Hi all,

Need some advice on how to deal with insurance companies following an accident at the weekend. Got rear-ended at a junction by another driver, who's fully accepted the liability for the accident. Spoke afterwards and other party wanted to see how much repairs would be to see if it was viable to make an agreement between ourselves without going through insurance companies.

Got a dealer quote, which was just shy of £1,500 for repairs and to go through Ford's accident management company. Obviously on top of that would be the renowned 'like-for-like' courtesy vehicle, which would definitely get my car written off.

Recommended a local bodyshop by a couple of people, got a quote for just under £600 for the repairs through insurance with their own courtesy vehicle and could be done within 2 days.

Both quotes are for repairs to the plastic and to pull out the rear panel damage and to tidy things up at the back, both didn't seem to think it was a big job.

My situation is I need the car repaired and not written off. My car is a 57 plate Ka Style, which was passed down from my parents to me. It's been fully dealer serviced and has only 20k on the clock. The reliability of the car can't be questioned, which leads on to me provisionally accepting a new job involving a 60 mile round trip a day. Having a car I can rely on was a major factor in going for this new job as it's not exactly in a built up area. Aside from that, I have a great sentimental attachment to the vehicle as my father recently passed.

If it's written off, I'm unlikely to be able to buy anything similar for the lowish value of the car now, which is really going to mess up everything that's going on at the moment.

How is it best to approach the repairs via the insurance companies? Not had to make a claim before, so it's all very confusing to me.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.