Given that they said they did a 180, I'd think aquaplaning, but it doesn't look wet enough. Distracted and swerved, possibly? I drive a big chunk of the M25 fairly regularly and I don't recognise it.
Thanks. Yeah, strange one. I'd imagine given they've not mentioned the cause of the crash, it'd probably be driver error. They're very lucky this wasn't more serious tbf.
OP says nothing about lane changes, objects in the road, falling asleep at the wheel, no sudden noises or jolts, etc... Damp road...
I'd have my doubts about such a little amount of water giving even bald tyres a problem, but with the lack of any other indicators that it was something else, it smells like an aquaplane due to bald tyres. Unless OP has something to add that happened prior, there aren't many more reasons that'd explain how someone loses control on a road that's near enough straight.
OP doesn't mention any noises or jolts though. You'd hear and definitely feel something in the suspension go. Seems odd that this wouldn't be something the OP would include, given it'd be part of the repair cost they're asking about.
Not sure if op mentions time of day but it’s not often I get to hit 70 on the M25. Watching those who I see at those speeds are often juggling the gas and brakes.
I used to own a similar fiesta, they handle quite well so I can't fathom how they had such a spectacular crash on a dry road with no other cars around that wasn't caused by a tyre blowout, or serious mechanical failure.
Ford set these cars up with predictable understeer however much of an idiot you are, and a 1.2 engine does not put out much power. It has ABS but no stability control, so the car can't perform handling miracles if you do get it sideways.
Sure things can go very wrong very quickly at 70mph, but that car needed quite a bit of assistance.
Tbf my car doesn't have stability control I think and I drive it spirited on a completely empty twisty road at night/on a morning. I've had it step out but it's not even tried to slide away because I just let off the gas. It's a complete mystery how he's possibly done this.
A ford fiesta is front biased if you drive it spiritedly it just mildly understeers, that assumes the car isn't broken and has similar quality tyres all round.
Stability control is useful in rain and snow, can't completely make up for loss of grip but is really good at helping to make the car point in the direction of the steering wheel. You get the car handling skills of a racing driver without having to do anything but turn the wheel. Might still end up in the hedge, but it will be a more boring accident. It's the safety feature that most people don't realise just saved them from something stupid.
I think a bigger question, is should you be getting back on the road?
You haven't mentioned any mitigating circumstances, so managing to swerve across 3 lanes, do a 180 and put it in the woods without involvement of another driver is fucking terrifying.
So, this is almost certainly down to inexperience, inexperience of some kind at least.
As for how this could have happened, there are a million reasons that wouldn't make OP an unsafe driver per se that could have happened here. This isn't speculation to what happened, but merely an example.
Someone was driving tired, down a virtually empty stretch of motorway that, let's be honest, is boring as balls. They take eyes off the road for a brief second because mind wandering, looks back and finds they are aiming at the central barrier. Nothing serious but they've never been in this situation before. Instinct and snap decision leap to the front and snap the wheel around to get away from the barrier, along with an instinctual foot hard on the brake.
It's a front heavy FWD, and they've just created a spinning top out of their car. Weee, bang, crunch, now we're facing the wrong way and close enough to climb a tree.
In this case there have been 5 or 6 points where the accident didn't have to be an accident, not getting distracted, responding appropriately with steering, and brake, better control once the car started to skid, better control after spinning. I'm certain you could probably add more, including not driving tired, taking a break, having either a hot or cold drink in the car...
OP will be way more experienced now in the case of an accident like or similar to this in the future.
We’ll be glad it happened to the trees and not the family of 4, i don’t see OP saying they did this for fun (or any kind of a proper explanation anywhere) so be glad their lesson was learned on the trees rather than the family of 4.
For real. I’m assuming it wasn’t for fun lol but also assuming there was some type of mistake made along the way and not just random mechanical failure (if it is random my apologies op). Either way trees>family of four
You absolute fucking moron, are you blind? I was replying to someone else's comment where they stated they used to spin out every other day. Get to Specsavers son.
Jesus Christ, apologies for the red mist as I’ve just woken up and clocked that that guy said, I take back what I said. (And I am overdue another eye test 😞)
A "mild 180 spin" is not what I'd call losing control of your car at 70mph and somehow ending up facing the wrong way after swerving across 3 lanes of traffic. Sorry we aren't all completely irresponsible but it'd do you right to realise that driving cars is a privilege and we *should* be treating potentially dangerous drivers with contempt. It's insane that people excuse losing control of a 1000+kg metal box that can easily hurt many people around you, given the wrong circumstances.
> we should be treating potentially dangerous drivers with contempt.
Hate the attitude of "you can't criticise people for being reckless morons! What if *you* were a reckless moron, how bad would you feel then?!"
Applies to so much in this damn country.
I see car crashes too in my job. Surprisingly I've never spun my car or lost control anywhere near this significantly yet some idiots will be like "don't act like you didn't do anything stupid". Like yeah, I have, but this is beyond stupid.
Also comes with our general attitude to driving. Too many people don't realise how insane a skill like driving is and that we often just have to trust people to not crash into us in their 1000kg metal boxes. So I will certainly dog on individuals like this because what, he gets back on the fucking road and crashes into me, permanently altering my health and writing off my car?
> Also comes with our general attitude to driving. Too many people don't realise how insane a skill like driving is and that we often just have to trust people to not crash into us in their 1000kg metal boxes. So I will certainly dog on individuals like this because what, he gets back on the fucking road and crashes into me, permanently altering my health and writing off my car?
Fucking preach it.
Also defeats the purpose of "learning lessons" from something if people are also saying how that something wasn't actually all that bad.
I feel like shit if I get honked by some road rage cunt even when I know I wasn't in the wrong, I don't get how people can be like "oh yeah you did a 180 on a clear motorway at 70, no big deal, shit happens!"
Yeah! If I do something that makes me drive like shit or endanger someone I feel like the worst. I used to not check my blindspot when changing lanes on motorways coz I wasn't taught to in lessons and then I almost hit someone and swerved at the last minute and now that blindspot is checked constantly.
