That looks worryingly like a re-shell.

quite possibly , depends what its like behind the bumper , its been well hit though

In all honesty a write off is the best resolution. You have GAP so should be ok financially and you may never be 100% happy with a repair.

There is the main crash bar behind the bumper which is designed to absorb a large amount of the impact, it looks to me like that has been pushed hard in and therefore may have chassis damage.

Chrissi had her accident in Dec last year (Hit from behind) and despite a reasonable amount of sessions of Physio still suffers from back pain. Her claim is still pending, offers started at sub £2k and have stalled at £2300.

Will do.

Some Dihydrocodeine would be nice.

I ended up on 2 volterol and 8 of those per day (think that was the name of the tablets).

Worried me was the leaftlet said they were addictive and 4 per day max, but the doc had said 8.

Either way, i sure as hell didn't feel anything about 30 minutes after taking them

Stu, From what I was told by the lawyers for me who were very good a court awarded settlement is usually about £2.3k. It might be worth asking your lawyers what the going rate is at the moment for the court settlement.

Stu, From what I was told by the lawyers for me who were very good a court awarded settlement is usually about £2.3k. It might be worth asking your lawyers what the going rate is at the moment for the court settlement.

Our solicitor thinks 2.7k is a minimum for her injuries. They offered 2.3k including our expenses. Mind you she has had a few ££ of Bupa Physio so far.

not good :(

hope she's ok

but I'll echo others comments, in that the crease doesn't look good :-/

Sorry to read your bad news. Best wishes to swmbo and I hope she'll be ok.

I went for the GAP insurance like you. Think the car will be written off too. My boss had a van hit his car and damage looked easy fix. But a crease in the pillar so it was written off.

Hope it's resolved soon for you.

Thanks for the support, much appreciated

Been to A&E and got seen within 45 minutes as SWMBO was getting quite drowsy and in considerable pain. She is all dosed up with a concoction of pain killers at the moment. Been to the local police station to get a crash reference number, thought it best to cover all bases seeing as a write off could be on the cards.

The position of the tailgate in the second picture is in the fully closed position and gives a good idea how much of a bang it was. There is also a 3 inch left to right ripple in the boot carpet where the rear has been shunted forwards - not good.

But the car did it's job well and minimal injury was the result, I'm glad I specced the anti whiplash head restraints or things could be a bit different :(

Cars are indeed much easier to replace than a life

Oh and one other point - there is another smaller outward crease on the other C pillar but lower down.

If you lift the boot carpet and take the spare wheel out you'll probably see all sorts of nastiness.

Certainly does seem to be building up into a nasty amount of damage.

Funnily enough thats one of the first things I did, The wheel was pretty hard to get out as things have been shunted forwards but the main circular part of the spare wheel well appears to be in relatively good shape.

The Galaxy hit quite high up and didn't dive under the rear of the Octavia seeing as the 'zorsts are mostly intact so I am guessing by the creasing that the upper section of the chassis took the brunt of the force.

Glad SWMBO's OK.

Hopefully your insurance has new/replacement within first 12 months.

And make sure to claim for everything. My insurance enables me to get a like-for-like courtesy car for non fault claims (some inurances offer an addition to have this for fault claims too - normally business use policies). My guess would be same size and similar spec.

As Stu's said, injury's are common in rear shunts. Back pain, whiplash etc etc. Sister-in-law got clobbered on the M4 and the back & front of her Scenic ripped off - only the drivers area was intact!!!! She bounced across the carriageway 3 times and closed the motorway for a few hours. :eek:

She's having physio and going through the claim process - although her solicitor said this could take upto 2 years to resolve. Lorry driver that hit her was banned from driving for 2 years after wittnesses told the police he was driving like a runt.

If you lift the boot carpet and take the spare wheel out you'll probably see all sorts of nastiness.

When my A3 was hit and I got the spare out, it wouldn't go back :thumbdwn:

My insurance enables me to get a like-for-like courtesy car for non fault claims (some inurances offer an addition to have this for fault claims too - normally business use policies). My guess would be same size and similar spec.

I used a claim managment company- when the A3 got shunted they delivered me a nearly-new BMW 120 as a hire car and sorted my excess as well.

Glad SWMBO is ok

Car is probably a write-off with damage to the pillar tho.

I sorry to see that.

I work in a bodyshop. your looking at:

New bumper, new rear slam panel, jig to rear 1/4, materials and labour.

Its not as bad as you think.

In my bodyshop you'd have it back in a week.

