Rear ended.

[seanbeckerleg]

Hi guys!

Unfortunately today I was rear ended.
Damage doesn't look so bad.... although it does look as if the entire rear bumper will need replacing.
I am a little worried about what may lie beneath as the it' was quite a hard hit..... but the damage was still minimal and the feel of the impact certainly didn't match up to what I first saw when I got out to check the damage..... I was expecting something far far worse.
Totally his fault and will be going through his insurance.... but he's with LV and they have their recommnded garage, which of course they have a contract with. But as they aren' Audi approved I kindly declined..... they then rolled off a few other garages that are Audi approved but I'm not convinced I want to trust my car with any of these guys.
They have said I am within my rights to chose my own garage as long as it is Audi approved, trouble is, I haven' a clue who to entrust to do the work properly.
Can anyone in the buckinghameshire/Berkshire area recommend a place?
Totally Gutted! I fear It won't look as it did prior to the hit.

 

[Schizophonic]

sorry to hear this, i'm not from the area but take any advise with a pinch of salt when being 'recommended' a garage.

Do your research, try to find reviews, facebook, yell, tradesman and etc. Remember if you are not satisfied with the work you can always go back to tell them the defects of what you can see. I'm happy to be corrected but being 'approved Audi' garage these days dont mean **** as I bet you can just slap a tag. Good luck.

 

[Behind The Bins]

Diasater, hopefully just bumper, so should be easy fix, new painted bumper and all good. I dont see why you cant choose whatever repair place you want, research and insist on this

 

[Tom.H]

@seanbeckerleg have a look on here http://www.vwgroup-paintandbody.co.uk/googleCentreLocator.asp

Also, it shouldn't matter if they're Audi approved or not, you should be able to choose whoever you like. I had some people use some right dodgy looking/sounding garages when I was in the job and there was no issues with the insurance company paying, even when the backstreet outfit wanted £60 p/h (for comparison VW/BMW/Mercedes were usually £45 p/h for bodywork)

 

[RichardT]

Don't really understand why you are talking to his insurance company. You should talk only to your own insurance company. They will be responsible for claiming from the other party and deciding who repairs your car.
As far as body shops are concerned, pretty much all large ones are Audi approved. That doesn't mean they are the best.
Are you registered with Audi Assurance. It's a free service and they handle all the dealings with insurance company and body shops. They will know who the best repairers are.
I used them a while ago and my insurance company was initially reluctant to use the recommended body shop and wanted to use their own approved one. But it was just a nationwide chain (though was Audi approved). I insisted on going to the premium one (all bmw, audi, porche, jaguars etc).
All went through very smoothly.

 

[RAF_S7]

Any decent body shop will repair to a standard where you would never know it’s been damaged.

I’ve used Woodlands in Newbury on a few of my previous cars, including the sepang S7, seriously can’t fault their work, and totally matched the paint.

 

[Tom.H]

Don't really understand why you are talking to his insurance company. You should talk only to your own insurance company. They will be responsible for claiming from the other party and deciding who repairs your car.
As far as body shops are concerned, pretty much all large ones are Audi approved. That doesn't mean they are the best.
Are you registered with Audi Assurance. It's a free service and they handle all the dealings with insurance company and body shops. They will know who the best repairers are.
I used them a while ago and my insurance company was initially reluctant to use the recommended body shop and wanted to use their own approved one. But it was just a nationwide chain (though was Audi approved). I insisted on going to the premium one (all bmw, audi, porche, jaguars etc).
All went through very smoothly.

Nothing wrong with dealing with the at fault insurer, I dealt with many cases where that happened.

 

[hallm26]

Sorry to hear this. I've had something similar happen to me. As it's their insurance paying for it, I called up Amersham Audi, dropped it off there the next day and they gave me a loan car immediately. They deal with a company called Accident Exchange, all genuine Audi parts. Couldn't fault them.

