Interesting advice, but in my case I don't think I can usefully dispute it – there are actual functional problems (one rear light cluster was shattered, which is easily fixable, and also the boot was bent so far out of shape that the rear wiper no longer meets the rear windscreen) and also they said the chassis was bent. I certainly wouldn't be confident that I could get it repaired to MOT standard, though I can see how if it was just one dented side panel it might be a different story.

Oh dear, does sound like you took a bit of a knock. A twisted chassis is basically not fixable.

It is fixable. My brother had to handle the result of the son-of-big-chief taking his right of way on a tram. However the tram is always right, not only in the eyes of the law, but also for physics 101: weight car: 1E3 Kg, weight tram >>25E3 Kg.

The car 'could not be' a write off, so they fixed the U shaped car. However I would not like to drive that or even be close to that car being driven...