Somebody just smashed into the back of the clk

[Jason55amg]

Not the happiest way to get to 50 posts,,
earlier today I was driving near to home when a fiesta broke suddenly in front,,,the clk stopped on a sixpence but unfortunately the Fiat behind was either too close or too fast and slammed into the back of mine,,,not too much damage apart from the bottom piece of bumper and various marks but headlights and boot area all good and most importantly,,,,nobody was hurt as chap who hit me had his young daughter in the back and I had our dog in the back of mine but with his doggy seatbelt on,,,,,so nobody hurt thank god,,,
got the feeling due to the age of the car that may be written off,,,
Gutted as there wasn’t a mark on it and only just under 93k miles,,,,
I get some pics on later as still in shock a bit,,,,,j

 

[AMGeed]

Glad to hear nobody was hurt. That's the main thing.

If its only bumper damage, can you not get a used one and repair it yourself and avoid going through the insurance company?
That will cost both you and the third party in the long run.
The only problem I could foresee is, could you trust the other driver to cover your costs?

 

[Jason55amg]

Cheers AMGeed,,,
lim gonna pop to my chaps tomorrow and see what they think but the Fiat is in a bad way so I think the insurance will have to know and I wouldn’t be able to do the work myself so a stranger would end up owing me quite a few quid,,,j

 

[baxlin]

Re^^^, if going that route, (post #2) make sure the ‘real’ bumper behind the plastic one isn’t damaged. When I had a similar fairly innocent looking bump in my C class saloon, and this had to be replaced. OK, leased car, so main dealer job, which might have had a bearing.....

 

[AMGeed]

Cheers AMGeed,,,
lim gonna pop to my chaps tomorrow and see what they think but the Fiat is in a bad way so I think the insurance will have to know and I wouldn’t be able to do the work myself so a stranger would end up owing me quite a few quid,,,j

In that case, I would expect the Fiat owner would want to go through the insurance route to recover the value of his car.
Bad luck

 

[John]

Even if they write off the CLK, you can opt to buy the car back from them and then use some of the pay out to repair it.

 

[Jason55amg]

Yes,,,
his bonnet was petruding and his front had various bends and pieces of headlight in the road ,,,,I will try to get an idea of cost to repair mine just thankful everyone was ok ,,,I had no intentions of getting rid of the car so if the repair has to go through the insurance I just keep the car for good,,
Thanks for the advice AMGeed

 

[Jason55amg]

Thanks John and that would be an option,,,

 

[Jason55amg]

Thanks Baxlin,,,
I have my chaps have a good look over it but I did wonder that there may be problems out of eye sight as I took quite a whack.

 

[Teego]

I've been in a similar no fault situation trying to avoid insurance and be reasonable to the crasher. After much to and fro and getting quotes we ended up going through insurance. Told my insurers that I did not want to make a claim on my policy so they pursued it through other party's insurers. They paid for authorised bodyshop and once the matter was settled my NCD was intact and premiums didn't rise.
Never works for the innocent party to try and settle off piste.

 

[Jason55amg]

Thanks Teego,,,
that sounds a great way of doing it,
I speak to my insurers tommorow,,,j

 

[Jason55amg]

Teego,,
was your car still put into a category when you didn’t make a claim on your policy?,,,
Thanks J

 

[markjay]

If you do get insurance involved... my advice is:

Call your own insurer and inform them of the incident. Don't make a claim on your own policy. Tell them clearly that it is 'notification only', not a claim.

You will be contacted by the other party's insurer within hours from when he notifies them. Make your claim directly against the other party's policy. And there's no need to involve an accident management company.

Don't accept the other-party's insurer offer to take your car and fix it for you, or to have it repaired in one of their own accident repair centres.

If you want to get the car repaired, jusr get a quote from a trusted body shop.

If you want the car written-off, get a quote from an MB dealer.

 

[Jason55amg]

Thats another solid piece of advice ,,,many thanks mark,,,
I’m not far off 60 so all the advice has been very helpful as I haven’t had any thing like this for many many years,,
Thanks again to everyone,,,j

 

[kianok]

+1 for @markjay

we’ve been involved I two non fault bumps this year. The first (rear end shunt) we went through a claim management company as instructed by our insurer.

absolute nightmare and still ongoing since the end of March despite the other party admitting liability.

we had a GLE hire car for 21 days from enterprise and the accident management company charged her insurance company over 3 times the cost of the repair to our car just for the hire! (About £350 per day!)
This time we informed our insurance company and waited a few days for the other party’s insurer, Land Rover insurance to get in touch directly, which they did.

much easier process and far cheaper for everyone involved.

Accident management companies are an absolute disgrace

 

[Jason55amg]

After many calls,,,the other chaps insurance company is dealing with the claim soley so no company’s like Auxillis dealing with it and are happy for me, to take the car to my people locally,,,
my NCB stays intact and the car will not be in any category and I don’t have to pay out anything,,they will provide a C class or 3 series when the car goes in for repair so fingers crossed that the repair don’t come to a price that would mean the car is written off,,,
Thanks again for the help,,,much appreciated,,,,j

 

[Dryce]

we had a GLE hire car for 21 days from enterprise and the accident management company charged her insurance company over 3 times the cost of the repair to our car just for the hire! (About £350 per day!)
This time we informed our insurance company and waited a few days for the other party’s insurer, Land Rover insurance to get in touch directly, which they did.

The hire car companies apparently do rather well even after the management companies take their margins.

Accident management companies are an absolute disgrace

On the surface - yes.

But the upside is that insurance companies are now often much more proactive in supporting third party claimants than they were when I was younger when they used to drag their feet and behave quite badly at times.

 

[Teego]

Teego,,
was your car still put into a category when you didn’t make a claim on your policy?,,,
Thanks J

It was my motorcycle actually. It was never put into a category. I had to declare a no fault accident and uninterrupted NCD on renewals for bike and cars over the next three years. I still have a gazillion year NCD.
While on the subject, my daughter's car was damaged while parked. Fortunately other party was traced and suggested settling privately. Usaual run around on quotes. Put it to insurers and he denied the crash despite photographic evidence. Solicitor's letter threatening to recover damages in court. Back to insurers, his accepted liability, car fixed, her NCD intact and no increase on renewals.
We all shop around for insurers each year so don't be afraid of the process.

 

[Jason55amg]

Some pics hopefully

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Similar damage to my "E" Coupe back in 2016 , six days old , main dealer bodyshop cost circa £6500.00. Hit by a Renault Boxvan ,the cross member behind the bumper had snapped in two .
mind you