Stationary in traffic this morning, car behind drives into me. We swapped all details and we went our ways. I took various photos - he took none. He said the sun was in his eyes (but I know whatever he said is pretty irrelevant.)
Damage to him - cracked headlight, bit of plastic body trim dropped off. Damage to mine - none whatsover visible. Can't even see in the dirt where the impact was. All lights/parking sensors/rear camera working just fine. If you didn't know you'd think nothing had happened.
Do I do any or all of:
Ignore the whole thing and go about my day
Take it to the dealer for a once-over
Tell my insurance
Tell his insurance
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Take to the dealer for a once over.
We had someone reverse into the off side rear of our long serving 120i, all seemed well, turned out a good few weeks later that a vent behind the rear bumper had been dislodged allowing water to ingress which damaged the parking sensor control unit.
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>> Take to the dealer for a once over.
..and then claim the cost direct from his insurer?
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If there's nothing wrong you have nothing to claim, it's your cost to give you peace of mind, if there is something wrong then yes, claim.
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Ah, right, I see. Thanks.
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I guess I'd also take it to the dealer, based on an experience of a fairly hard shunt into the back of my Rover 827 some years back. the huge polycarbonate bumper sprang back into place giving the impression of no damage but the boot floor pan was warped
It was a fairly hard shunt mind.
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>>
>> Tell my insurance
>>
>> Tell his insurance
Don't you tell it to the breeze, She will tell the birds and bees.
The Trees dont need to know.
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I'm a'wondering if Xero needs to start taking some of Armel's pills.
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>> I'm a'wondering if Xero needs to start taking some of Armel's pills.
>>
Too much Holsten Pils ...
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>>Too much Holsten Pils ...
G&T more like it.
Keep taking the P ...
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Because you told the blabbering trees.
Yes, you told them once before,
It's no secret any more.
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Well, might have done right thing, might have done wrong thing, but thing is now done.
Called dealer, who pointed me at their "Renault approved" bodyshop. Took it down there.
After wiping off the dirt, it was evident that the rear bumper is in fact slightly dented, creased and scratched. So it's a new bumper job.
Was offered:
Pay for it yourself.
Talk to other chap's insurer yourself
Use their claims management company
Talk to my own insurer
They recommened the claims managment company, but not having any resources to hand, and faintly remembering stuff on here about how that might not be a good idea, I refused that. I elected in the end to call my own insurer there and then. All of that went ok, so a claim is in.
The details I had taken about the other driver all stacked up, apparently, so fingers crossed.
I know my premium will go up, but we'll deal with that when it comes. Car goes back in next week for sorting when all approved and parts are in. Free (as in really free) courtesy car from repairer, so my insurer need not claim from theirs for that.
Oh well - just thought if I was paying for insurance, this is what I'm paying for, so tis done.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Fri 7 Apr 17 at 11:15
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>> Well, might have done right thing, might have done wrong thing
The right thing, I'd say.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Fri 7 Apr 17 at 11:37
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>> I know my premium will go up, but we'll deal with that when it comes.
Not necessarily, some will try it on some won't, usually sortable by shopping around, the pain is that for the next 3 to 5 years you will have to talk to insurance companies to explain that it was not your fault and all costs were recovered.
You did do the right thing getting it checked modern bumpers are designed to absorb a bump and come back to shape, but the absorbent stuff behind the plastic cover is always damaged by contact at more than 3 or 4 mph.
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Done now as you say. They'll probably unleash their claims vultures so you'll get a credit hire car and a call re whiplash etc.
When the boss had a no-faulter a few weeks ago, the other party put her hands up to it and I suggested we deal direct with her insurer. The party agreed, and her insurer Direct Line rang me one minute after she told them. They were very helpful, as expected, as it probably knocked hundreds off the claim cost. There was no hassle with us choosing our own repairer.
I doubt whether you'll notice the effect on your insurance for that, especially if you have claims protection.
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>> I elected in the end to call my own insurer there and then.
Out of courtesy if nothing else, did you not consider contacting the person who hit your car to see if he was willing to pay for your car to be repaired without going through insurers?
I'm sure he won't be very happy getting correspondence through the post (or a phone call) from his insurer without prior warning.
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I doubt he'd want to pay for a proper job and the replacement car. And then Crankers would have to organise it, and either get the money off the party in advance or front it up himself and hope the party pays up.
The party who knocked the boss's mirror off wanted to pay herself. I told her the quote was £1,223 + VAT. She asked if I would take it to a non-approved repairer she knows to see if it could be done cheaper; I declined, it's a two year old car with a bodywork warranty to preserve. Car hire organised cost effectively by Direct line, who were paying, was another £160.
It always costs more than you think.
Claims are what insurance is for.
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>> did you not consider contacting the person who hit your car to see if he was willing to pay for your car to be repaired without going through insurers?
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I was going to say that ...
