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Tue 3 Jan 2023 09:58

Any - How it should work - mcb100

Just had a car emerge from a side street and collide with the o/s rear door of the car this morning, and I’m massively pleasantly surprised how effectively everything was handled.
Collision happened just after 8, swapped details, drove home.
Rang the insurance company, bit of a hold to get through, but an easy enough process. Decided on the phone that I wasn’t at fault and don’t have to pay the excess.
Within 10 minutes, the bodyshop have called to arrange an estimate and car hire company have called to arrange a replacement car.
By 9 o’clock it’s all sorted, bar getting it repaired.
Congratulations to the insurance company named after a port in the N-W and the second longest serving British monarch.

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Tue 3 Jan 2023 10:04

Any - How it should work - Andrew-T

Your bodyshop or the insurer's ? This incident sounds pretty much like the one I had on Christmas Eve 2016. Repair cost was estimated at more than car's value, so a write-off. But I chose to have the repair done at my local place, much more convenient for me.

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Tue 3 Jan 2023 10:10

Any - How it should work - mcb100

Insurer’s choice, but only 2 miles away. Looking like a new door skin, if that’s still a thing, plastic wheel arch trim and a wheel refurb.

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Tue 3 Jan 2023 10:50

Any - How it should work - badbusdriver

Couple of months ago my mother in law was rear ended at a roundabout. She was on her way to pick up my son from his work at a McDonalds which is just off the roundabout. Because she was in an absolute panic, she drove to Mcd car park rather than stopping right where it happened, but the other car followed her. In the car park, the other driver admitted (my son witnessed this) fault and details were swapped.

However the other driver has now changed her mind and according to my MIL's insurer, the only way this can now move forward without her claiming off her own insurance is by taking it to court. She doesn't want the hassle of having to go to court with my son, but at the same time, she doesn't want to claim off her own insurance which would inevitably increase her premium. The car is her pride and joy, she is a very timid and meek lady who always assumes if something has gone wrong it is her fault. And she worries about everything, so the whole affair has caused her a huge amount of stress (to date) and she just cannot understand why the driver of the other car is now denying being at fault.

It is a sad state of affairs that this kind of thing happens and indicates how important it is to have dash cam showing front and rear (as I have told her).

Many years ago a supermarket delivery driver reversed in to the back of our car before delivering our sopping without saying a word(!). I only discovered an hour or two later my parents turn up to visit and my Dad is asking what happened to the car. I went to the supermarket and spoke to both the manager and the driver of the van and despite the damage to my car exactly matching the shape of the delivery vans rear corner, the driver denied it!.

A couple of years ago I was speaking to an elderly customer. He told me that a Royal Mail driver had hit the wall of his garden and knocked it down. Despite a neighbour witnessing it, the driver still denied it was him!.

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Tue 3 Jan 2023 12:18

Any - How it should work - gordonbennet

I went to the supermarket and spoke to both the manager and the driver of the van and despite the damage to my car exactly matching the shape of the delivery vans rear corner, the driver denied it!.

Ignore local managers, go straight to head office transport managers in such instances, responsible companies take such things very seriously these days especially if they operate HGV's because good repute and standing are vital to operators licencing, they don't want to appear in small claims courts etc where they might be found to blame.

Feel for your MiL, you're quite right about front and rear cameras ours have front and rear (my truck has all round recording to sealed hard drive, those are serious bits of kit) and one should always get witnesses at the moment regardless of causing a bit of delay....however no doubt your dear relation comes from an era when a persons word meant something, when someone's honour was important to them, sadly too often the people we come up against haven't the first inkling what any of this means nor how normal such behaviour was at one time in this once wonderful country before it was ruined, our way of life will not go back to an age of decency and we are all worse off for that, even the low lifes if they did but know it.

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Tue 3 Jan 2023 10:44

Any - How it should work - RT

Just had a car emerge from a side street and collide with the o/s rear door of the car this morning, and I’m massively pleasantly surprised how effectively everything was handled. Collision happened just after 8, swapped details, drove home. Rang the insurance company, bit of a hold to get through, but an easy enough process. Decided on the phone that I wasn’t at fault and don’t have to pay the excess. Within 10 minutes, the bodyshop have called to arrange an estimate and car hire company have called to arrange a replacement car. By 9 o’clock it’s all sorted, bar getting it repaired. Congratulations to the insurance company named after a port in the N-W and the second longest serving British monarch.

Sounds like it's being dealt with by a claims handler who will provide a nice expensive courtesy car and probably refer you to another claims company for personal injury compensation - no wonder car insurance is so expensive.

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Tue 3 Jan 2023 11:02

Any - How it should work - mcb100

No, it sounds exactly like I’ve described it.

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Tue 3 Jan 2023 11:04

Any - How it should work - elekie&a/c doctor

That’ll be a new door . Replacement skins are rarely available these days and far too costly to fit against a new door.

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Tue 3 Jan 2023 15:06

Any - How it should work - Heidfirst

hope that all parts are available for you. I had a repair done last summer that should have been a 2 day job but dragged on for weeks due to parts (un)availability. Hopefully, supply chain has improved since then.

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Tue 3 Jan 2023 15:54

Any - How it should work - mcb100

It’s perfectly driveable, so it won’t go to the bodyshop until parts are to hand I’d hope.

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Sun 26 Mar 2023 21:51

Any - How it should work - mcb100

Well, a quick update on an old thread.
Having got everything in hand within half an hour on January 3rd, the car is still awaiting repair. It’s still perfectly driveable, and is indeed being driven daily, but parts unavailability mean it’s not yet crossed the threshold of the bodyshop. Blame Brexit/Covid/Putin (delete where not applicable).
The hire car booking is still in place for when it’s needed, and if the parts don’t show up within the next few weeks I’ll be suggesting to the insurer that they source a good used door.

