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Less sustainable than we thought
Feb. 9th, 2023 04:18 pmWhen I described the multi-car pile-up outside our house, I didn't dwell on the damage to our own car. It didn't seem as worthy of note as the spectacular movements of the cars on the icy road surface, and the number of them involved. Nonetheless, it didn't escape unscathed:
The damage was serious enough that it could not be driven - the body of the car was pressing on the tyre - but not so dramatic, I thought, that it couldn't be repaired. We had, after all, done serious damage to a very much older car (on a rising bollard in Spain) and not only had it lashed up enough for us to drive it home, but had a permanent repair done at the insurers' expense when we got home.
Times have changed. The insurance company has now confirmed what their mechanics were telling us, that the damage can not be repaired and the car will be written off. If I've got this right, the outer shell of the car is put on in one piece, so you can't just replace a damaged panel, you have to replace the whole thing. There may be a good reason for this, but I'm old enough and grouchy enough to complain about a world in which nothing is repaired, everything is discarded and replaced - because resources are inexhaustible, aren't they? This is not why we chose an electric car.
The marginally better news is that the insurers don't propose simply to hand us the cash and tell us to get on with it, they will replace the car: "new for old" they say, which is not quite how I'd describe a car we have had since September (I've barely learned its registration number). But they seem confident they can find a replacement without trouble: they are asking questions about preferred colour, which I will believe when I see it...
Meanwhile, someone is coming next week to look at the damage to the raiings in front of the house. Someone else has already done this, but it seems she was just agreeing the claim as valid: the next person will assess the work to be done. Fortunately, damage to buildings doesn't risk getting the house written off.
The damage was serious enough that it could not be driven - the body of the car was pressing on the tyre - but not so dramatic, I thought, that it couldn't be repaired. We had, after all, done serious damage to a very much older car (on a rising bollard in Spain) and not only had it lashed up enough for us to drive it home, but had a permanent repair done at the insurers' expense when we got home.
Times have changed. The insurance company has now confirmed what their mechanics were telling us, that the damage can not be repaired and the car will be written off. If I've got this right, the outer shell of the car is put on in one piece, so you can't just replace a damaged panel, you have to replace the whole thing. There may be a good reason for this, but I'm old enough and grouchy enough to complain about a world in which nothing is repaired, everything is discarded and replaced - because resources are inexhaustible, aren't they? This is not why we chose an electric car.
The marginally better news is that the insurers don't propose simply to hand us the cash and tell us to get on with it, they will replace the car: "new for old" they say, which is not quite how I'd describe a car we have had since September (I've barely learned its registration number). But they seem confident they can find a replacement without trouble: they are asking questions about preferred colour, which I will believe when I see it...
Meanwhile, someone is coming next week to look at the damage to the raiings in front of the house. Someone else has already done this, but it seems she was just agreeing the claim as valid: the next person will assess the work to be done. Fortunately, damage to buildings doesn't risk getting the house written off.
