Car crashed....Insurance question!

PNH80

PNH80

Low life livin' the high life.
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Alright folks... Hope you all had a lovely Xmas and New Year.

Unfortunately for me i did not...Due to the fact i had a little incident on black ice last week.
Seriously, never known black ice like it. Even with quattro there was ZERO traction whatsoever, the car just drifted with the camber of the road. :scared2:
Anyway, the result is a cracked bumper, dented wing and scratch in the door. Oh, and 4 fully curbed 19" BBS CK's (the insurance are recommending all 4 are fully replaced).

So my question : My insurance company has their own recognised accident repair place which they will be sending the car.

Can i not ask Audi to submit a quote to my insurers to do the work instead? Also, if Audi do the work, will that make a difference to the value of the car...or not?

If any of you have had experience with this in the past, your advice would be much appreciated!

Cheers fellas.

Paul.
 
I have known people insist that a certain garage does the work rather than the one the insurance wants. They go for the cheapest which isn't always the best.

I would try to get them to have it repaired by Audi.

Sorry to hear about the crash
 
In my experience, Audi don't necessarily do a better job. It just looks a LOT better when selling the car if any work has been done by the local Audi dealer.

I'll give them a call i think and push my luck. The insurance company will more than likely laugh at Audi's quote to do the work though!
 
You can definitely elect your own bodyshop. I did this when I needed a new rear bumper last year due to some clown not bothering to brake in time.

I used an independent bodyshop that I know well and trust completely. They quoted relatively high for the repair, and the insurance company was fine to go with them.

Lots of people will elect to have insurance work done by an Audi bodyshop, so unlikely they will be much more expensive than any insurance approved repairer.

Bumpers etc. aren't a big deal, but a lot of people will refuse to buy a car that has any evidence of paintwork on the metal. Rather than choose a bodyshop based on the logo on the invoice, you're better to choose one based on the quality of the work they turn out. You want the repair to be unnoticeable, and that is not the case in 95% of repairs.
 
Just to let you know Paul, sorry to hear about this, but they have been discontinued those CK's, would you sell the damaged ones? To me :icon_thumright:
 
N8 said:
Just to let you know Paul, sorry to hear about this, but they have been discontinued those CK's, would you sell the damaged ones? To me :icon_thumright:
Click to expand...

Have you thought about a job as one of them guys that asks relatives of dead folk if they can have their organs?
 
Well, here's the thing Nath.... I asked the insurance about selling them back to me and they were very dodgy about it. If they've written off the wheels, they're deemed unsafe and they send them off to be crushed.

I better get looking for a BBS alternative to the CK's then!
 
PNH80 said:
Well, here's the thing Nath.... I asked the insurance about selling them back to me and they were very dodgy about it. If they've written off the wheels, they're deemed unsafe and they send them off to be crushed.

I better get looking for a BBS alternative to the CK's then!
Click to expand...

Yeh....:sorry:
 
I would push the insurance company and go through Audi. I have found that they are actually much much better at repairing cars than any other bodyshop I have delt with. My S3 was hit in the front when it was about 3 months old. I spoke to the insurance company who advised me on their approved repairer. It was a company I'd had bad experiences of before, so said I wouldnt be happy taking my car there. They asked where I suggested and I said Audi. They were fine with that. I have since had other paintwork carried out by the Audi bodyshop which I paid for privately and found it to be of the same exceptional standards.

I know I can only speak of my own experiences and for reference the dealership is South Hereford Audi, but I would say that the dealerships are the way to go. You know you are guaranteed genuine parts and from my point of view, as the car is under warrantee it means that they are still completely responsible for any issues with the car.
 
minibazzer said:
I would push the insurance company and go through Audi. I have found that they are actually much much better at repairing cars than any other bodyshop I have delt with. My S3 was hit in the front when it was about 3 months old. I spoke to the insurance company who advised me on their approved repairer. It was a company I'd had bad experiences of before, so said I wouldnt be happy taking my car there. They asked where I suggested and I said Audi. They were fine with that. I have since had other paintwork carried out by the Audi bodyshop which I paid for privately and found it to be of the same exceptional standards.

I know I can only speak of my own experiences and for reference the dealership is South Hereford Audi, but I would say that the dealerships are the way to go. You know you are guaranteed genuine parts and from my point of view, as the car is under warrantee it means that they are still completely responsible for any issues with the car.
Click to expand...

Your experience of that one bodyshop may be good, but my experience of main dealer bodyshops generally couldn't be any further from that. I'd give some info about where you are in the country and get some recommendations by people that have used bodyshops in that area.

Any repair will be guaranteed by the insurance co, so no worries on that front. Any good bodyshop will use genuine parts as a rule, so no worries on that front either. Don't worry about resale, because it really is more important that there is no sign of repair work, than having an Audi invoice...
 
Remember that some AUDI bodyshops will subcontract work to `approved` independent when they get too busy.

I have a mate who used to work for AUDI and said that its surpising how many `brand new` cars go straight from the trailer to the bodyshop to repair transit damage.
So we cant always assume that because the car is a brand spanker it hasnt had paintwork.


