MK4 Focus Titanium in Magnetic Grey (well the front 80% of the car is....)

 

Was rear ended whilst stationary in traffic about 9 weeks ago, and have just had my car returned "repaired".  

The gear stick locked in place just after the accident and I couldn't select 1st or 3rd gear.  A couple of miles later it locked in neutral and I couldn't get any gear.  I pulled over and moving it side to side with difficulty freed it up and all gears were then available.  It has been to a Ford authorised rapairer to look at the gears and they found no issue.  However, the gear stick now has a large front to back travel when in gear and when in neutral.  Is that normal?  I don't remember this pre-accident, but I'm not 100% certain.  There is a movement of about 1 inch back and forward when in each gear.

 

It is one of the worst repair jobs imaginable!  They took forever to source a new bumper (I confirmed that this was a lengthy procedure with my local Ford garage).  They had to fit 3 new rear cameras before they got that working.

My main issues are that they tried to repair the tailgate and it just doesn't look right, the inside lip of the tailgate hasn't even been attempted to be repaired.

The rear camera is loose
The boot floor is still a bit warped
The heatshield under the bumper is the accident damaged one, now held on by a couple of screws
They have damaged paintwork that wasn't near the accident damage area
The tailgate doesn't line up properly
on, and one small detail, the rear bumper and tailgate are THE WRONG COLOUR......

I did a video for the insurance company, shown some of the faults, others I found later

you can see the colour difference about 5 mins in.

https://youtu.be/5LyvA2YBrZc

 

Somethings never change 😧

I had the same problems back in 1988 with a Ford Orion that got rear ended. Took over 6 months to be 'repaired'. The car was less than six months old when the accident happened and like yours came back with things still broken, parts missing and a paint job from hell. It took an independent report from the RAC who listed 77 defects and about a dozen of them were serious, and a letter from my solicitor to both the garage and the insurance company before considerable further work was done. The car was never 100% right and I ended up selling it a few months later.

Reject the repair, complain to your insurance company that you are not happy.

They will arrange to get it sent back and snagged.

You really should go over everything before you sign and collect vehicle

The transmission should be investigated as this was obviously caused by the impact, all you have to do is tell the insurance that it was not like this before the accident

Repaired cars never are 100% right again.  Insurance are generally only bothered by the easily visible parts and anything safety critical.  Not sure if you got a choice but I'd always take the money or a new car rather than having a crashed one repaired myself.

I can't really think how a rear end impact could affect the gearbox/selector on a FWD car but that is the main safety issue here.  You don't say which gearbox it is but there's no slack in my Mk4 1.0EB gearbox.  It sounds like one of the selector cables has been stretched and should be an easy repair when found.

42 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

I can't really think how a rear end impact could affect the gearbox/selector on a FWD

Damage to a gearbox is fairly common for cars shunted from behind whilst in gear even if FWD. We had a Mondeo at work that was hit at about 30mph in the rear whilst it was moving forward at about 5mph in first gear. The gearbox was wrecked and had to be replaced.

36 minutes ago, unofix said:

Damage to a gearbox is fairly common for cars shunted from behind whilst in gear even if FWD. 

Fair point.  I had assumed 'stationary traffic' meant handbrake on, clutch up, out of gear, but reading the OP again, you could be right!

I have an update - it's going back to the garage for them to have another go.  I think they were just trying to get away with a cheap repair, and maybe in some cases they do.

It's been escallated to the complaints department at Admiral, so we'll see what that brings.  

The gear problem was just unlucky as we were just setting off, so the car was in 1st, clutch coming up when we were hit.  I thought it was either the gate under the gear stick or a linkage that had been stretched.

I didn't sign for the vehicle, the garage used a third party to return it on a low loader, but it was the middle of a thunderstorm, so I wouldn't have signed in any case. 

 

I suspect that we'll have to get an engineer's report and make a small claim to resolve this, but I guess time will tell

7 hours ago, Bainies said:

The gear problem was just unlucky as we were just setting off, so the car was in 1st, clutch coming up when we were hit. 

That would certainly be enough to cause damage to the gearbox.

UPDATE

Well, finally got my car back on Friday and they have done a good job this time.  

• The repaired tailgate has been replaced by a new one
• The correct paint has been used
• They have got rid of all the extra scratches they put into both sides of the car
• The mangled heatshield has been replaced
• The rear camera isn't loose
• the hatchback trim is installed correctly
• The Ford badge is installed straight and centered

I'm just glad it's over, and a little disappointed that they couldn't have just sorted it properly the first time.....