Car accident

gsmmad

You should have taken down a number plate. I doubt that damages are massive but what if your pain gets worse or your sons. With just the number plate you can trace the owner, his insurance and your insurance could have claimed and you are 100% at no fault. You have 3 years to claim for any injury. Go to the doctor get checked out.

I had a quiet hard rear smash in 2008, the guy who smashed into me, his car was written off. My car, nothing! I got paid 800 quid for repairs but all i needed was a bumper, the garage sent me to a local breakers, found the part in the right color. It costed me something like 80 quid and i was sorted. As everyone suggested its best to get your car checked by a mechanic. The easyest thing you can do is go to the dealers garage and request a quote done on the damages, it will give you a rough estimate of whether if there is a lot to replace/repair.

Nixer

I was rear ended a few years ago and the car looked ok, but when it was inspected there was some internal damage to the bumper and it had to be replaced. I believe modern bumpers are designed such that they can absorb the impact and look as if they are ok but they are weakened. In other words, if there is internal damage and you don't do anything about it and get rear ended again it might be more serious next time.

I would agree about going through the insurer. The guy who hit me did give insurance details and said he'd prefer to pay for the damage himself so I went down that route, although I told him VW would be fixing it which would be expensive, but it was a total ball ache and he was a pain to deal with - the repair ended up costing more because they found something else wrong when they took the bumper off and he was difficult about it although coughed up the difference in the end.