Urgent help required, please :(

[yani2k8]

Hi there

I accidentally scraped some guys car on a dual carriageway the other night as he was in my blind spot and I was moving from the right lane into the left where he was.

I'm a 20 years old student, insured with my dad as a first driver, and you can imagine that if I went through my insurance company, my premium would probably quadruple. So I asked the man if it was ok for me to cover the costs without involving insurance companies and he agreed.

But the thing is, his car is 2010 mazda and he claims the paint has a 10 year warranty so he wants to have it repaired at an authorised Mazda shop to retain the warranty. I imagine they would charge a really high price for this compared to normal body shops. Please see the photos of the damage.

Can anyone advice how much this will cost to repair roughly. Also do you think there is any way of me convincing him to do it in a normal body shop, as opposed to going to Mazda? We're located in Surrey if that helps..

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks!

 

[jojo]

Expect £600+ at a dealership.

Unfortunately, you went into him, admitted liability etc. He wants his warranty on his paint, if you went through insurance, he could still request the work be done at a Mazda dealership.

Weigh up the pros and cons, making a claim could lead to higher insurance premiums for a number of years, and don't forget to factor the repair on your own car!

 

[sidibear]

I would expect that repair to be a lot more than £600, I have a smaller area than that on mine to be done and its over £1300. If you had hit my car, I would take it to an approved Audi bodyshop whether you went through the insurance or not.

If I was you I would ask him to get a quote and then take it through your insurance, as its going to be a lot more than you think its going to be.

Mark it down to experience, and get used to not trusting your mirrors, always look over your shoulder too.

 

[wolfie138]

"So I asked the man if it was ok for me to cover the costs without involving insurance companies and he agreed."
you're supposed to notify them of any and all collisions, if you say next time you haven't had any they can class that as fraud.

 

[jdp1962]

I'm a 20 years old student, insured with my dad as a first driver,

I do hope you're not "fronting".

 

[_G_]

He could easily go away and damage it again himself or claim for other miscellaneous damage. If he is going to repair through Mazda then the cost would probably exceed your excess and premium increase. I had an accident when I was 20. I weighed it up. Either pay £200 excess and have a premium increase of £170 that year or pay for her bumper, she quoted £180. She had it checked out by a garage and they claimed that all sorts of internals had been damaged by the "scrape." The bill came to £180 (exc VAT) for the paint repair alone, then there were other costs such as labour, VAT and the misc. internal bracing / inspection of internals / underside. This guy can walk away... have a crash... pin it on you. He can claim for damage from 6 years ago or something. If you have a private settlement there is no guarantee that he will not have it repaired by your wallet and then go via insurance again for future damage. Go through your insurance and be safer. I learned the hard way. This is my advice but weigh up all the other opinions here too.

 

[rebecca1]

I imagine they would charge a really high price for this compared to normal body shops.

 

[ShaunS3]

Being an engineer/assessor myself, i would advise to go through your insurance with this one as the repair costs are not going to be cheap, especially if in a Mazda dealership. Generally speaking, dealer bodyshop rates are usually around £40.00 per hour where as an independent garage may be closer to £25/£30 per hour, so there's a big jump in just labour rates to start with.

With regards to the 10 year paint warranty, i can understand why he want's to use a main dealer for the repairs. However, there are many independent accident repair centres across the uk that will be Mazda approved and won't void the paint warranty. I know from experience that a majority of main dealers don't actually have their own bodyshops onsite and usually have a local outsource bodyshop they use for bodywork. Therefore, the chances are it will be going to an independent Mazda approved bodyshop anyway and him wanting to go through the dealer is almost irrelevant.

As an engineer/assessor for an acc. man company, we engineer repair estimates to a fair and reasonable cost, to ensure nobody is being ripped off. We assess repairs fairly whether a TP is at fault or not, we have to match everything up with the accident circumstances and damage areas reported. If we feel that some damage on the vehicle is unrelated and isn't consistent with the accident that has been reported, it is removed from the claim/repairs. Insurers are a similar operation, although an insurers aim is more to drive down costs to a minimum and reduce the financial impact through an accident claim.

Lastly, we have a network of approved repairers that adhere to strict contractual terms and british kitemarks to ensure quality of repairs are up to a high standard. Insurers will also have their own approved network of repairers and will most likely advise the driver to use one of their approved bodyshops as aposed to the main dealer, it may even be in the small print of his policy that an approved network repairer is to be used or and additional excess may have to be paid.

Long story short - Go through your insurer as the costs will be monitored and disputed if they seem excessive or whether they are trying to claim for unrelated damages. Your insurer will do the best they can to ensure costs are minimal, that is their best interest. We get queries from TP insurers daily querying repair costs/damage areas, leave it to the professionals.

 

[Mike_B]

What he said - it'll be far easier in the long run. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but put yourself in the other guys shoes - - would you want to have your pride and joy repaired on the cheap just because the guy who damaged it was a cheap skate? It's only bodywork - it could have been far, far worse - it could have been a biker in your "blind spot".

Mike.