Ouch! 2 Doors And A Rear Wing In 1 Hit

[Steveenduro]

It had to happen. 30 years of accident free driving could not go on for ever. And it was all my fault.

 

I pulled into a space between parked cars to let an oncoming car past on a narrow road, and scrapped both doors and the rear wing. They are pushed in a little as well as scraped. His parked Vectra got away with a rear bumper scrape and tail light damage. Mine came off much worse.

 

I have just contacted my insurer and told them to go ahead with the claim, but I am now wondering if I would be better off settling privately.

 

Does anyone know the approx cost of removing dents and repainting doors and rear wing. I have no idea.

 

If I go with insurance my excess is

[mumof4]

If you are not sure..i believe that you can cancel the claim????????..i guess you have to think about cost now..and cost if lose NCB for the future...

[Steveenduro]

If it was a new car, it would be a no-brainer to go with insurance. But it is 7 years old with over 100k on the clock and I plan to keep it for the forseeable future. However, the damage does look a bit hideous.

[me myself and I]

Really depends on your personal finance situation.If you can afford to settle privatly I would do so.But it may be too late as you have already informed you insusrance of the incident.

[seatkid]

Bad luck, next time don't pull over!

 

You can withdraw the claim and it will not affect your NCB. Your NCB is only affected when your insurance company pays out. (If the other party's company pays out your NCB is not affected)

 

Tell your insurance company to hold off while you investigate a private repair and get a quote for the repair before you decide - I think you will find it cost more than you think - I doubt it will be less than

[Smilge]

Steve ...sorry to hear about your mishap ..... I had to laugh though as a similar thing happened to me years ago in my primer grey Allegro with maroon interior and wait for it ...don't laugh ..... a square steering wheel! No, I didn't buy this car as it was given to my wife and i as a wedding present from the in laws. To cut a long story short, the rear wheel arches were rotten and I spent a whole week filling and sanding until they were superb!! I ran out of laquer so I had to pop down to the local car shop and on pulling away I caught the left arch on a Granada's rear bumper! The whole arch went "crack" and fell to floor with onlookers crying with laughter .............. I just had to scream "**** off in my loudest voice which made them worse ........... lesson learnt! ...... Get someone else to do it!

[NikpV]

just had a quote from Gladwyns for amost identical damage - they were repairing a dent where a woman had reversed into the drivers door so had the paint mixing to do anyway, they quoted

[Steveenduro]

I'll get knocked down from 5 years NCD to 2 years. Assuming I don't play dodgems again for a couple of years I've estimated the total cost of this mishap to come to about

[Steve P]

Be careful that they don't write the car off! As well as losing your NCB the cost of the work may exceed a certain percentage of what the insurers value the car at (not what you think it is worth!!). They will make you a derisory offer for the car - nowhere near what it would cost you to replace with like for like and you will not be happy.

 

On the other hand if you fix it yourself you've also got to pay for the other car to be fixed AND your insurance will still go up because you have been involved in an accident - sorry but you can't retract that fact.

 

Not sure what I would do - depends how bad it is. Did you plan to keep the car till it drops to bits? If so I might be tempted to put a bit of time into fixing it myself and "making do!".

 

Cheers

Steve

[seatkid]

On the other hand if you fix it yourself you've also got to pay for the other car to be fixed AND your insurance will still go up because you have been involved in an accident - sorry but you can't retract that fact.

 

NCB - No Claims Bonus - if no claim is paid then NCB is unaffected. Nothing to do with being "involved in an accident". All insurance companies care about is money, and you can withdraw a claim.

 

Of course I forgot about the damage to the other car - If they claim then you're stuffed and you're NCB is docked unless they agree for you paying to fix it privately.

Edited August 7, 2007 by seatkid

[Steve P]

I agree with your comments about NCB seatkid. However if you have been involved in an accident your premium will still go up - although if you don't actually claim you will get your full NCB on the new higher premium.

[Stevoo]

30 years driving and only 5 years NCB?? I would of expected much more lol. You can protect 5+ years so a claim wont affect your 5 year NCB.

[Steveenduro]

30 years driving and only 5 years NCB?? I would of expected much more lol. You can protect 5+ years so a claim wont affect your 5 year NCB.

 

I know, Bit late now though.

I checked what my premium would be taking into acount the accident and claim (and my 3 points - oops, another story) and it was