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You are obliged to tell your insurers even if you don't make a claim. If you didn't and they found out - you can't trust the other party not to suddenly deny blame and contact his own insurer - I would suggest it would effect future premiums more than a simple no fault claim would.
Never a good idea to try and be too clever in these matters.
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>> >> did you not consider contacting the person who hit your car to see if
>> he was willing to pay for your car to be repaired without going through insurers?
Why would you do that? A very bad idea with potentially disastrous results.
The best case you can achieve is a whole ton of personal risk and effort to achieve what you could have achieved with a phone call to an insurance company.
You might not get paid anything, you might get paid less, you have no comeback against a bad repair, your own insurer may refuse to get involved after you've been messing etc.etc..
I can think of no good reason.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Fri 7 Apr 17 at 23:41
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>> I can think of no good reason.
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If the other party wants to avoid an insurance claim you get a quote and he/she pays you before the work is done.
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I know the process, I said I can think of no good reason.
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It's called being courteous and polite to your fellow man.
Unless the accident was deliberate, why cause the other party even more grief when a gentlemen's agreement could be reached.
It he/she doesn't want to play ball then by all means go via insurance, but at least give them the option.
People are allowed to settle out of court. Why not the same for insurance?
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 8 Apr 17 at 04:46
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I agree with FM2R. Once you get into that discussion it becomes a negotiation from which only the other party can benefit.
It's what insurance is for.
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>> It's called being courteous and polite to your fellow man.
>> Unless the accident was deliberate, why cause
>>
Agreed!
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In my daughter's recent no-fault write-off incident, her insurance company (it was also the other driver's, fortuitously ) she received an unasked for personal injury payout. She did have a bit of light bruising from the airbag's inflation, but it was minimal.
She would not have claimed, but was pleased to have a few quid!
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>> It's called being courteous and polite to your fellow man.
>>
>>
Which is very noble, but in cases that could result massive damages (However unlikely that may seem at the time of the incident) and may also involve complicated legal procedures it is best left to the professionals to deal with. It might be hard luck on the other party who is making the offer with the best of intentions, but how do you know that to be the case?
You pay enough for your insurance, let them do what they're supposed to do and sort the blame and costs out themselves. As the saying goes, a man who acts as his own solicitor has a fool for a client.
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>>It's called being courteous and polite to your fellow man.
The very best you can achieve is to be put back in your pre-accident position with the minimum of hassle.
If you choose to deal with it outside insurance, you will almost certainly achieve less than that, perhaps massively less than that and most certainly no more than that.
Out of court settlements are, by the way, overseen and documented by lawyers and there is benefit to BOTH parties in not going through the court process.
Commonly the other party finds it to be more than they expected, it gets bitter, they either refuse to pay or can't pay, or you get a discounted deal, or the repairer cut corners, or there's something wrong with the repairs etc. etc.
If one is going to repair a car, properly, via an authorised repairer, with a guarantee then how in God's name do you think that will work out cheaper than the other persons increase in premium?
The question is always WHY don't they want to go through their insurance? In the real world there are very few, if any, reasons why that is a rational, sensible and logical choice. So why?
If you were selling them a car and they didn't have their cheque book on them, would you let them take the car and pop back tomorrow and pay? Or if they did pay by cheque would you let them take the car because you had a gentlemen's agreement that they wouldn't bounce the cheque?
However, by all means do it your way, but I wouldn't and you should think carefully.
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Completely agree with No FM2R on this one.
Some years ago a neighbour carelessly scraped the wing on our car as they reversed out of the shared drive. We settled without using insurance, it was only a few hundred £ and we knew them well. There was never any doubt we would be paid. But with someone one doesn't know, then that's completely different. I would involve the insurance.
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Just wrote a LOONG post about the process, then thought in fact nobody would be very interested. So you can have this LOONG tabloidy post moaning instead.
Hope to pick up Zoe today/tomorrow. Will be glad to get out of the courtesy car, which I'm sure is a fine little automatic (as in it must be an automated manual box I guess) Corsa, but come on. Really?
Had to SCRAPE ICE off it this morning.
It WAS COLD when getting into it and STAYED COLD for some miles.
It MAKES NOISES and PRODUCES FUMES when driving.
It ROARS LUDICROUSLY when accelerating.
It LURCHES ABOUT when it changes gear. Never mind D for drive, it ought to be H for hesitate.
It COST TEN POUNDS to put perhaps 50 ish miles worth of petrol in it. That would buy me many many hundreds of miles in the Zoe.
It STOPS and then STARTS the engine NOISILY all the time in traffic.
You can hear ACTUAL BRAKES making EXPENSIVE GRINDING NOISES when stopping.
Honestly, I'm not trying to be silly about it but I genuinely burst out laughing at one point at the utter ridiculousness of the whole thing. It's like going back in time a hundred years.
I will, however, give it the fact that refuelling that 50 miles took thirty seconds flat, and that was a huge plus. 50 miles "refuel" in Zoe at best would be perhaps 20-30 minutes at a motorway rapid, and at worst, 8 hours on a 3 pin plug. Actual reality is perhaps an hour on my home charger.
