Why Me

[beechy]

Morning
I got home last night to find that someone had bumped into my car again. Why are people so careless???
Anyway at least this time the guy left his details and I now have all his insurence info. apparently he "Cliped it with the bull bars on his wifes car".

Anyway my main concern is if i get it fixed on his insurence will I be able to get it done at a decent place? When someone reversed into my Polo the insurence company sent me to some roapy place and the colour match was never very good or paticularly well done. I dont want the same with my Elise. Can I demand that I take it to a specific place? Sinclares fixed it when the same thing happened at xmass and they did a perfect job.

[Bonce]

Hard luck. Best thing to do is talk nicely to your insurers and explain your concerns about it being a specialist car and needing attention at a specialist bodyshop such as Sinclaires. Phone armed with a quote and they should agree when they see that the price is reasonable.

Thank goodness the other driver had the decency to leave a note, restores some faith in humanity.

[DanH]

Yeah talk to the insurers. Mine insist that you don't get a hire car if you take it to a non authorised repair place, and won't be interested if the repair is dodgey (i.e. you'd have to pursue it yourself).

That crap respray previously should have been justification enough to demand proper rectification. Don't sign off the work until you've checked it thoroughly (even at Sinclaires).

[S Works]

Gutted for you mate - chin up, here's hoping the insurers will for once give you a decent deal.

BTW - if you want specific advice on how to handle it post up in General Gassing. There's a few people who post in there who work for insurance companies and who can advise on best course of action and likely result.

Best of luck.

[beechy]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I'm going to take it into Sinclares tomorrow and get a quote. The guy that hit it said that if it wasnt to much he was happy to just pay cash and not get the insurence people involved. But when the same thing happened at Xmass it cost me £900 to fix which I asume is more than what he was meaning by not to much.

At least if I have a quote I can see what the guy wants to do and if he wants to go through insurence then I have something to offer them.

Fair play to the guy for owning up though. I'm still hunting for the person that did it and drove off at work last time.

Thanks again for the advice I'll keep you posted on my progress.

[MILF]

Best thing to do is claim from the TPs insurance, ie the man who crashed into you.

Problem you will often find on your own Comprehensive Insurance Policy is that their are very often exclusions written in extremely small print as to the liability your Insurers are responsible for, ie instead of taking it to an approved Lotus dealer, you will be lumbered with an "Approved Repairer" whose closest contact with such a car as an Elise is an airfix model.

Just get two estimates (for comparisn purposes) from two repaierers of your choice (obviously Main Dealers would be preferrable) and send those to his Insurers. They will then (dependant upon the extent of damage) either authorise the cheaper of the two estimates, or alternatively send one of their own in house Engineers out to inspect, quibble the costs and then authorise.

Put simply, you are entitled by law to be placed in a position by the other Insurers as where you were prior to their Insured driving into your car, ie a pristine Elise, NOT an Elise bodged by Cars R Us. Indeed if its a fairly new car and the damage is extensive, you can always intimate a claim for the Diminution in the pre accident value of your car, ie the reduction in the value of your car as a result of it having to be repaired.

Any problems, post again and Ill try and add my words of wisdom..........

[schueymcfee]

You're can have your car repaired where ever you like. The insurance company will try and "advise" you that their approved bodyshop is best.

It's your car and you can have it repaired where ever you choose, just don't back down.

[DanH]

p.s. I'm stunned that someone left a note. I've had a couple of cars damaged like this (one severly) and the bastards have never left a note.

[beechy]

Well I spoke to the guy and he told him how much the quote was and he said to go ahead with the insurence rout rather than him paying it him self and then he called me back later with a claim number for his insurence company and said that they said it would be fine.

Sounds to good to be true but fingers crossed it will all go smoothly.