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Mon 27 Mar 2023 10:30

Any - How it should work - madf

If it was a tesla, it would be offroad for a year.. Parts supply is Atrocious.

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Mon 27 Mar 2023 11:10

Any - How it should work - mcb100

Everyone’s in the same boat regarding parts availability. I spoke to the parts manager at a different bodyshop a couple of days ago and he’s been waiting for a Mercedes headlamp since October. They’ve taken to scouring eBay and breakers yards to get parts off write-offs.

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Mon 27 Mar 2023 11:16

Any - How it should work - Steveieb

Five star service from the insurance company but it’s a similar story in this weeks Sunday Times where a reader has been kept waiting for months for a trim part for a Kia.

The insurance company gave the reader a totally unsuitable loan car for a family and so this was sorted and in the end Kia were persuaded to ring araound all their dealers to check if they had the part, but in the end they reluctantly robbed the part off a new car !

I wonder which car companies have the best availability of spares? Maybe Toyota as they manufacture in the UK ?

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Mon 27 Mar 2023 11:36

Any - How it should work - RT

Five star service from the insurance company but it’s a similar story in this weeks Sunday Times where a reader has been kept waiting for months for a trim part for a Kia.

The insurance company gave the reader a totally unsuitable loan car for a family and so this was sorted and in the end Kia were persuaded to ring araound all their dealers to check if they had the part, but in the end they reluctantly robbed the part off a new car !

I wonder which car companies have the best availability of spares? Maybe Toyota as they manufacture in the UK ?

The Japanese "Just-In-Time" doesn't make it easy to provide timely spares to repair existing cars - it's so much easier to predict the nefor parts used in production than parts needed for aftermarket repairs.

I've been in that position with my VW Touareg - the sunroof was faulty so booked in for repair, the part arrived on time but was itself faulty and only found when the car was in a state of disassenbly - VW UK had no more parts, nor did VW Europe or the factory so a 2-week delay while the part arrived at the factory and was diverted to my dealer - for most of the time a VW Up was provided as a courtesy car but for one weekend I needed a like-for-like so VW hired Touareg from Enterprise.

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Mon 27 Mar 2023 12:22

Any - How it should work - Andrew-T

<< The Japanese "Just-In-Time" doesn't make it easy to provide timely spares to repair existing cars - it's so much easier to predict the nefor parts used in production than parts needed for aftermarket repairs. >>

This problem is not new, only the scale of it. About 20 years ago I owned a Pug 306 soft-top which needed rear dampers. It was July, and my indie had been told there was only one on stock in the UK, and France was on holiday. Say no more.

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Mon 27 Mar 2023 14:07

Any - How it should work - Crickleymal

. >>

This problem is not new, only the scale of it. About 20 years ago I owned a Pug 306 soft-top which needed rear dampers. It was July, and my indie had been told there was only one on stock in the UK, and France was on holiday. Say no more.

That last but reminds me of the air traffic controller who did public speaking and made a few records. He did a bit about handing control of a plane over to the French ATC on days where there was a strike.

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Mon 27 Mar 2023 14:23

Any - How it should work - Engineer Andy

<< The Japanese "Just-In-Time" doesn't make it easy to provide timely spares to repair existing cars - it's so much easier to predict the nefor parts used in production than parts needed for aftermarket repairs. >>

This problem is not new, only the scale of it. About 20 years ago I owned a Pug 306 soft-top which needed rear dampers. It was July, and my indie had been told there was only one on stock in the UK, and France was on holiday. Say no more.

Rather like the front foglamp on my (17yo) Mazda3 - it was *supposed* to be in for a replacement unit (the lens was cracked and now fully broken [stone chip damage]) almost 3 weeks ago but the part has not been sourced. My only guess is that either they're having to physically manufacture some more in Japan or they are personally qalking the item to the UK.

Like with many car manufacturers, they have a big parts depot on the continent (Belguim in Mazda's case) but increasongly never appear to have much stock actually there. It took them 3 weeks to source a new clutch back in 2016. Now 5 weeks and counting for this part. Just lucky that it's not an MOT fail item.

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Mon 27 Mar 2023 14:45

Any - How it should work - sammy1

The OP does not say what car he needs a door for . There is an abundant supply of second hand parts out there especially for the more popular models. He might even be able to get a door in the same colour.. You can get simple body repairs done quite cheaply if you go the second hand route and cut out the insurance company. Involve them and you will end up paying the claim back through excess and higher renewal.

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Mon 27 Mar 2023 17:39

Any - How it should work - Steveieb

Just heard from a proud Honda Civic (New Model) that Honda are not planning to make any more Civics this year because of lack of parts !

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Tue 28 Mar 2023 11:49

Any - How it should work - madf

I only buy cars that have been in volume production for a few years... thus ensuring a plentiful supply of new or used parts. (2003 Yaris: heater resistor s/hand £12)

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Tue 28 Mar 2023 14:37

Any - How it should work - Engineer Andy

Just heard from a proud Honda Civic (New Model) that Honda are not planning to make any more Civics this year because of lack of parts !

Blimey! We're only 3 months into 2023. What are these firms using to make parts? Blacksmiths? Where exactly 'are' the shortages?

As far as I can see it, fuel isn't in short supply, now that what Russia used to sell to Europe etc is now sold elswhere, freeing up other supplies, and 'COVID' is hardly a factor now, so what's stopping them mining and manufacturing stuff?

I did read a report yesterday that said that governments, including our own, are now mandating that car firms sell, not just produce, X% of EVs per year - love to know how they are going to do that, unless they are deliberately subsidising prices of EVs by upping the price of ICE cars.

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