Thought I would pick everyone's brains here. When I last borrowed a courtesy car from my usual garage I hit a badger whilst driving at 60mph. I had no other choice but to hit it without causing an accident - cars on other side of the road, and behind.

I thought I had got away with it at first but 15 miles later the coolant light came on, and the temp gauge went up, so I had to stop, checked coolant - nothing in the header tank:thumbdwn:. The radiator was badly damaged too.

I had to get recovered home by the RAC, and in the end the garage picked it up from home, after I had gone and collected my car from the garage. I felt extremely guilty about it all at the time, and apologised for the damage to the car ( 03 Fabia 1.4 )

I dropped the car off the other day and was presented with a £500 :eek: for the damage and collection of the car. I wondered what peoples thoughts were? I have paid it and didn't say too much at the time - as I felt it was my fault and I would want the same if someone damaged my car. However I thought insurance would cover some of this at least.

Did they get you to sign anything when they handed you the keys, and if so what were the terms of the loan ? Could it be there was someting in the small print to say what excess you might have to pay in the event of an accident ?

If no-one explained the terms of the loan to you before you took the car out I'd have been tempted to tell them to go swing.

Yikes!! :eek: That sucks...

Were you driving it under your insurance or theirs? Maybe in the courtesy car hire agreement there's a £500 excess shown?

Feck me there's an echo in here

Usually £1000 excess from most garage cars. You wont be covered by TTFT on yours either.

Cheers for the replies. I have asked about this in the past and the mechanic says I am covered by the "garage insurnace". As long as my car is in the garage I am covered. I don't have to sign any paperwork to collect the car

Edited 22 January, 201016 yr by richardsfavorit

I agree if you didn't sign anything to say you agree with £500 excess then i don't see how they can make you pay it!!!!

Was it the badgers fault?

Can you sue it? after all where there's a blame there's a claim.

Was it the badgers fault?

Can you sue it? after all where there's a blame there's a claim.

Badger Badger Badger.com! The Original Dancing Badgers!

Thanks all - especially the dancing badgers - that has made laugh on a few occasions!

The garage has been quite good to me over the past 7 years so I m in two minds whether to go back again after this. They have even leant me a car for a month in the past. I did debate about arguing it over at the time - but I thought I am booking my car in and didn't want to cause a fuss (only me and the main chap around at the time of this bill being presented).

I have spoken to a few people about this as well - they said about the excess and so on, however I have never seen paperwork with details on the excess. Someone said that an excess would cost that much anyway and they have been good in the past so don't worry. I do think if someone had done that to my car then I would expect them to pay!

Having worked in a Mercedes Benz dealership we offered the customer the choice of the garage insurance ( a premium of £12.50 ) or the customer arranged for own insurance to cover car which they had to do in front of us (ie call their insurer). If they took the garage car then a basic hire agreement form was drawn up and was signed by both parties. If you never received any paperwork then how can they prove you were driving it, even in the event of running a red light etc. I would ask to speak to the service manager or even the dealer principal to see where this £500 charge has come from and why you were not informed of events like this before you took the car away.

It would be interesting to see an itemised bill for the repair. A replacement rad for an '03 Fabia is under £100 and there is not much labour involved in swapping it out for a new unit. Even allowing for £100 recovery to the dealer, I can't see why the bill should be over £300 at retail rates, unless there was any bodywork damage?

It would be interesting to see an itemised bill for the repair. A replacement rad for an '03 Fabia is under £100 and there is not much labour involved in swapping it out for a new unit. Even allowing for £100 recovery to the dealer, I can't see why the bill should be over £300 at retail rates, unless there was any bodywork damage?

There was a recovery charge unfortunatley - £80, Radiator - £80, Antifreeze - £9, new front panel £125, and £150 labour on top, and then vat. :thumbdwn:

Having worked in a Mercedes Benz dealership we offered the customer the choice of the garage insurance ( a premium of £12.50 ) or the customer arranged for own insurance to cover car which they had to do in front of us (ie call their insurer). If they took the garage car then a basic hire agreement form was drawn up and was signed by both parties. If you never received any paperwork then how can they prove you were driving it, even in the event of running a red light etc. I would ask to speak to the service manager or even the dealer principal to see where this £500 charge has come from and why you were not informed of events like this before you took the car away.

Unfortunately they are not a dealership, just repairs and second hand cars. The chap who presented the bill is the one who is in charge, therefore I couldn't really argue.

I am tempted to write a letter - and properly won't go back again!

I can easily see how a badger can cost £500 to fix when you are doing the job properly and can't see how you have much chance of getting your money back.

Garages will either let you cover a loan car on your insurance (which it sounds like you didn't do) or drive it on their insurance which will have a hefty excess. It's unusual for them not to make you sign the paperwork before handing over the keys but I still think you are stuffed.

Look at it the other way round - if they were taking your car out for a test drive and hit the wildlife you'd expect them to make good the damage.

Cheers Zoidberg - I had pretty much thought that I won't get anything back, and as you say if it had happened to a car that was being test driven it would be a bit different. If my car was damaged when they had it in the garage I would expect them to pay for it, therefore its reasonable that I should pay for the damage to their car.

Many garages have their policy stuck to the counter, or a wall nearby. This is their get out.

If you didn't sign anything saying you accepted that charge I'd love to see them prove they drew your attention to the £500 charge.

I agree it's just one of those things and with most loaners being new cars I tend to pay the £5 fee just in case.