Car insurance courtesy car

DB1904

hd10 said:

DB1904 said:

hd10 said:

shiraz99 said:

It's pretty much standard policy across most insurers only to supply the courtesy car when yours is in for repair. I'm sure there are exceptions but they will be at an expense. You do tend to get what you pay for in car insurance. Have a look at places like DirectLine or Aviva on their premium policies.

I assume it was your husband's own fault? It would be a different story if you were claiming from a third party's insurer as they tend to get you a replacement vehicle pretty much straight away.

It was deemed his fault as he was pulling out of a side road on a bend. Also good to know that Admiral weren’t bothered about the speed either vehicle was doing! 

We did wonder over the weekend if calling the insurance at the time and asking for it to be collected would have sped up the process? 

In your OP you said it was low speed. 

Yes my husband pulled out of the side road, about 10mph as there were queuing cars. It’s on a bend and the road he was joining is a 20mph limit. When my husband asked Admiral if they could assess the damage to determine the speed, they said they don’t bother. As he hit the other car it was his fault and no other outcome. 

Why is the speed even important? Your husband failed to make effective observations and pulled out into the path of another car.

Sandtree

hd10 said:

My husband had a low speed bump on the way home last Friday which left his car pretty much undriveable - front bumper hanging off 1/2 way across, unable to open the bonnet. He managed to get it home as it wasn’t far away but Admiral won’t provide a courtesy car until ours has been taken in. We were told today that their authorised repairer has to contact us within 48h (which will be this Wed) to arrange booking the car in for an assessment. Then they will contact us to say what needs doing, then they can book it in for repairs if viable. 

Apparently there is also a delay of 4-6 weeks on getting hold of parts in general, which means we are potentially without a courtesy car for the next few weeks until the garage actually come and collect it. I checked our policy and it says a courtesy car will be provided ‘whilst your car is being repaired’. 

My question is (for future renewals), are there other insurers who provide a courtesy car once you make a claim and tell them the car is undriveable, or is it standard that it’s only once the car has been taken in? My only experience had my car collected at the roadside and I was offered a courtesy car the next day. This is very frustrating as he can’t get to work without a car, do we bite the bullet and hire one short term, or even buy a run around, whilst waiting to hear back? 

In the current situation there is no insurance solution that would work for you outside of policies for High Net Worth.

A traditional courtesy car is provided by the garage at their own expenses, it is therefore subject to availability and subject to your car being in for repairs... in theory they charge £1 more per hour in the labour rate but in reality the labour rate will be based on volumes of work provided etc and so it could be a large insurer that gives courtesy cars is paying less than a small insurer that doesn't despite the theoretical cost for the courtesy car.

Some insurers do give the option of having a "guaranteed" vehicle, this comes in the form of a hire car and can either be a basic small car or something more akin to your own vehicle. This has the plus side that its not down to the garage's stock of courtesy cars and means you get something if your car is unrepairable or stolen and unrecovered. The downside of it is that there is normally a cap of 2 or 4 weeks and so in your circumstances where you have a 6 week wait for parts it would lessen the problem not fix it. 

Given you presumably need the vehicle the next option is presumably to see if anything can be done in terms of temp fixes to at least get the vehicle legally back on the road until the garage can do the proper repair. Insurers probably wont pay for a temp repair but that's probably a lesser evil to not having any vehicle.