Accident, best stress e mail ever and insurance question

[lisbon_road]

So, wife had another accident.  BMW turned right infront of her, big mess.  Her Zafira rather bent.  Nobody hurt, it is only a car (and it wasn't my car) so nothing too serious, right?

 

She rang me and it was only a mile away so I thought best to go straight there.  Left my 12 year old son at home, but he's very sensible so I was not too worried.  Told him that when his sister gets home to keep her out of trouble, see the neighbours if there is any problem, she's just slightly younger.

 

Well.  She decided to send the following e mail to me, my wife and my parents: 

 

IS MUMMY OKAY???? WHEN ARE YOU COMING HOME??? IM SCARED AFTER MUMMYS CAR ACCIDENT!!

 

Clearly one lesson from this is 'don't leave them regardless'.  Thankfully I was able to call my parents before they'd read their e mail.

 

The car isn't too bad but would probably be written off regardless.  It is an automatic on lpg so difficult to replace.  I'd like to fix it.  Where do I stand fixing it myself?  Can I quote to do the repairs (with some subcontracted like the painting - if I can't get right coloured panels) myself?  Advice please but I am inspired by the fabulous disregard for protocol shown by our friend on here with the Princess.

 

Thanks.......

[Parky]

At least everyone is ok, and there shouldn't be any shenanigans with Bimmer man claiming she drove into him!

 

Mrs Lisbon-Road isn't developing a sore neck is she?

[omegod]

Love the email,made me laugh ! That looks like the inner wing will be a bit stoved in and if so would a bastard to repair sadly

[lisbon_road]

No sore necks.  She's had a few now so didn't even seem stressed!  Thoughts on whether I can quote to fix it myself welcome.......

[Cavcraft]

Everyone being ok is genuinely the main thing.

 

The other good news is that not only can you fix it yourself, our ambulance chasing bargain car department just happen to have a silver Zafira here that will be cheap.

[I_am_Diesel]

I'm glad that no people were hurt, but that oil slick running down the road is gonna fuck the planet.

[cobblers]

Shit luck but as long as everyone is OK it's just metal.

Their insurance will want to write it off. Keep hold of it, don't let them take it away to "assess" as you'll probably never see it again, once it goes into the system then you're playing by their rules. Does it drive? Lob a headlamp in to make it roughly road legal and take it to some places, get quotes to repair if you can, even if they are £threetimeswhatitsworth

Supply these to their insurers with photos, but say  you'd rather repair it yourself than them write it off cos you know it's a good car etc and your costs would be £1.2timeswhatitsworth and give them a bit of a breakdown for parts, put in a few days wage at whatever you earn a day. They'd probably be happy to do a payment in lieu of repairs cos there's no comebacks, they might moan at your quote cos they claim that they won't pay VAT on a PIL, hence adding 20% on to start with

They might still write it off, but just insist you retain salvage for a nominal fee and then use whatever they pay you to fix it.

[Jim Bell]

Glad everyones ok.  BMW driver so could have been so much more deadlier.

[lisbon_road]

He seemed a really decent guy.  Very polite and so on - I know it looks blatantly his fault but that doesn't stop many people being rude these days.

 

Frankly I am tempted to get stuck in and fix it.  We'll see.......

[Jim Bell]

She may have a sore neck by now.  Have a check in the morning.

[vulgalour]

If you claim through the insurance you lose, the car will be written off, they'll likely pay less than your excess and you'll have difficulty replacing the car.  That seems to be the norm with a car of this age but that's not why we have insurance so... yeah.

 

If it's genuinely just bent decorative panels you've got no worries, just put it straight and if the BMW driver really is as decent as he seems explain that you'd rather not go through insurance.  He may be acquiescent to agreeing to pay for your repairs and not ask you to pay for his.

 

If it's all bently deadsome then get on the phone to Cavcraft and swap the important things from your Zaphwagon to his Zaphwagon.  Make no claim to keep insurance affordable, get some cash from the BMW chap to help soften the financial blow.

 

 

Paint any vehicle Mrs_Lisbon drives in Safety Yellow with white reflective squares down the sides, flashing beacons on the roof and mattresses strapped to the corners.  Then if anyone else runs into her they can't claim they didn't see her coming.

[lisbon_road]

Mr BMW wanted it to go through insurance.  I think his bill will be in the thousands.  

[michael1703]

Helpful of him to block the road for everyone too

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I have a mate* who has had a BMW e39 and Chrysler 300 written off by idiots in the last 5 years. He got an ambulance chasing/ credit hire company on the case straight away . They did everything including getting top price for the write off value, and offered him the salvage for a good price. In fact he made an extra £500 selling the BMW on.

Almost ended up having to appear as a witness in court for the credit hire bill of £142,000 though, they settled at £80k as I ,I mean he, was being chauffeured to court.

Getting involved with these people is like making a pact with the devil, but they're on your side and will fight for every penny ( because they're making double) whereas your own insurance company won't give a toss.

[Bobthebeard]

"Credit hire bill of £142,000?"

WTF?

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Their charges are scandalous, from memory £465 per day for an S Class,CLS and 7 Series plus crazy delivery charges etc. they swapped the car every 28 days and it dragged on for about 6 months. Plus they charged penalties to 3rd party for every week they didn't pay !

As I say they're Devils, but to misquote someone ; Your Devils.

