Got crashed into whilst stationary - Advice

[Sixer]

So the worst happened, some idiot in a van failed to even look or brake and went into the back of my Model 3 at approx 30mph whilst I was stationary.

Everyone in the car including the kids are ok but me and the Mrs both have whiplash. I caught it all on the cameras.

It seems now that I have logged the claim with the insurance company that I have to do all the work. Hire car is included but they want me to sign forms to authorise £400 a day hire car (5 Series) - seems very high cost! Apparently I won’t pay any of this cost unless there is a problem with the claim.

The next issue is picking a repairer. I phoned Tesla Leeds and they recommended either Alton Cars in Leeds or CF Motors in Newcastle. It seems I now have to get quotes to pass back to the insurer. Painful.

Has anyone used either of these companies? What was your experience? They are both Tesla certified repairers.

What precautions should I be taking when handing the car to them? I was thinking charge it to 80%, enable valet mode, take pictures of everything. Anything else?

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Seems odd that you're having to do all the work. I had a car written off in a similar incident, stopped in a queue of traffic and a car drove into the back of me at speed. My insurer (LV) handled everything, all I had to do was clear stuff out of my car at the garage and send the dash cam footage to the police, as they intended to prosecute the driver (she'd been looking in her handbag for something, apparently).

The only slight hassle was when the car was written off, where I spent ten minutes on the phone with the loss adjuster agreeing the value of the car. They even offered to find be a similar spec replacement, but I opted to buy a new Prius Plug-in, that happened to be in stock at the local dealer (same place my old car had been taken to).

 

[Jason71]

Seems odd that you're having to do all the work. I had a car written off in a similar incident, stopped in a queue of traffic and a car drove into the back of me at speed. My insurer (LV) handled everything, all I had to do was clear stuff out of my car at the garage and send the dash cam footage to the police, as they intended to prosecute the driver (she'd been looking in her handbag for something, apparently).

The only slight hassle was when the car was written off, where I spent ten minutes on the phone with the loss adjuster agreeing the value of the car. They even offered to find be a similar spec replacement, but I opted to buy a new Prius Plug-in, that happened to be in stock at the local dealer (same place my old car had been taken to).

If its an instant write off there isn't really much to do except haggle over the price so its not really quite the same situation.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

If its an instant write off there isn't really much to do except haggle over the price so its not really quite the same situation.

Agreed, although it was an economic write off, so it took a week or so to get the repair estimate from the garage, and the insurers then chose to write the car off as the repair cost was close to the value. I would hazard a guess that the process for that week or so would have been exactly the same had the repair cost not been high enough to write the car off.

 

[Jason71]

So the worst happened, some idiot in a van failed to even look or brake and went into the back of my Model 3 at approx 30mph whilst I was stationary.

Everyone in the car including the kids are ok but me and the Mrs both have whiplash. I caught it all on the cameras.

It seems now that I have logged the claim with the insurance company that I have to do all the work. Hire car is included but they want me to sign forms to authorise £400 a day hire car (5 Series) - seems very high cost! Apparently I won’t pay any of this cost unless there is a problem with the claim.

The next issue is picking a repairer. I phoned Tesla Leeds and they recommended either Alton Cars in Leeds or CF Motors in Newcastle. It seems I now have to get quotes to pass back to the insurer. Painful.

Has anyone used either of these companies? What was your experience? They are both Tesla certified repairers.

What precautions should I be taking when handing the car to them? I was thinking charge it to 80%, enable valet mode, take pictures of everything. Anything else?

Does Valet mode disable sentry ? if not then switch that off or you will loose 10-15% charge per day

 

[Jason71]

Agreed, although it was an economic write off, so it took a week or so to get the repair estimate from the garage, and the insurers then chose to write the car off as the repair cost was close to the value. I would hazard a guess that the process for that week or so would have been exactly the same had the repair cost not been high enough to write the car off.

a lot of insurers seem to have approved repairers these days and if you go to one of those there is no need to get multiple quotes. It may be that his insurer has no approved repairers near by who are also Tesla approved so they will want multiple quotes if you insist on using those.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

a lot of insurers seem to have approved repairers these days and if you go to one of those there is no need to get multiple quotes. It may be that his insurer has no approved repairers near by who are also Tesla approved so they will want multiple quotes if you insist on using those.

Mine just went to the local Toyota dealer, at the direction of the insurers, who organised the roadside recovery after the accident. I've no idea whether they were the approved repairer, I just assumed that the insurers sent the car to Toyota because it was a hybrid and the accident damage at the rear involved the battery pack (under the boot floor on the Prius).

 

[IODETAIL]

So the worst happened, some idiot in a van failed to even look or brake and went into the back of my Model 3 at approx 30mph whilst I was stationary.

Everyone in the car including the kids are ok but me and the Mrs both have whiplash. I caught it all on the cameras.

It seems now that I have logged the claim with the insurance company that I have to do all the work. Hire car is included but they want me to sign forms to authorise £400 a day hire car (5 Series) - seems very high cost! Apparently I won’t pay any of this cost unless there is a problem with the claim.

The next issue is picking a repairer. I phoned Tesla Leeds and they recommended either Alton Cars in Leeds or CF Motors in Newcastle. It seems I now have to get quotes to pass back to the insurer. Painful.

Has anyone used either of these companies? What was your experience? They are both Tesla certified repairers.

What precautions should I be taking when handing the car to them? I was thinking charge it to 80%, enable valet mode, take pictures of everything. Anything else?

