And it was all going so well...

Just over a year into my 3 yr PCP with a 1.4TSi DSG SE hatch, and loving it to bits. Then this afternoon, minding my own business, got T-boned.

Car took the hit right on the back axle on my side, curtain airbags and seat airbags fired, I walked away with a few aches but - fingers-crossed - otherwise unscathed. Rear door scratched, bashed and wouldn't open, rear wing bent, rippled & stoved in over the wheel. Car was still drivable afterwards, but with airbags obscuring windows and a suspect kink in the rear pillar on the passenger side (i.e., other side to the impact) commonsense dictated it had to be trailered away.

So, lucky escape for me, but my concern is what happens with the PCP 1) in terms of any effect a repair has on its future value, or 2) if it has to be written off.

Other party's insurance company has already admitted liability (didn't have much choice - witnessed by an off-duty cop!), but my insurance co didn't seem to know whether any gap between car's value at time of accident and oustanding finance could be recovered as an uninsured loss through my motor legal protection.

And before you ask - no, I didn't sign up for gap insurance. Which was clearly a bit daft in hindsight.

Any advice/experiences appreciated.

Edited 13 June, 20169 yr by MorrisOx

Crumbs! That doesn't sound good. Good to hear you walked away.

 

I can't help much, but my guess is that if the car isn't written off there won't be any affect on the PCP end value as the damage will have been repaired.

 

If it is written off, my guess would be that if there is any negative equity you'll be liable for it as that is what gap insurance is for.

You are not daft for not taking GAP. All gap proves is, that the insurance system we must have by law doesn't work. Any out of pocket you may have you can claim back from the other guy using your own insurance and don't let them tell you otherwise. If they do, they have miss-sold you. That is the whole point of it.

If air bags have fired and there is damage to a pillar then it's rare for them to come back.

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As above. I would prepare for it being written off.

As above I would push the insurance company to claim from the other party at least the full cost of the remaining PCP.

It was 100% their fault so you should not be out of pocket.

 

Depending on the condition of your car, you could also have a case to claim back some extra if e.g. you were well Under mileage & the car was in very good condition you could argue that you would have some extra equity to use as your next deposit. (not entirely sure how PCP works & if this would be the case).

 

A few years ago my brother had a similar accident & stupidly accepted the first offer for his car from the 3rd party insurance which was 2000gbp below the cost to end his lease deal.

He ended up in a much lower spec car because he had to carry the negative equity into his next finance deal.

You will not be able to automatically claim the 'gap' between any finance shortfall and the 3rd party offer as there is no provision for this in insurance policy/law which is appalling but true.

 

However, you should certainly never accept the first offer and should push hard to get what you need, particularly if you have legal cover on your policy.

Sorry to hear that

It will be a write off I`m sure. The other insurance will price up the car based on the present mileage and age and will sort out the remaining finance and if you are lucky you receive some money back too 

A friend of mine had her car crashed by an elderly lady who couldn`t find the brake :no: and the car got squashed between her car and a brick wall. The car was only 2 weeks old. Long story short that`s how she ended up. Good luck

Sorry to hear this. I had similar happen this time last year. Mine was a write off. Make sure if it is that you do your research as to how much it would be to replace the car and dont accept their first (or second or third in my case) offer. 

 

I've taken GAP insurance on my new one this time! 

A quick update.

Sorting out the insurance admin has been like dealing with the Tower of Babel. You'd think it would all be done with one call and one point of contact, but no. Every aspect of it is outsourced to other 'specialists' - recovery, claims handling, replacement vehicle, repair. All professional and pleasant, but all asking for identical info. Comically, insurance company didn't know where the car was post-recovery. I found it via the recovery guys themselves, and the accident repair centre it had been taken to said me turning up had solved a mystery - they didn't know whose car it was!

Anyway, should find out in the next couple of days whether it's repairable. Looking on the bright side, the motor legal cover claims people said that if the car was written off and there was a gap between settlement and finance they would look to recover the shortfall from the other driver.

A no fault accident from my perspective, but don't let anyone tell you a no-fault accident means no cost.

sorry to hear that mate, as much as I hate to say it be prepared for a bit of a fight, I really learnt a lesson a few years ago and that being insurance is nothing but a piece of paper - my old car got hit a few years ago in a car park, damage wasn't too bad but did require bonnet wing / light / bumper etc the whole process from start to finish was a nightmare and I wasn't even in the car when it got hit and the person who hit it was good enough to leave all their details and accept 100% liability.

 

My car did come back and the repair work was so poor the bonnet didn't even open the first time and I had reject it twice, on reflection I wished it had been written off because even when it went to p/x a few years later the value was reduced because the garage spotted immediately it had been repaired. My insurance was utterly useless during the whole process and then went on to put my premiums up. 

This is one of those appalling anomalies.

 

Insurance is there to return you to the position you were in immediately prior to the incident.

 

However, as you have discovered, this doesn't apply if the car is on finance.  The other party's insurer will only ever pay the market value of your vehicle in the event of their client being at fault in a write-off claim.

 

It's a loophole that needs closing.

The compo should more than make up for any shortfall in the insurance value and PCP value.

Perhaps you should add into it a claim for shock,  pain and suffering and inconvenience, quite apart from just the physical damage to the car. After all, the other driver's insurance, even if third party, has to cover all aspects of loss that can be justifiably claimed by the "injured party" not just the bent metalwork.

Perhaps you should add into it a claim for shock,  pain and suffering and inconvenience, quite apart from just the physical damage to the car. After all, the other driver's insurance, even if third party, has to cover all aspects of loss that can be justifiably claimed by the "injured party" not just the bent metalwork.

I'm on that one - been in pain since yesterday & can't lift right arm above shoulder level at mo. Plus the time & hassle.

