Car accident advise

SamyBoy13

SamyBoy13

SamyBoy13

Associate
Joined
22 Mar 2014
Posts
1,578
Location
Plymouth
Hello guys someone have hit my car while parked. They admited to fault and called their insurer to arrange my repair free of charge. I've took my vehicle Passat 2013 valued at 7-8k by vw, to a authorised vw paintwork repair center. They have valued the costs of repair as approx 1400 pounds. Thus i would like to know if my car would be registered as cat D vehicle when repaired (I know they replaed c and d cat for something else but cant remember what they are called). Also should i go through them or my insurer. The damage caused is to the driver side rear bumper and slightly over the rear arch yetdidnt appear to hit the wheel as alloys are in prestine condition.


Lastly the price quoted seems like a absurd considering other garage who painted my son's car is 30 percent cheaper and they did a excellent job. I know i wont pay for it but i think there is xx% for vehicle to be classed as category x??? Any ideas and recommendations would be appreciated
 
Since the insurance company won't write of a 7k car for 1.5k's worth of damage the car won't have any CAT D or C markers placed against it.
 
The cost difference is what you pay for going through VW rather than an independent (although I wouldn’t be surprised if they sub contract the work to an “authorised” independent anyway!) I’d expect more comeback with VW if you weren’t happy with the end results.

As above, you only get a marker if it’s written off, yours isn’t so won’t get one.
 
That price is absurd, but that's what happens for insurance claims; the repairers see it as a chance to write their own number on a blank cheque.
 
Scania said:
The cost difference is what you pay for going through VW rather than an independent (although I wouldn’t be surprised if they sub contract the work to an “authorised” independent anyway!) I’d expect more comeback with VW if you weren’t happy with the end results.

As above, you only get a marker if it’s written off, yours isn’t so won’t get one.
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+1 don't worry about it. Let them do it, any issues its with the dealer not some random spray shop.
 
Spunkey said:
That price is absurd, but that's what happens for insurance claims; the repairers see it as a chance to write their own number on a blank cheque.
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This isn't actually what happens at all, the insurers are very much in charge of what they'll pay and often dictate rates, you'd be amazed at how low insurance work is eventually billed for compared with say the service department.
 
[TW]Fox said:
This isn't actually what happens at all, the insurers are very much in charge of what they'll pay and often dictate rates, you'd be amazed at how low insurance work is eventually billed for compared with say the service department.
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From someone that works inside the industry, although not doing insurance work currently, I totally agree.

As a rule the insurance companies dictate the labour rates, demand a parts discount, and will generally send an assessor to check the estimate and more than likely knock the hours down. Sure a clever estimator can load up with miscellaneous bits and bobs but the main chunk of the price is led by the insurance company that are ultimately paying the bill.
 
Spunkey said:
Perhaps it's changed more recently, but this was certainly not my experience when my wife had an accident about 5-6 years ago.
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I worked for one of the largest insurers some 20 years ago, and they already had a database of all the parts and their cost, the time taken and costs for various panels to be painted etc.
The moment a claim was opened it would already generate an estimate based on that data, ie rear quarter panel and bumper damaged on car xx, would trigger say a value of £500 estimate
If they received a quote of £1000 it would trigger manual intervention, something like £525 would go through

They were working on remote cameras for some big repairers, not sure if they ever came to fruition, but basically the repairer would video the repair needed so remotely an assessor could check it.

Some of course were checked in person no matter the value to detect fraud, some were checked based on driver details etc

Claims costs not surprisingly were something like 90% of the running costs of an insurer. Yet people still seem to think they do not apply any logic or controls over this massive expense ;)

There is a big difference between thinking you have the opportunity for a blank cheque and actually getting it paid.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
I worked for one of the largest insurers some 20 years ago, and they already had a database of all the parts and their cost, the time taken and costs for various panels to be painted etc.
The moment a claim was opened it would already generate an estimate based on that data, ie rear quarter panel and bumper damaged on car xx, would trigger say a value of £500 estimate
If they received a quote of £1000 it would trigger manual intervention, something like £525 would go through

They were working on remote cameras for some big repairers, not sure if they ever came to fruition, but basically the repairer would video the repair needed so remotely an assessor could check it.

Some of course were checked in person no matter the value to detect fraud, some were checked based on driver details etc

Claims costs not surprisingly were something like 90% of the running costs of an insurer. Yet people still seem to think they do not apply any logic or controls over this massive expense ;)

There is a big difference between thinking you have the opportunity for a blank cheque and actually getting it paid.
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So question,

My policy states that if I chose my bodyshop rather than the approved ones in the area of the insurer, I pay an excess of £850.

Lets say someone keyed the panels of my car, the local places can do a full respray, £3500-5000 using middle of the range stuff, max meyer type stuff etc. However if I went to the likes of shorade, who would use the likes of glasurit that bill would be 15k but would mean the car has the approved factory paint.

How often do people do stuff like that? Or do most people just take the way that costs them nothing?
 
I used to work for an organisation that managed claims handling and repairer networks on behalf of dozens of top-tier insurers and across UK and Europe and it definitely isn't a blank cheque scenario. As mentioned in order to be part of the approved repairer network, many rate cards will be in place around paint, parts, labour together with assessment by independent claims adjusters where appropriate.
Even the notorious cowboy nature of contract hire following accidents isn't quite as wild west as people think - some insurers have bilateral agreements in place to ensure that where hire cars are being deployed it will be routed via the insurer that is footing the bill rather than giving the likes of ERAC carte blanche to bill thousands.
 
As has already been mentioned, let their insurer deal with it. However, you still need to call your insurance company to notify them of the situation if you haven't already, and also make it clear that you're not making a claim.
 
Okay thank you for your gymuys for your response. also in terms of car value would such of repair affect vehicle value?? They told they will pull tiny dent out and putt filler on the scratch plus repaint.
 
SamyBoy13 said:
Okay thank you for your gymuys for your response. also in terms of car value would such of repair affect vehicle value?? They told they will pull tiny dent out and putt filler on the scratch plus repaint.
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It wont, as long as the job is upto standard.

Remember, you have the right to reject a repair if its done like ****.
 
kindai said:
So question,

My policy states that if I chose my bodyshop rather than the approved ones in the area of the insurer, I pay an excess of £850.

Lets say someone keyed the panels of my car, the local places can do a full respray, £3500-5000 using middle of the range stuff, max meyer type stuff etc. However if I went to the likes of shorade, who would use the likes of glasurit that bill would be 15k but would mean the car has the approved factory paint.

How often do people do stuff like that? Or do most people just take the way that costs them nothing?
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Just because you can choose who will do it, it doesn't give you a blank cheque based on paying your £850
There is still an amount they will pay upto, and a point where they will refuse your claim

But this is the type of scenario where the exact wording and type of policy you have taken out will vary
 
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