Who is providing the hire car? your insurer or theirs?

If it's your insurer, £400 is likely to be an issue when the claim goes through, I can tell you from experience.

 

[NigelT]

I had a very similar incident, so for what it's worth... I got the drivers details and called their insurers directly. Explained who I was and who they were etc. I said would you like to accept responsibility, save some money etc and just fix my car? They were extremely receptive to that. They delivered me a suitable hire car, took mine away and delivered it back repaired.

 

[Durzel]

This £400 a day hire car situation sounds like an accident management company is involved.

As said above, be careful of what you sign - I would be very wary of having them chase you for that cost if the claim gets messy, although you'd like to think with dashcam evidence it shouldn't.

I had a very similar incident, so for what it's worth... I got the drivers details and called their insurers directly. Explained who I was and who they were etc. I said would you like to accept responsibility, save some money etc and just fix my car? They were extremely receptive to that. They delivered me a suitable hire car, took mine away and delivered it back repaired.

This is what I would do. You could tell them that you have clear evidence that their customer was at fault, and you're giving them this opportunity to deal with the claim before you go to your own insurers. They ought to jump at the chance.

 

[Zakalwe]

£400 per day for a hire car? nearly £3000 per week.....you could buy the bire car for that sort of dosh. Does it come with a Nepalese virgin princess in the back seat to give you neck rubs as you drive along?
That's taking the absolute pee and one of the reasons why car insurance is so high....they are just dumping charges onto the other insco.
As for you have to run around getting quotes? Tell them to take a long walk off a short plank and to go and do the job that you have paid them to do when you paid your insurance.

 

[IODETAIL]

Spot on,

The defendant's insurance company will definitely not pay £400 a day, questions they will ask you in the end to contend it;

• Was the rate charged not an ordinary commercial rate? (ie over inflated)
  
• Were you in a position to financial position to have paid the hire charges upfront?
• Did you not have access to any other household vehicle/s?
• Was the period of hire reasonable?

 

[Epico]

Spot on,

The defendant's insurance company will definitely not pay £400 a day, questions they will ask you in the end to contend it;

• Was the rate charged not an ordinary commercial rate? (ie over inflated)
  
• Were you in a position to financial position to have paid the hire charges upfront?
• Did you not have access to any other household vehicle/s?
• Was the period of hire reasonable?

They may also ask why you required a premium car? When a Mondeo is the same size but significantly cheaper to hire. Ideally you should be going to her insurer and asking them to provide you the car...cuts out middle man of accident management companies and ensures there is no recourse on you should there be any issue with the claim...as you have dashcsm footage there shouldnt be an issue with liability

 

[Sixer]

Agreed someone is taking the pee! It’s actually my own insurance company I am dealing with as it was a hit and run. I have their registration number. The vehicle that hit me is confirmed insured. My car is not going to be a write off from my untrained eye, but who knows. Going to phone my well known insurance company now.

 

[dan223]

Who is your insurer? Are you speaking to your insurer? It sounds like your dealing with a claims management company?
If you use your insurer and use one of there approved repairers (and assuming a tesla approved one nearby isn't one of them) then normally the repairer will provide you with a courtesy car. If you wish to pursue and use a tesla approved then it will involve more legwork and you will need to go there, get a quote, they should be able to send it to the insurance company, and then the insurance company can approved, generally they will have cars they can give you to, you just may need to get insured on them.

 

[IODETAIL]

They may also ask why you required a premium car? When a Mondeo is the same size but significantly cheaper to hire. Ideally you should be going to her insurer and asking them to provide you the car...cuts out middle man of accident management companies and ensures there is no recourse on you should there be any issue with the claim...as you have dashcsm footage there shouldnt be an issue with liability

Good point missed that off! They questioned the 5-series we hired (bare in mind they hit our 5-series too!)

 

[Glan gluaisne]

In my case, my insurer initially offered a small hatchback courtesy car for a week, but upgraded that to a car that was equivalent to my own as soon as they received confirmation that I was not at fault. All this happened before I actually had the courtesy car delivered, as the person that ran into me admitted liability as soon as they were confronted with the dash cam footage that showed I'd been stationary at the time of the accident.

The whole thing went like clockwork, as far as I was concerned. My insurer paid me quickly, so I could buy a replacement car, and reclaimed the cost from the other persons insurance. All I suffered was a bit of inconvenience on the day of the accident, when my wife had to come and pick me up, plus me emailing a copy of the dash cam footage to the police, who confirmed they would be seeking to charge the other driver. I presume my insurer got this information from the police, as they sorted out the upgraded courtesy car quickly, and delivered it during the afternoon of the following day.

 

[Cnixon]

Find out who the other party is insured with. If they admit responsibility then try to negotiate direct with them. My experience is it will be best for you as they know your insurance will try to rip them off e.g. car hire, time off work, spilt coffee on your Armani suit, whiplash etc.

 

[Sixer]

I’m speaking directly with my insurer. My insurer a big well known one, uses a company called Auxillis who arranges the car hire. When speaking to my insurer they said they were not aware of these ridiculous hire costs and have now forwarded the hire car need to Enterprise. Auxillis hassled me every hour to go with their ridiculous fees. Thi is when I knew something was wrong. Only when I saw the costs was it confirmed. They should be investigated.

 

[SpareHeadOne]

Even better, now that you've made a claim your contact details will end up with someone who wants to get you compensation for the accident that wasn't your fault.

I'm still getting calls ~5 years after my last claim.