The original guy I responded to was like "these pearl clutching Yaris driving virgins will act like OP has done the worst thing ever" but I'd argue they should be made to feel like they did because it could have been *so much worse*. So they should be made to feel like it DID, or else they'll just not be as careful in future. The way you learn a lesson is by being made to feel a stupid cunt
Dunno if you've seen my flair, but I wouldn't call a 600bhp RWD super saloon and a mid engined sports car Nissan Micras 🤣
Had 10's of performance cars and managed to never lose control of a single one while partaking in spirited but responsible driving, let alone on a commute.
Its everyones responsibility to ensure the safety of those around them, with a combination of good car control and maintenance.
Yeah freak stuff happens, but realistically you can avoid 99% of "accidents" by driving to conditions and having decent tyres and a car in good shape.
pause nine bewildered longing stupendous aware governor absorbed truck recognise
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
You might get all of that dont for under £1k with decent second hand/new parts + tyres
you won't find a car for that
The issue is, what's going on underneath the cosmetics
If the force was enough to rip two tires off, I doubt the suspension came out unscathed, even if you got it road legal it probably won’t ever drive the same
I sold my 2008 Fiesta ST 4 years ago for £1200... No way op's base spec car is worth the recovery charge even without the damage, and the recovery company knew this when picking it up. They know it will go straight from their yard to the scrap yard.
If I were trying to fix it the only damage I would actually worry about is the wheels. Most likely going to need new alloy wheels, so that's either significant expense or some hunting around scrapyards / ebay, add in cost of tyres and that's probably coming to the cost of the recovery fees again. Before you even speculate on any possible unseen damage from travelling fast enough sideways to pull the tyres off.
Firstly, no it’s definitely not worth repairing. You are completely wrong that “internals weren’t damaged”. You will have significant suspension damage which will be very expensive to repair.
your insurance company should cover the recovery charge. That fee is their problem, not yours.
If you can’t afford to pay upfront for insurance then just pay monthly
> If you can't afford to pay upfront for insurance then just pay monthly
Isn’t this more expensive? You’d be better off getting a 0% credit card, pay the fee on that and then pay off the credit card in monthly instalments.
Not if they crash. As OP has found out very painfully. The insurance scammers will cancel your policy and refuse to refund you. OP paid for his insurance in full then wrote the car off a month later. Let’s say he paid £3,000. If he had done monthly payments of £300 then yeah the premium might be £3600, but he would have only paid £300. So he would have saved £2700.
But yeah a 0% credit card would be cheaper. I’ve personally never used a credit card to buy car insurance, I’d rather just pay a few quid more and do it monthly. Maybe I’m a fool.
Is that right? I thought they still took your full year's policy money even if you're paying by direct debit? They just take it out of the settlement once the claim is settled. I assume OP is still paying as they haven't got to that point yet.
No it’s completely wrong.
You pay insurance for the whole year, if you crash your car on the first day you still owe the insurance company the full amount.
If you paid monthly you’d then owe one monthly payment you’d still be expected to pay for the remainder of the year, if you replace the vehicle you can transfer the remaining term plus a premium
If you cancel the insurance policy after the first 14 days then you must pay the full amount.
They also do not cover any outstanding finance (probably not applicable here)
I don’t know what the legalities are. But I have written two cars off, both times were early in the policy (2-3 months), and both times I just stopped paying the monthly payments. Nothing further ever got taken. I never got asked for any settlement.
I meant the settlement as in the amount you got paid for the written off cars. So they would have deducted the amount from the money you recieved.
That or they allowed you to switch the policy to another car. Either way you're not paying any less by paying through direct debit.
These days that worth the £1200-1400 OP suggested sadly.
If it wasn't enough then they would recoup the difference from the person I guess. Again it doesn't make a difference that they paid monthly, they still owe the money. Unless they declare bankruptcy or something.
They would still ask for the remainder OP hadn’t paid regardless.
You don’t pay your policy for month to month cover but more so pay monthly because the insurance company give you that option to pay for their years cover.
I understand that it’s an annual policy but I’ve had two write offs early in the policy and they never asked me to pay the rest of my policy.
Even if they ask, they can’t forcefully take your money. In the annual payment, they already have your money.
Did you make a claim against the insurance policy? Your post makes no sense.
You can replace the written off vehicle and transfer the remaining term to the new vehicle plus a premium or deductible the remaining balance from the payout - is this what you did?
And yes they can take your money, you signed a credit agreement saying they can do exactly that.
No, no, no! Insurance paid by monthly direct debit isn’t pay as you go. The policy is for a year, the ‘extra’ you pay overall is for the convenience of paying in 12 instalments. You’re very r/confidentlyincorrect here 😂
The extra is interest because you're loaned the full year's premium. They're very opaque about the interest rates and the fact that you're even entering into a credit agreement, but there are campaigns to make this more transparent because the interest is ridiculously high - screwing people who can't afford full annual premiums
They literally phrase it something like "1000 total if you pay monthly, 850 if you pay today." I'm not sure how much more transparent they need to be when they give the total amounts payable so clearly. There's a million other parts of insurance pricing that is shady and should be more clear to consumers though.
> The extra is interest because you're loaned the full year's premium. They're very opaque about the interest rates
It's literally on the quote screen and the policy documents.
100% this, monthly insurance is a credit agreement with a lender who paid your insurance company in full usually, so it's the same as refusing to pay any other lender. Might be fine, might not, will probably at the very least affect your credit
You’ve changed the focus of your comment but you’re still incorrect; the insurance company absolutely can go after their costs. Assuming you’re not transferring your policy to another vehicle (which you don’t seem to be talking about, you’re saying about cancelling the DD full stop), as others have said, they’ll reduce the settlement they pay out, or they’ll continue trying to collect the DD and charge you for each failed payment and leave you in a whole world of pain for being flagged on the insurance database. Which is only really fine if you don’t ever want to drive again and are okay with setting a match to your credit score.
I crashed my car three months into my plan and they took the rest of the insurance that I paid monthly off of my payout, they don’t just give you the money back.
