December 2003: the date which spelt doom for both my own and my sister's second, spangly Renault 4s. The above photo shows the sorry fate of Nicolexia. Most of the missing parts were used and donated to other Renault 4s. Malcolm Vardy, the R4 owner in Bedfordshire who I had visited earlier in the year, took a few portions of the bodywork to fix his yellow restoration project, whilst a few odd parts were donated to his red R4.

Meanwhile, another quatrelle joined his collection and was a beneficiary of Nicole's unofficial will. This car - or the resulting bizarre blend of its best bits with those from Nicolexia - is pictured below. It was a yellow Renault 4 purchased from Gloucestershire, formerly advertised on this site for 50 pounds spares or repair. Malcolm repaired some chassis and body damage, but the car was otherwise in good condition. It was apparently an unfortunate series of prangs whilst in the hands of the previous owner which left the car with various dented panels including the roof. Nicole's gift of some of her vital bodily organs resulted in the replacement of many of these battered bits, but further odd jobs would be needed to make the car roadworthy again. I dubbed it 'The Badly Wrapped Toffee'.

This R4 was at one stage destined to be my own, in part as an exchange for Nicole, until the owner poached parts from it to repair some fresh accident damage to his own car. Eventually, the deal fell through. In fact, all three of the cars which Nicolexia donated parts to were at one stage due to be driven by myself, but the owner later had other ideas.

Had I known that I would be getting nothing in exchange for releasing Nicolexia, and for my time and expenses in delivering her to Bedfordshire, I would probably not have let her go, since some last-gasp welding could have been performed on her underside to see her through one more year. I was ultimately, therefore, to be left without a Renault 4 for nearly a year, though at a time when I was rarely at home due to working away, and not in desperate need of a car when I was at home anyway.

Moving across the Xmas period to the day before New Year's Eve 2003, and my sister's second car is badly damaged in an incident on the M25 in south-west London. Clearly, all my sister's good luck with this vehicle finally ran out. She had in fact been preparing to give the car to me, but those plans were soon scuppered following the damage caused here.

A complete idiot in a yellow truck swerved out unannounced from the inside lane of the motorway, just as my sister was overtaking, causing her car to skid violently and spin off the road into the crash barrier. The outcome could have been tragic, but fortunately both my sister and her young daughter only suffered minor injuries. The R4 was towed back home - despite the breakdown organisation's desire to send it to a scrapyard - but the insurance company, CIS, messed about considerably and advised that the vehicle had been classified as unroadworthy, and insisted it must be removed by law and broken up.

The treatment my sister received from Co-operative Insurance was diabolical, and for all their previous assurances that the R4 was indeed worth the £1,000 for which it was insured (confirmed by their advisor who inspected it in person when renewing the claim only a short while before), they eventually only stumped up a pittance, even though the car had sailed through its MOT only weeks beforehand without a single fault. The Renault 4 was in superb condition, with an exceptionally good chassis, perfect inner front wings and a good, low mileage engine.

I telephoned the salvage company that was due to remove the car, and they confirmed that it had in fact been categorised differently to what CIS had claimed all along, thereby leading me to draw the conclusion that the insurance company were talking absolute crap. It would, apparently, be possible to buy back the car or for parts to be recovered (at cost) from the vehicle once it had been towed to the salvage yard somewhere further out in East Sussex. Alas, with me busy in my job away from home and without transport to get there, and in having no facility to store the car or its parts anyway, there was no real option but to let it be taken away.

The damage sustained to the off side rear corner (seen in close-up below) was extensive, and had caused the rear arms of the chassis to twist slightly, also loosening the suspension and crunching the inner wheel arches. This damage alone could have been repaired by an expert, but on closer examination it could be seen that the main body shell on the upper rear quarter had also been bent, curving inwards to the tailgate at a faster degree than normal, which put the rear off side shell out of line with the opposite side. This would have made any restoration attempt extremely tricky, and probably completely infeasible.

It is a great shame that certain parts could not be salvaged. The pair of immaculate inner front wings alone would cost a huge sum of money to acquire new from Renault, in fact being the equivalent value of that which my sister received from CIS for the whole car, making a mockery of their offer to her. I can only advise personally that any Renault 4 owner who wishes to be adequately insured in the event of an incident like this takes out specialist cover from a classic insurer, and that nobody trusts the lousy services evidently offered by Co-operative Insurance.

Ensure that a clause is included to allow for an option to recover or buy back the vehicle if it is to be scrapped, else you may find yourself left with nothing due to a legal predicament. Take out a policy with an agreed value too, because no matter what figure is specified with a typical insurance company, this is practically meaningless and they will try everything to wriggle out of paying a single penny. Avoid like the plague any company which states the car's price as 'market value' on the policy. With the Renault 4 being regarded commercially of little value unless it is an exceptional classic model, an insurance company will invariably declare the car a write-off in the event of any accident which involves more than a scratch or small dent. For this reason, if your R4 is only a tatty model on its last legs, there is absolutely no point paying extra for Comprehensive cover, and Third Party Only insurance will be a better bet (though such insurance is frequently and inexplicably more expensive than Comprehensive). However, if the vehicle is in any better state - well kept or looked after with more than a couple of years' life left in it, with a decent underside, engine or with any other mechanical / cosmetic work which increases the car's value - look to have it insured with a proper classic insurer and avoid the standard major insurers. This type of insurance, however, is usually only available when the vehicle exists as a second car within the household, and is kept garaged or off-road.