Sh*t start to my holiday

[Jimbo1959]

The car went to the bodyshop today and surprisingly they left me a Seat Leon as my courtesy car. I must admit to being pleasantly surprised as I was expecting a Corsa or something equally low spec as my run around, however the Leon is not to bad at all. It's quiet, nippy enough and has a DAB stereo unit fitted, all I need to put up with is paying for the petrol.

They reckon it'll take a week to ten days to do, mainly due to them being at 70% staff rate and the back log of work that, that has created.

I asked if they could give me an estimate for powder coating the other three alloys too, instead of just the one which was damaged. That way they'll all turn out the same colour, and prevent my guy trying to get a match with the remaining three. I could get the four of them done trade through my contacts for £266. If they are even slightly close, £300 ish for the three, I'll get them to do it, I might even go to £400 for the three to save mucking about and to get the match that I would like.

I was very close to being able to afford my remap there too, typical.

 

[EmilysDad]

....., he thinks I'm in the wrong and at fault and I know he's at fault, so, the Ins Co's can fight it out. .....

How could you possible be in the wrong? Short of drifting your car sideways down the road, how could you hit his car with the side of yours?

 

[Jimbo1959]

How could you possible be in the wrong? Short of drifting your car sideways down the road, how could you hit his car with the side of yours?

His opinion is that I was going too fast, and, cut the corner/lane despite the hostile witness who also thought I was going too fast when I passed her 1/2 a mile earlier, saying I stayed in my own lane and he turned into me. Something he also admitted at the time.

I think "stubborn old boy" is the polite expression, apparently I was not allowed to pass him on the nearside lane when he was, as of the last time I saw the back of his car, indicating his intention to turn right and then changed lanes mid roundabout, without the diligence of the appropriate "due care and attention".

He said that he had indicated his intention to turn left but how he expected me to see this when I was alongside him I'll never know, the wonderful thing is that the witness said she did not see him indicate in either direction. Ok, my car may have obscurred the view, when the right indicator was flashing, (which my wife did see and can and will corroberate). However we were side by side when he alledged his indication for the left lane and said witness saw nothing except, him turning into me.

I'm looking forward to my day in court as any decent solicitor will tear him to shreds, with the witness statement available.

 

[Jimbo1959]

Got my car back this morning! Yaaaaeee!
It was delivered at 6-30 a.m. just before I left for work so, basically it was a quick once over to check panel gaps and colour match, which were all good as far as I could see, and pay for the XS and extras I asked for, I’d asked for all the alloys to be refurbished to match the damaged one, and then off to work.
I’m quite surprised at the lift in mood getting my own car back has given me, I really missed it and I have a smile on my face for a change.
I’ll give it a proper once over when I get home tonight and after a wash and reapplication of the ceramic coat it’ll be perfect once again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[davemercedes]

Yes, it’s like the return of a family pet and sudden everything’s right with the world.
Enjoy your car Jimbo!

 

[sl500amgsport]

Enjoy the car, just got mine back from Service and am a happy bunny now I can squirt the windscreen again!

Unfortunately it is highly unlikely you will get your day in Court, in my experience the insurers tend to roll over and agree knock for knock and share the expense and you don't get much choice.

They prefer this as they both get to cane their insureds' on premium renewals for 5 years moving forward. They tell you your NCB is still available but simply raise the base premium to counter it.

The only way to avoid the insurance rip off is to negotiate/deal with the other parties insurance company yourself telling your insurer you are handling it and not claiming on your insurance.

This means you have to front repairs yourself if necessary and then you can sue the party to recover all losses (this is the point when the other party's insurer normally collapses and pays out).

This has worked for me over the years whenever some dumb driver has misbehaved.

Mercedes SL500 R231

 

[A.J.]

Enjoy the car, just got mine back from Service and am a happy bunny now I can squirt the windscreen again!

Unfortunately it is highly unlikely you will get your day in Court, in my experience the insurers tend to roll over and agree knock for knock and share the expense and you don't get much choice.

They prefer this as they both get to cane their insureds' on premium renewals for 5 years moving forward. They tell you your NCB is still available but simply raise the base premium to counter it.

The only way to avoid the insurance rip off is to negotiate/deal with the other parties insurance company yourself telling your insurer you are handling it and not claiming on your insurance.

This means you have to front repairs yourself if necessary and then you can sue the party to recover all losses (this is the point when the other party's insurer normally collapses and pays out).

This has worked for me over the years whenever some dumb driver has misbehaved.

Mercedes SL500 R231

You can probably overcome that to a certain extent by using Moneysupermaaaaaarrrket or similar

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Having a witness or preferably two will be key to the outcome

 

[SmartAmg]

Happy car back, to you! Jim.

 

[vtaylor78]

Good news Jimbo, hope it all checks out when you get home later.

 

[sl500amgsport]

You can probably overcome that to a certain extent by using Moneysupermaaaaaarrrket or similar

Yes agreed but you will still have a fault accident on your record so will still end up worse off than using Money Supermarket without that declaration.....

Mercedes SL500 R231

 

[Jimbo1959]

Having a witness or preferably two will be key to the outcome

I've got an independant witness thank goodness, who confirms that the other party turned into me on the roundabout and she did not see his alleged indicator, the one I couldn't have seen anyway as I was alongside him at this point. Funnily enough the OP also confirmed in front of witnesses that he turned into me to.

My speed limiter was in the car, she saw everything and, is also a driver, she fully blames the OP and believe me when I say, if I was at fault, she wouldn't be slow about letting the world know. The truth is her God, and God help anyone on the wrong side of the truth.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Thank goodness for that Jim makes things much more straight forward and you won’t have to suffer loss of your no-claims bonus, too easy for insurance companies to find both drivers responsible without a witness.

Glad you’ve got the car back and they’ve done a good job always a tense time

 

[brianbrian]

Haven,t we all done it some time or other, thankfully no one is going to be disabled, or die over it.

 

[Wighty]

Would this have been simplified with a dash cam footage ?

 

[ajlsl600]

Do you have a dashcam? That will quickly show you holding your lane and be the end of any argument.

Fitted dash cams front and rear. So lovely don't get any Grey areas in event of small accident.

 

[LostKiwi]

Fitted a dash cam to the 129 in preparation for return to UK.

 

[Jimbo1959]

Would this have been simplified with a dash cam footage ?

All the dash cam would have shown Wighty, was confirmation of him indicating a right turn at the roundabout and me passing him on the nearside in expectation of him turning right. It would also have shown the road layout (and why I was so *issed off at him for changing lanes unnecessarily).
Unfortunately the contact moment might only have been visible on a rear facing camera with a fish eye lens, however, I'm not sure even then.
To answer your question though, if it had all been visible on a camera it would have helped.

 

[Jimbo1959]

Update.....



Washed, dried and restored to beauty again.

God..... she looks gorgeous when the sun's highlighting her.

 

[A.J.]

That's a good paint match Jim and Silver is historically not an easy one to match Front discs look a bit rusty, have you just washed it ?