I'll also give it the fact that a full tank will take me far further than the Zoe before another two minutes refuelling.
Do those factors outweigh the silly negatives I listed? Not really, for a commuting car. So overall, I still prefer my EV by a long chalk - but I do miss fast fuelling and long range, no getting away from it. Lucky I still have the Volvo for those few trips then.
Next Zoe, (the new one) however, if I plump for one, has been out now for a month or two and real life reports are coming in of range. Nobody is getting much below 140 a charge, and a few are already getting 180. Looks like 200 is going to be a snip in summer if you're reasonable. That seems very attractive, if only the ownership package for the new ZOE wasn't now HOPELESSLY EXPENSIVE.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Wed 19 Apr 17 at 08:28
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That damn Vauxhall sounds dangerous Cc, in the wrong hands feet. My ole woman can only drive automatics and she has only ever known half-decent slush boxes. I'd worry about her driving THAT thing!
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>> , if only the ownership package for the new ZOE wasn't now HOPELESSLY EXPENSIVE.
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That's all I needed to know thanks! :-)
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It's a horrid thing, Dog. I remembered years ago reading that folk with the Toyota MMT box had sussed that if you psychically predict when it's going to change and lift your foot slightly, it smooths it out a bit. I've been doing that and it helps, if you get it right, but it's like you have to have a yoyo in your sock.
As for you ON, I suspect if I said an electric car produced gold nuggets out the back, went round the world for sixpence and cured malaria as it went you'd not be converted!
But it's true they are more expensive now. Mine is costing £89 for the chassis and £80 a month for the battery. The direct replacement now - the new Zoe - comes with slightly less kit, and would cost at VERY best £199 a month for the chassis and £90 a month for the battery.
Buying something "ordinary", of course, would cost me about £80 a month in fuel at my mileage, whereas electricity is costing me about a fiver, so it's not completely obvious, but EV still a very expensive alternative.
To be fair, there are better deals on other EVs (and really expensive deals on yet others), but it's not the cheap as chips no-brainer free motoring delight it was for a few years anymore. If you missed it, you missed it, sorry.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Wed 19 Apr 17 at 09:05
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It's not all about cost, rather it's about budget and what you can achieve with it. I might by a Tesla if I could afford it though then again I might by a 550i Touring or an Alpina B3S, or a Panamera or an RS6 or an E63 ...
For me EVs currently mean spending more than you save so I would rather direct the resources into a car that is enjoyable to drive, has unlimited range and is not too costly to run.
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Talking of EVs, here's a little eye-catcher, if it gets to market.
Executive summary:
MG electric car
On sale 2020
0-62 4 seconds
Range 310 miles
Cost under 30k
www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motor-shows-shanghai-auto-show/mg-e-motion-ev-sports-car-production-2020
Last edited by: Crankcase on Wed 19 Apr 17 at 09:55
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>> For me EVs currently mean spending more than you save so I would rather direct
>> the resources into a car that is enjoyable to drive, has unlimited range and is
>> not too costly to run.
>>
The undefinable, of course, is the pollution stuff, which some people find to be an argument unconvincing enough to pay anything at all for, and others find such a powerful argument that any price is worth paying to be "clean'n'green, won't someone please think of the children."
Last edited by: Crankcase on Wed 19 Apr 17 at 09:58
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>>
>> The undefinable, of course, is the pollution stuff, which some people find to be an
>> argument unconvincing enough to pay anything at all for, and others find such a powerful
>> argument that any price is worth paying to be "clean'n'green, won't someone please think of the children."
>>
Pollution locally or globally? If we all had that in mind we would all run our old bangers into the ground however thirsty etc they are/were so as to avoid the energy use in the manufacture of a new vehicle. So trading in a petrol/diesel vbmenzordaauxult for an EV or Hybrid is really only a warm feeling and might please Caroline Lucas.
Yes you might deposit less CO, CO2 and NoX locally though what about the embedded carbon, the lithium mines etc? A few years ago it was said that a Prius had to run fault free for 250k miles on it's original battery before it had any chance of competing with a similar sized TD on lifetime carbon costs.
EDIT: Don't get me wrong - I am not criticising, just discussing, we all have our priorities, pays our money and makes our choices ...
Last edited by: Hard Cheese on Wed 19 Apr 17 at 10:33
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>>It's a horrid thing, Dog. I remembered years ago reading that folk with the Toyota MMT box had sussed that if you psychically predict when it's going to change and lift your foot slightly, it smooths it out a bit. I've been doing that and it helps, if you get it right, but it's like you have to have a yoyo in your sock.
No good for my missus then Cc - she can be taught tricks (I've taught her a few!!) but she can't think, um, out of the box.
I nearly bought a C3 automated manual some 10 years ago but, when she drove it I could see by her boat that it was a no no.
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Zoe knock - advice? - Hard Cheese