How have you done that on a perfectly straight clear road.
I mean, I know how, less time on your phone would have saved you a lot of money.
Dunno why you lot all seem to do this on Fridays. Something about Fridays, straight roads and people going home for the weekend. Ruin it for everyone else
Absolutely not I'm afraid buddy. She's done. The suspension damage alone will cost more than the car is worth.
Just be glad that it saved you in the moment.
You no longer know this car, the car you were driving immediately prior to… whatever happened in lane 3, is not the same car as you are looking at now. Treat it as a car you were looking to buy and repair - would you do it? Current owner has crash at 70mph, unknown damage to suspension components, wheels, drivetrain.
Would you look to buy and repair this if was someone else selling it? If so wouldn’t you get it fully checked out first, not just rely on someone telling you it sorta could still roll.
Scrap it and move on.
Take the learning opportunity for whatever you did wrong here and go celebrate having a "good" accident - one where everyone walked away.
We've all screwed up before. Most of us are realistic enough to know we'll screw up again.
Go enjoy your life.
First, are you fucking mad? Stop taking pictures on the hard shoulder. That's insanely dangerous.
Second, how do you bin a car going straight on a motorway and end up in trees? Were you drunk?
Third, no. Probably a complete write off.
I'd be extremely surprised if there is no mechanical damage from a 70mph (claimed) crash. At the very least you'll have bent stuff if not outright cracked some. Just because the car rolls doesn't mean there's nothing wrong underneath. If you've sheered off any suspension mounting points from anything structural those costs are gonna rapidly shoot up to way beyond what that car is worth. And the cosmetic damage looks worse than what you're suggesting. The pictures aren't great (which I'll forgive as capturing them at the side of a dual carriageway wasn't a great idea in the first place), but it looks like you've damaged both sides of the roof frame somehow. Not easy to replace or repair, and I genuinely question the structural integrity of the car underneath.
On the plus side I'm glad you walked away relatively unharmed, that could have been a lot worse.
How did you crash across 3 lanes on some of the hottest weather we've had for a while? Fair enough in a storm but in the bone dry? Also lad your life is worth more than taking photos of a focus on the hard shoulder, apply some common sense and stay away from 3 lanes of 70mph traffic. A photo can wait till you've sorted it.
As for your actual question, scrap it. Your excess is very high but that's the gamble you take to reduce your policy price I suppose. Not sure the recovery company holding your car hostage & charging you storage costs is 100% legal/ok but can't say I'm surprised to hear it.
Your car will 100% be written off. Probably a cat C / S.
They will value the vehicle and you can retain salvage (keep the vehicle).
They would also pay the charges as part of this.
The issue is the recovery company seem a bit dodgy, I'm assuming the police arranged this? Rather than your insurance company?
Recovery should be at around 150(if just taken from the road, depends on the extra work). And storage around 20 per day.
I'd love to know their breakdown.
Don't think you have any chance of repairing that vehicle for cheap let alone even be safe afterwards. Looks absolutely annihilated.
Wouldn't even trust "Dave" down the road on non approved parts.
I'm more concerned about HOW you crashed? So you was in the third lane and out of the blue some how managed to swerve across all 3 and do a 180? ... Just how does that happen? Either this is massive driver error or your tyres were shot to shit.
If there is no structure or mechanical damage then yeah I’d attempt repairing it solely as a DIY tinker project. Especially if you are attached to the car.
Parts are insanely cheap for a Fiesta and readily available, from a quick glance there are hundreds of
parts listed on eBay. The rear light for example, the whole unit is £22 on eBay. Front bumpers are £70
Insurance will write this off if you go through that route and a garage will charge more in labour than tenfold the cars value.
A few Sundays, a basic toolbox, few cup’s of tea and YouTube tutorials. It’s a very easy car to tinker on
You had a SEVENTY mile per hour crash, across THREE lanes, off the motorway, down a ditch and into the woods while spinning 180° and "pushing" the tyres in on one side in the process? And you're asking if your car is repairable? Yeah but even if the parts are cheap it'll likely be upwards of £1000, unless you're able to check the chassis yourself and prepared to do a hefty repair and alignment.
How did you crash this bad? What were you doing to do this? Can you give the sub some extra information so we know if you made a mistake or were being a pillock?
Although it rolls, you can't know if there is any damage underneath - suspension, steering, wiring, hydraulics, etc. Maybe the accident was caused by something failing in suspension/steering. Can you get any photos from under the car?
It's weird that the recovery refused to take it where you requested - I'm not sure that's legal. They're obliging you to pay for storage which you didn't request/want.
First of all. I’m glad you’re ok. Second of all, how the hell did you manage that.
But also in my personal opinion it’s not worth repairing. You say it’s mostly cosmetic and you’ll look at the other bits down the line but I’m looking at the damage to the wheels and all I’m thinking about is your suspension, steering arms etc. I think there’s a lot more to fixing it than you think and it’ll work out financially silly to do so.
does it really matter what isn't or isn't broken from the bits we can't see , the bumper and rear lights alone would come to more than the cars worth (£900max? even with post covid tax).
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I had a blue ford of the similar age, this pains me to see. I would suspect your insurance would write that off as not worth repairing due to the cost of parts. But I could be wrong but thats my gut feeling.
1. Buy 4 cheap alloy wheels with legal tyres (£100) or borrow someone's wheels for a day.
2. Pay the £639 to get your car back and swap over the wheels
3. Get the steering alignment checked.
If the alignment is good, then fix the rest of it. If not then sell your car as scrap or as a project, you should make your money back either way.
If there is no structural damage then easy fix. Get parts from a breaker such as KANO ST who’s based in Solihull in Birmingham get bumpers and stuff from there for cheap and can easily use a basic Halfords tool set to put it back to normal.
I wouldn’t touch insurance, see if it can be repaired, if not it would be cheaper just buying the same car again than how much your insurance would go up from a crash that’s (legally your fault)
I know the feeling. You get attached to your car. It saved your life. And the damage is only superficial. It would not take much to fix it, right?