Then there's the embarrassment of being seen with a courtesy Corsa on my drive...

I'm on that one - been in pain since yesterday & can't lift right arm above shoulder level at mo. Plus the time & hassle.

Then there's the embarrassment of being seen with a courtesy Corsa on my drive...

Well, THAT'S got to be worth 50 grand ????? (I mean for you, not the Corsa)

Don't Skoda 'Ensurance' take care of everything so long as you call them first?

What he said. Isn't the "endurance" supposed to sort it ? Or is it just a duplication of covers?

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So, here's another update.

Learned late last week that the car is going to be repaired, but I suspect it was a close call: roughly £7k of work, ranging from new headlining to new door to new rear suspension and a guest appearance on the laser chassis rig. Reckoned to be 12 days' work, but the worries about write-off settlement figures have gone away (though my insurer said they would have pursued that as an uninsured loss- which again raises questions about GAP insurance).

Several lessons to learn from this, mostly about insurance and finance.

1) Whatever insurance deal you're offered, one of the most important parts of the service is not the price but them handling claims on your behalf. Mine didn't - everything was outsourced and I was left to do everything from making calls at the scene to the recovery firm (!) to THREE separate discussions about the claim where I repeated exactly the same information because the different providers don't share files/systems. The hassle involved was enormous, multiplied by different call handlers in different call centres being of variable quality/attitude and having to familiarise themselves with the case every time I called. Conclusion? If paying more gets you a single point of contact go for it.

2) Skoda Finance...where do I start. My car is on a PCP so I did my duty and kept them informed at every stage. Unfortunately, four conversations with different call handlers brought four different interpretations of where it should be repaired, how it should be repaired, whether a repair would diminish value, what a Skoda-approved repair was. Worst of all, when I said to them that this was an issue they neeeded to discuss directly with my insurer the reply was a computer-says-no refusal to find a way of doing an outbound call. There was at one point a very real danger that the repair could have proceeded on a basis which would have affected the car's value because I had been misled by a call handler! They went from "we're happy for your insurance company to deal with it" to "no, you must get it moved to a Skoda dealer" to "make sure they use Skoda parts" to "as long as it's a Skoda-approved repairer" in the space of three days. In the end, an exasperated insurance company rang them. Conclusion? Don't approve anything - get them to do it directly with your insurer.

And all this on a 'no fault' claim. What we have here is the spectacle of two outfits whose main priority is not the paying customer but their own bottom line. In the case of the insurance company that manifested itself as them palming everything off to me - a classic case of responsibility avoidance. With Skoda Finance, what has so far been a good brand experience got trashed in four incompetent phone calls.

Oh, for the quiet life...

I truly hope you get your deserved for the damages to your vehicle.

 

I have to point out though in light of certain comments, though possibly in jest I am sure.

 

I can't stand low life fabricated or inflated injury claims, including whiplash. You are putting up people insurance unnecessarily, and its fraud and I hope they start throwing book at people doing it.

Unless somethings broken, **** off and deal with it. or as its often said "man the F*** up"

 

I was thrown off my bike, launched over a hit and run drunks boot, landed on my front down the road, which was newish cost £4k took 4 years to get any resolution, only got the £4k. Costs for clothing or personal injury ? I don't really think so. So stupid amounts for stupid claims **** me off.

Edited 30 June, 20169 yr by vRSAnt

pleased things are getting sorted for you, couldn't agree with you more on point 1 as i said earlier i had an absolute nightmare from start to finish a few years ago when my car was hit and i wasn't even in it.

Claims payments are an important point. In my case I was advised to pursue under the terms of my motor legal protection because my GP had documented an injury. As soon as the third party insurer was notified an unsolicited offer came back - standard practice apparently because it's probably cheaper to 'buy' an early settlement than it is to pay professionals to go through the legal process.

Again, it's a minefield - you don't know what's an appropriate sum, cash settlements can see physiotherapy withdrawn, you're never really sure whether they're sticking up for you or their bottom line.

Just wish it had never happened. If the third party had protected no claims they've come out of this smiling while I've had no end of hassle.

Well, here we are SEVEN weeks on from the accident and I've just got the car back from the repair centre. I think they finished the physical repairs over a week ago, but the car had to go to Skoda for a whole load of electronic resets and then a final wheel alignment/quality control assessment/valet session before it was released to me.

The car looks fab, but then again so it should - side panel replaced, new rear door, new rear valance, new rear torsion beam, new wheel/tyre/shock absorber on the right rear corner, new driver's seat, new headlining etc. The initial estimate was £7k of work, so I suspect the car escaped a write-off by the skin of its teeth.

All I'm left with now is the medical stuff. I'm still in physio for damage to my shoulder and will be until probably the end of August. I won't know about compensation until September.

Heroes? Enterprise Rentacar, who were brilliant throughtout. Gave me a Corsa to start off with, changed it without quibble to a Mondeo when it was obvious the Corsa wasn't big enough. Always good to deal with. Zeroes? Just about everyone else involved, especially the insurance company and Skoda Finance, who nearly managed to turn a drama into a crisis (see previous posts).

So that's it. One moment's inattention by another driver, a no-fault accident on my part, and two months of my life properly messed up.

Good to read you're coming out of it, fingers crossed for a speedy physical recovery.

Fascinating post - thank you for the updates, and I wish you all the best with your injuries.

 

My wife's parked Golf was hit 2 weeks ago by a ****-head who immediately (through his mother as he wouldn't come out of his house to talk to me) admitted liability. The damage was nowhere near what happened to yours, but as you said, we're the ones chasing everything up (interestingly apart from Enterprise funnily enough!). The sheer level of inconvenience this kind of event causes cannot be underestimated, and is only compounded by injuries.