Someone hit my car...

Taye

Gah this is stressing me out so much.

I'm leaving it to the insurance now but i just have this horrible feeling it's going to go horridly wrong, i just have no faith in the insurance people.

This wasn't my fault and the damage to my car appears to be cosmetic and tbh the only thing that bothers me is the fact that its a big sign on my car that scream's on "don't buy me i've been in a crash" should i ever try and sell the car in the future.

Though granted i have noticed that the damage is actually abit worse than a couple of white lines on my bumber, the whole back end of the car is slightly indented on the right hand side you can only see it if your looking for it but it's there all the metal benieth the bumper is slightly pushed in.

I dunno i guess im just worried that if i push this it could end up going 50/50 or worse somehow end up going off my insurance.

For me i guess sure i want my car fixing, blatently it needs looking at to check for further damage, but cosmetic damage isn't worth risking losing all or part of my no-claims.. i just sort of feel that if i go down this route and it end's up going badly then i could end up footing the bill for it even though it REALLY wasn't my fault and that perhaps leaving it might be better.

Crazy_Jamie

You don't have anything to worry about. All this talk of scams and such is just sensationalist. The overriding assumption here is that she is 100% to blame for the accident, and she will have to come up with something pretty strong to rebut that even partially. The insurance companies are very good at dealing with things like this, so let them deal with it for now.

patchwork_cat

Don't be scared, we are all full of scare stories and I will be honest you do have to know exactly what to do after a crash - unfortunatley this is almost always after the, at least,first nasty experience. As someone has said go back now and take photos of the site to show the road works. In future get photos at the time - before cars are moved anda witenss, if you can get anyone to stop!(not always easy as I know having had to try and wave a car down to help us push our car of a slip road - even the car we were shunted into drove off! I lost a lot of faith in human nature that day).

NEVER let anyone say,"oh I'll settle it without my insurance," you may feel tight, but not everyone is as honest as you and it could cause complications. Let the insurance deal with it after you have taken your photos and insist on a complete repair.How old is your car?

Quentin

You are now seeing more damage than you first reported, and the garage may find more hidden damage.

You have done the right thing. As your insurance is handling this now, even if you end up with 50/50 it won't affect you (apart from your excess) - and you do seem entirely blameless.

Earlier you said:

tbh ... my car is a wreak anyway

And your new list of extensive damage may mean that repairs aren't economical anyway, so you may end up with a cash settlement.

Just let the matter now take its course and don't worry!

Taye

My car is a V reg citron saxo (2000 i belive), tbh the body work of the car is not to bad i couple of scratches as you would expect for a car of it's age. It's the engine/and underneath thats a disaster i spent about £1000 on various repairs on the damn thing last year (new ignition, new exhust and new radiator.. oh and the windowscreen where a fence landed on it(although that came out of the house insurance)) really not having any luck with this car.

tbh i joked to my friend that i wish she'd just hit me abit harder and wrote the damn thing off... but to be fair im not sure they insurance would give me enough to replace it even if they did deem it unecomomical to repair.

If the insurance decide it's not worth repairing (moneywise from thier point of view) but the damage does end up just being cosmetic and it isn't really going to effect the "running" of the car. Do i get to keep the car?

Not that i really want it... haha ... im just concerned that they won't give me enough to replace it with anything decent.

dogbot

If the insurance decide it's not worth repairing (moneywise from thier point of view) but the damage does end up just being cosmetic and it isn't really going to effect the "running" of the car. Do i get to keep the car?

This will very much depend on the assessment of the damage. In many cases you should be able to negotiate a cash in leiu of repairs settlement so long as there is no significant damage. The only thing is that the insurer will want to be careful that the incident is reported, recorded and you declare it in the future.

Certain catagories of total loss will not be allowed back on the road e.g. the chassis is bent or something. This is very unlikely in this event so don't worry for now. Wait for the assessment.

Not that i really want it... haha ... im just concerned that they won't give me enough to replace it with anything decent.

You are insured for the market value of your vehicle, i.e. what you would get for it if you sold it not a replacement better vehicle.

IF this case ends up as a total loss, which of course it might not, then the insurer (or a company they outsource to) will value the vehicle and make an offer.

You can and should make sure you look around for equiv' age, spec and mileage cars of the same make/model as yours near to you to judge this. Also, ask the insurer or someone at a local dealer for the "book" value. Provide evidence that it is now in a good state of repair given the work you have had done. Make a counter offer to the insurer if you think it is too low.

Remember that vehicles rarely if ever sell for their advertised value and each car is completely different so stay grounded and realistic but push for a reasonable settlement.

Valuations are always a source of dispute since every vehicle is different and it is a bit subjective but they must be fair. The FOS will not allow them to rip you off, but you do need to remember to be reasonable in your expectations.

TotallyBroke

You can keep the car, my sister did. She was quoted £XX from the insurance company when someone dented the side of her car. When she said she wanted to keep the car the insurance company offered her a lower £YY amount. But they wouldn't insure it again until it had been through another MOT and was checked out to be safe. It was so it just cost her the price of the MOT.

lexilex

Somebody crashed into the back my car in December. Because it was over Xmas, things were really slow to begin with. Like you, I just had a few scratches on my bumper, but still wanted to have it checked out. I didn't want to wait weeks to be told where to take it by my insurance, so just took it down to my local garage where we get all our cars MOT'd. They checked it over for free and give us a quote for the damage. Turns out the boot floor (is that the technical name) was all bent, as was my exhaust. Maybe you could do this just to check you're okay to be driving it around?

The cost of repairs came up to something like £700.

I have a R reg Corsa, so thought straight away that they would want to write it off, they didn't though, they did pay for the repairs. I was pleased because they would have give me nothing for it at all, and it's in great condition and done less than 30,000.

The whole process took around 3 months which I was really impressed with. It probably took about one and a half- two months for her insurance to give the go ahead for the garage I got the quote from to do the repairs. I claimed for whiplash, which loads of people disagreed with at the time, but I'm glad I did as I'm still having physio for it now. That took a little bit longer to go through as I had to get assessed etc.

At the beginning I was just like you, reading all these horror stories, I was sure she was deny everything and say I reversed into her or something. As soon as it was in the hands of the insurers they took care of everything so try not to worry.

lisyloo

I claimed for whiplash, which loads of people disagreed with at the time

If you have a genuine claim and have either lost financially or have been in pain through someone else'se negligence then you are fully justified in claiming IMO.