Gutted

[Umar]

My cruiser has only been on the road 2 months or so and the suspension is only a month old. I park my car in a quiet location 5 mins from work and today at lunchtime I had to see this, some complete cun#ts in a hire car drove straight through a 7ft gate and into my car. The bumper wing and suspension is damaged as the track rod end has snapped, I'm so gutted that I cannot explain. The hire car is insured but I don't think they will repair the truck it took me bloody ages to find a 3dr in black.

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[Shayne]

I can't imagine how gutted you must feel i'm sure your still in shock . Its your vehicle and nobody including insurance companies can do anything to it without your permission , so if you want it fixed and they don't its a stalemate which inconveniences you by not having a vehicle but costs them continuously as they will have to pay storage charges until the matter is settled . It can be fixed so demand it is .

 

[Sag]

And you can demand a like for like hire motor,my brother had similar problem and had a brand new disco for 3 month until it was sorted,he ended up getting paid out for the motor and was able to keep the motor so just got it fixed.hope all goes well buddy.

 

[chadr]

Gutted indeed but hey ho look on the bright side, at least no one was hurt presumably?

You should be able to get it fixed - just make sure the insurance don't pull the wool over your eyes and take the truck off you as a write-off!

These trucks are pretty hardy vehicles and we all seen what happened to Chas' 80

ADD: Interesting to see that the hire car's airbags weren't activated - at least the driver's one looks intact.

 

[silvercruiser]

I hope you manage to get it repaired.

 

[StarCruiser]

Sorry to hear/see that Umar. Unbelievable, but remember, everything's negotiable!! Fight your corner (if you need to). It's at times like these you see just how good your insurers are.

Good luck with it.

 

[Umar]

No one was hurt as the driver ran off and I was sat at my desk until a work colleague who knew my car told me. The airbags in the Astra didn't deploy but they hit the gate with some force as it was stil up in the air when I got there. The astra is owned by enterprise and the copper reckons either it was hired and someone else was driving it or it was hired on a dodgy name. I had a feeling though that he was chasing them but he never told me he was I mean you don't just drive through a steel gate for fun do you.

 

[Shayne]

The only problem i can see you running into Umar is with yours being a high miler but just stick to your guns and send them stuff like this http://blog.toyota.co.uk/one-mans-17-year-410000-mile-toyota-land-cruiser-odyssey . Be blunt right from the start you want a replacement BLACK kzj90 or your truck fixed and nothing else will do , hopefully they will then recognize very early on that fixing your truck will likely prove cheaper than procrastinating .

Just thought i have only ever seen 4 black shorties , you own 1 of them and i own 2 , the other is still out there somewhere and must have about 60k on the clock by now

 

[Beau]

I know how you feel dude. I went through that with my cruiser a year ago, and it was when I had the front end exactly where I wanted it.

Judging by the damage you've mentioned, it could be very possible the insurance company will want to write the car off and probably declare it either a CAT C/D. To give you a idea on pricing, my insurance company gave me 2700 pounds for mine with 190,000 miles on the clock and declared it a CAT C. I could have fought them for more but I was too busy and just wanted the car on the road. Hopefully they'll consider repairing the truck though! Best of luck with it all.

 

[froggy Steve]

Gutted indeed but hey ho look on the bright side, at least no one was hurt presumably?

You should be able to get it fixed - just make sure the insurance don't pull the wool over your eyes and take the truck off you as a write-off!

These trucks are pretty hardy vehicles and we all seen what happened to Chas' 80

ADD: Interesting to see that the hire car's airbags weren't activated - at least the driver's one looks intact.

and see what wifey did to ours ! (it had to happen thread) Pretty sure they will repair it.

