Insurance repairs - unlikely? Now with pics :(

craigieb · Post by **craigieb** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:44 pm

Would be interested to get you guys take on this before I call admiral for an update tomorrow.

How much say do I have in where my car goes to get insurance repairs carried out? It's off to Arnold Clark in Stirling for assesment as this is Admiral's nearest official repairer, but do I really want AC doing the repairs if it comes to that?

Cheers
Craig

Mr Momo · Post by **Mr Momo** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:12 pm

You can choose exactly where you want to send it.

There'll be someone along in a minute with recommendations....

dezzy · Post by **dezzy** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:17 pm

They might refuse to give you a courtesy car if you choose your own repairer, but apart from that there should be no restrictions.

D

tenkfeet · Post by **tenkfeet** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:22 pm

I am with Admiral , They wanted to send my Elise to their repairer and I specified someone else . Took a bit longer but ok now.

I would not let Arnold Clark near my push bike let alone car .

j2 lot · Post by **j2 lot** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:22 pm

I was offered choice of repairer - so chose to go back to factory and was then told this couldn't happen . If car went to insurers official repairer they would provide courtesy car, as they were not Lotus authorised I lost out on courtesy car & went for only authorised repairer in Scotland ( John Martin group).
Mix up with parts delivery and delays led to 5 months for repair to be completed. If I was ever in the unfortunate position again I would ABSOLUTELY insist that car was to go back to the factory.

Insurance assessor was told by the insurance company that I chose JM - had he known that this was second choice he would have sent the car to somewhere in Leicester as he believed they would be substantially cheaper.
Should also add that JM eventually did a good job just took soooo long and I rejected the car twice before I was happy with work. Keith

sja · Post by **sja** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:20 pm

You have a choice but you might lose out on a courtesy car.
I'm with A-Plan and when I crashed at the end of October they recoved my car to Nationwide Crash repair center in Dunfermline. I searched on here and the general consensus was that Steve Walkers was the place to go.
I then contacted Steve and informed my insurance that I wanted the car repaired there. As A-Plan are a broker an the Insurance is with Groupama they had to clear it first. It took a week to get the car to Steves and a further two weeks before the repair was authorised. I had to make a few calls to keep things moving before the repair was authorised. The parts for the car still had to be ordered through MMC.
I'm hoping to get my car back in a weeks time as Steve reckoned it would take three weeks from when he started stripping to rebuild.

Hope you get yours sorted soon
Stephen

Stevoraith · Post by **Stevoraith** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:05 pm

As has been said, you have the legal right to insist on where your car is repaired (VW garage had leaflets explaining this the last time I was in).

However, it is likely that your insurance will not give you a courtesy car (Admiral most certainly will not). You may get one from the repairer you chose though.

ADmiral will make it tricky to chose somewhere else though as they will insist on at least two quotes (although the original one from Arnold will probably count as one of those so you just need to get the one from your chosen repairer and jobs a good 'un).
They also might get arsey about paying for storage if your car is not drivable and it doesn't go to your repairer straight away.

It's worth the short term hassle to get a proper repair by someone who knows what they are doing though.

Rich H · Post by **Rich H** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:55 pm

I missed the reason for the reapir, if its no fault you can claim a like for like car off the 3rd party. My accident management companty did, a nice shiney 111R (OK it had a couple of snags but better than a ford Ka!) £175 per day for 2 weeks

Lazydonkey · Post by **Lazydonkey** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:05 pm

WTF do Arnold Clark in Stirling know about glassfibre cars ?

If it were any garage in Stirling then surely it would be Ian Grieve as at least they've had experience in repairing VX's

Still wouldnt trust them though.

Blaque · Post by **Blaque** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:05 pm

Craig,

Admiral wanted to send mine to their local (to me) restorer. But after having a chat with the garage directly, the garage agreed that I should have it taken to a Specialist. Admiral suggested some place in aberdeen. When I pointed out that it would a 6 hour round trip for me if there was anything wrong with the repairs. Admiral then came up with taking it to MMC. I wrote them a stern letter saying I didn't want MMC to go near it as I didn't want to spend the rest of my life driving up and down to Edinburgh to fix the bits that weren't broke before it went in. I said I wanted it taken down to Dans (JPS). Which they agreed in the end.

The longer you argue with them the more it costs them in storage, so it is in their interest to get it to a garage swiftly.

You will forfit your right to a courtesy car as others have said.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Andy G · Post by **Andy G** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:23 pm

Hi Craig

If the damage is body mainly then Steve Walkers would be my choice.

Ali has done some repair work for Diamond so you could give him a shout also. One of his mates does fibreglass work ;0)

Good luck - remember my pain when I hit a deer on the A68 and the 111r was 5 months old.......a Smart for 5 weeks was my consolation for it going to JM group!

Andy

craigieb · Post by **craigieb** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:36 pm

thanks again guys...

I paid a visit to Arnold Clark this afternoon to look at her and my instant reaction was "oh f***, that's a lot worse than I remember"

pics

write off?

Post by ed » Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:41 pm

Bad luck matey,

Ive seen cars with less damage being written off. I guess it all depends if the chassis is straight.

Good luck with it all! cheers Ed

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:42 pm

Looks like it's going to car heaven to me...

Andy G · Post by **Andy G** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:45 pm

Sorry to see that mate - reckon there's a good £10k's worth at least there, so could well be!