Very irritating but unfortunately all too common, I expect most of us on here have suffered the same misfortune. I personally wouldn't have bothered informing the insurance company but in theory it's the correct approach. Shop around for a cash quote at various body shops, you might be pleasantly suprised. Or if it is an older car, weigh up the pros/cons of not bothering and treat it as a battle scar, Parisien style. There is another option if it's a relatively worthless car, to DIY. It's very satisfying and a half decent repair is possible, if you take enough time over it and are a practical sort. Particularly successful in hard to see areas low down on the car.

I sympathise with you but life is too short to get really upset about it, it's just metal/plastic at the end of the day and stuff happens, as they say

PS I see it's a modern car, so my ramblings about DIY probably don't apply!

Edited by bazza on 22/04/2017 at 14:15

You've rather answered your own question - there's no evidence of the incident or who caused it (unless you write to several local papers to ask if anyone saw it - unlikely to bear fruit), so, depending upon the scale of the damage (if its significant, but not costing considerably more [I mean £150 - £200+] than your insurance excess), it would be better to get it repaired without involving the insurers, IF, despite telling them about the incident, they say (get this in writing [email OK]) this won't affect your premium next year.

The problem is that for relatively minor claims, these can up your premium (even with protected NCD - the 'starting premium' just goes up and you keep the same % discount - a rip off in my view) for several years afterwards, costing you MORE than the cost difference if you paid for the repair entirely out of your own pocket and didn't involve the insurer.