Crash crash crash!

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magnus911

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Hey Guys,

but of advice please. Last night, i was stationary in traffic when a brand new Maserati Quattroporte smashed into the stationary Corsa behind me, propelling him into me with quite a thud, which inturn shunted me into the car infront.

The Maserati's airbags went off, I reckon she must have been doing around 50...The corsa was a total loss. I had my foot on the brake (DSG) but it wasn't enough to stop me hitting the Polo in front, although only minimal damage was done to it...

Looking at my car, the front bumper has a deep scratch, the rear bumper is dented and punctured, the tailgate has a crease in it and I'm pretty sure the cross member has gone.

Also, the tailgate doesn't appear to be sitting totally 'flush' to the lights or the rear wings. The rear wings though aren't creased at all and the floor pan underneat the spare wheel looks like it hasn't had any damage.

So, basically, is the car a write off? I mean, if i need two new bumpers, a new tailgate, a new rear light, a rear cross member and a prestige hire car for a couple weeks while they fix it will they just write it off?

I have some pictures which i'll upload later but they aren't particularly conclusive.

My other question is, will the Maserati insurance pay out for us all? We were all stationary but I don't want to lose 4 years no claims for a scratch on the back of the Polo!

Thanks in advance
<M
 
The maserati will be at fault, in a collision like this the last car in the line cops for the lot, correct me if im wrong.

Assuming you got all the details from the Maserati driver and contacted your insurance, which u must do without delay, BTW that doesnt mean you MUST have the repair done, its just a legal requirement, you'll need to explain what happened and give the Masers details to your insurance company for they will need to liase with each other.

All you need to do now is get it into Audi for an assessment for the repairs, they will be able to give you a good indication of whether its a write off, im not sure it will be from what youve said. A rule of thumb is if the quote to repair is more than a 3rd of the vehicles value it will be written off as a total loss, again correct me if im wrong.

Anyway, Audi will then forward the quote to your insurers, who will pass it on to The Maserati drivers insurance who will then approve/disapprove the repair work.

In any case mate theres no chance that you will have to cop for anything more than your excess, and your NCB will remain intact.
 
From your description of the damage i dont think your car will be written off.

Regarding the claim the masser will cop the lot eventually. I believe what happens is you claim off the person that hit you, the person that you hit claims from you, and then the insurance companies reclaim the monies backwards to the maser.

You'll cough up your excess but will be able to get it back when the claims resolved.

J.
 
Thanks Guys! I appreciate your help. That makes me feel a lot better. I'm not sure they'll write it off but the repair job (if done satisfactorally) will certainly be more than a third of the value of the car. (what's it worth, about £10k? 62k miles)
 
magnus911 said:
Thanks Guys! I appreciate your help. That makes me feel a lot better. I'm not sure they'll write it off but the repair job (if done satisfactorally) will certainly be more than a third of the value of the car. (what's it worth, about £10k? 62k miles)
Click to expand...

I think your next port of call should be the garage to get a quote for your insurance people. They'll informally tell you at the garage whether it's likely to be written off which will give you piece of mind one way or another.

If you feel strongly that you dont want to have the car repaired, that you feel the car wont/cant be put right you could impress upon your insurers that you want it written off but that will make a rather large mess for you to clear up. If they grant your wishes you'll have to get it to a scrap yard for a quote as scrap value, give that to your insurers, they'll then pass all that info on to the maser drivers insurer, they will then decide whether they'll make up the difference to give you your ballpark 10k to go shopping with.

Ive got to say though, its unlikely and will take a lot more time and correspondance. Like I said get it to teh specialist, they'll have a better idea of the costs and implications of the damage, just ask questions like "whats involved with the repair", "will it need jigging" etc..
 
One other things to consider regarding the cost of the repair is that you want them to pay the difference between the car prior to being in an accident to the value afterwards. As the claims not your fault you can claim 10% of the value of the car as thats the difference they reckon an accident makes to the value.

J.
 
marriedblonde said:
One other things to consider regarding the cost of the repair is that you want them to pay the difference between the car prior to being in an accident to the value afterwards. As the claims not your fault you can claim 10% of the value of the car as thats the difference they reckon an accident makes to the value.

J.
Click to expand...

Good point! I didnt realise you could do that but it makes perfect sense. :icon_thumright:
 
I had a similar shunt in a Corrado many years ago where I was at the back, but in my case, didnt cause any more damage other than to the van I hit imediately in front.
Although the `blame` for all 5 cars did default to me which then had to be resolved over the next 12months using statements etc.

IIRC, the limit for a total loss in %60 of the cars market value. Bear in mind that the insurance will automatically value your car at pretty much bottom book value.
If it is a total loss then make sure you do your homework on the cars `real` value ie provide copies of similar cars in the classifieds to prove how much this type of car changes hands for, and the true market value.

I had to do this and had my offer of £6000 increased to £7500 for the Corrado as the insurance used the bottom Glasses guide value. It was then up to me to demonstrate that this wasnt the true value of a mint G60 Corrado at that time.

Ive also used a firm of `no fee` claim/injury lawyers in the past (Ive not been very lucky!) with very good experience. However they generally only take on you case if they are sure its watertight. They sort you car out, car hire etc and then claim all of that back from the party who is to blame. These type of outfits make a lot a money back-charging their `services` to the unfortunate beggars Insurance, who is found to be at fault, I believe this is why they can represent you on a `no fee` basis.
Its worth making a few calls and finding out whether this route could work for you. It saved me a lot of grief and my NCB was completely un-affected.

