MK5 Golf GTI
All Things Mk5 => Mk5 General Area => Topic started by: monte on July 26, 2010, 12:17:40 pm
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First of all if you can read this and give me some advice It would be greatly appreciated :smiley:
Well peeps, I was on my way to Revo this morning, but like the title says....I have just pranged the car. My own fault, I know, well in the eyes of the insurance anyway :ashamed:
I was pulling out at a T junction, (turning right) I saw a black golf heading towards me indicating left to turn into the road I was on and slowing right down. I pulled out a little and glanced the other way to see if it was clear the other side, and CRUNCH! :surprised:
The guy (who was working for Europcar) has made a mess of my front wing and bumper. The woman behind him pulled over and said he had his indicator on for the last mile, and that she had been waiting for him to hit someone.
Well just checked my policy :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: I cannot believe it. It is the first time I have read it properly. I thought my excess was high at £500, but that was just my voluntary excess. It says the compulsory excess is £450 + voluntary £500 = £950.
£950 excess I would have never accepted the policy on those terms if I had known. (ELEPHANT Insurance BTW).
So now I don't know what to do. I have a witness to the accident, but like I said, I am sure I will still be at fault! It would be way cheaper to fix the car myself, but I am sure that the other party has already got the wheels in motion with their company insurance.
Gonna call Elephant at 1pm when I get home :sad1:
.......I called Revo, and they will still sort my car in a few weeks :happy2:
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I think you should speak to elephant and tell them that you are not prepared to be held at fault. You could also lodge a written complaint with Europcar. You need to make sure you claim from their insurance and not yours.
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if you have a witness that can confirm that he was indicating, you could claim 50/50. but thats the best you will get imo.
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Sorry to hear this matey...dont think I can offer any words of encouragement, I think as you pulled out into traffic regardless of the muppet indicating then you may be held at fault. I know its not what you want or need to hear right now, I am sorry.
That is shockingly high for excess etc, saluatory lesson for us all to check and make sure we are all familiar with our policies.
I am reckoning that your repairs will run into £2k ish, so it will be worth your while just getting your credit card out and getting on with it.
At least no one was hurt, dont beat yourself up about it, it is just after all a car. (and some money)....
Good luck, but DO NOT ADMIT ANY LIABILITY!!! leave that to the big boys in the insurance companies to argue about.
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Nooooooooooooooo! Gutted for you Carlo.. Just when you have some good luck (with the Revo prize) this happens.. :fighting:
Like others have said, you may as well contest it, but I wouldn't hold your breath. Was there much damage to his? Where did this happen bud?
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Thanks for the replies :happy2: I guess the most valuable lesson is to check insurance docs with a fine toothed comb! I know I set my insurance excess at £500 and that was on a comparison site. I cannot believe it says all this bolly about Compulsory Excess + Voluntary Excess = Excess to Pay!!!
Nooooooooooooooo! Gutted for you Carlo.. Just when you have some good luck (with the Revo prize) this happens.. :fighting:
Like others have said, you may as well contest it, but I wouldn't hold your breath. Was there much damage to his? Where did this happen bud?
I know mate, I know..... I was pulling out of Moor Street onto Carholme Road.
I have a feeling the car will go to Brooklands too, and I have heard lots of bad reviews about them :scared:
As for His damage, He just had some front bumper damage.
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I think you should speak to elephant and tell them that you are not prepared to be held at fault. You could also lodge a written complaint with Europcar. You need to make sure you claim from their insurance and not yours.
Could you please give me a bit more info Stu??? :happy2:
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I agree with not admitting liability... It sucks that the excess is so high - mine is £1300, but if it brings the policy price down... I guess you thought the same as most people "well I'm not likely to claim" but you always get idiots on the road eh :fighting:
Good luck with getting it all sorted out...
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You choose where the car goes for repairs as well, so if you dont like the garage they first choose, then ask for a list of insurance approved places or find one you're happier to use.
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^^^^ wot he said...yes, your insurer may prefer you to go to their garage but you do have the say where it goes to a degree, it may mean a few extra days pinning down quotes and waiting for the go ahead etc but twill be worth it rather than getting a dodgy paint job.
...is your splitter ok? see if the repairer will slap on an ed30 front splitter for you (whoops assuming you have a std GTI that is)...else you would be expecting an ed30 splitter! :stupid:
Good luck pal, horrible when these things happen.
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You choose where the car goes for repairs as well, so if you dont like the garage they first choose, then ask for a list of insurance approved places or find one you're happier to use.
Spot on. You choose where your car goes for repair. The myth that you need 2 or more quotes is just that; a myth. If you have an accident repair centre in mind, get your quote, send it to the insurer and state that it isn't going anywhere else.
As you were on a minor road, joining traffic you will not get out of some portion of blame for this one. However a witness statement to the effect that the vehicle had failed to cancel a turn signal over a distance of around a mile could lead to police interest. A driver who fails to notice the turn signal repeater on their dashboard is clearly not paying attention to the instruments. Which includes a speedometer. This opens up 'driving without due'...
Avoid credit hire companies. They arrange to hire you a replacement car while yours is off the road. There has been a massive growth in this practice. The repairs on yours are delayed while you run up a huge hire bill. If you're lucky, the other party's insurer pays. If it all falls through your insurer or you can be left with huge bills.
Finally make this website your best friend: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/insurance
Good luck mate
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Sorry to hear this. I've seen a few drivers around who seem to have no idea their indicator is on. These are people I tend to more wary of than other drivers.
Above advice is sound. I'e always been careful with excesses and for the first couple of years, I had zero voluntary excess but £250 compulsory excess - applies to drivers under 25 and for certain cars. You need to let your insurance company know even if you foot the bill yourself.
