Collision with a Megan

[Iain]

I agree with Mercman. It looks as if the worst damage and expense is the snapped lugs on the headlamp. If your a bit handy yourself, have a go at repairing it yourself,but certainly inform insurance company first. One thing as already mentioned with regard to taking the money and keeping the car. This will write the car off giving a Cat C marker. Not a problem if you are keeping the car which I believe you are, but you will need a VIC check otherwise you will not get road tax reminders.

 

[robert.saunders]

Sorry to see this; yours is a nice car. Hopefully, as has been suggested, it can be righted soon enough. I expect the xenons on the Megane blinded you

PITA though to go through all this, I feel for ya

 

[crockers]

As for getting the other parties insurance to pay for the repair, the rules of betterment say if the repairs result in adding extra value to your car then they will pay a percentage of the costs. I dont think this applies in this case, but if a cars paintwork was in poor condition for example, then a respray could increase its value. They would then pay a percentage of the costs depending on the before and after values. Replacement of say a broken bonnet is not considered betterment, although you could be asked to pay a percentage of the respray cost.

Hope this makes sense, but if the car prior to the accident was valued at say £1000 and after repairs it was worth £1200 they would pay the costs less £200. If the repairs cost more than £1000 they would write the car off and pay you £1000.

At least that is my understanding and experience of such a situation, but I stand to be corrected.

In theory you are correct.....I had this tried on me - all I said was fair enough repair it with a part in the exact condition of my part before the accident...he looked at me and said "Hmmm we'll forget betterment in this case".

 

[EDZ649]

Try talking to these people, I have used them twice before having suffered from being hit by someone else and no fault of my own. I didn't even have to contact my insurance company. They handle everything including claiming any out of pocket expenses.

http://www.qdosassist.co.uk/contactus.aspx

 

[oldcro]

In theory you are correct.....I had this tried on me - all I said was fair enough repair it with a part in the exact condition of my part before the accident...he looked at me and said "Hmmm we'll forget betterment in this case".

I thought I had covered this point when i mentioned the bonnet as an example.

 

[Carrotchomper]

We simply must know, the question has been fudged, how is Megan? I am concerned about this poor lady.

 

[Iain]

We simply must know, the question has been fudged, how is Megan? I am concerned about this poor lady.

 

[Dieselman]

We simply must know, the question has been fudged, how is Megan? I am concerned about this poor lady.

Judging how the ditzy Bint couldn't see 230k she's gone to the opticians for an eye test..

 

[Dieselman]

What about my own insurance co.? Do i contact them in the morning before going to bodyshop??

Get a quote from a bodyshop of your choice then phone the other parties insurers and tell them you want the car fixed.
If the quote is reasonable they will probably give the go ahead straight away and may well offer a hire car as well.

 

[230K]

Hi

Update:

Took car to MB appoved repairer, (the one that did all the goodwill/warranty work) and he is going to email me a quotation.
Got a phone call form a lady from the company of the guy that hit me, she says that they might pay for the damage rather than going through their insurance and asked if i would take car to her local repairer. Took car to their guy who happens to fix all our comapny vehicles and he reckons it could be somewhere near £1500 he intends putting a new bonnet and wing on whereas the MB approved bodyshop reckons it doesnt need either.

Upshot is the MB bodyshop might even end up cheaper than their guy... We will wait and see.

Havent contacted my insurance yet but if it starts getting silly i might just have to.

230K

 

[230K]

Hi

MB Bodyshop came back with £1300 + vat
Labour £750, paint £200, parts £350.

230K

 

[A210AMG]

How does that rate to you?

Do what you can and fix it yourself or pay the money?

It doesn't actually sound 'too' bad but its proportional to the value of the car?

 

[230K]

Hi

The parts are correct, paint ?? not sure, labour seems high but probably not overly excessive.

I have sent it on to the company that hit me, still havent contacted my own insurance and if there is nothing sorted by tomorrow evening i will have to chat to them me thinks.

230K

 

[230K]

Hi

Update:

Car is in the MB bodyshop getting repaired at the min. Thet are repairing bumper and bonnet. They said they would be spraying bonnet but would not be filling any existing stone chips etc.

They wanted an extra £130 to fill stone chips and basically freshen up the whole fron not just the bit that was damaged.

I decided to go for it, i will end up fitting a new lense cover on headlight of the other side so that the newness matches the broken headlight if you know what i mean.

Was a bit annoyed that they wouldnt freshen up the whole front anyhow but i suppose it is betterment.

Hope i am happy with the result

230K

 

[maek11]

if you do get it repaired watch out for non genuine parts such as ssvg panels and depo headlights they fit **** and invalidate your warranty regardless what the insurance assesor says. they use them to save money.

 

[para alpha]

if you do get it repaired watch out for non genuine parts such as ssvg panels and depo headlights they fit **** and invalidate your warranty regardless what the insurance assesor says. they use them to save money.

I agree, So called approved parts aren't worth a carrot! They are only approved as it saves the insurance company money. I know 3 people who own their own accident repair/body shop and won't touch after market panels, They just don't fit right! I recently had a small bump. A chap who is a member of the same Legion as me rolled into the back of my W202 C180 and busted the rear bumper pad. Because it is a 1994 and pushing 120K miles, it would have probably been written off and I couldn't afford that! So we came to a financial arrangement, he paid for all the damage to the tune of £160, for the Bumper pad painting and fitting. It's good as new and he let me take it to a place of my choice for the repair.

 

[230K]

Hi

Update:

Went to collect car this morning and rejected it on 6 or so points.

Guy in bodyshop agreed with me and even added a few other imperfections to the list.

Wasted journey of 25 miles each way

230K

 

[230K]

Hi

Went to collect the car again on Thursday and on first look everything was ok but once i got her home and started changing the light lens on the other side i noticed a few things.

First was overspray on the rubber between wing and bumper

Botched repair on vacuum pipe to headlight

And some alignment issues.

I stripped her down again aligned everything up again fitted new offside light lens and put all back together and i am reasonably happy now.

Stripped down with bumper loosened

Difference between new and old lenses

Overspray removed

Fully assembled and aligned as best as i could

I spent 4-5 hours getting her to the stage that i am reasonably happy with. Wht could the bodyshop not do that even after 2 attempts. I had toyed with the idea of getting them to it the new offside light lense, thanks goodness i decided to do it myself.

I am a little peeved that they botched the end of the vacuum pipe but maybe it was a big job to find the other end of it inside the cabin, they did break it after all because even after the accident the tilting function was working on the lights so obviously the pipe was intact.

Difference in the headlights is HUGE and well worth the £180 for the 2 new lenses and easy to fix.

230K

 

[Dieselman]

The old lens doesn't actually appear discoloured, I wonder if a machine polish would have made it clear again.

The panel fit looks good.

 

[230K]

The old lens doesn't actually appear discoloured, I wonder if a machine polish would have made it clear again.

The panel fit looks good.

The old lens when compared with the new one was horrible here is another pic of the complete unit before i removed the lens

Think it was past the polishing stage although i could experiment with the old one now and see how it comes up.

230k