Rear ended - my options?

[popegregory]

Hi all. I’ve been rear ended in the Volvo before and thought nothing of it, I let insurance send it to somewhere and I thanked them when it came back. Dads rung to say someone’s bashed him in the Elise, a 23 year old car that I’d sooner have a specialist look at. Am I being unreasonable in this request / do I have a choice / are the insurance approves guys absolutely fine with any car you send to them?

[5lab]

I had an old 944 that was in a very non-fault (on my side) accident. I pushed the 3rd party insurance company to let me take it to a Porsche approved place and they were ok doing that. Wrote the car off thou! So be wary/have a plan for that happening

[KungFuPanda]

If liability has been conceded by the third party, I’d tell your father to make contact with the third party insurer’s directly. They’ll have a dedicated department who will deal with the claim and make it as painless as possible with a view to avoiding the involvement of an Accident Management Company.

They should let you take the car to wherever you like to be repaired as long as their engineer approves the estimate. It’ll most likely be a desktop report based on photographs anyway.

[Mr Tidy]

Your own insurer is likely to want to send it to one of their approved repairers.

But if you claim against the other insurer you get to choose where it goes, which would be better for what is a more specialist car. Hopefully they won't think it is not economic to repair.

[Old Merc]

My immaculate Mercedes R129 was rearended. I demanded that it was repaired by my local Mercedes SL restorer. All done no problems.

[popegregory]

Guys now claiming it wasn’t his fault. Not ideal.

[KungFuPanda]

What were the accident circumstances?

[48k]

popegregory said:

Guys now claiming it wasn’t his fault. Not ideal.

Must confess when you said rear ended I was expecting photos of the rear of the car stoved in. The rear clam on the S1 is quite strong around that area. It's not like when it gets a knock from the side 3/4 and flexes and you get cracks and spidering all around the wheel arch and rear 3/4.

Any car repairer or boat builder who specialises in fiberglass will be able to sort that.

[davek_964]

Apart from the fact that you are allowed to choose where it goes - you may find that your insurance company has a specialist as an approved repairer.

I had a claim a couple of months ago and discovered that the specialist I wanted to use was the approved repairer the insurers wanted me to use.

[popegregory]

48k said:

popegregory said:

Guys now claiming it wasn’t his fault. Not ideal.

Must confess when you said rear ended I was expecting photos of the rear of the car stoved in. The rear clam on the S1 is quite strong around that area. It's not like when it gets a knock from the side 3/4 and flexes and you get cracks and spidering all around the wheel arch and rear 3/4.

Any car repairer or boat builder who specialises in fiberglass will be able to sort that.

I’ve still not seen it but I must say I think you’re right, we’ve got away lightly here. From dad saying the noise it made and the shove he felt I was expecting worse but I think it looks like it should be fine. Just hope someone’s got some nautilus blue in stock…

[popegregory]

KungFuPanda said:

What were the accident circumstances?

Pulling out of Tesco. Guy ran into the back of him as he was stationary. Rang him today and he’s convinced it was dads fault for being there and told me to go and claim off my own insurance as it’s nothing to do with him; he’ll claim on his if he thinks he needs to later.

[KungFuPanda]

popegregory said:

KungFuPanda said:

What were the accident circumstances?

Pulling out of Tesco. Guy ran into the back of him as he was stationary. Rang him today and he’s convinced it was dads fault for being there and told me to go and claim off my own insurance as it’s nothing to do with him; he’ll claim on his if he thinks he needs to later.

Google askMid and enter the third party registration on there. It’ll give you details of his insurer. Contact them directly. They’ll probably try to contact him and get his version of events. They’ll probably try to settle once they’ve heard what he has to say.

Alternatively, you can go to your own insurer.

Third option is to go to an AMC.

[popegregory]

KungFuPanda said:

popegregory said:

KungFuPanda said:

What were the accident circumstances?

Pulling out of Tesco. Guy ran into the back of him as he was stationary. Rang him today and he’s convinced it was dads fault for being there and told me to go and claim off my own insurance as it’s nothing to do with him; he’ll claim on his if he thinks he needs to later.

Google askMid and enter the third party registration on there. It’ll give you details of his insurer. Contact them directly. They’ll probably try to contact him and get his version of events. They’ll probably try to settle once they’ve heard what he has to say.

Alternatively, you can go to your own insurer.

Third option is to go to an AMC.

Thanks, I’m going to go with calling his first like you say but amusingly I asked him who he was with when I rang him today and dad swears he said something complete different yesterday. Anyway, as you say there’s askMid if he is pulling a fast one, we’ve got his reg, plus I spoke to the witness today who confirmed everything dad said. I’ve asked on the midlands lotus group who’ve suggested the best people to take it to so I’ll speak to them before I contact them.

Should all be fine, just more annoying than anything else but certainly something a 79 year old dad could have done without.

[Monster Mash]

I was driving my ex’s 4 year old S2 Exige many years ago and was rear ended whilst stationary at a roundabout junction. The damage itself didn’t look terrible initially as the fibre glass had mainly flexed but it did cause a few cracks and upon closer inspection, create a small hole in the floor of the rear storage area. The bloke admitted liability immediately and we insisted the car went to the lotus dealer where she bought the car as it also had a body shop. The car ended up with a full new rear clam, diffuser and rear exhaust section at a cost of £12,000+. The car was worth around £25k at the time so it went through no problem.

Insist on the car going to a repair centre that knows their way around these cars and best of luck with pursuing the 3rd party.

[popegregory]

Thanks for help team, this all ended up very straightforward. Car has gone to my preferred specialist who dealt with everything and work has been agreed.

[Chozza]

popegregory said:

Thanks for help team, this all ended up very straightforward. Car has gone to my preferred specialist who dealt with everything and work has been agreed.

Good to hear.

what happened with Insurance ?

[popegregory]

Chozza said:

popegregory said:

Thanks for help team, this all ended up very straightforward. Car has gone to my preferred specialist who dealt with everything and work has been agreed.

Good to hear.

what happened with Insurance ?

I rang his insurance to see if they wanted to pay themselves. Turned out he’d already got in touch but when he’s said what happened they had clearly told him he was at fault and it was on them. They said take it where I like and send a quote but the guy I went to was clearly well versed in the process and he took all the photos and dealt with it himself.