MYSTERY SOLVED

:rock: :rock:

I know I shouldn't be so happy now but its good to find out what it was!

On the off chance it was malicious or localised industrial damage, I contacted the police at Fort William to see if there had been any other reported incidents that I could tie it down to

Spoke to a top fella there (who drives a white Octavia vRS :clap: ) and explained I'd had damage done to which he said there had been no reported malicious incidents... I mentioned the car next to me had had the window smashed and maybe they just hadn't reported it, so he checked under weather incidents and said there were 21 reported incidents over the few days I was there, including windscreens being smashed, windows smashed etc etc - nothing taken and unlikely to be malicious as the scale was too large.

They had put it down to wind, as the car park I was on is so exposed under high winds, that objects from all over the place, including the the Loch, (such as stones etc) get blown around the car park:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=fort+william+map&ll=56.815324,-5.11724&spn=0.006835,0.013733&hnear=Fort+William,+Highland,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=56.815324,-5.11724&panoid=tfSXmKIw8cZFwzsMgi3MdQ&cbp=12,224.47,,0,-1.28

(I parked roughly where the Civic is currently driving on the google map image above - so am fortunate I was protected by all the other cars parked by me as the wind was initially coming from the far end of the car park)

Quite amazing stuff that the wind can cause so much damage!... don't **** with nature!

PS - the guy I spoke to even remembered my car being parked there, and the wheels I had on

Glad you've got to the bottom of it.

Question now is, if you're going through insurance for a respray, whether they'll cover it as it's been caused by 'an act of God' ?

Mrs Chester's Fabia vRS was damaged by hail last summer - over 100 dents on the roof alone.

This was covered by the insurance.

But when I came to renew my insurance (she is a named driver on my policy), I declared the claim and they wanted an extra £125!

Needless to say they didn't get my business.

Chatting to some other locals who also had their car damaged by the same hail storm - some were covered by their insurance, sime were not.

Many years age I drove a Cadillac through a very strong dust storm by Palm Springs - it took almost full throttle from a 6 litre engine to keep moving - the leading edge of every surface including all that ugly chrome was sandblasted and the windscreen was opaque. The wind can do a lot of damage once it picks up sand, dust, rocks or anything else.

Glad you've got to the bottom of it.

Question now is, if you're going through insurance for a respray, whether they'll cover it as it's been caused by 'an act of God' ?

you had me worried then! --- have gone off and checked the docs and unfortunately i'm not covered for nuclear fission, radiation, war, revolution etc etc, however there's nothing in there about high winds, acts of god etc etc so i'm covered *phew*

But when I came to renew my insurance (she is a named driver on my policy), I declared the claim and they wanted an extra £125!

that is an interesting point - I never checked on how it may impact the wife! doh! she has also had to make a claim (none-fault tho) this year and is just coming up for renewal in the next couple of months!

I checked with my insurer on how the claim would impact my insurance, and they've suggested the renewal price will go up by about £60 (based on prices 'today')

I've also had a quote from a couple of companies on the vwgroup-paintandbody website, and the damage is coming in at around £6.5k :o (full respray basically and replacement windows all round) - its sad, and some may argue I shouldn't claim but it looks such a mess that i'm going to have to I think

Edited 12 April, 201313 yr by looking_to_buy

A 6.5K claim could write the car off, so be ready just in case it happens.

A 6.5K claim could write the car off, so be ready just in case it happens.

that is a good point - thanks for mentioning it... i've checked my policy documents and can't seem to see a '%' threshold as to whether it's a write off or not... any ideas on how they decide what's a write-off / what isn't?

Quickly using one of those online 'car valuation' tools (this one: https://www.mycarcheck.com/confused/valuation/ ), its suggesting:

Auction Value is £12800

Trade In is £13400

Private is £13800

Forecourt is £15700

I also suspect the insurance company will be able to negotiate labour rates with the bodyshop (as the bodyshop told me they usually get bartered down on them!)

I shouldn't worry about claiming, that's what you pay your premiums for. And if your ruthless shopping around when it comes to renewal you'll possibly be able to find a cheaper alternative. I don't necessarily mean comparison sites - a bit of old fashioned phoning around brokers and the like and you might well get a better price with the cover you want (which of course you should always ensure).

I was personally surprised (and delighted) how much I was able to reduce my premium this year, and that was with declaring a brakes modification, by simply ringing around the sponsors on here. They are all definitely worth trying along with the traditional providers, with discounts available using your membership details in some cases.

Regarding write off, which is a good point, the thresholds will vary by company. I've seen 60% mentioned by some, so hopefully you'll just be ok with those figures.

Adam