Very Minor accident, LoonR1/ other insurance people around ?
Discussion
I've been involved in the most minor accident you could imagine, but it does seem to have done some damage to my van.
The van was parked in a car park at the Brecon Beacons, I was in it drinking coffee.
I don't know exactly how he did it, but another motorist has "pushed" my van (pushed it rather hard, enough to cause the coffee cup to fall over on the dash). He has made contact with the center of his car right on the nearside edge of my rear bumper. My van was in gear with the handbrake on , obviously without the engine running.
I didn't think there would be any damage, but we exchanged details anyway.
I've had my mechanic just check the van over today, and it would seem the bumper has pushed against one of the tow bar supports, bending that a little, and the bodywork that is attached to.
I rang the chap to tell him and he was a little offensive, accusing me of trying to scam him.
I've notified my insurance and they are sending out an engineer to see if the damage is enough to justify repairs.
My concern is the van itself, it is an 06 reg VW Caddy, with 200,000 miles on the clock, but I spent £3K on it just over a year ago having a replacement engine and a gearbox rebuild.
It is a nice little van, all ply lined, racked out, and sign written for my business.
I would imagine a replacement towbar and repairs will make this uneconomical to repair, if it needs both.
We buy any car value it at about £750.00.
I'm not really in a position right now to buy a new van.
I've seen stuff on here about being left in the position you were before the accident, what are the chances of that applying to this situation ?
The van was parked in a car park at the Brecon Beacons, I was in it drinking coffee.
I don't know exactly how he did it, but another motorist has "pushed" my van (pushed it rather hard, enough to cause the coffee cup to fall over on the dash). He has made contact with the center of his car right on the nearside edge of my rear bumper. My van was in gear with the handbrake on , obviously without the engine running.
I didn't think there would be any damage, but we exchanged details anyway.
I've had my mechanic just check the van over today, and it would seem the bumper has pushed against one of the tow bar supports, bending that a little, and the bodywork that is attached to.
I rang the chap to tell him and he was a little offensive, accusing me of trying to scam him.
I've notified my insurance and they are sending out an engineer to see if the damage is enough to justify repairs.
My concern is the van itself, it is an 06 reg VW Caddy, with 200,000 miles on the clock, but I spent £3K on it just over a year ago having a replacement engine and a gearbox rebuild.
It is a nice little van, all ply lined, racked out, and sign written for my business.
I would imagine a replacement towbar and repairs will make this uneconomical to repair, if it needs both.
We buy any car value it at about £750.00.
I'm not really in a position right now to buy a new van.
I've seen stuff on here about being left in the position you were before the accident, what are the chances of that applying to this situation ?
Nigel Worc's said:
My concern is the van itself, it is an 06 reg VW Caddy, with 200,000 miles on the clock, but I spent £3K on it just over a year ago having a replacement engine and a gearbox rebuild.
It is a nice little van, all ply lined, racked out, and sign written for my business.
I would imagine a replacement towbar and repairs will make this uneconomical to repair, if it needs both.
We buy any car value it at about £750.00.
The cost of a replacement van isn't £750 then, it's £750 plus the lining and other additions. It is a nice little van, all ply lined, racked out, and sign written for my business.
I would imagine a replacement towbar and repairs will make this uneconomical to repair, if it needs both.
We buy any car value it at about £750.00.
As we have seen countless times, the concept of put you back in the position you were in before is not what ins companies do.
If it gets written off that's the insurance cos chpice.
So your choices are:
Buy it back afterwards
Stop the claim and live with it
Stop the claim and claim yourself from the other guy's ins co
Hope it doesn't get written off
Bert
If it gets written off that's the insurance cos chpice.
So your choices are:
Buy it back afterwards
Stop the claim and live with it
Stop the claim and claim yourself from the other guy's ins co
Hope it doesn't get written off
Bert
I was in a similar-ish situation a while ago: cost of 100% repair exceeded the relatively low value of car.
I ended up with a cat c total loss claim and 1100 quid in my pocket once I'd bought the car back off the insurance company. I repaired the parts that needed repairing and sunk the rest of the cash into sprucing the rest of the car up a bit. New suspension bushes all round, fancy friction material, decent tyres.
Tbh, 3 yrs later, it still grates a bit that I'm not - and have never been - back in the position I was, but the car works and I've got more important things to worry about.
Such is life.
(It's all since been put in perspective by both doors being bent open for some scum who didn't even bother stealing anything....)
I ended up with a cat c total loss claim and 1100 quid in my pocket once I'd bought the car back off the insurance company. I repaired the parts that needed repairing and sunk the rest of the cash into sprucing the rest of the car up a bit. New suspension bushes all round, fancy friction material, decent tyres.
Tbh, 3 yrs later, it still grates a bit that I'm not - and have never been - back in the position I was, but the car works and I've got more important things to worry about.
Such is life.
(It's all since been put in perspective by both doors being bent open for some scum who didn't even bother stealing anything....)
Ekona said:
I'd probably just cancel the claim and repair myself. Not fair, but pragmatic.
This is what I did recently when my van was slightly damaged on a council landfill site. Just not worth the hassle when it comes to insurance renewal time, regardless of fault.Not wishing to sound rude, but it's a works van and they do suffer more than cars. There are several on mine, most of which are a mystery.
Roo said:
1. No chance of Loon answering.
2. A small bump on the bumper will not damage a tow bar bracket. That's attached to the floorpan. Either he hit you harder than you thought or your van is, unfortunately, a little bit soft underneath.
So he was hit harder than he thought...what has your post contributed, exactly?2. A small bump on the bumper will not damage a tow bar bracket. That's attached to the floorpan. Either he hit you harder than you thought or your van is, unfortunately, a little bit soft underneath.
), but usually gave decent advice, which some people didn't want to hear.PurpleMoonlight said:
Pothole said:
So he was hit harder than he thought...what has your post contributed, exactly?
Perhaps questioning whether or not the damage being claimed for actually occurred as a result of this incident?Years ago we had a little refrigerated van that had done mega mileage, 400,000 or so. When it was about 15years old some one went into the back of it at a roundabout, broke one rear light, dented one rear door and bent the bumper. The insurers costed the repairs at £4K on a vehicle they valued at £495.
Obviously new refrigerated vans are bloody expensive, they paid us £400, wrote it off and let us keep the van. It was not a customer facing vehicle so we just replaced the cracked light from a scrappy.
What they won't do is pay to put you into a van with a new engine etc, if the value of the van is £800 that is pretty much the most they will pay out.
Obviously new refrigerated vans are bloody expensive, they paid us £400, wrote it off and let us keep the van. It was not a customer facing vehicle so we just replaced the cracked light from a scrappy.
What they won't do is pay to put you into a van with a new engine etc, if the value of the van is £800 that is pretty much the most they will pay out.
Pothole said:
PurpleMoonlight said:
Pothole said:
So he was hit harder than he thought...what has your post contributed, exactly?
Perhaps questioning whether or not the damage being claimed for actually occurred as a result of this incident?If a small, fairly inconsequential, bump can do that much damage maybe the OPs vehicle is suffering from corrosion.
Hence where I said his vehicle may be a bit soft underneath.
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