Paul
 
Can't recommend AUDI as I've never had to use them for repairs/bodyshop work - thank god, but I've had work done by one of esure's "approved repairers" when someone caused £3K worth of damage to my C2 (which I sold for 3.2K 2 weeks later WTF) .

My thoughts, choose your own bodyshop. Got my car back, closed the door and the door handle came off in my hand - they'd glued it back together. They'd "detailed" my car and done a god awful job with wax residue covering all the exterior plastic - which was nice after I'd been meticulous for 18 mths with lambswool washmits etc. etc. . They also managed to crack one of my headlights and say that it was there before the accident. Not to mention all the extra road noise, rattles, unseen work etc.

Approved my ar$3 :banghead:.
 
I wouldnt take my car to Audi my dealers "bodyshop" is just an Audi approved place, its not owned by Audi at all but is approved. I think you will find that very few Audi dealers have their own "Audi trained" staff thats for sure. I took mine to a place I knew and forced the insurance company to pay up. :)

and i'm not sure about your concerns regarding selling it on, its not like you are going to tell a potential buyer that you trashed it surely? and make matters worse but showing them an expensive Audi stamped receipt!?
 
I wouldn't touch Audi with a barge pole!! They tried 3 times to correct their own (sub-standard) work but no joy. Have a hunt around and if you have used a bodyshop before try and get a quote from them and submit this to your insurance group. Good luck mate, its all hassle hassle hassle, but hopefully you get the result you are looking for.....
 
My last A3 got the bonnet and the nearside body keyed. nearly a full respray. The insurers wanted to use a ford garage and i was a little aprensive. However one week and a pea green Ford Ka later the car came back absolutely perfect with one of the best paint jobs i had seen.
 
The dealers arent always better as mentioned plus alot of insurance company's wont pay there labour rate, i work at a bodyshop our is about £40 where as Audis are normally around £80-85 and also you will only be normally to be provided with a courtesy car with there approved repairers,we have had cars in from various dealers where they have had that many attemps at putting there work correct and didnt so they come to us but this isnt all dealers of course,best thing to do is give them ago
 
leach76 said:
The dealers arent always better as mentioned plus alot of insurance company's wont pay there labour rate, i work at a bodyshop our is about £40 where as Audis are normally around £80-85 and also you will only be normally to be provided with a courtesy car with there approved repairers,we have had cars in from various dealers where they have had that many attemps at putting there work correct and didnt so they come to us but this isnt all dealers of course,best thing to do is give them ago
Click to expand...

Courtesy car wasn't an issue with me as it was a no fault accident - my courtesy CLK Cabrio was paid for by the muppet that hit me. However if I had wanted a courtesy car, the bodyshop would have provided one - but it would have been a Peugeot 107 or something, so the CLK seemed a better deal!
 
Would just tell the insurance co that its my car and i will be deciding where it will get repaired!!
 
seanick said:
Would just tell the insurance co that its my car and i will be deciding where it will get repaired!!
Click to expand...

Yeah but it's them paying the bill, so they do have some say in that!
 
they have no say however if you get it repaired in your own place i belive you can lose perks like a loan car and so on while yours is being repaired
 
Yup for sure Pete, been down this road with my wifes car and they told us that we could obtain other quotes if we wanted?
Which we did and qoutes obtained from our local body shop were cheaper!!
I was lead to believe at the time that current law states that you are free to choose your own repairer?But this may change in 2010 something to do with the EU!!??
 
seanick said:
Yup for sure Pete, been down this road with my wifes car and they told us that we could obtain other quotes if we wanted?
Which we did and qoutes obtained from our local body shop were cheaper!!
I was lead to believe at the time that current law states that you are free to choose your own repairer?But this may change in 2010 something to do with the EU!!??
Click to expand...

Exactly, you can indeed choose a repairer, but the insurance co still has to approve the quote. Mine quoted reasonably high, and the insurance co were still happy - plus I got my front spoiler painted FOC as part of the deal. Win win :)
 
Its amazing to hear other people's experiences of both Audi Dealers and also insurance companies. I must have stumbled on the best combination going because I havent come across any of the problems that others have. My dealership must be due the "Best Dealership" Award!! Right from day 1 when I walked into the showroom to look at the S3 their service has been second to none. I wanted to test drive a S3 but they didnt have one, so they bought one into stock. After I ordered my car, they kept me informed of the build progress every few weeks. Then when the car was due to arrive at the dealer, they allowed me to see it. I happened to turn up as it was being unloaded. The day that I collected the car I had the full red carpet treatment - champagne, bouquet of flowers, everything.

And then ever since everything about owning the S3 has been a total joy. The car has been repaired twice now by them and the repair is totally impeccable. A friend of mine also owns a bodyshop and does my classic car paintwork and has said that you could not beat the quality and finish. The insurance company that I have has also never questioned using the main dealer for the repairs. While my car has been in for repair I have always been given either equal or better cars - once an S3 - all paid for by the insurance company.

So all in all it would appear that my experience differs somewhat to others as far as insurance and main dealers are concerned!
 
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