What happens to insurances write off cars in Switzerland? Do they get a Category S mark on their record, like Category classifications in the UK once repaired? Is there an HPI check equivalent?
I thought they get scrapped. Isn’t the whole definition or “write off” here that repairing will cost more than the value of the repaired car?
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Yeah but if you have an enthusiast and the wreck of, say, an E-type then you have the value.
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Insurances used to write off cars much quicker than the drivers - or even small garages - did. So one took the money and fixed the car.
With cars today, specially electric ones and imo less little, unconventional garages it could be an other story.
I am wondering about the paperwork here in this country. In the UK, the a badly damaged but technically repairable car gets classified as categories S or N, structural, some crumple zone or chassis damage, or N, which could be as simple as lights and bumper, or as serious as bent suspension components, but undamaged structure. Once an N or S, it appears on the vehicle logbok for the rest of the vehicles life, insurance companies are notified, and most charge more for insurance, all payout 30% less on total loss, and the car sells for 30% less and has a small note on the logbook.
What about Switzerland? Well they are sold on https://carauction.axa.ch/ which lists some Swiss vehicles that didn’t get repaired, being auctioned to recover residual values. What happens if you fix one of those and go back to Strassenverkehrsamt with it? Are they for export only? How do you know if one car you buy has been repaired and resold? What happened in the past when people took the money and had their old car repaired as Curley mentioned? Is it still like that? Get it fixed by yourself or possible a cheap garage abroad, and carry on driving?
One of the classic car garages on Autoscout used to list smashed up Ferraris every so often. I remember one that looked perfect from the windscreen back, the front totally smashed, another a total burnt melted wreck at the rear. There wern’t cheap, about half the price of a good car. It they would sell for 30% less then I couldn’t see any value in it.
They’re all exported (most likely).
Labor in other parts of Europe is much cheaper than in Switzerland.
I think in Switzerland in order to get the payout for the car, you have to surrender the car to the insurance company, so it is not yours to repair. Then is sold as scrap or exported to recoup costs.
In the UK the written-off car would also be sold, but the original owner would often be given the opportunity to buy it back from the InsCo, saving them the additional work of transporting and selling it at auction. I can’t see why that wouldn’t also be possible here. Awaiting answers from SWK.
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Had a boss called “Martin” a few years back who only drove Aston Martin… duh!
He would buy wrecks and is one of the handful of people officially allowed by AM to rebuild the cars from ground up.
One time he bought parts out of the US from some celebrity who’s car had been salvaged after being washed out to sea after a hurricane, fascinating to see these bits and bats that had been smashed to pieces become a car again.