General Chat

Went to pick my step grandson up on sat 17 th Oct

Parking was restricted near her house so parked up the road a bit

Coming back to the car later to load up and leave I found the car had been hit

A neighbour came out and said is that your car ,we didn’t know who it belonged to but we heard the bang and saw a white van hit it and run down the side of it and drive off

So driver side rear lights smashed . Back quarter panel pinged off and rear panel dented in , also driver side mirror hanging off

Son in law took the mirror off as it was flapping and he secured the panel with a tie so I could drive home

Awful drive on the m20 with no driver mirror so was slow lane all the way

Reversing into a 1960 size garage too was an OMG don’t do more damage

The car is 11 years old but in very good condition with under 26000 miles on the clock but it’s not worth putting through the insurance as they would just make it a write off

SIL is getting me the new lights and mirror and it’s now booked in for repair but still going to cost me £1000 plus vat . Repair will take 4 days

I am so lost with no transport , have had to cancel several appointments cos I need the car to get to them


I am so I could smack the hit and run driver :-(

So maddening when the guilty one just drives away, but the main thing is that you and everyone else are not hurt.

Are you sure about insurance?
Daughter's car was very badly damaged last year by something off another vehicle falling on it. We thought it would have to be written off, but when the garage inspected underneath, they could replace the damaged part, as it was just one area.

Yes is too damaged to attempt to claim

I did enquire

Even if they did pay out then even though I have no claim protection it’s more than likely they will put next years premium up or not offer insurance

My age is against me I’ll afraid

It’s only my driving history that I got insurance

Doing a look around two years ago the quotes were sky high because of my age

That's awful, such a shame, luckily you were not in the car at the time.

I had a similar thing last year, although I was the perpetrator. I was driving our large car, which I don't do that often, and nipped into a parking space at a large shopping mall as if I was driving the Fiat 500! Unfortunately I damaged a parked car (as well as my own). I was mortified and, after an unsuccessful attempt to tannoy the owner in the mall, I left a note on her windscreen. It was all sorted, yes she was a bit annoyed but she did say 'thanks for being honest'! Paying the price now on my insurance, as it's pushed everything up for this year :-(

But you did the right thing Sheila

The perpetrator who drove into mine was a coward and drove off

I need the car to get around.even though I am self isolating I have been venturing out for chiro and massage appointments and hair which was so needed

I have hair appointment next Wednesday so will have to get a taxi and hopefully weather permitting a slow walk home

I can’t walk very far without sitting down so am a bit concerned if I can walk home

Shirley, sounds like it was a delivery driver, keep hearing about them driving off after knocks, pity there is not CCTV in the area so that you could have the license number. Trouble is they have to deliver so many parcels that they are driving and manoeuvering fast to keep up.

Costing me over a grand though as well as parts

Fortunately son in law is very up in engines etc and knows what to do and how to change parts

He is a lorry driver but also does rally driving so knows engines

He has sourced out the lights and mirror and is going to bring them to me on Sunday and install the mirror

I hope it's soon sorted for you Shirley.

Insurance can be expensive, if they think there is a bigger risk.
We have the same problem regarding home insurance. According to a government website, we are technically in danger of flooding here. Some companies won't even contemplate taking on people in our postcode even though there has never been a flood here.

My Smart was side-swiped the other day, £600 odd!

I thought it was vandalism again. Somebody down the road had been sounding off at one time about where it was parked being dangerous to the children (one of whom is her grandchild) going to school, which it is not. Two wheels are on our very wide pavement, especially wide to accommodate the telegraph pole which the children can now not walk in to.

Soon after that, the two outer tyres were slashed so I assumed she or one of her tribe had been round again. It was not, it must have been two large vehicles passing.

Bee annoying isn’t sharron

Especially when we have to pick up the bill

I am absolutely lost without my own transport ,have had to cancel appointments cos I can’t get there

Have a hair appointment on wed and will have to get a taxi, just hope it won’t be wet for me trying to take a slow walk home

You don't postpone hairdressers appointments either do you?

Absolutely not!

I had to wait so long to get the locks done and have only had one appointment since they reopened 5 weeks ago

The grey roots are showing and it needs its cut and colour

Sorry to hear you’ve had a prang Shirley. Are you sure the insurance company wouldn’t sort the repairs for you? We had a lot of damage to our car a while ago when OH was parked while he was in the doctor’s surgery. He came out to find the whole of one side in quite a state. Our insurance arranged for the car to be collected, repaired and returned to us and for us to have a hire car for the few days the repairs took. All we had to pay was for an extra insurance on the hire car because of OH’s age. I think it was about £50. At renewal time our premium didn’t go up very much at all.

Dash cams don't work when the ignition is off and you still have an inside mirror.

It’s an old car Vera as far as the insurance is concerned even though it’s in very good condition with under 26000miles on the clock

They calculate the repair cost in percentage of the book value so am told they would write it off

Sharron, some makes of dashcam do record when parked


https://tinyurl.com/y2gbo9xa

Whilst the link is to a newspaper article it is still applicable.

Our daughter bought a dashcam last Christmas for OH and I think that it has this feature. I will definitely be checking after seeing this thread.

Obviously the camera must still be connected

I thought ours did but I didn't go and buy it. We put it in after the tyres were slashed.

I’m glad you got back alright Shirley and nobody was hurt.

Our 09 plate Mazda RX8 known as Rexi was side swiped when it was parked on the road. Rexi was hit on the side against the kerb though so we suspect due to the height of the scratch a child on a bike.

We’re lucky though as one of Mr Owls best men is giving us a free paint job as a belated 1st anniversary present.

The best man has his own light haulage firm. Some of the drivers were doing so much damage to the vans it was cheaper for him to open his own body shop and pay a couple of mechanics than to keep paying for the vans to be fixed elsewhere.

Mr Owls company car though was a Golf. Someone miss judged when exiting a T junction and hit Mr Owls car front passenger side on. Mr Owl ended up in a field but unhurt the car however though we suspect will be declared as a write off as the insurance company still haven’t said yes to the repairs yet. :-(

Glad you got home okay, Shirley.

An Ocado van caught the offside rear of our daughter's A150 Merc when delivering to us.

Ocado arranged to have it repaired but we had to have a courtesy car while it was done which meant including OH on the insurance for the loan car since she is a only a named driver on our daughter's insurance.

Our insurance company (Eli-something) decided that they could charge £34 for the extension plus a £25 administration fee. After a load of emails we got that waived plus £25 compensation for our trouble.

Throughout Ocado were great and paid the repair cost direct and courtesy car fee without argument but we were less impressed with the insurance company since as Ocado had sorted everything they had not had to pay out anything.