HelpHire alernatives, preferably someone that understands modified cars.

Lum

So my GF fills up her 200SX with LPG, pays for it and returns to find a Focus estate embedded in her front bumper and some old dear filling up blissfully unaware that an impact has taken place, soon joined by a husband that was abusive and threatening when insurance details were requested until the store manager "persuaded" them that giving details would be wise. She did offer her details to the driver of the focus but she was unable to read it. It's also worth noting that this car was so far away from the pump that they had to stretch the hose even though the fuel filler was on the correct side for that pump.

A police report has been made due to the threats that have been made and she initially didn't want to make a claim as it looked like a relatively cheap fix. ie. cheaper than what a third non fault claim would load her policy by.

Upon further investigation once I got home from work, the front bumper isn't sat quite straight and one of the pop up headlights is now wobbling about in it's mount and it's that which is going to get expensive. Really ought to get the alignment done (again) too, just to be safe.


The problem we have is that the car is a bit of an oddball, it's pretty heavily modified with uprated engine internals and non standard brakes, turbo, wheels, intercooler, ECU and suspension being the main ones, and it's converted to LPG too. With her last car that had the same mods when someone drove up the back of it, Helphire valued her car at £850 and decided that it was a write off. A quick look at the going rates for S13s on SXOC and you can see that this price is clearly a load of rubbish as these cars are quite rare nowadays.

This time we have until tomorrow morning to find a better accident management company, so does anyone have any suggestions? All I know other than HelpHire is to avoid Drive Assist as they scam you on the damage to the hire car.

dacouch

Do you have comprehensive cover ?

JQ.

Look on Pistonheads for a user called Anniesdad. He's a complete petrolhead and runs EuropaConsultants, an accident management company. He's helped lots of people on that forum and got very good reviews for the service provided. He's more likely to understand your car than most.

Lirin

I have a car with Adrian Flux, they tend to be sympathetic to modified/ kit cars.

I'm in a similar position in that the book price on my car is worth less than what we've done to her. All mods are declared- most are styling anyway. My last company was through a brokers, no charge to amend details as it was modified.
When I was hit- a guy came through a junction and wiped the front end off my car. I can sympathise with him, he was wondering what coffee to buy in Starbucks. So was I, it was just more expensive for him.)
Think I was with Norwich Union at the time- Aviva now. Basically what they told me was they would pay for original parts only, but had no problem with me paying excess to upgrade bumpers etc....

Adrian Flux can be a little expensive, but we have a deal with them via our car club.

Strider590

Won't this go in the favour of the Focus driver anyway? unless CCTV footage is available (which the garage is bound to deny), the insurance will go 100% in her favor as the damage is to rear of her car (or is it?).

Lirin

If the damage is greater than the value, they can still write it off, and most insurance companies won't take into account time and money put in modifying.

With mine, as it's fairly unusual car, his insurance company paid out- but what I received was more than the book price for the car.

Deals with heavy mods/driving convictions:
http://www.keithmichaels.co.uk/

Adrian Flux, deals with modified, imports, kits:
www.adrianflux.co.uk

davemorton

Were the insurance company aware of all the mods? If they were aware of them all, then surly they should pay out for them all in the event of an accident as you have been paying a premium to insure them!

Lum

All mods are declared. Past experience shows that they don't take them into account when paying out. Helphire also don't take them into account when assessing if the claim is worth their time.

She's with a different insurer now but is understandably reluctant to go through them given the number of times we've been screwed over on claims by insurance companies over the years due to having interesting cars.

Lirin

That's why I recommended Adrian Flux- my v6 wasn't released in UK, so most insurance companies had a heart attack and quoted silly prices...
As far as I know, I'm insured under the closest UK equivalent to my car.
Keith Michaels I've never used- they don't insure in my region.

vaio

Lum wrote: »

All mods are declared. Past experience shows that they don't take them into account when paying out. Helphire also don't take them into account when assessing if the claim is worth their time.

She's with a different insurer now but is understandably reluctant to go through them given the number of times we've been screwed over on claims by insurance companies over the years due to having interesting cars.

Matters not a jot whether the mods were declared or not if you just deal with the TP insurance company direct.

Given the additional costs that using a claims handling/accident management company adds and the clearcutness of the incident I’d have thought they would be pleased to deal direct with you.

Obviously if they start being silly/unhelpful then you always have the option of getting a claims handling company involved if you’d prefer.

Lum

I've always been a little edgy about dealing direct with the third party directly since I feel they would be more likely to act in their own interests and there is nobody there to fight our corner.

Obviously don't want to go through our own insurance due to the NCB risk, previous bad experiences and the fact that they then have the ability to write off the car.


As for the Adrian Flux suggestion, doesn't help right now as we're not with them for insurance, but I'd probably never go with them anyway as their underwriter is Equity Red Star who I have had awful experiences with.


I suggested Europa Consultants to her, but given that the front page of their website currently states that their service is being affected by snow, they do not come across to her as a competent company.