Good luck

Paul
 
THanks for all that...I'm with Admiral who, as its non-fault, have passed me over to Albany for hire car / repair / legal stuff.

I've used them before the last time I got rear-ended and they were quite good. This time I'm insisting on taking it to Audi though. THey said fine but i will have to pay the excess and claim it back if i don't use one of their approved repairers.

I suppose if I go through Albany, take their hire car etc (a prestige similar to mine) it is less likely to be written off than if i let the insurance company of the car who caused the accident repair my car (by providing them with the Audi repair Quotes)

Magnus
 
I'm having a nightmare with Albany atm - I had a bump last July and the claim's still outstanding. I've chased Albany on numerous occasions but just been told 'oh, we're wating for the 3rd party's insurance to send us their version of events' WTF??! 10 months?? Then last week I got a letter from the 3rd party's solicitors advising me I'll be going to court if Admiral don't pay up in 7 days. Shower of **** Admiral/Albany - wouldn't use them again!
 
Odd way of looking at things maybe but atleast it was a Maserati rather than an old banger much more chance that they are 1. insured and 2. insured by a decent firm that actually pays out once in a while.
 
Well I used Albany once before as I said and they were OK>

what Admiral told me is that they only refer to Albany if they're certain you're not at fault and they will definitely recover from the third party, so i'm not sure what's up with your claim Joost. Were you at fault at all?
 
I wish it were as straight forward as yours, that way I'd be able to say no. Obviously, I don't think I was at fault - it was a normal width street with double parked cars so there was only really room for 1 car ar a time to travel down the road. I was driving behind the other fella when he pulled into a space (no indicator, just moved over to the kerb as if he was parking up). He then decided to pull the front end into the middle of the road in order to reverse into a side road he'd just passed, just as I was going past him (again, no indicator) and I bounced off his front wheel, doing this:

Bump21Jul07001.jpg


Apparently, he claims it was my fault as I was trying to overtake him.
 
joost said:
I wish it were as straight forward as yours, that way I'd be able to say no. Obviously, I don't think I was at fault - it was a normal width street with double parked cars so there was only really room for 1 car ar a time to travel down the road. I was driving behind the other fella when he pulled into a space (no indicator, just moved over to the kerb as if he was parking up). He then decided to pull the front end into the middle of the road in order to reverse into a side road he'd just passed, just as I was going past him (again, no indicator) and I bounced off his front wheel, doing this:

Bump21Jul07001.jpg


Apparently, he claims it was my fault as I was trying to overtake him.
Click to expand...
ouch

sympathy.........
 
audi upgrades
marriedblonde said:
One other things to consider regarding the cost of the repair is that you want them to pay the difference between the car prior to being in an accident to the value afterwards. As the claims not your fault you can claim 10% of the value of the car as thats the difference they reckon an accident makes to the value.

J.
Click to expand...

that's interesting, where did hear about that

have you made such a claim?
 
I don't think it will be a written off.
If i were you I would try and go for the facelift bumper as they will a similar cost to each other (no rub strips)

I was speaking with an assessor the other day and he said sometimes they pay out near enough 100% of the value as is still cheaper for them than paying out full value.
 
Ok so I took it in for its appraisal today and they don't think it's a write-off. In face, the guy was totting up what he thought it would cost to fix (rear bumper, rear tailgate, repair front bumper and paint the whole lot) and said it would be about £1200!

I thought to myself, 'it's going to be a **** job then eh?'

Maybe I should insist it goes to Audi, but won't they just send it to some accident repair centre?
 
thing to do is let them fix it and get a courtsey car,

but when you pick it up check it thoroughly, if anyhting is not exactly as it should be or how you would expect audi to do it, refuse to take it until it is fixed to a good enopugh standard.

Good luck
 
Thanks Ben, that's what I'll do. They're giving me a 'prestige' car apparently - the first one I had off them was a new Discovery XS and more recently they gave me a Lexus IS250 that only had 13 miles on the clock when I picked it up! over 3000 when i took it back two weeks later!
 
magnus911 said:
Ok so I took it in for its appraisal today and they don't think it's a write-off. In face, the guy was totting up what he thought it would cost to fix (rear bumper, rear tailgate, repair front bumper and paint the whole lot) and said it would be about £1200!

I thought to myself, 'it's going to be a **** job then eh?'

Maybe I should insist it goes to Audi, but won't they just send it to some accident repair centre?
Click to expand...

It's your car, you can insist it goes to audi or your preferred repair centre. The insurance company might try to wriggle out of it, but it's your choice.
 
magnus911 said:
I meant, wouldn't Audi just sub contract the work to someone else? Or wouldn't they do that?
Click to expand...

Depends, some dealers have their own bodyshops where-as many don't. If they do pass it on, it should be to an Audi approved bodyshop though, which means that the repair should be to factory standard (in theory).

Paul
 
sleep envy said:
that's interesting, where did hear about that

have you made such a claim?
Click to expand...

When Claire had an accident I asked the legal bod assigned to the case if it was possible. Straight away I was told yes and that it's normally about 10% of the value of the car.

I think we got about £200 over the 10% mark in the end. When we sold the car we told the new owner it had been crashed/repaired as we had a guarantee that came with the work.

J.
 
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