Flamin' coachbuilders

[Breezy boy]

Last week some muppet slightly damaged my car in a car park, leaving an abrasion and a four inch scratch on my n/s bumper and front wing- no panel damage. Went through the proper channels to report it to fleet management and later got a call from the nominated coachbuilder to bring it in for an estimate.

Went down this afternoon and it was the usual 'how can we make this as expensive as possible' attitude. They need the car for three days and as far as I can tell, are going to dismantle the front to check for hidden panel damage. What's the betting they'll find some whether there is any or not? I just think this trade takes the p*ss and makes a major contribution to high insurance prices.

I do know a decent coachbuilder who saved my much loved and only slightly damaged Alfa from the crusher a few years ago, but I can't use him as the Vec is a company car. Aforementioned Alfa would have been written off because of the way the majority coachbuilders do business, but was perfectly viable to repair - I just wonder how many salvagable cars a year are written off in this way.

Rant over, but anyone else agree or have similar experiences?

[Graeme]

i had an accident repair place take 5 weeks to 'fix' my old cavalier after someone hit me up the rear. Got the car and they were so taking the ****. they claimed to have replaced the rear bumper, tailgate and re sprayed it all, added new badges as well as all the chasis stuff. All at a cost of just under £3000. I wondered why it wasnt a write off. However thay had not done half of it. the tailgate was the old one still with same swirls and odd scratch and old badges and didnt even fir right. They ended up taking it for another 4 weeks to rectify.

Total chancers, just glad i wasnt paying.

[SignumPhil]

I can't belive there are still fleet companies who don't use Chipsaway. They'd fix something like that in a day, and charge about £400!

Phil

[VauxVeteran]

I lost a cavalier for two weeks for a rear bumper

Omega for 3 for a front wing bumper and headlight


I think what they do is to do 1 hr a day on 25 cars rather than25 hrs on 1 car.

[leroy]

my vec was rear ended 4-5 weeks ago, and i went through local claims guy and he offered to go halvies on hire car charges, (for a car i don`t need) as it wouldn`t effect my insurance, naturally i turned this offer down but i bet theres some who would take his hand off without thinking about overall affect on premiums