 

[Stevier88]

Had near enough the same accident rear ended by a woman on a jammed motorway. apparently her foot 'slipped' off the clutch damage was a bit worse, no more sinister damage just a new bumper. Initially her insurance contacted me with approved body shops. Contacted my insurance and declined and insisted on one of my choosing.

 

[amb66]

Fixauto have always been good in my experience. Had a new rear bumper fitted after I reversed into a bollard during my first week of ownership. It looked exactly as new, fantastic job.
https://fixauto.com/uk/en/all-shops

 

[Pinky1959]

My neighbour got bumped a few years ago and he used Accident Exchange or Help hire I think and he got a courtesy car with towbar etc and he got to use a local repairer .Think A/E and HH are management company who take over the claim for the customer .

 

[Spinstorm]

I agree with @RichardT your insurance company is there to deal with the problem.

Calling their insurance doesn’t help. If the other person blames you (and I’m not saying that they do, but if they did) they would take their customers word over yours.

It’s very unusual how you have done it.

As for repairs; honestly replacing the bumper isn’t an engine. Anyone can do it and paint match it.

I had my bumper on my S3 replaced and the work was done by Apollo motor group and they did a great job. And are not Audi approved.

 

[CornishRattler]

I agree with @RichardT your insurance company is there to deal with the problem.

Calling their insurance doesn’t help. If the other person blames you (and I’m not saying that they do, but if they did) they would take their customers word over yours.

It’s very unusual how you have done it.

As for repairs; honestly replacing the bumper isn’t an engine. Anyone can do it and paint match it.

I had my bumper on my S3 replaced and the work was done by Apollo motor group and they did a great job. And are not Audi approved.

Pretty hard to get blamed for being rear ended, it’s as open and shut as it gets insurance wise

 

[S32B]

Totally his fault and will be going through his insurance.... but he's with LV and they have their recommnded garage, which of course they have a contract with. But as they aren' Audi approved I kindly declined..... they then rolled off a few other garages that are Audi approved but I'm not convinced I want to trust my car with any of these guys.

After reading your post I recalled this https://www.insurewithaudi.co.uk/Products/Ensurance/

Looking at the FAQs:

It sounds pretty good!

 

[Tom.H]

I agree with @RichardT your insurance company is there to deal with the problem.

Calling their insurance doesn’t help. If the other person blames you (and I’m not saying that they do, but if they did) they would take their customers word over yours.

It’s very unusual how you have done it.

As for repairs; honestly replacing the bumper isn’t an engine. Anyone can do it and paint match it.

I had my bumper on my S3 replaced and the work was done by Apollo motor group and they did a great job. And are not Audi approved.

Wouldn't say it's that unusual, lots of people use the at fault insurer, the majority of the claims I dealt with were the injured party not the policy holder. My brothers TTS was also repaired through the insurance of the person who hit him, he chose the garage and got £150 for using them instead of his own insurer.

 

[Bells]

Pretty hard to get blamed for being rear ended, it’s as open and shut as it gets insurance wise

You would think so but I got shunted in my old corsa at 17 a few months after passing my test and when it came to the insurance it settled as 50/50 as the third party blamed me for changing lanes in front of him! When in actual fact I was sat at a standstill in stationary traffic and he just wasn't paying attention. After 12 months it still hadn't been settled until the insurance company I was with said they wouldn't fund taking the matter to court due to lack of evidence (funny old thing he was insured with the same company). Safe to say I will never take out insurance with them again!

 

[royalsteve68]

I used reading accident and repair 3 years ago. Had a few issues getting the work done which wasn't their fault, just sytner audi accident management being utterly hopeless and audi being unhelpful. however the work they did was great. Used them again for 10p sized chip on the front os bumper that some tool did when they clipped my car in maidehead.

They are in Bennett read, reading berkshire.

Avoid rainbow in Slough whom are mercedes approved repairers. don't know why they did a shocking repair on my wife's a class. Probably cause it was old. They had to do it again. Then when we picked it up, it was filthy, they drive it to a cleaning bay where some muppet was gonna use a jet wash and it's brush. I ran over and told him to just jet wash it not brush. morons.

