Doom & Gloom

[jsk]

Picked up new car 20 Jan 2023. Professional ceramic coating applied. Then yesterday 45 days later a gentleman decides to reverse his car into my nearside rear wheel arch and bumper while I was stationary. Another two seconds and it wouldn't have happened as I was in gear about to drive away. He admitted it was his fault and hopefully the insurance companies will see it that way and save me paying the excess. In for repair 29 this month and hopefully the ceramic guys will recoat the repair area for free as I am on good terms with them. In 60 years of motoring this is the first claim I have put in.

What a bummer!

 

[unofix]

Technically you were to blame.

Due to the high reflective surface of your paintwork the poor guy couldn't see 🤣

[isetta]

If it was me I would be wondering whether to (a)claim on my insurance and let my insurance company pursue him for recovery of their outlay.    Or.     (B) Just make the claim against him.     I expect opinions will vary. 

[Wino]

Providing you have proof of the Ceramic coating then I don't see why the insurers wouldn't stump up the cost to re coat the damaged panels. Just ensure that they know it needs doing.

[Ian Lanc]

4 hours ago, jsk said:

Professional ceramic coating applied.

When you take the car in do tell the garage about the coating, fresh paint might not stick to the surface! 🙄 My Son had his Seat coated and within a week a big brick flirted out a wheel from a passing lorry, he took the his car in to be fixed, a day later he gets a phone car from the body shop about their troubles that the paint was not sticking, he told them about the coating and they said that's the cause, body shop had to go deeper with the wet flatting and really rubbing down the area with thinners to get a good key for the paint to adhere.

[Jim H]

I'm sorry to hear about damage to your car, I hope all persons involved are OK.

I have always wondered about if you should inform your car insurance company if/when you have had a ceramic coating (professionally) applied to the car. It doesn't effect the performance or appearance of the car at all, it just keeps it looking clean for longer, like a good wax/sealant. However, I think you should inform the paint/body repair shop, as said in post above as the coating is extremely hard and can only be removed by aggressive abrasion. They may need to blend paint into undamaged panels of the car and the coating may prevent them doing this.

[StephenFord]

On 3/7/2023 at 3:27 PM, jsk said:

...He admitted it was his fault and hopefully the insurance companies will see it that way and save me paying the excess. ...

4 years ago I was in a shopping center car park, in car waiting for her indoors to return. A woman then clipped my car reversing into the adjacent space. Amazingly, MY insurance company who received the claim persuaded me to admit 50/50 liability for expediency. One of the worst decisions I have made. Every year on insurance renewal, that incident crops up on my record, I believe this year, year 5, it will be expunged.

Just advising that if an incident was not your fault, NEVER let anyone talk you into admittinting it was, 

[jsk]

Checked with the repairers this morning before reading all the above coments and asked about the ceramic coating and they will reapply it to the damaged area. All they require is proof of application for which I have still got the paperwork for it being done. Will also stick a note along with it to make sure they know about the coating before they start. Stephen thanks for the advice but there is no way I will give in to agreeing it was equally my fault.

Thanks again for all your advice. As I said in my original post, my first ever claim and it has been a bit stressful. Calming down a bit now.

[martinf64]

Sorry to hear such bad news John.  I had a similar incident a few months after getting my previous MK8, was my fault...an argument with a bin lorry which I lost 😇 Gutted at the time but soon got sorted.

Then there was the biker who decided to park his motorcycle on the bonnet of the car whilst it was parked off the road in the works car park...missed the Merc parked right next to me typically. He managed to dismount his bike after hitting another car leaving the bike to travel on its merry way and make a bee-line to my car across the front of the car park. Was stressful sorting that one out but got it done eventually.

Just wondering...can they apply the ceramic coating directly after a re-spray?

[Tiexen]

13 hours ago, StephenFord said:

4 years ago I was in a shopping center car park, in car waiting for her indoors to return. A woman then clipped my car reversing into the adjacent space. Amazingly, MY insurance company who received the claim persuaded me to admit 50/50 liability for expediency. One of the worst decisions I have made. Every year on insurance renewal, that incident crops up on my record, I believe this year, year 5, it will be expunged.

Just advising that if an incident was not your fault, NEVER let anyone talk you into admittinting it was, 

Won't matter even a no-fault claim where you don't pay a penny and don't lose your no claims it will still be recorded as a claim for the next 5 years

[Wino]

11 hours ago, martinf64 said:

Sorry to hear such bad news John.  I had a similar incident a few months after getting my previous MK8, was my fault...an argument with a bin lorry which I lost 😇 Gutted at the time but soon got sorted.

Then there was the biker who decided to park his motorcycle on the bonnet of the car whilst it was parked off the road in the works car park...missed the Merc parked right next to me typically. He managed to dismount his bike after hitting another car leaving the bike to travel on its merry way and make a bee-line to my car across the front of the car park. Was stressful sorting that one out but got it done eventually.

Just wondering...can they apply the ceramic coating directly after a re-spray?

Feight, feight.....gloves are ovv in car park 😆

[StephenFord]

10 hours ago, Tiexen said:

Won't matter even a no-fault claim where you don't pay a penny and don't lose your no claims it will still be recorded as a claim for the next 5 years

I genuinely did not know that, it's the 1st claim I've been involved in over 40 years!

[TomsFocus]

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

I genuinely did not know that, it's the 1st claim I've been involved in over 40 years!

It does depend on insurer.  The claim will always be logged for 5 years but they don't all increase the premium because of it.

I'd say it's generally best not to tell the insurance companies for minor bumps.  (Assuming no injuries or property damage).  Just settle privately as long as the other person is amenable.

