First crash...advice please
Discussion
Nearly made it 5 years without crashing!
Was on my way to work today, going down my road, its a 30mph limit, and I was doing around 20/25mph as it was nearing the end.
I went past a juntion on the left hand side, where a car pulled out as I was going past it, they hit the start of my passengers door, and scraped to the rear wheel roughly.
Not too much damage to my car, door is a bit dented and difficult to open, window also makes a strange sound when being put down. Had a look at their car, and its minimal damage to the offside front bumper.
Swapped details at the side of the road, just checked on askMID and its shown as insured, so not too worried there. It was a company car, so he rang his boss, and he'll give me a ring later.
As far as I can see, they are at fault, they pulled out of a side road when it wasn't clear.
Do I phone my insurance company? I would like to keep my no claims for as long as possible! I'm not too keen on doing it outside of the insurance companies though.
Any advice would be great!
Was on my way to work today, going down my road, its a 30mph limit, and I was doing around 20/25mph as it was nearing the end.
I went past a juntion on the left hand side, where a car pulled out as I was going past it, they hit the start of my passengers door, and scraped to the rear wheel roughly.
Not too much damage to my car, door is a bit dented and difficult to open, window also makes a strange sound when being put down. Had a look at their car, and its minimal damage to the offside front bumper.
Swapped details at the side of the road, just checked on askMID and its shown as insured, so not too worried there. It was a company car, so he rang his boss, and he'll give me a ring later.
As far as I can see, they are at fault, they pulled out of a side road when it wasn't clear.
Do I phone my insurance company? I would like to keep my no claims for as long as possible! I'm not too keen on doing it outside of the insurance companies though.
Any advice would be great!
Ki3r said:
Nearly made it 5 years without crashing!
Was on my way to work today, going down my road, its a 30mph limit, and I was doing around 20/25mph as it was nearing the end.
I went past a juntion on the left hand side, where a car pulled out as I was going past it, they hit the start of my passengers door, and scraped to the rear wheel roughly.
Not too much damage to my car, door is a bit dented and difficult to open, window also makes a strange sound when being put down. Had a look at their car, and its minimal damage to the offside front bumper.
Swapped details at the side of the road, just checked on askMID and its shown as insured, so not too worried there. It was a company car, so he rang his boss, and he'll give me a ring later.
As far as I can see, they are at fault, they pulled out of a side road when it wasn't clear.
Do I phone my insurance company? I would like to keep my no claims for as long as possible! I'm not too keen on doing it outside of the insurance companies though.
Any advice would be great!
Had this in 2010. Yes call insurance now. For a non-fault claim it bumped my insurance by £50. I too freaked at the thought of loosing the NCB however as your not at fault your fine. Get in asap as if he says different his side will be saying you did it. Call Now mate.Was on my way to work today, going down my road, its a 30mph limit, and I was doing around 20/25mph as it was nearing the end.
I went past a juntion on the left hand side, where a car pulled out as I was going past it, they hit the start of my passengers door, and scraped to the rear wheel roughly.
Not too much damage to my car, door is a bit dented and difficult to open, window also makes a strange sound when being put down. Had a look at their car, and its minimal damage to the offside front bumper.
Swapped details at the side of the road, just checked on askMID and its shown as insured, so not too worried there. It was a company car, so he rang his boss, and he'll give me a ring later.
As far as I can see, they are at fault, they pulled out of a side road when it wasn't clear.
Do I phone my insurance company? I would like to keep my no claims for as long as possible! I'm not too keen on doing it outside of the insurance companies though.
Any advice would be great!
Also as stated he was hit by a company car, as such they are not going to offer cash to sort, they will just leave to their insurance too sort out. IMHO best to at least log with the insurance co. Again this hurts but this is why we have it at the end of the day.
Olly RM said:
Ki3r said:
Nearly made it 5 years without crashing!
Was on my way to work today, going down my road, its a 30mph limit, and I was doing around 20/25mph as it was nearing the end.
I went past a juntion on the left hand side, where a car pulled out as I was going past it, they hit the start of my passengers door, and scraped to the rear wheel roughly.
Not too much damage to my car, door is a bit dented and difficult to open, window also makes a strange sound when being put down. Had a look at their car, and its minimal damage to the offside front bumper.
Swapped details at the side of the road, just checked on askMID and its shown as insured, so not too worried there. It was a company car, so he rang his boss, and he'll give me a ring later.
As far as I can see, they are at fault, they pulled out of a side road when it wasn't clear.
Do I phone my insurance company? I would like to keep my no claims for as long as possible! I'm not too keen on doing it outside of the insurance companies though.
Any advice would be great!
