My Car Has Just Been Killed!

[BridgeMR2]

My freshly washed and shiny black MR2 Roadster has just been killed by an old lady in a Corsa not looking where she was going :-(

Was stopped at a queue of traffic at a roundabout in Airdrie at lunchtime today and glanced in my rear view mirror to see a silver Corsa racing towards me at speed. The old lady driving was looking to her left and just drove straight into the back of my car, propelling me forward into the back of a 4x4. Back end is crumpled and the front is dented... luckily I was a reasonable distance from the car in front so the impact there was minimised.... but bad enough.

Firebrigade were in attendance along with ambulance and cops.... fire brigade disconnected my Battery to reduce any risk of fire in case of leaks. Looks like the exhaust and shields took the brunt and they are pushed up to within a whisker of the engine bulk. I'm gutted, but also worried that any repair job will leave me with a car that just isn't what it should be. Anyone else had experience of a rear end shunt and things to look out for in making sure that the repairers don't botch my pride n joy?

My neck is killing me also :-( Luckily the old wifey has admitted responsibility to the cops so hopefully the insurance process will be straight forward. Need to wait until liability is confirmed before I can get a hire car out them :-(

Abolutely gutted :-(

[Boro Sera]

Not much I can really say except that at least you walked away from it. Cars can be fixed and although the human form has been in production for a long time, spare parts are still hard to come by.

Hope the neck sorts itself out and you don't have too much insurance hassle.

Better luck next time !

[GIDDLEPIN]

That's awful :(

At least everyone is in one piece (although I think the corsa driver might have had some additional injuries if it was my car they hit...old lady or not!!! )

All will not be lost when you get a settlement though, prices are very good for buyers and I'm sure you will find an equivalent replacement out there. ;)

Good luck

Les

[BridgeMR2]

cheers.

Insurance progress is being made. The old lady had contacted her insurance and full liability has been admitted. My insurers Tesco (who have been excellent to deal with so far) have also come up trumps and have provided me with a nice hire car to tide me over - Jaguar x-type diesel estate with all the full mod cons . This was after the old lady's insurers contacted me direct to try to cut their costs and palm me off with a Polo! Handy too as me and the wife are going down south next weekend so we can use the Jag rather than her Aygo.... although she says the Jag is an 'old mans car'. I'm just entertained by all the toys it has.

Not sure if my car is getting repaired yet or getting written off.

Neck is still sore, head is thumping, and my legs feel like i've just run a marathon twice. The hire car eases the pain a bit.

[JappyBeast]

Bad luck, nothing worse than your pride and joy getting damaged!!

You going to claim on the neck?

[Devil-ish]

Aw RIP roadster possible :( . Glad to hear you are OK but deffo claim pain n distress :crutchy:

[BridgeMR2]

Def going to be putting a claim in for the injury. Tesco have passed the details to an injury claim firm and they got in touch this morning. Just need to fill in a few forms with all the details. Had been taken to hospital after the accident and got a diagnosis of whiplash so that helps my case. May as well get everything that i'm entitled to.

[Mad-Matt]

Sorry to hear about the crash, but glad you're mostly OK. I had whiplash some years ago and it's no fun. Took about a year to get over it.

It might be worth getting one of those "neck" pillows and some physio to get things right ASAP. I also found three weeks lounging in the sun in the south of France helped :-)

[BridgeMR2]

Just heard today that my car is to be repaired..... after the repair place had told me on Monday that it was looking like an uneconomical repair. Will be about 3 weeks before I get it back now. Apparently it was borderline whether to repair or write off :( Just hope they make a good job as i'll be going over it with a fine tooth comb before I accept it back.

Told them that they should check the pre cats in the manifold for damage.... after looking at me blankly for a while, I then explained what they were and where they were located. Given the thump the back end took and the fact that the exhaust system bore the brunt of the crush, i'm concerned that the pre cats are damaged...... even more concerned given the fact that they've had the engine running to move the car around.

Pic of my car attached....

[EchoRange]

Just heard today that my car is to be repaired..... after the repair place had told me on Monday that it was looking like an uneconomical repair. Will be about 3 weeks before I get it back now. Apparently it was borderline whether to repair or write off :( Just hope they make a good job as i'll be going over it with a fine tooth comb before I accept it back.

Told them that they should check the pre cats in the manifold for damage.... after looking at me blankly for a while, I then explained what they were and where they were located. Given the thump the back end took and the fact that the exhaust system bore the brunt of the crush, i'm concerned that the pre cats are damaged...... even more concerned given the fact that they've had the engine running to move the car around.

If they have been told to repair it and THEN you've told them about the pre-cats, they may relook at the vehicle and find more damage. Having worked for a bodyshop before, these cases are always a problem, because if you find any extra damage, it has to be auth'd which can make the car Beyond Economical Repair. The other problem is that as a bodyshop, you miss off damage that you just can't see until you put the whole of the car back together. The first you know of it is when a customer comes back in and says the line "It wasn't like that before"

There is a golden rule when it comes to repairs - Never get annoyed at the garage because they are only being told what to do by the Insurance. If they've missed a repair, chances are they have noted it, but the engineer doesn't feel it's related and asked them not to fix it.