If they write it off, i'll be gobb smacked

The reason I say the insurance will write it off is not due to the initial repair cost, but the fact that the car is new so will have to be repaired to as good as new with no creaks.

This will impact the cars warrenty and so usually to save on it biting them down the line if there are major repairs to a new car they will replace the car and sell the damaged vehicle off to the highest bidder.

I spoke to the friend of a friend who is an LA and they said they would probably write it off because the damage is in what is a fairly critical section of the car. Once the car is taken apart to fix things usually cost more as they find more issues.

I don't work in a body shop, so I'm actually curious about this, but am just thinking that the cost of the two c pillars and the boot floor and maybe an exhaust and a rear bumper and parking sensors and any electrics plus labour and then painting will add up quite quickly.

Also don't the C pillars form part of a cars "safety cage" so if compromised would be a major issue.

Since the C pillar is roughly where rear passengers heads are I'd certainly be worried about repairs there.

Also don't the C pillars form part of a cars "safety cage" so if compromised would be a major issue.

Since the C pillar is roughly where rear passengers heads are I'd certainly be worried about repairs there.

They certainly do, just like the A pillars, once creased they will be permanently weakened and that section will fold easily if hit again. That's why I think it will be written off.

I sorry to see that.

I work in a bodyshop. your looking at:

New bumper, new rear slam panel, jig to rear 1/4, materials and labour.

Its not as bad as you think.

In my bodyshop you'd have it back in a week.

If they write it off, i'll be gobb smacked

Without wanting to to insult you , once that's done it won't be as good as new and on a car that's only a couple of months old I wouldn't want to have it back.

Again, thanks for all of the constructive comments thus far.

SWMBO woke up this morning and has gained more mobility in her neck and the pain is less than last night so whether thats the "calm before the storm" I don't know. Either that or she has been very lucky.

I've already told her I don't want the car repaired mainly due to the creases in the C pillars. That to me indicates some serious damage to the chassis that can compromise the safety and possibly the handling characteristics of the car in the future, add to the the potential for squeaks and rattles. Not something I want in a 4 month old £21,000 car.

The GAP insurance also has an accident management service where they provide an equivalent car to your own and they badger both insurance parties on your behalf so they have been unleashed to get on with it.

It's at times like this the extra money spent on better insurance and GAP facility really pays off

Also - can someone expand on the comments about a replacement car within the first 12 months - I've never had to deal with a big prang such as this Cheers.

Many policies have a clause that says that if it's written off in the first 12 months you are entitled to a new car as a replacement

Many policies have a clause that says that if it's written off in the first 12 months you are entitled to a new car as a replacement

I was thinking that might be the case. What if the insurance company say the car can be repaired but I disagree with that and request the car be replaced?

Many policies have a clause that says that if it's written off in the first 12 months you are entitled to a new car as a replacement

I wouldn't even say it was a clause.... from experience with GAP policys I've had myself its one of the main features of the policy (Main reason why I've taken them in the past).

Also I'm pretty sure that most insurance policy's will just give a brand new replacement if the car is under 1 year old and is a write off.

Just out of intrest, can you insist a car is written off? I know some companies will do anything to avoid that. Say the company insisted on getting the car repaired is there any way you could get an independent assessment of the damage and dispute the decision?

Say the company insisted on getting the car repaired is there any way you could get an independent assessment of the damage and dispute the decision?

My thoughts exactly........:rubchin:

I was thinking that might be the case. What if the insurance company say the car can be repaired but I disagree with that and request the car be replaced?

Then you have a fight on your hands.

You don't have any automatic right to insist on a replacement - the decision to fix it or write it off is down to the insurance company. You need to be back into a position where you aren't worse off , but they may say that a repair does that.

If they want to fix it then you'd really need to get an independent assesment of the vehicle to say that it can't be repaired to be indistingushable from a new car and use that to argue your case.

Even if it does end up being repaired one thing you can do that most people don't know you can , is to claim for the reduction in value of the vehicle. Even if it's been properly repaired it will be worth less when you come to sell it on so you don't want to lose out financially.

When My Mk1 was rear ended I got 8% of the car's pre-accident value.

An intreresting twist to the tale, the other party said he was with the AA with regards his insurance but I have checked the askMID site and it has come back saying it's not on the database. I know there are a raft of other reasons why it might not be on there but..........................

The GAP/accident management people have come back to say the AA have no record of him either, they are now in contact with the police and they are running their own MID check on the owner as we speak :(