Had this in 2010. Yes call insurance now. For a non-fault claim it bumped my insurance by £50. I too freaked at the thought of loosing the NCB however as your not at fault your fine. Get in asap as if he says different his side will be saying you did it. Call Now mate.Was on my way to work today, going down my road, its a 30mph limit, and I was doing around 20/25mph as it was nearing the end.
I went past a juntion on the left hand side, where a car pulled out as I was going past it, they hit the start of my passengers door, and scraped to the rear wheel roughly.
Not too much damage to my car, door is a bit dented and difficult to open, window also makes a strange sound when being put down. Had a look at their car, and its minimal damage to the offside front bumper.
Swapped details at the side of the road, just checked on askMID and its shown as insured, so not too worried there. It was a company car, so he rang his boss, and he'll give me a ring later.
As far as I can see, they are at fault, they pulled out of a side road when it wasn't clear.
Do I phone my insurance company? I would like to keep my no claims for as long as possible! I'm not too keen on doing it outside of the insurance companies though.
Any advice would be great!
DoubleSix said:
Don't admit any liability. I know it sounds obvious....
Kinda up to you and the other party how you get it sorted. Has the other party admitted fault?
I assume you took some photos from the scene?
I sadly didn't have my phone on me at the time to take a photo, got a photo now though of my car.Kinda up to you and the other party how you get it sorted. Has the other party admitted fault?
I assume you took some photos from the scene?
I don't think they said 'it was all my fault', but I can't see how it couldn't not be.
They pulled out of a side road when I was coming down after all.
DoubleSix said:
Accept if the other party claims 'knock for knock' you may find your NCB out the window... I would be trying to establish a clear fault/gauge other parties likelihood to do the above.
As I said above, in my mind, I believe they are at fault 100%. However, I know they might try and say it was my fault.I'll give my insurance company a ring now! Hopefully Elephant are good!
I hope you'll be ok but my first crash was similar. Twunt pulled out into me from a side road, all agreed at roadside and I went off happy things were in order. Insurance paperwork comes through in due course and they are claiming I overtook them and cut them up, hence the damage on the cars. It went 50/50 despite my protestations as there was no independent witnesses, I was fracking livid.
Whats AMC? Never heard of that before.
Phoned Elephant up, they took all the details, turns out the car is insured with them too, so hopefully that will make it easier/quicker.
Few people have said it may be written off, any ideas? My knowledge on cars is very low (sorry!). Damaged the passenger door, bit of a dent and also hit the near side rear wheel, the cover came off the wheel nuts.
Its a 2001 Y reg Focus, 1.8 TDDi, around 110k miles.
Not the best photo really. Not sure if I said above, but its a bit tricky to open the door and have to slam it shut. The window also makes a strange noise when winding it down...so not going to be using that for a while!
Phoned Elephant up, they took all the details, turns out the car is insured with them too, so hopefully that will make it easier/quicker.
Few people have said it may be written off, any ideas? My knowledge on cars is very low (sorry!). Damaged the passenger door, bit of a dent and also hit the near side rear wheel, the cover came off the wheel nuts.
Its a 2001 Y reg Focus, 1.8 TDDi, around 110k miles.
Not the best photo really. Not sure if I said above, but its a bit tricky to open the door and have to slam it shut. The window also makes a strange noise when winding it down...so not going to be using that for a while!
Ki3r said:
Whats AMC? Never heard of that before.
Phoned Elephant up, they took all the details, turns out the car is insured with them too, so hopefully that will make it easier/quicker.
Phoned Elephant up, they took all the details, turns out the car is insured with them too, so hopefully that will make it easier/quicker.
AMC would be a separate company organising repairs and offering a hire car.
Sometimes useful, sometimes not.
Could be a write off, maybe not -see what the assessor says
I had a bump where the other party was at fault and with the same insurance company many moons ago. Nothing but hassle as the company had no-one to pass the costs to and tried every trick in the book to screw me over. Ended up with the AA's legal department onto it to get my excess etc back. Without them I'd have been down a bucket load.
BMWBen said:
Needs two new doors... I'd say it's probably a write off unfortunately.
Bugger 
. What happens next (if it is)? No idea what the car is worth.MonTheF1sh said:
I had a bump where the other party was at fault and with the same insurance company many moons ago. Nothing but hassle as the company had no-one to pass the costs to and tried every trick in the book to screw me over. Ended up with the AA's legal department onto it to get my excess etc back. Without them I'd have been down a bucket load.
Hopefully I wont have too many problems! I don't think I have legal cover! Double bugger!MonTheF1sh said:
I had a bump where the other party was at fault and with the same insurance company many moons ago. Nothing but hassle as the company had no-one to pass the costs to and tried every trick in the book to screw me over. Ended up with the AA's legal department onto it to get my excess etc back. Without them I'd have been down a bucket load.