[BridgeMR2]

The garage, UK Assistance, said that they would have checked the exhaust system as part of the final mechanical checks. However the engineer said that as they deal with all types of cars they can't really be experts on all models etc, hence not realising that the car had pre-cats. Hopefully they will now look at the vehicle to reassess the repair. The only part of the exhaust that they had down on their parts list for replacement was the backbox (although the standard cat looked knacked too from what I could see )

Following my in-person conversation with them I'll follow it up with a letter to cover myself. At least there will then be a record of me bringing it to their attention.

[Andie_M]

gutted for you :( looks a sore one. hope you get your car sorted soon.

[bothwell_buyer]

The garage, UK Assistance, said that they would have checked the exhaust system as part of the final mechanical checks. However the engineer said that as they deal with all types of cars they can't really be experts on all models etc, hence not realising that the car had pre-cats. Hopefully they will now look at the vehicle to reassess the repair. The only part of the exhaust that they had down on their parts list for replacement was the backbox (although the standard cat looked knacked too from what I could see )

Following my in-person conversation with them I'll follow it up with a letter to cover myself. At least there will then be a record of me bringing it to their attention.

from my experience, make sure everything you say is then sent to them in writing and everything they say is written by you and sent to them as confirmation of the discussion.

[BridgeMR2]

The garage, UK Assistance, said that they would have checked the exhaust system as part of the final mechanical checks. However the engineer said that as they deal with all types of cars they can't really be experts on all models etc, hence not realising that the car had pre-cats. Hopefully they will now look at the vehicle to reassess the repair. The only part of the exhaust that they had down on their parts list for replacement was the backbox (although the standard cat looked knacked too from what I could see )

Following my in-person conversation with them I'll follow it up with a letter to cover myself. At least there will then be a record of me bringing it to their attention.

from my experience, make sure everything you say is then sent to them in writing and everything they say is written by you and sent to them as confirmation of the discussion.

I wrote them a letter with all my concerns, so they phoned me straight away and have agreed to pass the car to a Toyota dealer for a full mechanical inspection. I'm happy that they seem to be doing all they can to make sure I get the car back in tip-top shape. I'm meant to be getting it back this Monday.... can't wait!

[bothwell_buyer]

The garage, UK Assistance, said that they would have checked the exhaust system as part of the final mechanical checks. However the engineer said that as they deal with all types of cars they can't really be experts on all models etc, hence not realising that the car had pre-cats. Hopefully they will now look at the vehicle to reassess the repair. The only part of the exhaust that they had down on their parts list for replacement was the backbox (although the standard cat looked knacked too from what I could see )

Following my in-person conversation with them I'll follow it up with a letter to cover myself. At least there will then be a record of me bringing it to their attention.

from my experience, make sure everything you say is then sent to them in writing and everything they say is written by you and sent to them as confirmation of the discussion.

I wrote them a letter with all my concerns, so they phoned me straight away and have agreed to pass the car to a Toyota dealer for a full mechanical inspection. I'm happy that they seem to be doing all they can to make sure I get the car back in tip-top shape. I'm meant to be getting it back this Monday.... can't wait!

good for you....try to get a writen report of the outcome....if I'd got written things done instead of all verbal a few years ago, I could have gone to court to make a claim against a garage who failed miserably to fix my pranged Citroen.

[BridgeMR2]

Repair place phoned to say that car will now be back with me Wednesday or Thursday. They will be finished with their work on Monday/Tuesday and then it is booked in on Wednesday to be looked at by the local Toyota dealer for an inspection of the pre-cats and a general mechanical check. They seem to be doing what they promised.... and i've kept their phone messages saved just in case!!

Can't wait for it to be fixed... roll on the nice weather! :D

[BridgeMR2]

5 weeks on to the day from the accident and still no sign of getting the car back yet from the repair place (UK Assistance). Last week it was wrong boot lid delivered to them, while this week it was a problem with getting a fog light delivered...... i'm starting to think that they are trying to get the parts by bidding on eBay!!! They phoned me on Tuesday to say that they are "checking diagrams with Toyota" to work out the parts required for the fog light - this is the car that I was meant to have back almost 2 weeks ago! They will now be phoning me on Friday for my next update..... don't think i'll ever get the car back at this rate. :(

I can't fault their admin side from the point of view of keeping me up to date. Strikes me though that they've let themselves down on the operations side - ordering wrong parts/ not checking things worked till the end (the fog lights weren't checked and they then discovered that one of them was accident damaged hence the further week and a half delay. Even I could have told them that it was knacked after the accident! Should it really take a week and a half to replace a fog light?!?!?! I can only guess that i'm not getting the full story!

By coincidence, 5 weeks to the day, i'm going back to the scene of the accident for a meeting with my work..... hope no OAP Corsa drivers are looking for a repeat performance!