My insurance company botched repair work on my car - can you offer some advice?

I have a Citroen C4 Picasso. It was kerbed and the front section of the nearside sill is badly damaged (metal crushed and torn up as far as to where it meets the inner wing section of frame). My insurance company did a sectional sill repair which was very poor. A complaint about the quality, or rather the lack of quality of the repair by an insurance 'approved' repairer was made, particularly the strange blue weld and carbon deposits. I've had my car inspected by a so-called independent inspector (sourced by and paid for by the repairer). I found it to be a hatchet job on dismissing my concerns about structural damage being caused by poor welding of the sectional repair. Other than poor paint finish, the inspector felt there was no issue, even with crushed sill seams visible, bare metal on the underside visible, gaps in the weld visible, and some sort of blue oxidation and smoke/carbon on the underside of the car where the welding was done. I believe there is repair related damage (heat damage to sill and steel floorpan from welding). How can I test for a heat damaged steel structure? Also should the damaged sill panel, which has had only a sectional repair, have been repaired in full?

Asked on 28 November 2017 by oldstan

Answered by Honest John
Firstly, in writing, send correspondence to both the repairer and insurer advising you are rejecting goods and services under the 2015 Consumer Act. Arrange to have the vehicle inspected by an "independent expert witness engineer assessor", you can contact the Institute Of Automotive Engineer Assessors and they can advise you of one: www.iaea-online.org

Nothing of what you have advised is acceptable in any way. Was the engineer who inspected the vehicle qualified? Present the finding of the report you have carried out to the insurer and advise you will be contacting a solicitor to issue proceedings.
Similar questions
Trying to get through a narrow gap to get off a garage forecourt, I scraped my car against the bumper of a large lorry. No damage at all to the lorries bumper, but I have a slight depression in the rear...
My vehicle was parked but the handbrake wasn't on properly. It rolled back into a parked car causing a very minor damage. You could see where it had bumped and bent it, which grazed the paint on the bumper...
As I opened the door of my van, the wind caught the door and blew it into the side of the car parked next to me. There is only a tiny bit of damage. After a bit of panicking I went and got a pen and paper...
Related models
Five individual seats. Impressive ride comfort. Large boot. 1.2-litre 130PS engine with auto is a fine choice.