It's been a while, so time to fill in some gaps.
The assessor came out to look at the G40 a few days after the accident. Spent ages looking around it, photographing trophies and magazine articles and leafing through my three folders of service history. Value came back at £4,000, specifically mentioning that I wanted to repair it with second hand genuine parts and that I didn't want it written off. This was successful, and I was given the green light to get it repaired.
So... it's going up to Eastcote Customs on Saturday.
This lot is in the garage, waiting to go:
And the tailgate turned up at the bodyshop earlier (thanks Tav). It's already Pearl Grey, just needs painting to match the rest of the bodywork.
Assuming there are no snags, I should get the car back a week on Saturday. Huge thanks to Brentacre for sorting this out quickly, and giving me a first-name point of contact throughout. Having had a run-in with a non-specialist insurer (don't judge a policy by the cost of the premium!) it's refreshing to deal with an insurance company whic a) gives a fuck about customer service and b) knows what they're talking about.
Now for the boring bit.
Going through this has reminded me how vital it is to be 100% up to date with your paperwork. And I am, I should make that clear.
This was a non-fault accident, but:
- My car was photographed
IN DETAIL by the assessor - because all mods are declared it's been valued properly
- My driving licence has been checked to make sure I've not got any undeclared points, my address is current and my licence is up to date
- I've had to report the accident to my broker AND my insurer. Legally you have to report all accidents to the latter regardless of blame or whether you're claiming off them.
Consider it a word of warning. No matter how carefully you drive, it only takes a non-fault bump like this to blow the covers off anything you've been hiding, then you're on your own. It's not worth it.