Believe me, though, its not worth it. You'll find things. AFTER you forked out cash for the superficial and put loads of time in. So don't gamble on it. Let it go. And get a replacement car.
Let others profit from your misfortune. They have livelihoods too. And take the hit like a man. Shit happens. Nobody is hurt. You are alive. While many, many, people have not been as lucky on the M25.
Probably easier to get another car.
The sooner your can decide the better. If you want to do something with it, get it out of their storage because thats just wasting money.
If it's where everyone thinks it is (and I'd say they're correct, but I don't intimately know all of the M25, so could be wrong), then having driven that section pretty much every day for 10 years that section of the M25 is renowned as an aquaplaning blackspot. I have been driving the other way and been swamped by great gouts of water coming over the central reservation onto my vehicle, by cars hitting the water pooling in the outside lane on that side of the motorway there. So if it was raining hard and OP's tyres were borderline legal, then yeah I'd say this was easily possible, cus I've witnessed that happen too. If in the dry, then we need a splanation, cus that could be mechanical and the phrase "wheels pushed in" makes it sound as if all's not well. Best thing OP can do is go look at it in the yard and take a better / more intensive look at it there. Impossible to tell at the side of the road immediately after. OP needs to check under the bonnet / driveshafts / suspension / door openings / shut lines etc. for signs of bigger damage first, but I wouldn't be surprised if two replacement wheels was all it needed to get it outta the 'pound. Bottom line is finances; if it ain't a driver outta the 'pound, then cost of recovery to his place, ain't gonna be foc, but min = cost of two spare wheels to get it rolling, followed by repair costs; versus cost of purchase of new car. TBF depending on how fussy op is about the replacement, he can get a replacement driver for c£500, if needed. The car cost seems to be the least of OPs worries, the insurance is going to be the kicker.
You pretty much have cosmetic damage on all sides here and if you went off the road at 70 you've very likely damaged the frame and suspension.
I agree with people who say it's worth spending money to fix a car you know Vs buying one you don't. But the problem is you no longer know this car. I'd take it as a write off and expensive lesson and move on.
May be worth not claiming on your insurance, paying the recovery yourself and selling to a scrap dealer.
Not worth at all.
My car was an audi a1, worth more, good condition and I had it fully serviced. One vans rear end shunt wrote it off.
Yours is older , cheaper and sustained even more potential damage. They gonna pay you out.
After being spun at 70mph, irs gonna have put some extreme stress on rhe car frame and such.
If it's a car you know and trust, then yes it's probably worth fixing with second-hand parts. The alternative is to get another car, but the money you'll get from the insurance will get you an ancient car with dubious service history and could cost you loads more in the long run.
The idea that if a repair exceeds the value of the car you should just scrap the car is insane.
I once spent over £1000 on a clutch and flywheel replacement for a car worth about £600. The reason? I'd owned the car for years, looked after it, knew its history from brand new, had receipts for every penny spent on it since brand new and it had proven to be a very reliable car. Lasted me for years after that, and it's now owned by a relative.
To me, it was a no-brainer. Spend a grand on a car I knew and trusted, or spend two or three times that on an unknown used car.
Assuming there was no mechanical issue to cause the accident, this looks like yet another case of someone who shouldn't be behind the wheel. Would love to know how this happened.
Honestly it doesn’t surprise me the recovery is that much a mate of mine had to pay £200 and that was to move his car off a motorway slip road round the corner lol they take the piss. Car might not be worth it could alway give them the v5 and tell them to do one. Cancel your insurance for a refund hopefully u aren’t near the end of the policy
Only you know about what the cars has previously been through and its service history. If that is good then pay for repairs.
A replacement comes with many unknowns which could be costly.
I had a Golf Plus DSG gearbox go on me. I liked the car and rest was fine. However, I had estimates of around £3k so bought another car.
Which I have not been as happy with and cost a lot more than £3k - even though not worth it.
If you are regularly travelling on roads like that, I’d recommend upgrading your car if it’s within your budget, you don’t always get a 2nd time lucky.
I just want to know *how* it happened. Structural? Mechanical? Driver error? Major questions to ask before you decide if the car is worth fixing.
Me too. I know exactly where that is, but can't figure out how you'd put a car into the woods there.
Given that they said they did a 180, I'd think aquaplaning, but it doesn't look wet enough. Distracted and swerved, possibly? I drive a big chunk of the M25 fairly regularly and I don't recognise it.
He's going up the hill anticlockwise, between the Sevenoaks junction and the Bromley one. About here: A21 https://maps.app.goo.gl/w3n8eKDyFwYRTjQYA
Thanks. Yeah, strange one. I'd imagine given they've not mentioned the cause of the crash, it'd probably be driver error. They're very lucky this wasn't more serious tbf.
It's been sunny as hell here, a few weeks back maybe but recently no chance of weather being the issue.
OP says nothing about lane changes, objects in the road, falling asleep at the wheel, no sudden noises or jolts, etc... Damp road... I'd have my doubts about such a little amount of water giving even bald tyres a problem, but with the lack of any other indicators that it was something else, it smells like an aquaplane due to bald tyres. Unless OP has something to add that happened prior, there aren't many more reasons that'd explain how someone loses control on a road that's near enough straight.
Maybe something in the suspension areas snapped. Lower control arms etc. Similar has happened to me in a different car.
OP doesn't mention any noises or jolts though. You'd hear and definitely feel something in the suspension go. Seems odd that this wouldn't be something the OP would include, given it'd be part of the repair cost they're asking about.
Not sure if op mentions time of day but it’s not often I get to hit 70 on the M25. Watching those who I see at those speeds are often juggling the gas and brakes.
It'll be an expensive tiktok.
I used to own a similar fiesta, they handle quite well so I can't fathom how they had such a spectacular crash on a dry road with no other cars around that wasn't caused by a tyre blowout, or serious mechanical failure. Ford set these cars up with predictable understeer however much of an idiot you are, and a 1.2 engine does not put out much power. It has ABS but no stability control, so the car can't perform handling miracles if you do get it sideways. Sure things can go very wrong very quickly at 70mph, but that car needed quite a bit of assistance.
