aargh neighbours backed into my car.

[wardtimothy]

Guy across the road from me has crunched my front wing, what it the most likely result from his insurance company? New wing and respray on the wing? Or do you think they will respray the full side because of colour matching?

Not managed to speak to him yet but his wife has dropped a note through explaining and my friends across the road saw it happen so theres no problem getting it sorted. Do I need to tell my insurance company?

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Ouch, sorry to hear this.

I'd try to avoid insurers and get it repaired at his expense if possible. The car could even be written off if the repair, plus all the costs of courteousy car etc. are added up. You also have to mention it every renewal for 5 years, even if it was totally down to the other driver.

 

[jdpef356]

Doubt yo will get full side respray - if its only the front wing you will get wing, and part of door blown in!

 

[ukmastiff]

I have to 'strongly' echo what Paul has advised. My other half is a loss adjuster and I have some professional experience in that field too (sadly). The only thing I would say is that you are obliged under the terms of your ins policy to tell them regardless of claiming or not. Claim or not and as Paul says they will all hit you a little for it in future, claim or no claim once you tell them.

A no fault no cost incident doesn't hurt you too much though and sometimes is unavoidable.

So I mustn't advise you not to inform them ( even if that is the best thing sometimes cough). You need to see what your neighbour wants to do and is he relaible etc. It isnt a wing mirror clip here so he is lightly to need to use his insurer never mind want to , especially when he finds out the cost and goes oooh "I'll have to go through the insurance, I didnt know it would be that much" which is wht normally happens.

Re them doing wing only , you should not accept that if they cant perfectly match the colour, it might be all your comapny are oblidged to do for you but the other party is oblidged to leave you with a car just as good as it was in the 1st place and that is why sometimes you have to fight the ins co, ( or a loss adjuster)

Best of luck

Mas

 

[Diver944]

How big is the crunch into the wing and is it in the centre of the wheel arch?

To preserve colour match it would be nice if it was repairable and if the damage is central then the sprayer would not have to paint fresh silver right up to the panel joins. Unfortunately if the wing does have to be replaced then obviously fresh silver will have to be painted right up to the edge of the panel. This means it is highly unlikely to be a perfect match. Normally if an entire panel needs painting then every adjoining panel will need fresh colour to be faded out along its length so that a colour mismatch is not easily detectable by eye.

With a 944 wing this means the door, bonnet, badge panel and front bumper would beed to be partially painted and entirely laquered - - won't be overly cheap for a good job []

 

[wardtimothy]

Well the neighbours insurance company has kindly put me in a Mercedes E class even though its not in repair yet as mine is out of MOT now and I wont drive it until its repaired. The garage has called me and said the repair will be around £1600, with an agreed value of £2200 is it likely to repaired or written off?

It needs a new wing and new stoneguard panels on the bottom of the door and the wing as they are blending into the door. Also it will need new porsche decals down the side and new stonechip clear decal on the arch.

Tim

 

[Mark_Bennett]

"If the estimated cost of repair is less then the value, then if the owner wishes, the car must be repaired."

Not my words, but the insurance ombudsman's.

Ask me how I know []

 

[peanut]

I would recomend that you get your own bodyshop quotes from local companies that are recommended or convenient locations. If the accident was all his fault and he admits it his insurers will want to deal with you directly and not go through your insurers because it will save them loads of dough.

Your insurers do not even need to be informed .

I'd wait to hear from his insurers and when they offer you an approved bodyshop tell them that you prefer to go to one of your own and give them the quote.

They will settle directly with your chosen bodyshop. Its all done by computer valuation forms directly from the bodyshop to insurers.


The paint used by most bodyshops today is water based not 2xpack cellulose.
It can be perfectly matched and not require any feathering of adjacent panels. Just make sure they spray up at least 3x swatches to match your paint for your prior approval.

edit oops ! [] didn't see your last post . Glad to hear its sorted.

I'm amazed you got a E class merc . The barstewards usually advertise to supply E Class Mercedes OR EQUIVALENT [] then supply a VW Passat saying its an equivalent vehicle and they haven't a Merc available blah blah

 

[wardtimothy]

Great news, they are going ahead with the repair. They say it will be done either over the weekend or on Monday, but I guess this may delay dependant on the delivery of the parts (although when I ordered some part from Porsche Wilmslow recently they were despatched in excellent time). Im going to make sure that im completely happy with the colour match otherwise I wont sign for it and I will keep the Merc for a while longer ;-)

 

[peanut]

If I were you I'd insist on them providing some colour swatches for you to check and approve before they spray. Arguing the toss after the job is completed is such a pita .