Some guy pulled out on me last Friday and damaged the driver's door, back passenger door and rear wheel arch/bumper. Nothing major really but pretty well scraped up and dented.

It didn't occur to me until today that this might be enough to write it off until the guy on the phone from the bodyshop says "R reg, we'll need to let the engineer take a look first, if it needs panels it might be a write off".

Anyone have any experience of this? I suppose at 11 years old and 150K on the clock it won't take much to class it as a write off?

If it does happen how much am I likely to get in settlement? Not what it's worth to me without a doubt.

I've heard of people buying their cars back off the insurance company after a write off, anyone done this? I would assume it would be for something not much more than the scrap value so DIY repairs could be a viable option?

I started out from school painting cars so I am able to do the repairs myself even if I ended up getting someone else to paint it.

Any input or experiences would be appreciated.

Dan