Rear quarter wing damage - best course of action?

[WillesdenBoy]

Hi everybody,

My wife has a 2006 2.0 fsi SE 3dr automatic A3.
The car has done approx. 87K miles and we have owned it since 2013.
The car has been fully maintained during this time and we had no plans to sell it.

Our neighbours are getting an extension and on Tuesday just gone, a scaffolding flat-bed truck reversed into the side of the A3. He immediately drove off and we were informed by another neighbour who witnessed everything. She claimed that he knew exactly what he had done, but chose to drive off. She had made a full written statement.

Attached is a photo showing the damage.

The extension builder made contact with the driver and he returned on Wednesday morning.
He claimed (surprise, surprise) that he did not even realise he had hit our car.

I raised an online police report and obtained a reference number, as I believe it is a criminal offence to damage somebody's car and drive off like this.

I've spoken to the head of the scaffolding company who was aware of what had happened.
I suggested that I would get some quotes, return to him and we should go from there.

He did suggest contacting their insurance company, which I have not done to-date.
Similarly, I have not contacted our insurance company either.

The car is probably only worth £1,500 and I have been advised by various small garages that this could be a very expensive repair to put right, given it's location on the car. I am currently waiting for a few quotes to come in.

I believe the repair options are either:
1. Cut out the entire rear offside 1/4 wing and replace or
2. Panel beat the dent out and make good

I have not made contact with either insurance company as I am concerned they will simply write the car off, on the basis of the repair exceeding the car's value.

Ideally, we want to keep the car, have it properly repaired and not be out of pocket.

My plan is that once I have the quotes, I will present these to the head of the scaffolding company and firmly insist that one of their employees badly damaged our car, in one of their company vehicles and that we want them to foot the bill for returning the car to the state it was in on Monday.

Is this the best way to proceed? I would appreciate any of your thoughts on this.

Many thanks in advance,



bern

 

[ab1702]

Hi everybody,

My wife has a 2006 2.0 fsi SE 3dr automatic A3.
The car has done approx. 87K miles and we have owned it since 2013.
The car has been fully maintained during this time and we had no plans to sell it.

Our neighbours are getting an extension and on Tuesday just gone, a scaffolding flat-bed truck reversed into the side of the A3. He immediately drove off and we were informed by another neighbour who witnessed everything. She claimed that he knew exactly what he had done, but chose to drive off. She had made a full written statement.

Attached is a photo showing the damage.

The extension builder made contact with the driver and he returned on Wednesday morning.
He claimed (surprise, surprise) that he did not even realise he had hit our car.

I raised an online police report and obtained a reference number, as I believe it is a criminal offence to damage somebody's car and drive off like this.

I've spoken to the head of the scaffolding company who was aware of what had happened.
I suggested that I would get some quotes, return to him and we should go from there.

He did suggest contacting their insurance company, which I have not done to-date.
Similarly, I have not contacted our insurance company either.

The car is probably only worth £1,500 and I have been advised by various small garages that this could be a very expensive repair to put right, given it's location on the car. I am currently waiting for a few quotes to come in.

I believe the repair options are either:
1. Cut out the entire rear offside 1/4 wing and replace or
2. Panel beat the dent out and make good

I have not made contact with either insurance company as I am concerned they will simply write the car off, on the basis of the repair exceeding the car's value.

Ideally, we want to keep the car, have it properly repaired and not be out of pocket.

My plan is that once I have the quotes, I will present these to the head of the scaffolding company and firmly insist that one of their employees badly damaged our car, in one of their company vehicles and that we want them to foot the bill for returning the car to the state it was in on Monday.

Is this the best way to proceed? I would appreciate any of your thoughts on this.

Many thanks in advance,



bern

If you’ve reported it to the police then youve done the right thing to start off with. I would also maybe call your insurance and just let them know what’s happened so that they have a record of it happening just in case the scaffolding company don’t pay for the repair.

What happens next is out of your hands though, you’ll just have to liase with the scaffolding company and see if they’ll pay for it repairing and if not then you’ll have to get onto his insurance company and explain what’s happened.

As for the repair if you end up settling it away from insurance then I would look for a good dent removal company and then when they’ve got the dent out then take it elsewhere to get it resprayed.

 

[NHN]

Use insurers, say you intend to keep the car, get quotes just shy of the book price & they will pay out for repair iirc.

They may offer cat m & pay you plus you keep the car, but you truly must use insurance as no disrespect but scaffolding, builders from my experience aren't too good at admitting liability or paying after the repair.

Dont wait, raise an incident with insurance.

 

[samisnake]

you shouldnt be the one contacting their insurance. they should be doing it, and then their insurance will contact you.

dont bother getting quotes yourself just yet, just get the insurance involved first.

definitely getting written off, but youll get to keep it if you choose to anyway. then get it repaired by yourself on the cheap.

 

[abmat]

My plan is that once I have the quotes, I will present these to the head of the scaffolding company and firmly insist that one of their employees badly damaged our car, in one of their company vehicles and that we want them to foot the bill for returning the car to the state it was in on Monday.

And I expect he will give you the same response, go through the insurance, that’s why they pay for it. Contact yours and get the process started.
And as for your witness statement do not be surprised if the insurance company don’t recognise it, as happened to my brother recently. What you do need it some correspondence admitting liability.

 

[WillesdenBoy]

Thanks everybody for your replies.
This is all good feedback for us.

We will contact our insurance company tomorrow morning to get the process started.
I've separately got a few quotes on their way from bodywork specialists, so this can continue in parallel.

What is the best way to establish the market (or book) value of our car?

Last week, I used AutoTrader's car valuation tool which arrived at £2,310 (private sale) and £1,350 (part exchange).
A similar tool on the RAC website concluded £1,510 (private sale) and £1,330 (part exchange).
Last night, I did a search for our car on AutoTrader's website and I found one which was an sline which was on sale at £4,460.
Quite a variation!

Thanks again for your help.



bern

 

[aqibi2000]

Remember any price they give you for the car as a first offer of evaluation you must categorically decline it with conviction.

Sod all car valuation tools they are not your friend, only look at the autotrader retail prices of buying the same exact spec car in private form (and take into account all the services/money you have spent as it has reached this age).

 

[WillesdenBoy]

This all worked out fine in the end.

The scaffolding company's fleet insurance company raised a claim.
They valued the car at between £3,500 to £5,000 which agreed with my findings on AutoTrader (searching for similar cars to our A3).
They set a maximum repair cost which was enough to allow the car to be repaired using the Flatliner system.
Panel replacement would have more expensive and invasive.
Currently, the car is being repaired at an accident repair centre owned by the insurance company.

Thank for all your feedback, really appreciated.




bern

 

[abmat]

Good news. I’m happy it turned out ok in the end.

A rare occurrence these days as insurance is quite happy to write of perfectly repairable cars.

 

[enc]

[QUOTE="WillesdenBoy, post: 3657701, member


They set a maximum repair cost which was enough to allow the car to be repaired using the Flatliner system.





bern[/QUOTE]

great news! what is the Flatliner system?

 

[WillesdenBoy]

Flatliner is a system used to pull dents out of damaged bodywork panels.
There's a few videos in youtube showing it being used.
Very entertaining to watch.


bern