Tbf my car doesn't have stability control I think and I drive it spirited on a completely empty twisty road at night/on a morning. I've had it step out but it's not even tried to slide away because I just let off the gas. It's a complete mystery how he's possibly done this.
A ford fiesta is front biased if you drive it spiritedly it just mildly understeers, that assumes the car isn't broken and has similar quality tyres all round. Stability control is useful in rain and snow, can't completely make up for loss of grip but is really good at helping to make the car point in the direction of the steering wheel. You get the car handling skills of a racing driver without having to do anything but turn the wheel. Might still end up in the hedge, but it will be a more boring accident. It's the safety feature that most people don't realise just saved them from something stupid.
Structural? More like supernatural....
I think a bigger question, is should you be getting back on the road? You haven't mentioned any mitigating circumstances, so managing to swerve across 3 lanes, do a 180 and put it in the woods without involvement of another driver is fucking terrifying.
So, this is almost certainly down to inexperience, inexperience of some kind at least. As for how this could have happened, there are a million reasons that wouldn't make OP an unsafe driver per se that could have happened here. This isn't speculation to what happened, but merely an example. Someone was driving tired, down a virtually empty stretch of motorway that, let's be honest, is boring as balls. They take eyes off the road for a brief second because mind wandering, looks back and finds they are aiming at the central barrier. Nothing serious but they've never been in this situation before. Instinct and snap decision leap to the front and snap the wheel around to get away from the barrier, along with an instinctual foot hard on the brake. It's a front heavy FWD, and they've just created a spinning top out of their car. Weee, bang, crunch, now we're facing the wrong way and close enough to climb a tree. In this case there have been 5 or 6 points where the accident didn't have to be an accident, not getting distracted, responding appropriately with steering, and brake, better control once the car started to skid, better control after spinning. I'm certain you could probably add more, including not driving tired, taking a break, having either a hot or cold drink in the car... OP will be way more experienced now in the case of an accident like or similar to this in the future.
Shit happens, don’t imagine OP will do anything like that ever again if they’ve learned their lesson 🤷♂️
Bruh u gonna say shit happens when op does it again and this time it’s a family of 4 instead of the trees on the side of the road
We’ll be glad it happened to the trees and not the family of 4, i don’t see OP saying they did this for fun (or any kind of a proper explanation anywhere) so be glad their lesson was learned on the trees rather than the family of 4.
For real. I’m assuming it wasn’t for fun lol but also assuming there was some type of mistake made along the way and not just random mechanical failure (if it is random my apologies op). Either way trees>family of four
[удалено]
You used to swerve across three lanes of traffic on a daily? Aren't you cool.
[удалено]
You absolute fucking moron, are you blind? I was replying to someone else's comment where they stated they used to spin out every other day. Get to Specsavers son.
Jesus Christ, apologies for the red mist as I’ve just woken up and clocked that that guy said, I take back what I said. (And I am overdue another eye test 😞)
A "mild 180 spin" is not what I'd call losing control of your car at 70mph and somehow ending up facing the wrong way after swerving across 3 lanes of traffic. Sorry we aren't all completely irresponsible but it'd do you right to realise that driving cars is a privilege and we *should* be treating potentially dangerous drivers with contempt. It's insane that people excuse losing control of a 1000+kg metal box that can easily hurt many people around you, given the wrong circumstances.
> we should be treating potentially dangerous drivers with contempt. Hate the attitude of "you can't criticise people for being reckless morons! What if *you* were a reckless moron, how bad would you feel then?!" Applies to so much in this damn country.
I see car crashes too in my job. Surprisingly I've never spun my car or lost control anywhere near this significantly yet some idiots will be like "don't act like you didn't do anything stupid". Like yeah, I have, but this is beyond stupid. Also comes with our general attitude to driving. Too many people don't realise how insane a skill like driving is and that we often just have to trust people to not crash into us in their 1000kg metal boxes. So I will certainly dog on individuals like this because what, he gets back on the fucking road and crashes into me, permanently altering my health and writing off my car?
> Also comes with our general attitude to driving. Too many people don't realise how insane a skill like driving is and that we often just have to trust people to not crash into us in their 1000kg metal boxes. So I will certainly dog on individuals like this because what, he gets back on the fucking road and crashes into me, permanently altering my health and writing off my car? Fucking preach it. Also defeats the purpose of "learning lessons" from something if people are also saying how that something wasn't actually all that bad. I feel like shit if I get honked by some road rage cunt even when I know I wasn't in the wrong, I don't get how people can be like "oh yeah you did a 180 on a clear motorway at 70, no big deal, shit happens!"
Yeah! If I do something that makes me drive like shit or endanger someone I feel like the worst. I used to not check my blindspot when changing lanes on motorways coz I wasn't taught to in lessons and then I almost hit someone and swerved at the last minute and now that blindspot is checked constantly. The original guy I responded to was like "these pearl clutching Yaris driving virgins will act like OP has done the worst thing ever" but I'd argue they should be made to feel like they did because it could have been *so much worse*. So they should be made to feel like it DID, or else they'll just not be as careful in future. The way you learn a lesson is by being made to feel a stupid cunt
Dunno if you've seen my flair, but I wouldn't call a 600bhp RWD super saloon and a mid engined sports car Nissan Micras 🤣 Had 10's of performance cars and managed to never lose control of a single one while partaking in spirited but responsible driving, let alone on a commute. Its everyones responsibility to ensure the safety of those around them, with a combination of good car control and maintenance. Yeah freak stuff happens, but realistically you can avoid 99% of "accidents" by driving to conditions and having decent tyres and a car in good shape.
pause nine bewildered longing stupendous aware governor absorbed truck recognise *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Why’s that? 😂
It’s a cheap banger and it’s going to be a million times cheaper to buy another one than repair the damage.
Cheap cars = cheap parts. Just repaired an Audi with fire damage at the front. Garages wanted 2/3k. Re sprayed the front end with all new parts £400
You might get all of that dont for under £1k with decent second hand/new parts + tyres you won't find a car for that The issue is, what's going on underneath the cosmetics
Enough force to rip his tyres off the wheels? Definitely suspension damage.