 

[Umar]

Update

I've not had any verbal contact with the insurance company since informing them of the incident, they sent me a polite txt to inform me the car is beyond economical repair and offered £2k minus £300 excess to leave me with £1700 and requested my bank details and the v5 so the salvage people could collect the vehicle. A bit pissed off like I called them up explaining that in 18 years of driving this is the first time someone has actually hit my car and I have had to involve the insurer I have no idea if I am claiming off my own insurance or if the 3rd party have admitted liability hence the offer of payment. My insurer has confirmed that the 3rd party has not responded yet and this is a claim against my own insurance my response was that as I was not in the car or even driving fault is not at question here rather than making a claim against my own insurance I would have been better off repairing the car out of my own money. Seems like them willing to repair it is out of the question, I've told them that I don't want to proceed with the claim unless the other party admit liability. Now even if I accept settlement as a total loss my car will end up as a cat c or d which I don't really want cat c from what I know you have to get a Vic test done cat d does not need a Vic test but a marker is placed against the v5.

Would I be able to seek maybe a partial payment of the repair and for them not to write the car off? In all honesty if I got a few hundred quid to cover some of the parts and save the car being written off I would rather prefer that.

I've told them total loss or not I'm keeping the car, they told me that they will deduct the salvage value which from my experience will be a couple hundred quid.

 

[Shayne]

Do you have somewhere to keep the car at home ? I would DEMAND the car is returned to me until the hire car company has agreed to repair or replace it with a like for like vehicle .

A similar thing happened to Helen's Rover about a month after Rover went bust killing the market value of the car overnight . Insurance wanted to scrap it and pay her pittance so i fought them for about a year and eventually agreed to let them scrap the car because they trebled the original offer . A few months later police phoned Helen because they had caught someone driving her car in London ?!?

 

[Umar]

I've got plenty of parking at home and would rather it be at home, could I start the repair work or would I need to wait? My insurance said somthing along the lines of 'oh we are not sure if we could recover the car back to you as usually the salvage people would take it from the garage' they are gong to come back to me to confirm but I may end up having to get it recovered back. If fault is not at question could the recovery be charged to the other side?

 

[Shayne]

Repeat after me "it is my car and it will be fixed full stop" and be prepared to repeat it to your insurance company every day for a year , if they so much as attempt to discuss anything else hang up the phone .

 

[Julian T]

I had a similar issue with my insurer, they wanted to scrap my car and pay me out less than would purchase the same vehicle, or let me keep it for less and I would repair it, it would then be a cat c, I refused their currency, did not send them my V5 and repaired the vehicle for less than what they informed me it would cost to repair, why should my vehicle be a insurance write off just so they can make a profit and I then have to pay increased premiums?

In my opinion car insurance is a rip off because it is required by law for your motor vehicle to be legal for use on a public road, they win either way because it is a captive market.

Perhaps I am biased because the country I started driving in did not have a law that you had to be insured to use a motor vehicle on a public road.

My advice to you is to stick by your guns, insist on a like for like replacement, not cash, or a full repair to a satisfactory standard, the accident was not your fault, the vehicle was behind closed gates on property not accessible to the public, and so on, do not make life easy for the bastards, they are not making it easy for you and are attempting to take the easy route, they will try to wear you down until you accept their deal that they want to make because it suits them, you did not insure the car so that it could be scrapped in the event of an accident did you?

 

[clivehorridge]

My advice is to get a lawyer and send to enterprise a solicitors letter. As a hire company they must be covered by an all risks policy irrespective of whether their car had been stolen. They need to be dealt with quickly and tough, you'll get nowhere if you leave it to them to sort out. This is a criminal damage case by the sound of it and you should pursue it with legal advice. JMHO

 

[Shayne]

I always select the legal cover box when renewing insurance , more to protect me from the laziness of my own insurance company than for any other reason . Insurers don't have lawyers on the payroll so if you do have legal cover Umar ask to be put in touch with the legal department . That's outsourced and all of a sudden arguing with you from an insurers point of view is likely to cost much more than making you happy .

 

[Umar]

Well no news so far and unfortunately I don't have legal cover. I work for a firm of solicitors anyway so I will see if anyone can assist.

 

[clivehorridge]

A nice personal criminal damage law suit on the CEO of enterprise might do the trick...

 

[Rarf]

A nice personal criminal damage law suit on the CEO of enterprise might do the trick...