poor lass, Friday night an all –

Damage to rear quarter panel (not bumper), just behind rear wheel
arch (Audi A4 Avant)

on inspection, there is slight crease in two areas
which has caused a ‘depression’ in the panel, also no paint has cracked
or come away

What chance have I got that this can be fixed by ‘Chips away’ et al type service ?
Or am I looking at proper insurance claim and body shop repair ?
Although she adimitted total liability etc Was hoping insurance claim could be avoided

Hard to say without seeing it but you might be abled to get it “pulled out”.

I got a bit worried when I saw the title of this post, since my wife has just reversed into our neighbour’s wing!

Yeah thats what i’m thinking

looking at Dent Devils website and it seems that with the type of dent
evident it could be ‘massaged’ out, or however they do it

lol @ stilltortoise, tell your wife not to worry, that’s what
I said to our neighbor, lifes to short etc…

funny thing is that we just bought the house next to them!

Not your insurance policy, so where’s the problem?

(Yes, I know we all pay in the end, but get your car fixed to your satisfaction: it wasn’t your fault…)

I did try reassuring the missus, through gritted teeth since it was MY car and MY insurance and MY no claims out the window. C’est la vie 🙄

my neighbour has done this twice to mine and once to my neighbour … her husband has tried to ban her from reversing off the drive but she wont listen she hit my neighbour that hard his car got shoved on to the pavement… really lovely woman SH!T driver though.

Daft thing is my wife is genuinely a very good driver. The car was full of crap for a car boot sale so the rear view mirror was next to useless. No one was hurt and I’m sure we’ll laugh about it in a few days.

What does annoy me slightly is that this has happened to the neighbour before (not by us might I add). What I want to know is why he doesn’t park on the drive rather than the road. There are LOADS of people on our estate who insist on parking on the road rather than their perfectly good drives. WHY?

If she admits liability (and doens’t change her mind) then you call your insurance company, then you get a call later saying take your car in on this date, and it gets fixed – no worries. It doens’t affect your no claims since you’re claiming on their policy not yours.

That’s what happened to us, at any rate, with Tesco insurance.

The car was full of crap for a car boot sale so the rear view mirror was next to useless

Not really an excuse, although I’m sure you understand that.

Above all, be nice about it. I had a neighbour’s daughter scream round the corner at the top of my road and tear half my back bumper off one morning. Poor thing, she knocked on the door, eyes red, she’d obviously been crying. I told her not to worry too much, it’s only a car, plastic and metal, noone’s been hurt etc and we’d sort it out as cheaply as possible. She could pay me some post-dated cheques if she wanted. Poor thing had only just passed her test and was thinking about an already high insurance premium shooting up. She was bricking herself over telling her dad so I said to tell him that I wasn’t in the slightest bit bothered and to call up later that evening.

Dad turns up at the door, says he can’t believe how nice I was about it. Turns out he works in a VW Bodyshop, I go off on holiday for a week, leave him the keys. He takes the car, puts a new bumper on, notices a few other little things wrong with it (including a dead battery), fixes them, puts a new battery in and leaves the car there outside my house when I get back. I drop down a bottle of wine and say ta very much.

What goes around…

Daft thing is my wife is genuinely a very good driver. The car was full of crap for a car boot sale so the rear view mirror was next to useless

A good driver wouldn’t reverse if they couldn’t see where they were going.
Wing mirrors?
Get out and check?
Open door and look backwards?
Have someone watch/help you?

I had a phone call at work from Mrs Feet a few months back. ‘Erm, I’ve just reversed into the house’ she said.

luckily it was a tiny bump with just a slight scuff on the bumper, but it was worrying for a bit!

Reminds me of when Dad reversed into the neighbours car. The car was moved onto his drive while Dad appologised and aexplained he was late leaving for a flight and Mum would sort it all out.

He jumped back into the car and reversed straight into the neighbours wifes car who had parked in in the gap left when the neighbour moved his car!

