Well it was nice having a new car whilst it lasted, 2 months and 2000miles. 

 

On sunday afternoon coming onto the M6 off the Tebay exit (southbound) into the roadworks, as soon as the cones between lane1 and 2 ended the lorry in lane 2 moved across and smooshed my car.

 

 

 

 

Police responded after I called them (the driver was getting a**ey claiming I undertook him and I wasn't going to deal with it).  Had a call yesterday from the police after reviewing CCTV that the lorry was in the wrong but not enough evidence to prosecute the driver.

 

Still got to wait on insurance companies to see who is "in the wrong" but it doesn't look like my insurance (Direct Line) is particularly interested in fighting my cause.

 

Thankfully the police officer that responded confirmed my car was roadworthy.

 

Gutted...

Edited 8 January, 201412 yr by gullyg

That's pretty harsh. It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if I should get GAP insurance?

:@

That's pretty harsh. It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if I should get GAP insurance?

 

GAP insurance wont do anything in a situation like this....

Sorry about your news.

 

Hope you are sorted in your favour soon.

 

Perhaps Direct Line should be more supportive!

I agree your insurance company should support you.

Sorry to see this damage :(

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Sorry about your news.

 

Hope you are sorted in your favour soon.

 

Perhaps Direct Line should be more supportive!

 

 

Thanks.

 

It's a bad sign when Enterprise are fighting your corner against your own insurance company -

Enterprise phoned me asking when I need a replacement car asking for the situation, once I'd explained they couldn't understand why Direct Line were ordering the hire car against my policy rather than trying to get the Lorry's insurance to pay.

 

On a different note - as far as I understand if the other driver is at fault I'm entitled to a "like for like" replacement until my car is repaired.  Otherwise I have "Hire Car Plus" which gives me like for like for 3 weeks.

 

What's like for like with a TDI vRS Estate? 

Edited 8 January, 201412 yr by gullyg

Sorry to hear about the accident, the police statement should help with your claim.

 

I personally would not use Direct Line, I think you will need to chase them to get anywhere, a work colleague of mine is still waiting for them to pay out for an accident after two years.

When the police respond you will usually (I was anyway) be sent a letter confirming the other parties insurance details and it will also mention who was a fault so that letter should be enough for your insurance company to sort the claim out. This happened to me twice two years running although there was never a dispute over the blame as both instances I was rear ended at traffic lights.

That's pretty harsh. It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if I should get GAP insurance?

As the car was not written off GAP insurance won't help at all.

Sorry to Hear about this if i were you i would be saying Bye Bye to direct line at Some Point and recommend you spend Abit of your hard earned on a lovely blackvue HD Camera no more Arguments about fault then. Hope you get everything Sorted.

On a side Note about like for like hire cars Must be BMW 520d m Sport Or a Merc C class 220 surely.

As the car was not written off GAP insurance won't help at all.

I know. I am still entitled to speculate as to wether or not I may need it if my vehicle was to be written off! (No hijack of thread intended)

The BMW or Merc are not in the same segment as the Octavia.  He'll be looking at a Golf/Focus/Astra estate.

Oh thats harsh. Gutted for you mate. So sorry :(

 

I would have been literally hopping mad. 

 

Really hope your insurance company pulls their head out of their a=rse and sorts it out by claiming through the lorry drivers!

 

P.S from seeing this Im thinking I might do well to add a rear facing camera to join the front facing one...........

Along with the rest, sorry to see your lovely motor scraped.

Too many responses to reply to - sorry.

 

Thanks for all the comments.  I was somewhat annoyed - hence caling the police when the driver got ar*ey as I didn't trust myself not to do something stupid let alone the other driver.

 

As for the hire car - a Focus/Astra aren't as large as the Octavia in my opinion, although I could do with the focus etc if necessary - I would prefer 180bhp though .

 

As for gap - yes I have it, if you're on finance especially I'd reccomend it to anyone.

 

As for dashcams - I was hoping to get one front and back but used the money for winter tyres.

 

I was wondering what would happen if the car was written off in regards to replacing it as it's our only car and the lead time for a vrs is slightly long.

The car will not be written off, the damage is minor and easily repaired. We have seen far worse repaired on new cars on this forum.

Had a 3 week old 300 mile car get rear ended at 50mph. Had problems with the other parties insurance company so asked ours (Swift cover....shower of let me tell you) to persue for us and decided to repair the car rather than replace (the other parties insurance company had agreed to a right off and were going back to square one with GAP cover.

Needless to say car came back three months and two hire cars later in a right state, went back for a further 6 months and was never right again.

One bonus is that we were given a no fault loan car through Angel Assist and was miles better than the car being fixed...had that for months.

In the end our 12k car cost approx 17-18k total to repair including hire car charges.....literally had an A4 lever arch file until recently full of insurance and legal documentation on that car....whoever has it now I feel v sorry for!

Looking at the photos no disrespect but looks worse than it is. You'll get that fixed for a few K and will look good as new, bet the car is still 100% straight, its when they need jigging that its really a problem as they're really never the same; "within tolerances" and "straight" being two completely different things. If the lorry had hit you dead on from behind and distorted the rear 3/4 panels (as happened with our car) thats when chassis damage usually occurs.

Edited 8 January, 201412 yr by pipsyp

A good few years ago my old man bought himself a brand new Impreza WRX. Cos of the big turbos on it it had a proper running in, very limited rpm for 1-2000 miles or so then to the dealer to change the diffrerent oil they put in which flushes out all the small metal parts form the machining of the turbo, normal oil in and away you go.

 

He was itching to get this over with and ended up cruising rond the M25 in 6th one night watching the odometer go round, had it booked in the next day. He got it over the required mileage pulled off the motorway and some idiot ran a red light and t-boned him. Car was a write-off. He got a new one but had to start again!

Oh no, feel sorry for you.

 

Don't accept poor/ action from your insurance. You need to push them. It's your choice, you are not making a claim on your policy you need to make a claim against the driver. Do you have legal expenses cover? That's what you should be using to action a claim against the lorry driver.

Can you not use the Skoda Ensurance thing? Thought they dealt with everything for you?

Insurance not Ensurance!

Insurance not Ensurance!

No...

http://www.skoda.co.uk/finance/skoda-insurance/skoda-ensurance

The free thing that comes with all new Skodas I was on about, it doesn't replace your insurance, it works with your insurance, just they take over and sort hire cars, genuine Skoda repair etc etc, not really looked into it myself, but its free with the car so might as well use it if you can?

Unfortunately the lorry driver's attitude is all too common as is that of your insurer. The police incident number will help your cause though. There's loads of posts on how wrthwhile dascams are and smartcam are one of the site sponsors. I bought a Blackvue 380 which is a smart piece of kit and sits nicely in front of the rear view mirror. Hope I never have to rely on it though but reassuring to know its there if needed. Good luck getting your car fixed, as above skoda ensurance would arrange to have it repaired to skoda standards if you wish to use their services which a few have signed up to as its free for the 1st 3 years.