Drat! (Allows for the upgraded swear filter). With less than 2000 miles on the clock I slid my new C8 into a foot-high bollard while parking on some icy cobbles last week. Speed, negigible, damage, considerable. The bollard made a dent in the sill just aft of the nearside front wheel, fortunately missing the door. It's an insurance job so I rang my broker for a claim form. "A claim form?" he chortled, "we don't use those any more, ring this number". And so I did and was directed to a local Vauxhall dealer who provided me with a nondescript Vauxhall Corsa while the C8 was being repaired. I went to collect it yesterday and my delight at seeing it valeted and tyre-blacked quickly evaporated when I saw that the cleaner had banged two of the seats together and bent the plastic picnic tray on one seat. Not only that but the so-called repair has a shape completely unrelated to the profile of the rest of the sill. The damage could still be detected by anyone. I have rejected the repair, not paid the excess and asked them to supply and fit a new picnic tray.
My question is, what quality of repair should I ultimately expect? I would have hoped that the dent should disappear completely; is this too much to hope for? Has anyone else had a repair done and seen it vanish, so to speak? Or will there always be a trace? I fear that using the insurance company's "approved repairer" has limited my scope for choosing someone competent.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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If you read my thread "Insure/Repair", you will see I have had similar problems albeit with a different car. I think persistance and an independent inspection are the way to go. Surely you should expect to get the car back in the same condition as before the accident? If someone could tell that it had been in an accident, wouldn't that affect the resale value. Good luck and I hope it gets sorted quicker than the 4 months I have been waiting!
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Search all the other posts on here with similar tales. Every one agrees that you should expect a repair undetectable by an untrained eye, and no additional damage caused by a repairer.
Regardless of who does it, inform your insurance company, reject it and keep rejecting it until its right.
Why did a C8 end up at a Vauxhall dealer anyway?
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Agree with RF.
Reject, and keep at it.
When another party hit my wife's parked 306 Sedan, and did considerable dent damage to both of the left hand doors and the rear wheel arch, the repair was to such a high standard that even I have trouble seeing where it was repaired. All this on a ten year old car, with ten year old metallic paintwork. Even s o d ium (swear filter bypass) lighting doesn't show anything up, and panel fit is perfect. Brilliant workmanship.
Good luck.
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Unless you know otherwise, I'd always take repair work to the local car dealer whose marque it is.
OK, this is a sweeping statement but this is on my experience and that of friends. Taking your car to the insurers 'approved' repair shop means taking it to a place that fixes many, many makes of car. Jack of all trades, master of none springs to mind.
I stupidly let an insurer take me down their route, and many weeks of arguing etc saw me take the car the my local dealer to put the repair work right. From then on you wouldn't have guessed it was damaged.
I'd rather take it to someone who knows the car inside out. No insurer can force you to go one place or another, but opting out of their system may just slow things up a little.
Plus, if the dealer does make a bad job and come trade-in time they moan about the repair, you can remind them that they did it so cough up!
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>>My question is, what quality of repair should I ultimately expect?
full and complete ie no problems..It should and will look the same as before..as mentioned before if it is not up to scratch.refuse to take it back..I did this once due to same problem..err sorry refused car back four times..respray was rubbish.It was sorted on complaining to insurance co..Would suggest you do same thing
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Steve
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Many dealers use the local one size fits all repair shops themselves...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Hello H,
Haven't been here for ages but looked in for something today and what are you doing ...bashing your lovely Citroen!
What a pig of a job! You are absolutely entitled to an undetectable repair on a vehicle of this (well any really) age...and without extra repairer-induced damage!!
Strangely enough a contact has just suffered similar with a Xantia...
Theft incident with no body damage where insurer agrees to replace all locks, recode immob and replace keys/plips etc.
As there is no bodywork involved you might expect it would go to Citroen. No they send it to an approved bodyshop who faff about getting locks from Citroen and fit them. Then they find they can't do the recode so send it to a Citroen authorised repairer (not a main dealer).... who also fail to recode it and have to ask Citroen dealer for help after wasting three days trying.
So the chap gets it back to find only one plip (there were two and one is useless in a two driver household) and even this fails to physically unlock the drivers door which then needs doing with the key after the plip has disarmed the system.
Shambles!
M.M
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I'm sure I recall this topic being discussed some time ago.I think everyone agreed ---NEVER let the insurance company bribe you with the hassle free leave it to us here have a courtesy car scam.
Always insist on using your local class act repairer even if it means getting quotes etc.
They caught me once when a deer killed itself on my Xantia and I got sent to a Nissan dealer in the Fens.Utterly appalling job that could have killed us.
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Thanks and commiserations Hawkeye - another piece of evidence for my thesis that the longer one owns a car, the fewer accidents it has - or conversely, you are most likely to prang a car soon after getting it (new or used). May be connected with learning to drive it, I suppose? :o)
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> another piece of evidence for my thesis that the longer one owns a car, the fewer accidents it has
Austin Aggro 1750 - 6 months - no damage, unfortunately!
Tuned and fettled MG Metro - 8 years - no damage
Sierra 2.0 DOHC - 2 years - no damage
Rover 420 GSi - 2.5 years - no damage
Vectra SRi V6 Estate - 3 years - no damage
Vectra GSi Estate - 3 years - no damage
So, nineteen years of car ownership since returning from abroad, most of it in cars owned for a reasonable period of time, without any damage.
In March 2003, I then spent a King's ransom on the new V70 2.4T SE that I covet to this day.
Within a month, a neighbour's kid had ridden in to the side of it on his push bike.
Within another few months the rear left hand wing was damaged by a careless DIYer loading up at Homebase.
Within a few more months it had been assaulted by a 4x4 rear door, or cab forward truck front door, judging by the shape of the dent,despite me deliberately parking the furthest distance possible, in an empty car park, from the building it served!
Yes, I think your thesis has some truth!
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Thanks for your supportive replies. You can probably guess by the request for a claim form that I haven't bumped a car for a while (hence the "smug" in the title). So it's back to the body shop at the end of next week and we'll see what sort of a job they make of it second time around. I'm inclined to make my expectations clear to someone in management when I call in.
Ironically, when Mrs H vigourously slammed the much-hated Volvo 760 into an invisible concrete gate post some years ago damaging two doors and bending the "c" pillar, the same outfit made a completely undetectable repair apart from a trace of overspray on the door lock. The craftsman that did that job has now probaby been promoted to management, retired or has left to form his own outfit.
Greetings M.M, haven't heard from you for aeons.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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I was driving into the multistory on the crossroad at Macclesfield town centre. I've done this a multitude of times in various cars without trouble. BUT, there was a nature programme on Radio 4, and the subject of Mallard flight capability was raised, quoting the Mallard's ability to fly at 4 miles high. I said to my wife, 4 Miles!!, and scraped the kerb with my nice new Legacy front wing. I repainted it myself and I don't need to worry anymore. Looks a bit amaturish, but that's what I am!
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Mallard? Blimey I would have crashed as well. How the hell do you get a steam train to fly 4 miles high?
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European Mallard or African Mallard?
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Equipped with oxygen mask and jet engine?
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