Damaged neighbours car

[Phoenix211]

So, yes I have done the unthinkable. I was laying some paving at the weekend and cutting slabs. Being new to it all I didn't think about the dust and it went all over this chaps mini cooper s and then the sun cooked it a bit. Now the flakes are set in the paint on the roof and no matter how much polishing they wont come out. He has a quote of £640 to fix this which if thats the case, I'll stump up.

Question is, can I and should I use my car insurance? I have protected no claims with Tesco but should I bypass this and just put the money up and learn from my mistake?

 

[mjt]

Why would your car insurance cover it? You didn't damage his property with your car.

Don't you have stuff like this covered in your house insurance policy or something?

 

[vanandjuanunited]

Car insurance won't cover this surely. It's nothing to do with your car.

 

[K.C. Leblanc]

I doubt your car insurance would cover this, since you're car wasn't involved. You might be able to claim on your household insurance you would have to check your level of cover.

Also remember that even though you have protected No Claims your insurance can still go up if you make a claim since the pre discount price will be increased.

 

[ci_newman]

Yes, I would think home insurance covers this rather than car insurance.

 

[Diddums]

I can't see a car insurance company covering this as you weren't in your car at the time.


Expensive mistake

 

[Phoenix211]

Yeah I was just thinking as it his car then its car insurance as either way you look at it ive damaged his car

 

[Phoenix211]

and yes expensive mistake! But I would want it sorting if it was my car so that's what i'll do one way or the other :/

 

[rhysduck]

What polish have you tried?

 

[Janesy B]

Home insurance, don't see why you think your car insurance would cover it?

 

[Havana_UK]

His insurance MAY cover it, but if I were him I wouldn't want to go down this route. I think your best option is just to offer to pay it, but get a couple of quotes yourself.

Also, something to think about, what will the situation be if after paying someone ~£700 to correct it....they don't/can't correct it?

 

[paradigm]

I really cant see how this won't polish out, unless someone has taken a sponge to it, dry, and essentially scoured the car to death.

Get a detailer out to it for a proper assessment.

 

[Burned_Alive]

Dont see how (on the face of it) this cant be corrected with a machine polish, which would cost a hell of a lot less than £640. That sounds like a quote for a respray of the roof.

 

[pepsilol]

If it was my car I wouldn't accept a detailer to come out and polish away at the clearcoat. I'd want it resprayed.

 

[ZeeWrath]

I've found clay bars to be the most effective thing for getting contaminates off paintwork, you can get them from halfords.

Or as others have said just try a polish with more cut like t-cut or some scratch removers

If it was me I'd be trying clay/polishes/tar removers/iron removers etc before stumping up for the respray.

 

[Janesy B]

I wouldn't let someone that didn't know what they were doing experiment with different ways of fixing it if it was my car damaged. Only if you have a good relationship with the person you could try it, but you'll just have to suck it up.

 

[ZeeWrath]

I'd say it would be pretty unreasonable to not let someone use car cleaning products to clean a car... its not like he's chucking a load of paint stripper on it

 

[Phoenix211]

Yeah the quote is for a respray. i'm getting a quote from a company i've used in the past who said maybe it will polish out but they will let me know. The line im going with ill pay for the work then we call it quits.

 

[nicRob]

It's just dust, should wash off... trying to polish it out will make things worse! Never had any issues with it on any vehicles on site.

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

I'm with the above..it just needs cleaned.
A proper pre wash, a decent clean down then a clay and finish off perhaps with some g3?