[rainagain]

I have a mate* who has had a BMW e39 and Chrysler 300 written off by idiots in the last 5 years. He got an ambulance chasing/ credit hire company on the case straight away . They did everything including getting top price for the write off value, and offered him the salvage for a good price. In fact he made an extra £500 selling the BMW on.

Almost ended up having to appear as a witness in court for the credit hire bill of £142,000 though, they settled at £80k as I ,I mean he, was being chauffeured to court.

Getting involved with these people is like making a pact with the devil, but they're on your side and will fight for every penny ( because they're making double) whereas your own insurance company won't give a toss.

 

If the other driver admits full liability then go with above, when the OH's car was hit by another driver even though he admitted full liability (eventually) it was ball ache to sort everything out myself with the insurance company,  stupid stuff like as her car was over 10 years old they would only give us a 3 door corsa as hire car. After an hour on the phone arguing that my wife needed something astra sized with five doors as she couldn't get in the back of three door to strap my son into his seat as she was seven months pregnant and she needed something with a decent boot for the pram, they agreed to give me a five door corsa, luckily the hire car company didn't have any five doors corsa so we got an astra anyway.

[fraser.innes.3]

Somebody rear ended my wife's 3 y/o clio. We had a pos mitsubishi colt for 3 months. The bill for the courtisy car was sent to us accidentally. £30 for 3 months ffs.! We could have bought 3 colts for that price. And everybody wonders why insurance premiums are still increasing😬😬😬

[fraser.innes.3]

Sorry should read 30k

[Bobthebeard]

Their charges are scandalous, from memory £465 per day for an S Class,CLS and 7 Series plus crazy delivery charges etc. they swapped the car every 28 days and it dragged on for about 6 months. Plus they charged penalties to 3rd party for every week they didn't pay !

As I say they're Devils, but to misquote someone ; Your Devils.

Totally ludicrous. Who actually 'hires' cars from these people? Is it the insurance company? If so, why? Am speechless (almost)!

Talk about insurance companies being their own worst enemy....

Lunacy.

[fairkens]

Not the insurance company, you do. Some agreements I have seen make the person liable for any amount they are unable to recover from insurers, which can add up to a fair bit if you're not careful

 

The law has changed a fair bit and the super ridiculous rates are a thing of the past, but it still goes on. Premiums inflated by c-units for the win

[New POD]

If it's blatenty the other persons fault, you can ignore your own insurance company and demand the third party fixes it.(Probably)

 

They will try to pay you 2/10th of feck all, but hold your ground, demand £35 a day for loss of use, demand £1.2 million for repairing it, plus get off to the doctor, without faking anything like concussion and a bad back and a stiff neck, get written off work for 10 days, and also put ion a claim for lost earnings.

 

ie get them on the back foot, and then start negotiating.

[purplebargeken]

Glad she is ok but her neck must be getting a bit sore by now, eh? EH? EH?

 

Billy........ Zafira you say? Was that an automatic Zafira? How much would an automatic Zafira be perhaps?

[lisbon_road]

Now she has a courtesy car.

 

A 15 plate BMW 120d, almost new.  I will put my disgusted autoshite hat on at every opportunity.

 

It does, er, go quite well.............

[vulgalour]

I had to look up what a BMW 120 was.  They're a very frumpy car.

[lisbon_road]

Frumpy - yeah I am not keen on the styling but it goes like the proverbial.  It got changed for a Korean SUV 65 plate.  Every possible accessory.  Anyone see a problem here?

 

We got the Zafira back from the insurance company.  The buy back was £291 and the valuation £1800.  I queried the valuation and they told me to get some evidence that it was worth more, so I tried and could not find an advert anywhere near the price so I accepted it.  Got in on friends truck and took it home.

 

Looking at the picture, it clearly needs a headlight, bumper, wing.  The other wing is slightly bent from opening the bonnet which is junk.  The slam panel looks out of place.  Not too serious really.

 

 

[lisbon_road]

Stripped it down and the air con fan is broken, one tank on the radiator is split and the end of the box section is rather bent.  On measuring it, nothing seems to have moved though.  

[lisbon_road]

Now time to start getting parts and learn about paint codes.  This seems a very common colour.  Tried Silverlake, a huge and very organised breakers who claimed to have one.  Great.  Not much left.  You can see a general view of the yard also.

 

 

[lisbon_road]

But I got both front wings, the air con fan, the cross member behind the bumper, and loads of other stuff off this one and others in the yard.  Tried various other yards.  Two breaking on ebay but will they reply to calls/mails?  Hopeless.  Why advertise if you can't follow up?

 

At this stage, I told her indoors that she might have to use the spare Mk3 Astra for a short while.  She flatly refused, but this is Autoshite not marriage shite so I won't dwell on this.  

 

I straightened out the front with a jack and a hoist and a home made measuring thing, do they call it a trammel?  

 

Tried other yards.  Charles Trent in Poole had a correct colour bumper but when I got there is was an all silver one - great - but thankfully I had other reasons for going there.

[lisbon_road]

Tried GR Harris in Chichester and they claim to have one but can't tell me the colour.  Getting a bit needy here.  So I tried the Silverlake website and there appears to be one in the yard with no parts removed, looks like the right colour.  But is it actually the one I took the bits off?  A mk3 Astra also claims no parts removed and I certainly took some bits of that........

 

Well.  Detective work with the photo I took above tells me that it isn't the same car.  And if you look at the general picture of the yard above, there it is ....waiting to go in........

 

So I am off now to see if it is still there and if the parts are there.  Wish me luck.

 

Please.