Oh how the insurance company laughed. They sent an investigater around thinking we were trying some kind of fraud. Especially when we told them Dad was uncontactable in Nigeria for 2 weeks.

It doens’t affect your no claims since you’re claiming on their policy not yours.

This is what I thought until my policy went up by £80 as a result of a no-fault third party claim (despite 6yrs NCB and over 25). Basically I got rear-ended in stationary traffic by someone who wasn’t looking. Clearly found not at fault, claimed £300 odd quid for the damage and all done and dusted.

HOWEVER… Most insurers ask you to reveal details of ALL claims when you are taking out a policy – regardless of whether you are at fault, or your no claims bonus, etc. This is what I had to do and my policy went up as a result. This happened with about 80% of the insurers on a couple of the comparison sites. It makes a mockery of the idea of ‘no-claims’ bonus protection and indeed the whole system when you are penalised for something that is not your fault, and you have claimed from a third-party.

Needless to say, I voted with my feet and jumped ship to an insurer who didn’t apply this. So try and settle damage without using your insurer if possible. Or find an insurer who doesn’t penalise.

Someone else in a scenario typical of what I am talking about:Clicky

But you did claim on your policy, if I read that right, so it still counts as a claim even if it is no fault – it may have been a bigger rise if it was your fault – if it is entirely borne on the other policy – and there are some honest folk around – it will not affect your renewal.

Have had it both ways

It was a third party claim so I basically claimed from the person responsible for the accident – not from my own policy (which was protected anyway).

PeterPoddy

A good driver wouldn’t reverse if they couldn’t see where they were going.
Wing mirrors?
Get out and check?
Open door and look backwards?
Have someone watch/help you?

Er, that’s the irony I was trying to point out. My wife – a good driver – wouldn’t have had the accident if she’d done all the things you self-righteously pointed out. I suspect half the accidents that happen on the road are a result of us humans making human errors. Obviously you have never suffered from this.

Oh and before someone suggests that all accidents are a result of human error, I’d strongly argue that someone knowingly driving dangerously whilst knowingly drunk is far from human error.

…and just to finish getting it off my chest before I have to take a chill pill, my father in law – a former professional driver and ex-rally driver with an impeccable driving record – has had a near miss much like my wifes “didn’t miss” in the exact same spot, as have I. None of us would say we were bad drivers, but sometimes there are blind spots.

OK, forget it, I’m getting too wound up. It’s a sunny day and I’m stuck inside with small children. Off for a cup of tea…

Obviously you have never suffered from this.

You might want to have a look about half way down this thread…

😆

So try and settle damage without using your insurer if possible.

If you do and the insurers find out (for instance after a later claim), this may invalidate your policy.

If you do and the insurers find out (for instance after a later claim), this may invalidate your policy.

Interesting, I’m assuming that this is if health complications appear further down the line – whiplash for example?

Would a liability waiver signed by both parties not get around this?

My point is that if there was a claim and you did not tell insurers, then they can void the policy.

EDIT – you have a duty under most if not all policies to advise insurers of claims or losses. This affects what they charge for the policy. If you hide such information then they can void the policy. They may make investigations after a later claim for instance.

😆
thanks Flipiddy

It doens’t affect your no claims since you’re claiming on their policy not yours.

maybe not your no claims but it will affect, for the next 3 – 5yrs depending on insurer, your policy price.

my car got dinged by my wife’s friend, 750quid worth of damage, i was sat in my house at the time and the claim was entirely handled by her insurers yet it adds approx 50 -100quid onto my policy.

What I want to know is why he doesn’t park on the drive rather than the road. There are LOADS of people on our estate who insist on parking on the road rather than their perfectly good drives. WHY?

This drives me insane. There’s a load of people around here who do the same thing, and parking on the road is at a bit of a premium. The only thing I can think of is because they want to keep their driveways clear for the odd case where they might have a guest or something – which just makes life annoyingly difficult for those of us without drives.

Frankly with drivers like my wife around I’d be parking on my drive all the time 😆