Very Minor accident, LoonR1/ other insurance people around ?

[Nigel Worc's]

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 ?

[Nigel Worc's]

Roo said:

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?

So how about actually posing the question? The post just comes across as a direct criticism of the OP's description of events on the occasion described. There's too much of this rubbish on here.

Bit tetchy. I wasn't questioning anything of the sort.

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.

Many thanks for the replies people, shame Loon has gone, abrupt he could be, honest advice he did give !

To answer the above question. To the best of my knowledge, and my mechanics knowledge, the damage wasn't there previously, and I do use the tow bar, it was fitted when I bought the van, and had been checked by my mechanic, its condition should also be checked on mot.

My description of the "accident" is accurate, but please bear in mind, my van, laden as it is weighs almost two tons, we'll say the car weighs 1.5 tons. The car has attempted to push the rear of my van at say a 45 degree angle, in a direction the tow bar isn't designed for.

I'm an electronic engineer, not a mechanical one, but it seems likely to me that "abusing" a tow bar in that way could cause one of the supports to bend slightly, especially when the "impact area" is the support, not the actual tow ball where the forces are meant to be applied.

The van isn't "soft" or rusty.

In my description I was trying to get across the point that he has sort of rolled into me then kept going under power, rather than smashing or bashing into me.

Why or how I've no idea, he seems a bit of an arse to be honest, he's a regional legal officer for a large trade union "don't ya know" !

Edited by Nigel Worc's on Saturday 13th February 21:30

[Nigel Worc's]

TooMany2cvs said:

Does it actually make the slightest bit of difference, anyway? How "slightly bent" is it? Will it actually affect the strength?

I don't know you fking moron, that's why I took it to a mechanic to have it inspected, he says it is damaged, my insurance companies engineer is going to have a look.

Is there any chance you could bog off and annoy someone else ?

I'm not sure I've ever seen you reply to a post yet where you reply has actually contributed to the original post.

[Nigel Worc's]

Just to update this.

It did go the insurance route, third party insurers accepted liability, van wasn't written off as its retail value was £1,750, repairs were a shade under £600.

I would have been very happy if the other chap had just replaced the towbar, the towbar itself was under £100 from fleabay but there you go, you can't help some people.