kennyh
pfm Member
Get's a call from Mrs. this morning 10 minutes after she left home.
She'd been involved in a 4 car shunt. 3 cars at the lights, 4th car arrives a bit too hot in the rain, locks up and hits the back of the small queue.
Mrs was the middle car, she gets thumped from stationary car behind and shoved in to car a couple of metres in front.
Lots of witnesses so no probs there. Guy turned out to be a gent, making sure everyone was ok.
Mrs was very shaken by it and cancelled her appointment and came home. I inspected car in pouring rain and only damage I could see was a cracked front number plate, but it was stair rod rain.
Chap then phones later to make sure all is fine with the Mrs, and to ask about any damage to car and can he pay if there is to keep insurers out of it.
Whilst on the phone I nipped out for a second look to confirm. Rain had stopped and I noticed the front panel that number plate screws to was also fractured......car is only her little C1 town car.
Walks to the rear and notice the rear tailgate button looked depressed, and on wiping the dirt from the foul weather away saw a small crack under the button in GRP rear panel. Opened tailgate to see if mechanism was ok then found I could not close it again.
We told this to the guy who then came around to check. We guessed the lock had moved and he offered to pay for what was needed front and rear.............car still looked mint apart from these tiny things.
However just for peace of mind took it to my mates garage where we stuck it on the ramps.....jeez, crushed rear panel brackets in crumple zone, stress cracks in rear panel and crumpled boot floor.
So from a cracked number plate to possibly bordering on a write off in half an hour, you'd never even notice the cosmetic damage if not pointed out to you.
Insurers demanding it goes to their appointed agents for repair obviously so are picking it up from mates garage tomorrow who'd easily sort it without fuss if required. The guys it is going to are very expensive so can't see them getting approval for repairing it, although hope I am wrong there.
Guy was so truly decent I was almost taking a few quid off him to repair it myself and save his no claims further damage. I just hope the other larger cars fared better.
Glad I did take time out to stick it on the ramps, could have turned out costlier for us than it will do now......she'll certainly lose out in any case. At the end of the day apart from a stiff shoulder she is fine, so that is the main thing anyway.
She'd been involved in a 4 car shunt. 3 cars at the lights, 4th car arrives a bit too hot in the rain, locks up and hits the back of the small queue.
Mrs was the middle car, she gets thumped from stationary car behind and shoved in to car a couple of metres in front.
Lots of witnesses so no probs there. Guy turned out to be a gent, making sure everyone was ok.
Mrs was very shaken by it and cancelled her appointment and came home. I inspected car in pouring rain and only damage I could see was a cracked front number plate, but it was stair rod rain.
Chap then phones later to make sure all is fine with the Mrs, and to ask about any damage to car and can he pay if there is to keep insurers out of it.
Whilst on the phone I nipped out for a second look to confirm. Rain had stopped and I noticed the front panel that number plate screws to was also fractured......car is only her little C1 town car.
Walks to the rear and notice the rear tailgate button looked depressed, and on wiping the dirt from the foul weather away saw a small crack under the button in GRP rear panel. Opened tailgate to see if mechanism was ok then found I could not close it again.
We told this to the guy who then came around to check. We guessed the lock had moved and he offered to pay for what was needed front and rear.............car still looked mint apart from these tiny things.
However just for peace of mind took it to my mates garage where we stuck it on the ramps.....jeez, crushed rear panel brackets in crumple zone, stress cracks in rear panel and crumpled boot floor.
So from a cracked number plate to possibly bordering on a write off in half an hour, you'd never even notice the cosmetic damage if not pointed out to you.
Insurers demanding it goes to their appointed agents for repair obviously so are picking it up from mates garage tomorrow who'd easily sort it without fuss if required. The guys it is going to are very expensive so can't see them getting approval for repairing it, although hope I am wrong there.
Guy was so truly decent I was almost taking a few quid off him to repair it myself and save his no claims further damage. I just hope the other larger cars fared better.
Glad I did take time out to stick it on the ramps, could have turned out costlier for us than it will do now......she'll certainly lose out in any case. At the end of the day apart from a stiff shoulder she is fine, so that is the main thing anyway.
