There I was minding my own business and enjoy the great ride that is my Fabia vRS and someone has the bright idea to drive straight into to to my drivers side. :thumbdwn:

Luckily the damage is cosmetic but I fear the mental scarring to the driver may be more permanent.

Anyway does anyone know where I stand by insisting that any work is undertaken by a Skoade dealership and not an accident repair centre?

I'm not knocking the work done by accident repair centres but when I have work done to my car of my own free will I use a dealership, therefore I think the same should apply to the crash repair.

Sorry to hear about that!

I believe the insurance co will have recommended repairers, but you are free to use a repairer of your choice.... although I doubt you'll have much come back if the work is not of a high standard........

Chris

That's true, but I'm guessing that any work under taken by a dealer would come with a warranty.

Where did you purchase your strut brace from and has it made a considerable difference to the handling?

That's something you'd have to talk about with your dealer

As for the strut brace, it's a SEAT item so my mate (SEAT mechanic) ordered it for me. Think they're about 50 quid and available from all SEAT dealer parts desks - just ask for the MOMO SEAT Ibiza Mk4 upper front strut brace - a search on here should turn up the exact part number. Hard to say how it's affected the handling as it went on with the Eibachs, but others have said it tightens the front end up nicely, which I'd agree with

Chris

bad news. Only every been in your situation once. But myself and my dad (his car) were very happy with the insurance companys choice. Local BMW garage.

Lol - only ever been in that situation once and the body shop the dealer used (and recommended!) were shocking and made a right mess of spraying the car, ordering correct parts, and fitting it back together. :(

I'd ask for recommendations of body shops in your area, or ask them to show you cars ready for collection so you can see their work

Chris

Sorry to hear that mate :(

Makes my scratch seem less serious!

Sorry to hear this. I've been there and done that with mine too. My garage does not have a bodyshop so they would have sent it to the same place as my insurance company. Probably best to do it through the insurance company in reality, the car was fixed pretty quickly (except for the intercooler duct which took ages). The hardest part is getting back the excess - I hope the other guy was insured!!!

I told the insurance that my dealers wear arranging for my Fabia to be repaired as I didn't want it to go to the big local repair shop as they are crap.

Then again I hear from CJ who are good and who are crap.