[jsk]

17 hours ago, martinf64 said:

Sorry to hear such bad news John.  I had a similar incident a few months after getting my previous MK8, was my fault...an argument with a bin lorry which I lost 😇 Gutted at the time but soon got sorted.

Then there was the biker who decided to park his motorcycle on the bonnet of the car whilst it was parked off the road in the works car park...missed the Merc parked right next to me typically. He managed to dismount his bike after hitting another car leaving the bike to travel on its merry way and make a bee-line to my car across the front of the car park. Was stressful sorting that one out but got it done eventually.

Just wondering...can they apply the ceramic coating directly after a re-spray?

Another case of Sods Law Martin. Of all the cars it could hit it had to be yours.

[unofix]

1 hour ago, jsk said:

Of all the cars it could hit it had to be yours.

It could have been a lot worse. It might have been mine 🤣

[martinf64]

On 3/9/2023 at 2:01 PM, jsk said:

Another case of Sods Law Martin. Of all the cars it could hit it had to be yours.

Yes it seemed that way. What made it slightly more stressful was the fact I was waiting for the new car to be built...in fact if it had been built when it should have it would have been the new car with a bike stuck to its bonnet, so not so unlucky then. So Ford actually came through by giving me a 14 month wait for the new one 🤣

On 3/9/2023 at 4:02 PM, unofix said:

It could have been a lot worse. It might have been mine 🤣

A good result there then 🤪

[jsk]

So the doom is just about over, car repaired and due to be delivered back to me on Monday.

Gloom still there as insurance companies decided it was a 50/50 even though my dashcam shows I had finished reversing and had stared to drive off when I was hit. Being a dashcam and not showing his car hitting me as it was my rear wheel arch that got hit they decided my evidence was not conclusive enough.

As an aside the hire car I was given well mine was repaired was a two rear old Corsa. What a heap of crap. The clutch pedal travelled nearly all the way out before it bit and the handbrake was almost veritcle before it was fully on. Changing gear also made the whole car rock as if the gearbox mountings were shot.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

21 minutes ago, jsk said:

Gloom still there as insurance companies decided it was a 50/50 even though my dashcam shows I had finished reversing and had stared to drive off when I was hit. Being a dashcam and not showing his car hitting me as it was my rear wheel arch that got hit they decided my evidence was not conclusive enough.

What a bummer. Clearly we all need to have a surveillance drone hovering over our cars at all times and even then the insurers will try and wriggle out of it.

Glad you got the repair sorted though.

[TrevorB]

Hi John (jsk), sorry to hear of your experience, so many of these insurance claims are an absolute pain in the neck.

They have no care even for their own clients, who are invariably left with loss of NCB and extra costs for 5 future years. Even if your own company doesn't reduce your NCB you cannot move to another company as when moving other companies ask you "have you been involved in any incident or accident in last 5 years", legally you have to say "yes" to that question which means you get far less NCB by moving to another company. I have experienced this as I am still involved with a scam claim from last Sept, my ins co have not reduced my max ncb but the incident is recorded on my ins records - the other ins co, Arriva have paid the scammers claim, £2500.00 and tried to claim the cost off my own insurer. The scammers cannot provide any evidence that I caused their damage but my insurers won't retract/remove the claim. My insurers state they cannot cancel the incident recorded on my policy until Arriva themselves withdraw the claim, and, they have up to 6 years before my insurers can remove the claim!!!! My insurers even came out to inspect my bumper and confirmed it was as new and had never had any paint repair!!!

John, as I see in your 1st post you state you were stationary why has your insurer said it has to be 50/50 - that can't be fair

[Tizer]

One of the problems might be that a lot of Car Insurance companies own more than one Insurer, so both policies even if they were with different companies might be ultimately the same company, so we are being scammed to a certain extent in cases like this.

I remember when Direct Line started out their claim to fame was that  they did not do knock for Knock claims. Fast forward and they now own lots of other Insurance Companies.

This article makes Interesting reading.   https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/blog/2007/08/who-owns-your-insurer.html

[StephenFord]

5 minutes ago, Tizer said:

This article makes Interesting reading.   https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/blog/2007/08/who-owns-your-insurer.html

Dan would be proud of you! 

[jsk]

Got the car back this morning. Must say the body shop has done a brilliant job repairing, colour matching and ceramic coating the damage. Feeling a little better now.

Thanks for all your concerns.

[TrevorB]

Good job then. But as I said in my last post why 50/50, that means you have to declare the incident/accident for the next 5 years to any company you move to, thus your quote will be much higher than having a clean record

[Wino]

Oddly this year, when we changed the insurance for the Noddy car from Aviva to RAC it's the first time any insurer has informed us that we failed to inform them of our non fault claim almost 5 yrs ago when our previous Focus was damaged by a runaway vehicle whilst our car was parked on the driveway behind closed gates. 

When the incident took place we was insured by Hastings then to LV for 2 yrs then Aviva which brings us to the latest change to RAC but only for the Noddy car.

We never disclosed the non fault but it's quite odd that during this 5 yr period that no other insurer has mentioned it.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

20 minutes ago, Wino said:

We never disclosed the non fault but it's quite odd that during this 5 yr period that no other insurer has mentioned it.

They do seem to have different practices and threads like this are helpful in that respect.

One of the "benefits" of taking a speed awareness course versus points is that almost all insurers don't ask about them. If they do ask, you have to answer honestly of course as part of the "utmost good faith" principle.

The only one I've heard of asking is Admiral, mentioned by a lady on the course I was on 5 years ago.