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I think you should speak to elephant and tell them that you are not prepared to be held at fault. You could also lodge a written complaint with Europcar. You need to make sure you claim from their insurance and not yours.
Could you please give me a bit more info Stu??? :happy2:
You need to find their insurance details and then contact them advising them that you were hit by one of their insured persons and ask them to tell you how to proceed.
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I agree with Stu.
Tell them you have a whitness he slowed to turn. Then ran into you.
Will still record as an accident for you insurance, but if not knock for knock your excess & NCB should be intact.
A wise man once told me to always phone the police and the slightest twinge of an injury phone an ambulance. You never know if you have hurt yourself until much later.
Hope it all works out for you.
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Slightly different circumstances but we were once hit by a driver in a car park. Luckily someone saw it and gave us the details of the car. The Police then visited him and they provided us with his insurance details, I made a claim with them not involving our insurance at all and had the car repaired.
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I think you should speak to elephant and tell them that you are not prepared to be held at fault. You could also lodge a written complaint with Europcar. You need to make sure you claim from their insurance and not yours.
Could you please give me a bit more info Stu??? :happy2:
You need to find their insurance details and then contact them advising them that you were hit by one of their insured persons and ask them to tell you how to proceed.
Out of interest, if he was to claim on the other persons insurance... when he came to renew his insurance policy would that count as a claim?
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Insurers will ask if you've had any accidents in x months to which his answer should be yes.
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Insurers will ask if you've had any accidents in x months to which his answer should be yes.
Thanks for clarifying
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I'm gutted for you Monte. I know that junction well and it can be a bit tricky turning right there. I hope it all gets sorted to your satisfaction mate.
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Thats sh*t news Carlo on what should have been such a good day for you! :sad1:
You know where I am if you need any help! :happy2:
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^^^Cheers JJ :happy2: Yeah, you really do need to pull out at least a metre to see around the parked cars!
To all the other replies, thanks for all the comments and advice everybody! I spoke to my insurers earlier and they said that the best they will be hoping for is a "part loss". They said that because of the circumstances, I was in the wrong as I entered the carriageway he was on, but they will fight it as best they can.
Well my no claims are protected, which is good, and by this it means I am allowed 2 claims before I lose any years from my accrued total.
Also, the Excess, although still excessively high, is £800, not £950. So its a bit of better news.
Elephant have left it with me to either take it to Brooklands or find another bodyshop. I will then pay the repairers the £800 excess, and then cross my fingers that I will get some of the cash back at a later date. (although I might as well forget it)
Stu,
Do you think I should still be phoning Europcar tomorrow and asking to speak to their insurers? Elephant will be contacting them too, as they asked me for all the info regarding the other driver. Do you think it will do me any good?
Thats sh*t news Carlo on what should have been such a good day for you! :sad1:
You know where I am if you need any help! :happy2:
Cheers Nath :drinking:
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I would mate, there is no harm in doing some leg work yourself so long as you don't prejudice yourself. All you really need are the insurer details, I assume you have the driver details etc.
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I would mate, there is no harm in doing some leg work yourself so long as you don't prejudice yourself. All you really need are the insurer details, I assume you have the driver details etc.
I made numerous phone calls to Albany insurance in order to do some of the leg work, but unfortunately I was either cut-off, put on hold or told that they would call me back about 5 times. I have been told by my insurers that I will probably not get any of the excess back, but they will try their best to do so. So I am afraid I have now accepted losing the cash and I will wait to hear the outcome :ashamed:
Well I got my car back today and I must say I am really pleased wth the end result :happy2:
The guys at Brooklands said that they would be repairing the front bumper and replacing the front wing. They said that the bumper didn't justify a new bumper and that it just needed a bit of work and a respray. I was a bit p'd off because I thought at least I would get rid of all the stone chips on the bumper, but they then told me that only the damaged half of the bumper would be resprayed.
I popped in to Brooklands on Monday and they told me the car would be ready for Wednesday dinner time. So today I was set to pick the car up when I received a text message from Brooklands, saying that the car was not ready and that they were waiting for parts. :confused:
I resisted phoning them (I knew I would end up arguing) and instead I went down at 5pm. I pulled into the car park and a guy had just got out of my car. I had a quick look before I went into the building and it looked finished to me.
I saw the main man and he told me the work had just been done. Apparently, the washer bottle was damaged in the bump so they ordered a new one. The washer bottle that came was one for the Xenon headlights and so had an extra 2 outlets. Apparently they only make this new type bottle now, and if fitted to a car without xenons, it requires 2 plugs for the outlets. These 2 plugs were the parts they needed to order this morning. They arrived this afternoon and so the job was finished.
Good news is.... the car is mint! It also has a BRAND new bumper and wing, so no more stone chips :happy2: (they said the bumper had broken on the inside, so needed to be replaced)
It made the £800 excess that I had to pay them, a little easier to swallow :smiley: Now all I need to do is get the bonnet sorted and the car will be stone chip free :laugh:
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Really pleased it's back, & more to the point, it's all good :happy2:
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Glad to hear you are happy with it Carlo, now get it down to Revo and transform it into a beast :happy2: :star:
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well just think of the excess paying for revo map and dsg map :driver:
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Great news Carla and good to see you've got it back. Saw your kid the other day (did he tell you? :grin:) and he said it was in at Brooklands and you were getting it back soon.
When you making the trip to Daventry? :wink:
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Sorry to hear that and hope it gets sorted soon.
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Good news chap! :happy2:
Should've asked them to blow the bonnet over while they were painting the rest! :wink: