buy the same car again. So a car that is exactly like your car before it got bashed. Same age, same model, same mileage.
I have managed to get two of my cars repaired and back on the road after being written off, by using trusted repairers. If you wanted to do that you need to ask insurers to leave the car with you, rather than taking it away. The assessor would look at it at your home. You are then contacted and told how much you need to pay to keep it (usually not a lot) and you decide if you want to keep it or have the insurance company get it taken away.
It's a bit misleading to tell Op to threaten to go to his insurance. All she would need to do is contact her own insurance company and they do the rest. But if you're going to do that Op, don't hang about. Some policies have a limit on how long you can wait. He could be stringing you along hoping that you'll go over that limit.

On a lambo??

This is a strong possibility. The consequence of being caught without insurance isn't a high enough incentive, and it appears to be a surprising number of these very high end cars that do this. You can check askMID if you are enquiring about another vehicle involved in an accident.

Yup! Very common.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp858m378y5o

A Lamborghini was among 101 vehicles seized in a week-long crackdown on uninsured drivers, police said. (Lancashire Nov 2025)

https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2022-07-11/super-car-seized-by-the-police-after-finding-the-driver-was-uninsured

A Lamborghini Aventador, worth £270,000, has been seized by the police after it was spotted without a front number plate. On further inspection, officers also discovered the owner of the Italian supercar had no insurance. (Milton Keynes 2022).

Haha you didn’t watch Louis Theroux’ Manosphere documentary, did you?