Courtesy car - REFUSED

misssarahleigh

if i took a policy with extra's i would look into it. i only know what my policy covers.

My friend was only a few mile off work so drove it there. it was snowing on the day (or at least the night before) and although the car was still drivable to get hime back from work the headlight was smashed and passenger door buckled slightly so not worth the risk of taking out again.

keith1950

So you are actually telling us that your friend should have been provided with a courtesy car even though on the facts as stated by you they obviously were'nt.

Anihilator

A courtesy car is a courtesy.

Nothing posted suggests the OPS friend was required to be given one.

misssarahleigh

I have only been driving 3 years and have third party so never really looked into courtesy cars, but generally believed them to be provided when yours was out of action.

Being silly as i am, i assumed that was from day one. I didn't know you had to wait however long into the claiming process and tick however many boxes beforee getting one, because from this personal experince there is not point at all of having it.

12 days to collect the car
5 days and counting in the garage

and if they do repair it, still might not get a car if they decided it his or partley his fault

and even if he does, that will be for a few days while they repair the car. a small portion of the time he has been without one

obviously my general view of what i believe a courtesy car to be is quite wrong

Anihilator

misssarahleigh wrote: »

I have only been driving 3 years and have third party so never really looked into courtesy cars, but generally believed them to be provided when yours was out of action.

Being silly as i am, i assumed that was from day one. I didn't know you had to wait however long into the claiming process and tick however many boxes beforee getting one, because from this personal experince there is not point at all of having it.

12 days to collect the car
5 days and counting in the garage

and if they do repair it, still might not get a car if they decided it his or partley his fault

and even if he does, that will be for a few days while they repair the car. a small portion of the time he has been without one

obviously my general view of what i believe a courtesy car to be is quite wrong

Yes it is.

Your friend has the option of getting a hire car and if he is not at fault recovering the rental. Would be very stupid to do this though as I reckon he will bear most of the fault here.

Courtesy cars are increasingly rare and are entirely discretionary.

You must seperate these from guarenteed replacement/hire cars which are normally riddled with exclusions.

keith1950

If you want to be fully covered you need to get a policy with a guaranteed hire car which will provide you with transport until it is decided whether or not you are entitled to a courtesy car. I think it has just been bad timing that it happened around christmas. Often the car would be picked up by the repairer within 24 hours and your friend would have known very quickly that the car was a write-off and could have looked for a new car straight away.

charlesworth82

iamana1ias wrote: »

Erm, slip roads always feed onto carriageways. You shouldn't stop on a slip road and should use it to get to the same speed as the traffic on the main carriageway. How come your friend couldn't work out what was going to happen when the 3rd party joined the carriageway and either move out of the way or slow down?

of course you can stop on a slip road - have you ever driven on a busy road before. half your 'help' is complete and utter crap

supermum4

iamana1ias wrote: »

Erm, slip roads always feed onto carriageways. You shouldn't stop on a slip road and should use it to get to the same speed as the traffic on the main carriageway. How come your friend couldn't work out what was going to happen when the 3rd party joined the carriageway and either move out of the way or slow down?

[/LIST]It won't. It will say that you can have a car but only if the car is repairable.




((sigh))

Okay, I'll take it slow. A courtesy car is provided by the garage doing the repairs. Before incurring the costs of giving someone a car they will

a) need the vehicle which needs repairing
b) need to have assessed the vehicle
c) have approval from someone's insurers that the car is worth repairing and that they will pay (and therefore cover the cost of the courtesy car as well)




It doesn't matter what you think you know. The other driver probably doesn't think it was his/her fault either.

Actually, from your description, your friend is at least 50% at fault.



If the car is written off there is nothing to repair and no courtesy car would be given. Yes the insurers would pay out for the car (if fully comp) but there would be no courtesy car where the vehicle was a write off.

I daresay the delays were caused by a) snow and b) christmas. Unfortunate timing and no doubt inconvenient, but not something to get your knickers in a knot about.

Of course you can stop on a slip road if you can't safely get onto the main carriage way! YOU (car on the slip road) have to give way to the traffic on the main carriage way sometime we can not move into the fast lane to let you on. expecting them to slow down can be dangerous motorist like you make me :mad::mad::mad:. rant over have a nice day please drive safely:beer::rotfl:

Oscar_The_Grouch

charlesworth82 wrote: »

of course you can stop on a slip road - have you ever driven on a busy road before. half your 'help' is complete and utter crap

Tone it down a bit please - if you don't like the advice given, please feel free to give your own rather than simply putting the boot in.

Now: here is what the Highway Code says about joining a motorway:

Joining the motorway. When you join the motorway you will normally approach it from a road on the left (a slip road) or from an adjoining motorway. You should

• give priority to traffic already on the motorway
• check the traffic on the motorway and match your speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane
• not cross solid white lines that separate lanes or use the hard shoulder
• stay on the slip road if it continues as an extra lane on the motorway
• remain in the left-hand lane long enough to adjust to the speed of traffic before considering overtaking

I think that this is clear enough, but before everyone else stomps on me I am aware that the individual accident circumstances need to be taken into account.

OP:

You obviously feel that your friend has been let down by their insurance company. If they agree with you, then they need to take this up with the insurers. Have a look in the policy wording for the section on "Complaints" and this will tell you who your friend needs to write to. They should also take a look at the guidance provided by the Financial Ombudsman Service on how they can help here:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.co.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

Now the other thing to consider is that regardless of whether the accident turns out to be completely the other person's fault or only partly, your friend is unlikely to be 100% to blame. This means that they are able to make a claim for any out of pocket expenses, including additional costs of travelling to work.

The way it works is that if the other person is found to be 100% to blame, your friend can claim 100% of their REASONABLE costs back. If the other person was 75% to blame, your friend gets 75% of their costs and so on.

Your friend needs to keep track of all the taxi receipts, bus and train tickets, tesco delivery costs, etc. They need to see whether their insurance policy includes "Legal Expenses" cover or seek advice on how to make their claim (several posts on here about that already).

I hope this helps you a bit.

iamana1ias

charlesworth82 wrote: »

of course you can stop on a slip road - have you ever driven on a busy road before. half your 'help' is complete and utter crap

I said 'shouldn't', not 'can't'. :rolleyes:

I have been driving for over 15 years and I regularly drive on busy roads (approx 25k per year). I genuinely don't recall ever stopping on a slip road as I'm capable of judging the traffic on the main carriageway and merging in safely