Looking for a litte advice after a wee bump in the lotus...

[robin]

If the insurers haven't already offered you this, they're taking you for a mug and hence why they're pushing their own repairers. If they really want to keep costs down they should stop insuring clowns.

What an odd perspective.

The insurers push their own repairers because it's easier for them to manage and typically cheaper too. Of course that's usually inappropriate for Lotus repairs as they are "specialist" to say the least ... I'm sure a lot of body shops could repair them, but probably won't invest the time in doing it well. So a specialist is the place to take it and you are free to take it there. This has nothing to do with you being a mug I think.

The cost of insuring "clowns" is passed on to us all; so the cheaper you make the repair costs, the less expensive all of our policies will be at renewal time. Think of insurance as a cooperative - we all pay in and the unfortunate people that suffer damages collect. So why would you want to spend our money on blood sucking accident management companies instead of covering our risk?

I believe there needs to be a change in the law of insurance requirements - I think the maximum value covered by 3rd parties should be capped at something, say 25-50K. If your risk is higher than that (i.e. if you think your loss of earnings or loss of use of vehicle costs or potential repair/replacement costs) are higher than that, then you need to purchase your own top up insurance to cover that. This would cover 95% of the risk that matters and hopefully would allow the insurers to offer competitive premiums to those that just don't care about risk beyond the cap; in fact you could have very large "excess" contributions in the event of a claim against you - so you might decide to say that you'll carry the first 10K of the 3rd party risk and thus your premiums might then fall even further (of course you would have to put your 10K on deposit in this case).

Cheers,
Robin

[Dave]

There was an interview with an insurance industry spokesman on the Beeb the other week, he was explaining that though the amount they now payout for repairs is falling the reason insurance prices are rising was because more and more people are now using these accident management companies, it seems that after the cost of providing a like for like car, management fees etc, the cost per claim is doubled,.
Wonder which clowns we should be blaming for this

[Mikem7709]

I guess we're all entitled to have a different perspective. I find it "odd" that somebody would tolerate having to drive something of a lesser quality, chasing 3rd party insurers, repeated visits to their approved bodyshops etc all in the name of keeping renewals down for everybody when the accident isnt your fault. Insurance isn't a Co-operative it's a lucrative Business, despite whatBthe industry spokesmen say.

[robin]

I'm not suggesting you take it to any bodyshop other than the one you think will do the best repair, anything else would be a mistake for the long term value of your car.

Repeated visits to any body shop is a PITA, I agree, but I'm not sure why you would need to go there at all. Most body shops will collect and deliver your car. Sure they'll charge for it, but that's a fair expense.

Of course you and I are entitled to our own opinions, and I understand the "it's not my fault, why should I care how much it costs" attitude. I hope you understand that with it come rising costs for everyone?

If you don't think that's true, where does the money come from to pay all these extra people that are now in the loop (the claims company, the specialist hire car place that can give you an Elise or an Aston Martin or a Dump Truck to name a couple)?

Also, next time you make a mistake and put somebody off the road for a couple of weeks, how happy will you be that the cost of the claim is 2x or more what it needs to be. You have to declare claims and they will ask the cost (from you and/or your previous insurer).

The fact the insurers are not co-ops but are in fact businesses does nothing to invalidate the argument - the co-op would be the cheapest solution; being a business makes it more expensive as they need to make profits, but the underlying need to balance claims costs with policy revenues remains the same.

If you're happy to accept all of that and still use a claims company, fair enough.

Cheers,
Robin

[rossybee]

And ref the courtesy car, does it really matter if you're running around in a Fiesta or the like for a few days?

[meatball]

At least your bumps are getting slower....

[Stevenzop]

At least your bumps are getting slower....

Haha yes, I must get round to posting up the pics of the last Elise. That was a scary one! I'm beginning to wonder if my cars become invisible the second i get into them.

I've been to visit Castlepark, and things are progressing nicely. Thanks for the recommendations, they seemed to know exactly what they were talking about, and a lovely looking burnt orange s1 already in the shop! Gourlay83's I believe? Anyway I’m pretty happy with the way Aviva have handled it, although using my own repair shop has ment more leg work for me, hopefully in the long run its the best plan.

Interesting debate about insurance companies... they have promised me a Merc C-Class replacement while the Elise is being repaired, but at the same time my premium is up on last year.

[jen]

I've been to visit Castlepark, and things are progressing nicely. Thanks for the recommendations, they seemed to know exactly what they were talking about, and a lovely looking burnt orange s1 already in the shop! Gourlay83's I believe?

Mines too!! I popped in to drop something off to them today. Fine guys. And very good at their job.

Jen