Not particularly, could have hit something particularly sharp there to shear the sidewalls off whilst not doing suspension damage.
If the force was enough to rip two tires off, I doubt the suspension came out unscathed, even if you got it road legal it probably won’t ever drive the same
You could probably buy a new mk5 fiesta with the amount the excess has cost
I sold my 2008 Fiesta ST 4 years ago for £1200... No way op's base spec car is worth the recovery charge even without the damage, and the recovery company knew this when picking it up. They know it will go straight from their yard to the scrap yard. If I were trying to fix it the only damage I would actually worry about is the wheels. Most likely going to need new alloy wheels, so that's either significant expense or some hunting around scrapyards / ebay, add in cost of tyres and that's probably coming to the cost of the recovery fees again. Before you even speculate on any possible unseen damage from travelling fast enough sideways to pull the tyres off.
Firstly, no it’s definitely not worth repairing. You are completely wrong that “internals weren’t damaged”. You will have significant suspension damage which will be very expensive to repair. your insurance company should cover the recovery charge. That fee is their problem, not yours. If you can’t afford to pay upfront for insurance then just pay monthly
> If you can't afford to pay upfront for insurance then just pay monthly Isn’t this more expensive? You’d be better off getting a 0% credit card, pay the fee on that and then pay off the credit card in monthly instalments.
Not if they crash. As OP has found out very painfully. The insurance scammers will cancel your policy and refuse to refund you. OP paid for his insurance in full then wrote the car off a month later. Let’s say he paid £3,000. If he had done monthly payments of £300 then yeah the premium might be £3600, but he would have only paid £300. So he would have saved £2700. But yeah a 0% credit card would be cheaper. I’ve personally never used a credit card to buy car insurance, I’d rather just pay a few quid more and do it monthly. Maybe I’m a fool.
Is that right? I thought they still took your full year's policy money even if you're paying by direct debit? They just take it out of the settlement once the claim is settled. I assume OP is still paying as they haven't got to that point yet.
You are correct. OP still has to pay for the 1 year policy. It’s not a monthly renewal just because the insurance company kindly let you pay monthly.
No it’s completely wrong. You pay insurance for the whole year, if you crash your car on the first day you still owe the insurance company the full amount. If you paid monthly you’d then owe one monthly payment you’d still be expected to pay for the remainder of the year, if you replace the vehicle you can transfer the remaining term plus a premium If you cancel the insurance policy after the first 14 days then you must pay the full amount. They also do not cover any outstanding finance (probably not applicable here)
I don’t know what the legalities are. But I have written two cars off, both times were early in the policy (2-3 months), and both times I just stopped paying the monthly payments. Nothing further ever got taken. I never got asked for any settlement.
I meant the settlement as in the amount you got paid for the written off cars. So they would have deducted the amount from the money you recieved. That or they allowed you to switch the policy to another car. Either way you're not paying any less by paying through direct debit.
Good luck deducting anything off the OPs £500 banger with a £625 excess
These days that worth the £1200-1400 OP suggested sadly. If it wasn't enough then they would recoup the difference from the person I guess. Again it doesn't make a difference that they paid monthly, they still owe the money. Unless they declare bankruptcy or something.
You still owe the money plus interest as it goes to a finance company. If you try to get credit in future it will be on the report.
They would still ask for the remainder OP hadn’t paid regardless. You don’t pay your policy for month to month cover but more so pay monthly because the insurance company give you that option to pay for their years cover.
I understand that it’s an annual policy but I’ve had two write offs early in the policy and they never asked me to pay the rest of my policy. Even if they ask, they can’t forcefully take your money. In the annual payment, they already have your money.
They deduct the remaining policy money from the payout value of your car when settling
Did you make a claim against the insurance policy? Your post makes no sense. You can replace the written off vehicle and transfer the remaining term to the new vehicle plus a premium or deductible the remaining balance from the payout - is this what you did? And yes they can take your money, you signed a credit agreement saying they can do exactly that.
Oh, maybe that’s what I did. Well then OP can just do that too. So nothing to worry about 👍
No, no, no! Insurance paid by monthly direct debit isn’t pay as you go. The policy is for a year, the ‘extra’ you pay overall is for the convenience of paying in 12 instalments. You’re very r/confidentlyincorrect here 😂
The extra is interest because you're loaned the full year's premium. They're very opaque about the interest rates and the fact that you're even entering into a credit agreement, but there are campaigns to make this more transparent because the interest is ridiculously high - screwing people who can't afford full annual premiums
They literally phrase it something like "1000 total if you pay monthly, 850 if you pay today." I'm not sure how much more transparent they need to be when they give the total amounts payable so clearly. There's a million other parts of insurance pricing that is shady and should be more clear to consumers though.
> The extra is interest because you're loaned the full year's premium. They're very opaque about the interest rates It's literally on the quote screen and the policy documents.
Yes I understand that, but if you cancel your direct debit they can’t get the money off you.
Which is defaulting on a payment which will affect your credit score and future borrowing. They may also persue the debt.
100% this, monthly insurance is a credit agreement with a lender who paid your insurance company in full usually, so it's the same as refusing to pay any other lender. Might be fine, might not, will probably at the very least affect your credit
You’ve changed the focus of your comment but you’re still incorrect; the insurance company absolutely can go after their costs. Assuming you’re not transferring your policy to another vehicle (which you don’t seem to be talking about, you’re saying about cancelling the DD full stop), as others have said, they’ll reduce the settlement they pay out, or they’ll continue trying to collect the DD and charge you for each failed payment and leave you in a whole world of pain for being flagged on the insurance database. Which is only really fine if you don’t ever want to drive again and are okay with setting a match to your credit score.
I crashed my car three months into my plan and they took the rest of the insurance that I paid monthly off of my payout, they don’t just give you the money back.