 

[seanbeckerleg]

I agree with @RichardT your insurance company is there to deal with the problem.

Calling their insurance doesn’t help. If the other person blames you (and I’m not saying that they do, but if they did) they would take their customers word over yours.

It’s very unusual how you have done it.

As for repairs; honestly replacing the bumper isn’t an engine. Anyone can do it and paint match it.

I had my bumper on my S3 replaced and the work was done by Apollo motor group and they did a great job. And are not Audi approved.

just want to make something clear....his insurers contacted me. And tried to persuade me to go to one of their recommened repairers. I kindly declined..... I'e decided to go through my dealer....i hope it's the right choice.

 

[seanbeckerleg]

I used reading accident and repair 3 years ago. Had a few issues getting the work done which wasn't their fault, just sytner audi accident management being utterly hopeless and audi being unhelpful. however the work they did was great. Used them again for 10p sized chip on the front os bumper that some tool did when they clipped my car in maidehead.

They are in Bennett read, reading berkshire.

Avoid rainbow in Slough whom are mercedes approved repairers. don't know why they did a shocking repair on my wife's a class. Probably cause it was old. They had to do it again. Then when we picked it up, it was filthy, they drive it to a cleaning bay where some muppet was gonna use a jet wash and it's brush. I ran over and told him to just jet wash it not brush. morons.

They wanted to put my car in rainbow....i asked if it were Audi approved, and they said it wasn't. Try again!

 

[Tom.H]

just want to make something clear....his insurers contacted me. And tried to persuade me to go to one of their recommened repairers. I kindly declined..... I'e decided to go through my dealer....i hope it's the right choice.

Reason they'll push one of their network repairers is because of the rate they pay them (same with your own insurer when you claim and you're at fault) as an example, one bodyshop we dealt with was £28 p/h through insurance vs £45 p/h private and they have quite a few manufacturer approvals. As it's not your fault, feel free to use their insurer but your own choice of body shop. They'll be keen to go along with you.

 

[4K]

I've used Audi Approved garages before for bodywork and they've been awful at paint matching. I've found the best place to use is a small independent off the beaten track funnily enough. They are some of the closest for color matches. You'll likely have your own in your local area.

 

[AudiNutta]

I've used Audi Approved garages before for bodywork and they've been awful at paint matching. I've found the best place to use is a small independent off the beaten track funnily enough. They are some of the closest for color matches. You'll likely have your own in your local area.

+1

 

[royalsteve68]

They wanted to put my car in rainbow....i asked if it were Audi approved, and they said it wasn't. Try again!

Avoid rainbow in Slough. Utter cowboys. I wouldn't trust them to make a cup of tea let alone paint a car. The car was silver and they painted a rear oside wheel arch and rear bumper. It was about 3 years ago. Its the wifes old car which we still have. She dropped it off.

They painted it and we went to pick it up a week later. I was fuming. As usual the tards probably thought, as its woman, it's an old car and she knows f all about cars we will do a cheap rubbish job. They hadn't even blended the paint they'd done on the wheel arch. The paint shade on the bumper was massively off it was laughable and it was filthy. The guy tried to palm us off and expected to sign the firm to which I said are you having a laugh.

I asked why is paint on the bumper such a different shade. According to the moron, the paint reacts differently to the panel and bumper. I was intrigued, so you used the same paint on the page and bumper. He said yes. Wtf. We asked them to redo as I wasn't happy at all. They started to ignore us even though wee were being as nuce as possible considering the **** job they'd done. Called our insurer to vent my spleen. They spoke to the garage to state They wouldn't get paid. They redid and it was better but we still had to ask them to clean it.

However 3 years and tye paint is peeling off the bumper.

Cowboys. Avoid.

Sent from my SM-T705 using Tapatalk