Do I scrap my car which has been vandalised?

[LongDistanceLife]

I have a 2006 Honda jazz in bad condition, MOT due in August. I have just got home to two windows smashed. Would it be best value to scrap it and buy a new (to me) car? The insurance has a high excess.

I don’t have parents or anyone else to advise me.

I personally wouldn’t scrap a car instead of just getting the windows replaced but I suppose it also depends how much work you think it will need to pass its MOT in August.

I’m think it will need work and would possibly not be worth fixing then…

There are a few options between scrapping and fixing

For the windows provided you have glass cover then it would cost you the windscreen excess and the insurance would cover the rest of the glass

If you buy from a garage then there will still be a level of value to your old car - though that could still be the minimal P/X rate, and also the ‘we buy any car’ type of sale provided it’s running and you can get it to a drop off point

With old cars there’s always the decision coming of fix it or replace it, if you can be hard nosed and have enough knowledge then you can keep buying and selling / scrapping old cars, but if you don’t have the knowledge to get that just right then there’s the balance of deciding to fix the car that you know it’s peculiarities or moving on

My ultimate answer is a ‘don’t know’, but it wouldn’t hurt to have the windows fixed and watch the local market until MOT day

By ‘high excess’ does that apply to the windows ?

Make sure that you know if there is a difference between the main insurance excess and windows excess, plus whether that is per window or per claim

Thank you all, very helpful.

I've just paid my windscreen excess (thanks stone chip!) £95 for a new screen

I've a 2008 Citroen C3, so a pretty old, low value car. A neighbour pranged it and their insurance firm wrote it off. I was deliberating whether to just take the money and put it towards another car, or spend the insurance money (less scrap value kept by ins co) to go towards the repairs. I looked at the second hand car market and it was obvious that the insurance money wouldn't pay enough for anywhere near a reliable car, so I used the money towards repairing it and paid the difference myself. It was a no brainer really, as my car was reliable, good condition generally, etc., which is better than potentially buying an old wreck for similar money. I was also very aware of the environmental issues too - why scrap a car when most of it was perfectly useable and could be easily repaired (but at a cost). If the OPs car was otherwise in a good/acceptable condition, then I'd personally get it repaired so it doesn't get scrapped and to keep it working for a little while longer.

@Badbadbunny I could be wrong but I think that once a car has been written off by an insurance company, it can no longer legally be insured and therefore can't be driven or sold?

It depends on the classification of write off & what is done to put it back on the road

It will still need to be declared when insuring

If the MOT is due in August, then that’s around 3 months away max. Might be worth considering asking them to go through the MOT checks (I would guess the windows would mean they can’t pass it) with a view to replacing the windows immediately in time for the re-test if no other economically non-viable repairs.

What was on your report 9 months ago (or has happened since) that makes you think it will otherwise fail?

2nd hand car prices are currently sky high, even if they have short/no MOT. You’d be daft to scrap it - you’ll get £400 max in scrap price but could sell it for ~£1500-2k if you get the windows repaired.

Of course you’d then have to replace it and given the high cost of second cars right now you might struggle. I’d have the windows repaired and drive it until it either fails the MOT or gives up the ghost.

Look on a webuyanycar type site and see what value they'd pay and that gives you an idea on whether it's worth replacing the windows, which you might be able to do yourself if you have a few tools and access to you tube. Sadly it's always an educated guessing game when it comes to spending money on old cars, it can be very frugal and it can also be a spiral of investing money and then something else goes wrong.

Whatever you decide I hope it works out well for you and sorry that your car was vandalised, that's just crap!

You are likely to get a better price on ebay as 'spares or repair' than you will from the scrapman.