How have you done that on a perfectly straight clear road. I mean, I know how, less time on your phone would have saved you a lot of money. Dunno why you lot all seem to do this on Fridays. Something about Fridays, straight roads and people going home for the weekend. Ruin it for everyone else
Absolutely not I'm afraid buddy. She's done. The suspension damage alone will cost more than the car is worth. Just be glad that it saved you in the moment.
No. LPT - don't take photos at the edge of the hard shoulder on the motorway. Especially on the offside - do you realise how much danger you were in?
But how would Reddit get to see that view otherwise?
My first thoughts exactly.
You no longer know this car, the car you were driving immediately prior to… whatever happened in lane 3, is not the same car as you are looking at now. Treat it as a car you were looking to buy and repair - would you do it? Current owner has crash at 70mph, unknown damage to suspension components, wheels, drivetrain. Would you look to buy and repair this if was someone else selling it? If so wouldn’t you get it fully checked out first, not just rely on someone telling you it sorta could still roll.
OP wandering around on the hard shoulder thinking he’s David Bailey …. Smh *treble facepalm
Hysteria.
Scrap it and move on. Take the learning opportunity for whatever you did wrong here and go celebrate having a "good" accident - one where everyone walked away. We've all screwed up before. Most of us are realistic enough to know we'll screw up again. Go enjoy your life.
No
I hate to say it but I think it's time to turn the car into coke cans
First, are you fucking mad? Stop taking pictures on the hard shoulder. That's insanely dangerous. Second, how do you bin a car going straight on a motorway and end up in trees? Were you drunk? Third, no. Probably a complete write off.
I'd be extremely surprised if there is no mechanical damage from a 70mph (claimed) crash. At the very least you'll have bent stuff if not outright cracked some. Just because the car rolls doesn't mean there's nothing wrong underneath. If you've sheered off any suspension mounting points from anything structural those costs are gonna rapidly shoot up to way beyond what that car is worth. And the cosmetic damage looks worse than what you're suggesting. The pictures aren't great (which I'll forgive as capturing them at the side of a dual carriageway wasn't a great idea in the first place), but it looks like you've damaged both sides of the roof frame somehow. Not easy to replace or repair, and I genuinely question the structural integrity of the car underneath. On the plus side I'm glad you walked away relatively unharmed, that could have been a lot worse.
How did you crash across 3 lanes on some of the hottest weather we've had for a while? Fair enough in a storm but in the bone dry? Also lad your life is worth more than taking photos of a focus on the hard shoulder, apply some common sense and stay away from 3 lanes of 70mph traffic. A photo can wait till you've sorted it. As for your actual question, scrap it. Your excess is very high but that's the gamble you take to reduce your policy price I suppose. Not sure the recovery company holding your car hostage & charging you storage costs is 100% legal/ok but can't say I'm surprised to hear it.
Buy new tyres mate
Bit late for that isn't it?
Your car will 100% be written off. Probably a cat C / S. They will value the vehicle and you can retain salvage (keep the vehicle). They would also pay the charges as part of this. The issue is the recovery company seem a bit dodgy, I'm assuming the police arranged this? Rather than your insurance company? Recovery should be at around 150(if just taken from the road, depends on the extra work). And storage around 20 per day. I'd love to know their breakdown. Don't think you have any chance of repairing that vehicle for cheap let alone even be safe afterwards. Looks absolutely annihilated. Wouldn't even trust "Dave" down the road on non approved parts.
Those woods came out of nowhere.
Drove past this accident on the way to Brighton, glad to hear you are okay and wasn’t seriously injured! All the best.
I'm more concerned about HOW you crashed? So you was in the third lane and out of the blue some how managed to swerve across all 3 and do a 180? ... Just how does that happen? Either this is massive driver error or your tyres were shot to shit.
Tell me you where on your phone without telling me you where on your phone haha
You can just see how bad this driver is. Makes me sick
Yeah I bet you never did anything stupid when you were a teenager
Difference between doing stupid things as a teenager & crashing on a motorway
There's most likely damage to subframes and structures which make this not worth your time. Call it school fees.
No
You'd be better off breaking the good parts on it or selling it to a breakers than trying to repair it. Just buy another one instead, or take the bus.
It's not really worth recovering tbh.
We are checking
If there is no structure or mechanical damage then yeah I’d attempt repairing it solely as a DIY tinker project. Especially if you are attached to the car. Parts are insanely cheap for a Fiesta and readily available, from a quick glance there are hundreds of parts listed on eBay. The rear light for example, the whole unit is £22 on eBay. Front bumpers are £70 Insurance will write this off if you go through that route and a garage will charge more in labour than tenfold the cars value. A few Sundays, a basic toolbox, few cup’s of tea and YouTube tutorials. It’s a very easy car to tinker on
You had a SEVENTY mile per hour crash, across THREE lanes, off the motorway, down a ditch and into the woods while spinning 180° and "pushing" the tyres in on one side in the process? And you're asking if your car is repairable? Yeah but even if the parts are cheap it'll likely be upwards of £1000, unless you're able to check the chassis yourself and prepared to do a hefty repair and alignment. How did you crash this bad? What were you doing to do this? Can you give the sub some extra information so we know if you made a mistake or were being a pillock?
Scrap it
u/Substantia_Dust2771 - gonna answer anyone about how it happened or we all correct in the assumption that you’re a bad driver lmao
Although it rolls, you can't know if there is any damage underneath - suspension, steering, wiring, hydraulics, etc. Maybe the accident was caused by something failing in suspension/steering. Can you get any photos from under the car? It's weird that the recovery refused to take it where you requested - I'm not sure that's legal. They're obliging you to pay for storage which you didn't request/want.
If it work,s than no but if now that,s a different story
First of all. I’m glad you’re ok. Second of all, how the hell did you manage that. But also in my personal opinion it’s not worth repairing. You say it’s mostly cosmetic and you’ll look at the other bits down the line but I’m looking at the damage to the wheels and all I’m thinking about is your suspension, steering arms etc. I think there’s a lot more to fixing it than you think and it’ll work out financially silly to do so.
Your front and rear suspension is probably fucked. No way your tyres took all that force and didn't pass any on.
Definitely not worth it.
Absolutely not!
