I crashed my car for the first time. Just checking I've done everything right so far

boggy1

So, I'm a 22 year old male with five years clean full driving license. This is my first ever crash..

Today, while driving down a B road, I got momentarily distracted and unfortunately ploughed into the back of the car in front, who had stopped to turn into a side road.

Damage to my car seems severe. Damage to his car doesn't seem as bad; it was certainly drivable.

Photos:
imgur.com/a/YUXOJ


I own the red car. It's a Hyundai i10, 2013. Bought new about a year ago.

I have full comprehensive insurance with Diamond/Admiral.

Both cars were towed to a local garage.

The police are coming over for an interview on Saturday, but I'm pretty sure its my own fault and I'm ready to admit that.

I've phoned up Diamond/Admiral, telling them what's happened. The guy has said I'll have to pay my £650 excess if its repairable and that he will be moving my car to an approved garage for evaluation.

So my questions are: what's best to do now. From the, pretty bad, photo: it looks like my car could be a write off. Does anyone else agree? Do I have to pay for his car's damage? If so, would that be more than my £650 excess?

If the car is completely totalled, Diamond/Admiral are going to give me the value of the car minus my excess. This is probably the value of the car TODAY, right, not the £6000~ I paid for it originally? Is there any way of increasing the amount of money they are prepared to give me?

How much will this shoot up my insurance premiums and is there a way to lesson the impact?

Any other advice to give? What else can I do/should I do?

Thanks.

UsernameAlreadyExists

Not wanting to put even more of a downer on things, but is your offside front tyre legal? Doesn't look great from the pic

TadleyBaggie

Your insurance will have to pay the full cost of the repairs to the other car, your excess is only applicable when you claim off your own insurance.

UsernameAlreadyExists

it looks like my car could be a write off. Does anyone else agree?

Possibly ... the airbag going off is rarely a good sign.

Do I have to pay for his car's damage?

No, that's why you've got insurance.

If the car is completely totalled, Diamond/Admiral are going to give me the value of the car minus my excess. This is probably the value of the car TODAY, right, not the £6000~ I paid for it originally?

That's correct. and as an aside, this is what GAP insurance is for.

Is there any way of increasing the amount of money they are prepared to give me?

Demonstrate with autotrader adverts etc how you couldn't actually buy the same car for the pitiful amount they're likely to offer you.

boggy1

UsernameAlreadyExists wrote: »

Not wanting to put even more of a downer on things, but is your offside front tyre legal? Doesn't look great from the pic

The car only has 11,000 miles on it, and its been only on main roads. It should be legal..! Do you mean the treads? I thought they were okay.

TadleyBaggie wrote: »

Your insurance will have to pay the full cost of the repairs to the other car, your excess is only applicable when you claim off your own insurance.

Whew, good.

UsernameAlreadyExists wrote: »

That's correct. and as an aside, this is what GAP insurance is for.

You know..I might have that. When I first bought my car from my dealer, they tried to sell me some sort of guarantee that if I totalled the car I would get back the original value. I can't remember if I accepted it or not, or if it would even still be valid after a year and two months...

GwylimT

You only pay excess for repairs to your car, it is very likely that the silver car has crumpling in the boot that would need knocking out, the garage will also have to measure to ensure everything is in it's right place. The same will need to be done for yours, taking an educated guess the crash wasn't at a low speed so you will likely find your door frames etc are out from the impact. Airbags going off can be a case of a write off, in some cars the entire dash is replaced, I'm not sure what the case is in the i10.

If you are concerned about insurance costs you can do some dummy quoted with a right off with you being the one to blame.

I know it is very frustrating, but what is done is done, you can't change what has happened so try not to get too stressed about everything.

GwylimT

I see what you mean about the tyres, it may be the picture, but there doesn't appear to be any tread left on the right side of the tyre.

boggy1

GwylimT wrote: »

I see what you mean about the tyres, it may be the picture, but there doesn't appear to be any tread left on the right side of the tyre.

Erk. I tend to check the car every few weeks, and I've never noticed the tread being worn on that wheel. I'm hoping it's just a bad picture? If, god forbid, the tread is worn down.. how would that affect things? The police did spend an hour checking over the car at the crash scene, and never mentioned anything.

UsernameAlreadyExists

It's not so easy to see the tread on the inside when it's under the arch. It sensible to turn the wheel so it's facing out to check.
You need 1.6mm across 75% (or something like that).
If not, that's an illegal tyre and 3 points (and up to a £2.5K fine)

GwylimT

Driving with a tyre without the required tread you can get 3 penalty points and a fine, it can in some cases invalidate your insurance, but I don't know how common that really is. If you check the car regularly it is most likely a bad picture, I was about to suggest you go check for tyre, then I realised how stupid it was!

boggy1

GwylimT wrote: »

Driving with a tyre without the required tread you can get 3 penalty points and a fine, it can in some cases invalidate your insurance, but I don't know how common that really is. If you check the car regularly it is most likely a bad picture, I was about to suggest you go check for tyre, then I realised how stupid it was!

UsernameAlreadyExists wrote: »

It's not so easy to see the tread on the inside when it's under the arch. It sensible to turn the wheel so it's facing out to check.
You need 1.6mm across 75% (or something like that).
If not, that's an illegal tyre and 3 points (and up to a £2.5K fine)

Great. Well let's hope it's just a bad picture.