Make sure you get a fair price for it. Do some research and find out what cars of a similar spec are going for, get the glasses evaluation. Derive a fair valuation and then don't accept a penny less. Use the money to buy a new one, then transfer your insurance policy 
I'd also say deal directly with the third party insurer, don't go through yours. You have to tell them about the accident, but you don't have to use them to fix it if someone else was at fault.
I had near the exact same thing on Xmas eve, somebody pulled out from a side road into my 335i putting a small dent in the rear quarter and ruining the suspension alloy etc....
I called Europa who have put me in a rather nice e class vert, give them a call, I chose my garage for the repair (BMW AUC) havnt paid any excess and have this car until work is done (isn't due to start until February and have had the car since the crash). Theybget quite a few good reviews on here, I've had to use them once before and they sorted everything out 100%
I called Europa who have put me in a rather nice e class vert, give them a call, I chose my garage for the repair (BMW AUC) havnt paid any excess and have this car until work is done (isn't due to start until February and have had the car since the crash). Theybget quite a few good reviews on here, I've had to use them once before and they sorted everything out 100%
To the OP - also trawl round the PH classifieds and Autotrader for similar spec and ages cars, and print or save the pages - not just the page addresses.
This way you will have something to argue your case with as regards the value of the vehicle, if it is written off.
The issue witrh saving the page addresses in your bookmarks, is that when you need to have your insurance company look at them, the pages will no longer be there.
This way you will have something to argue your case with as regards the value of the vehicle, if it is written off.
The issue witrh saving the page addresses in your bookmarks, is that when you need to have your insurance company look at them, the pages will no longer be there.
You must inform your insurance company, Dont admit liability, Looks like may be a write off, looks like not your fault, let the insurance company deal with it. Do keep a note of any adverts for similar cars in the local press, keep adverts, check autotrader etc online and print details of similar cars, If its a write off and they dont make a sensible offer, then use the adverts to get them to up there offer. Go take a photo of where it happened to put in your claim, road markings, signs etc, If you do hire a car claim for it.
KelWedge said:
You must inform your insurance company, Dont admit liability, Looks like may be a write off, looks like not your fault, let the insurance company deal with it. Do keep a note of any adverts for similar cars in the local press, keep adverts, check autotrader etc online and print details of similar cars, If its a write off and they dont make a sensible offer, then use the adverts to get them to up there offer. Go take a photo of where it happened to put in your claim, road markings, signs etc, If you do hire a car claim for it.
I have informed my insurance company, did it when I heard a few people say it might be a write off. Haven't admitted liability, said it was their fault. I'll be amazed if its anything but!One thing I was thinking about, I said that my car was worth around £1,250 when I got my insurance. There is a bit of damage on the bonnet from when I got it, and not the best condition, you can see the rust on the passenger door! When I phoned up, I said it was worth around £1,000 (I know nothing about the value of cars, was purely a guess!). I've had a quick look on AutoTrader, local to me. The only one that is close to the same spec and mileage is nearly £2,000!
If I could only find ones that are around that price, would they still pay out that much? Despite I only paid £1,700 for it?
Ki3r said:
I have informed my insurance company, did it when I heard a few people say it might be a write off. Haven't admitted liability, said it was their fault. I'll be amazed if its anything but!
One thing I was thinking about, I said that my car was worth around £1,250 when I got my insurance. There is a bit of damage on the bonnet from when I got it, and not the best condition, you can see the rust on the passenger door! When I phoned up, I said it was worth around £1,000 (I know nothing about the value of cars, was purely a guess!). I've had a quick look on AutoTrader, local to me. The only one that is close to the same spec and mileage is nearly £2,000!
If I could only find ones that are around that price, would they still pay out that much? Despite I only paid £1,700 for it?
The valuation they pay out hasn't got a great deal to do with what you paid for the car. Most cars will be worth less when smashed than they were when they were bought, as they are then older with more miles. The payout tends to be based on what you would have been able to sell the car for privately, rather than what it would cost to replace. (Neither is anything to do with what you bought it for.) Rare cars may even go up in value, and the payout would reflect that.One thing I was thinking about, I said that my car was worth around £1,250 when I got my insurance. There is a bit of damage on the bonnet from when I got it, and not the best condition, you can see the rust on the passenger door! When I phoned up, I said it was worth around £1,000 (I know nothing about the value of cars, was purely a guess!). I've had a quick look on AutoTrader, local to me. The only one that is close to the same spec and mileage is nearly £2,000!
If I could only find ones that are around that price, would they still pay out that much? Despite I only paid £1,700 for it?
The only potential spanner in the works is what you TOLD them it was worth, either at the point you took the policy out, or when you claim. That may well set a ceiling.
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