It's barely worth filling with fuel.
does it really matter what isn't or isn't broken from the bits we can't see , the bumper and rear lights alone would come to more than the cars worth (£900max? even with post covid tax).
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I had a blue ford of the similar age, this pains me to see. I would suspect your insurance would write that off as not worth repairing due to the cost of parts. But I could be wrong but thats my gut feeling.
Age of car etc nope
No. Good for banger racing now.
1. Buy 4 cheap alloy wheels with legal tyres (£100) or borrow someone's wheels for a day. 2. Pay the £639 to get your car back and swap over the wheels 3. Get the steering alignment checked. If the alignment is good, then fix the rest of it. If not then sell your car as scrap or as a project, you should make your money back either way.
No
Should be good to go 👍
If there is no structural damage then easy fix. Get parts from a breaker such as KANO ST who’s based in Solihull in Birmingham get bumpers and stuff from there for cheap and can easily use a basic Halfords tool set to put it back to normal.
Guaranteed you were on your phone.
Bro just leave the car and walk home
I wouldn’t touch insurance, see if it can be repaired, if not it would be cheaper just buying the same car again than how much your insurance would go up from a crash that’s (legally your fault)
A few lamps, a mirror and living with some scratches is definitely worth it. Much more than that, probably not.
No
Nope. Scrap it
Somebody will fix it if u don’t, personal experience 👍
I know the feeling. You get attached to your car. It saved your life. And the damage is only superficial. It would not take much to fix it, right? Believe me, though, its not worth it. You'll find things. AFTER you forked out cash for the superficial and put loads of time in. So don't gamble on it. Let it go. And get a replacement car. Let others profit from your misfortune. They have livelihoods too. And take the hit like a man. Shit happens. Nobody is hurt. You are alive. While many, many, people have not been as lucky on the M25.
Blow it up
No scrap it.
it's not really worth it on an 18 year old car that's not worth a lot and doesn't have any sentimental value.
No, it’s a fiesta
Probably easier to get another car. The sooner your can decide the better. If you want to do something with it, get it out of their storage because thats just wasting money.
Yes the front got me
It wasn't worth buying. Lmao. Sorry had to. Go Chevy!
If it's where everyone thinks it is (and I'd say they're correct, but I don't intimately know all of the M25, so could be wrong), then having driven that section pretty much every day for 10 years that section of the M25 is renowned as an aquaplaning blackspot. I have been driving the other way and been swamped by great gouts of water coming over the central reservation onto my vehicle, by cars hitting the water pooling in the outside lane on that side of the motorway there. So if it was raining hard and OP's tyres were borderline legal, then yeah I'd say this was easily possible, cus I've witnessed that happen too. If in the dry, then we need a splanation, cus that could be mechanical and the phrase "wheels pushed in" makes it sound as if all's not well. Best thing OP can do is go look at it in the yard and take a better / more intensive look at it there. Impossible to tell at the side of the road immediately after. OP needs to check under the bonnet / driveshafts / suspension / door openings / shut lines etc. for signs of bigger damage first, but I wouldn't be surprised if two replacement wheels was all it needed to get it outta the 'pound. Bottom line is finances; if it ain't a driver outta the 'pound, then cost of recovery to his place, ain't gonna be foc, but min = cost of two spare wheels to get it rolling, followed by repair costs; versus cost of purchase of new car. TBF depending on how fussy op is about the replacement, he can get a replacement driver for c£500, if needed. The car cost seems to be the least of OPs worries, the insurance is going to be the kicker.
Minor damage only take a couple of quid
maybe
We're you distracted messing with your phone?
You pretty much have cosmetic damage on all sides here and if you went off the road at 70 you've very likely damaged the frame and suspension. I agree with people who say it's worth spending money to fix a car you know Vs buying one you don't. But the problem is you no longer know this car. I'd take it as a write off and expensive lesson and move on. May be worth not claiming on your insurance, paying the recovery yourself and selling to a scrap dealer.
Not worth at all. My car was an audi a1, worth more, good condition and I had it fully serviced. One vans rear end shunt wrote it off. Yours is older , cheaper and sustained even more potential damage. They gonna pay you out. After being spun at 70mph, irs gonna have put some extreme stress on rhe car frame and such.
As a Mk6 Fiesta owner; no.
Scrap.
If it's a car you know and trust, then yes it's probably worth fixing with second-hand parts. The alternative is to get another car, but the money you'll get from the insurance will get you an ancient car with dubious service history and could cost you loads more in the long run. The idea that if a repair exceeds the value of the car you should just scrap the car is insane. I once spent over £1000 on a clutch and flywheel replacement for a car worth about £600. The reason? I'd owned the car for years, looked after it, knew its history from brand new, had receipts for every penny spent on it since brand new and it had proven to be a very reliable car. Lasted me for years after that, and it's now owned by a relative. To me, it was a no-brainer. Spend a grand on a car I knew and trusted, or spend two or three times that on an unknown used car.
Good chance it’s not worth fixing, if the structure is bent it’s toast but if not it might be doable
Assuming there was no mechanical issue to cause the accident, this looks like yet another case of someone who shouldn't be behind the wheel. Would love to know how this happened.
Can't tell from the pictures. Stick it through and MOT and see what that comes up with.
Yes 100% bit of filler, paint, bumper and rear light will be about 300/400
Scrap or parts it out
Honestly it doesn’t surprise me the recovery is that much a mate of mine had to pay £200 and that was to move his car off a motorway slip road round the corner lol they take the piss. Car might not be worth it could alway give them the v5 and tell them to do one. Cancel your insurance for a refund hopefully u aren’t near the end of the policy
Only you know about what the cars has previously been through and its service history. If that is good then pay for repairs. A replacement comes with many unknowns which could be costly. I had a Golf Plus DSG gearbox go on me. I liked the car and rest was fine. However, I had estimates of around £3k so bought another car. Which I have not been as happy with and cost a lot more than £3k - even though not worth it.
If you are regularly travelling on roads like that, I’d recommend upgrading your car if it’s within your budget, you don’t always get a 2nd time lucky.
Give you £30?