Somebody unsuccessfully attempted to break into the Omega ('98) on Wed night when it was parked in a hotel car park. They punctured the door skin around the handle (just below the lock) with something sharp (screwdriver?) and therefore there is a hole with a reasonable impression around it, and some scatching.
I'm expecting the insuance to cover it, and I have protected no claims, but am I likely to suffer an increase in premiums if I claim? Anyone any idea what the repair might cost if I decide to pay it myself?
I'm guessing a few hundred at least. When I told colleagues about it yesterday, this isn't uncommon - young losers who can't even manage to break into a car successfully, causing hundreds of pounds of expense for people daily. Makes my blood boil.
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Update. A friend reminded me about insurance excess (£200) and I also recalled my past experience of the local Direct Line approved bodyshop, so have gone out today and negotiated a good price for the repair. New skin not required, repair this damage plus some other dinks for £200! I'm told it will be good as new...
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It will be :-)
We had someone try the same thing with my dad's BMW, they had really ripped the skin around the lock, big puncture and an impression around it, all of this on a fold in the metalwork.
We took it to a small local bodyshop and he managed to repair it, he even managed to recreate the fold in the metal perfectly with absoloutely no sign that it was ever damaged. The only giveaway lies in that when we replaced the handle we used one without a lock in it as the car has remote locks. We figure that as there was no need to have a lock in the pasenger side it was just an unnecessary weak point.
Blue
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I have often thought about getting a passenger door handle from a LHD Opel Omega (they are on ebay most of the time) and fitting it to my driver's side so that neither side has a lock, but I would worry about a flat battery or other fault rendering the car useless. I presume cars that have keyless entry have some sort of fallback system, such as a backup capacity in the entry system?
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If you don't have a lock then you won't be able to get into your car in the event of a flat battery in your key transmitter.
You also won't be able to start your car if you can gain entry.
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Well I think you're doing the right thing having a 'minor' repair.
A new door skin may show in that the reflection down the flank of the car is misaligned, or the folding on the other side looks odd. I hope it all goes to plan and the scum who did it falls onto some spiked railings or something like that.
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"I presume cars that have keyless entry have some sort of fallback system, such as a backup capacity in the entry system?"
Yes - its called a key. On the laguna a key can be pulled out of the bottom of the card. On the passenger door handle is a piece of false trim. Prise it off and lo and behold a key hole.
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I can't even understand why they attempt to puncture the door skin as presumably the deadlock will prevent them popping up the door button via the operating rod.... unless they know something we don't.
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