Victim of bad driving

[RxBX]

Oh dear Philip

But look on the bright side at least the main impact area was mid point of the door rather than say the 'A' or 'B' pillar area of the car then you never know what fate that could of had in store for your beloved

[Tim Leech]

A lot of that will push out Phil, I would wip the door panel off, stick the new mirror on and give it a good push so you can use the window etc.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DOOR-SKIN-CITROEN ... 2550c15946

[citronut]

as others have said if it goes through the insurance, you must make it qite clear you are going to retain the salvage writghts,

also if they do declare it cat C thats not to much to worry about, ther last time i got a VIC test done it was 36 quid, and all it is is to check it is the same car as pre accident,

the only problem there are only a few VIC check/test centres in the country,

the two i know of are Micham and Guildford, as they are the nearest to me in East Sussex

regards malcolm

[kermit the frog]

Hi Phil
I got your e mail and i have looked at the pictures on here and as tim say's most of it will push out and may even be repairable.
At least you don't have to worry about side impact bars and thing's
Also as you know the Green Hornets rear door was worse than your drivers door and most of that popped out.
Let's see what the weather does and maybe i could pop up and sort it out won't take long i have got a big hammer (only joking)

Regards Kermit/Phil

[Philip Chidlow]

Thanks for the offer, Phil I may well take you up on it!

[Tim Leech]

My old white 19TRS that you had was very dented when I got it, the doors especially, joking apart, a rubber mallet got most of the big dents out and it was much better so worth a try.

[RxBX]

a rubber mallet got most of the big dents out and it was much better so worth a try.

Tim that's doing it the hard way !

Surely your friendly works body-shop man would have helped with one of those large rubber suction panel puller's and would save all the hassle of taking the door card off !

Philip,
Just so you can get the use of the window again whilst you source a decent door from somewhere and when the weather picks up !

Do you know of a local friendly body shop who may have one of these suction pullers and ask if you could use it for 5 minutes whilst you get a paint/job quote for the Muppet's insurers who did this to your car ?

As 3 to 4 minutes with one I could pull most of that out for you to make it not so horrible looking !

I only used mine a few weeks ago to pull out quite a nasty deep dent in a friends motorcycle tank without even cracking the paint-work and I was quite amazed my self how good the end result was, needless to say that my friend was in total amazement

[Stinkwheel]

Vanny wrote.....

Surely someone elses insurance company can't decide to scrap your car? Whats the bloody point in having insurance if your car just gets written off if someone in a suite and a BMW decides your car is worth less than a grand and scraps it?

Simple fact is this..........

He hit your car, its not your fault and your not making a claim, he is.

You 'insist' that the car be repaired. His insurance cannot write off your car. Even if you have to go the used parts route you can insist your car is returned to pre accident condition as it was nothing to do with you and they have a legal responsibility.

A friend of mine had her Polo hit like this and we thought the same, too low a value but they are obliged to make your car 'as was' i believe.

[cavmad]

as others have said if it goes through the insurance, you must make it qite clear you are going to retain the salvage writghts,

also if they do declare it cat C thats not to much to worry about, ther last time i got a VIC test done it was 36 quid, and all it is is to check it is the same car as pre accident,

the only problem there are only a few VIC check/test centres in the country,

the two i know of are Micham and Guildford, as they are the nearest to me in East Sussex

regards malcolm

News to me mate, I thought there was loads of places, usually HGV MOT centres or approved MOT stations?

[docchevron]

Any VOSA site will do a VIC test.

[Philip Chidlow]

Well, I spoke to the company involved and they asked me to obtain a quote for the repair. My trusted local bodyshop (currently VERY busy thanks to the recent conditions) gave a realistic, in my mind, appraisal pointing out that the repaint would need to extend beyond the door itself - and so on. The estimate will be a little inflated as a contingency, and including the replacement door and mirror, and using my door's glass this should still fall below 60% of the valuation I have requested from the CCC.

[Linegeist]

Simple fact is this..........

He hit your car, its not your fault and your not making a claim, he is.

You 'insist' that the car be repaired. His insurance cannot write off your car. Even if you have to go the used parts route you can insist your car is returned to pre accident condition as it was nothing to do with you and they have a legal responsibility.

A friend of mine had her Polo hit like this and we thought the same, too low a value but they are obliged to make your car 'as was' i believe.

This information is correct. Property laws in the UK are actually quite robust, and that's something UK insurance companies do not want you to start taking on board, because it could cost them a lot of money and make them a lot of extra work.

At the end of the day, you are legally entitled to be returned to a 'pre accident condition', with no losses. In other words, as if the accident never happened. If you car is totally mashed beyond recognition, then you can demand they source another in the same condition (or enable you to do so). You're even entitled to compensation for inconvenience. It's just something that, in our society, isn't advertised.

The remedies are all there for you however and, if a driver's insurance company refuses to put right their client's mistake, or treat you reasonably and fairly, then simply take him to the small claims court who will find in your favour every time - as long as you have done your best to mitigate your losses.

This route can take a long time however - my last tussle with insurers was over a restored Rover P6 that got totalled. It took me 18 months to get what I wanted. In the event, starting from a derisory write off offer of £700, I bought a replacement myself for £2800 and forced them to reimburse me plus loss of interest. It was uphill, it was a pain, they lied repeatedly about their duties, but the law was on my side.

Sorry for the rant.

[Linegeist]

Double post again .........

[Philip Chidlow]

Thanks for the advice. I'll let you know how I get on.