S40: Structural advice required for repair!

[2000S40]

Dear folks,

I am a new owner, it's a 2000 (X) S40T SE.
Unfortunately, a renault ran into me on my 6th day of ownership (and first ever crash ).

I want to know if my car is a write-off basically, it was a front corner (passenger side) impact, and it's pushed the impact bar (behind the bumper) over to the drivers side causing the bumper, headlight and wing to sit out away from the car.

Here's a picture before,


And one after,


More if required.

As far as I've inspected so far, the impact bar is completely crushed on one corner and pushed out the other side (you can see that from the picture of the bumper above)

The slam panel has also moved towards the drivers side and inwards.

The radiator is fine (it seems) but has been pushed in and the fans are either 3mm from the engine or are actually touching.


From this, could anyone who knows their volvo's well tell me if it's likely the chassis is twisted? If so, it's an immediate writeoff as far as I'm concerned.

Or..

Are these parts (in particular the impact bar) designed to be pushed around (even at this awkward angle) while maintaining the integrity of the vehicle?

The wheels are straight, looking down the side, the car looks straight still.

The impact was at around 15mph average.

I would appreciate any help, be it good or bad news I need to know whether to try and salvage it.

Many thanks for a (hopefully) quick response.
Jason

[scottishvolvo]

I would hazard a guess that this will cost a fair bit to put right. If the wing is out of line sideways, it will mean that, at least the inner wing will be twisted if not the chassis leg on that side. Buy another and get rid of this one, especially if the other driver is to blame insurance wise.

[4 forty]

bearing in mind your car is ten years old, i would assume the insurance company would view this as an uneconomical loss, i.e. will cost more than the car is worth,

[2000S40]

Hmm, not sounding promising then so far. Insurance have stated it's uneconomical, but have yet to give me a settlement so I've done some research:

I've quoted the replacement parts;

Wings
Headlights
Bonnet
Bumper
Impact bar

As around 300 pound from a car of the same year and colour.
All that would be required if there's nothing lurking that's not yet been seen (ie bent chassis) is to pull the slam panel back out and bend everything back into shape.

Is it known for the chassis to easily bend on these cars? I bought it as I thought it would survive a collision and be pretty non-hellish to repair (aside the cost of parts). Naturally I didn't plan on testing that.. but these things happen.

[Baffler]

That is unfortunate. Glad you're ok though.

On that visual shot I would suspect a bent chassis leg. The impact bar on the front of these is made from boron steel and takes some beating to bend. Of course you really won't know until it's stripped down.

My '96 850 was hit from the off side front by a person travelling from my right and into my path. It only looked like half the damage your car has endured but was still a write off. Main dealer quoted me well over €3500 for parts alone and there was no guarantee the car would have been true after been put back together. I was very fond of that car but I walked away.

I know you just bought it and you've probably become attached to it but, take Scotishvolvo's advice, take the settlement and buy yourself a nice T4

[white90]

I would not want that car after a repair
there are loads out there to choose from, that looks like a fair old hit
the opposite side will be pushed over to.
I'd start looking for a replacment

[keithyboy]

If it was newer and more valuable it might be worth doing but by the time you've bought the parts and it's been on a jig it'll cost more than it's worth.

[bongo]

was it a renault truck ? 15mph

[gmain1967]

Make some money out of it if you can.

If you've got a garage or somewhere covered and secure to store the car, buy it off the insurance company (probably for peanuts), strip it, and sell the parts.

Then put it towards a newer S40!!!

[2000S40]

I wasn't moving, the oncoming car was probably doing around 15-20mph on impact.
TBH, I expected there to be a lot less damage if I'm honest. I'd expect that from a Vauxhall, not Volvo!

It's been inspected, and chassis wise looks sound the guy said.
So it's a case of replacing the broken parts and pulling out the slam panel.

I think then I'll sell it for what it is and as has been suggested, put it towards another.