Friend of wife and I has just had their Porsche Cayenne returned after repairs to accident damage. The cost is well in excess of £10K as it needed the chassis to be realigned, a new near side front passenger door, two new near side wheel and tyres and various minor scratches and dents removed. That also included the hire of an equivalent vehicle (Cayenne S) whilst theirs was off the road.
And the culprit? - A Ford KA
All because he wasn't looking when he pulled out of junction. The repairs were well over twice, (probably nearer three times) the value of his car. Wonder if he'll be welcomed back by his insurance company?
Edited by Morgie on 27/03/2008 at 16:58
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£10k for an insurance claim is not that large, really, though. Unusual, perhaps, but I'm sure there are members here who have seen worse. Let's face it, once lawyers and doctors get involved in a whiplash/injury claim, then £10k is nothing.
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I can't quite see how/why the car was a repaired at a cost way in XS of its value or have I misread the OP?
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A/S it was the Porsche that needed the >£10k work. Don't know the fate of the KA
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Hi Morgie - I misconstrued your post. So the Ka did the damage (amazing) I take it that the Porsche was worth more than the £10K repair then?
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Good point but it did surprise me that such a small, light car could do such damage to the Porsche, especially distorting the body such that it needed realigning.
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i think his insurance company will have to treat him very nicely now! after all, they are going to have to try and keep him for *a lot* of years now ! - if they want to even think of recouping anything back from him in the way of premiums.
Billy
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It's quite sad to see now that insurance, which costs a fortune already, is seen as something that's unusable for anything but enormous claims. The whole point is that the insurance company takes a risk on you; for them to seek to recoup their entire outlay by loading premiums for the next few years is wrong.
Remember reading about a bloke whose house was trashed by a party, and he was grumbling about the damage and saying he couldn't afford to claim on his insurance.
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such a small light car could do such damage to the Porsche especially distorting the body such that it needed realigning.>>
Talking of damage done by something small and light, last year our cricket club insurers paid out a claim for just over £1900 for repairs to the rear quarter of a Lexus RX350. Somehow small dent, and I mean small (size of pigeon egg), resulted in rear quarter respray and a new rear door??? plus replacement hire car charges. Amazed me the insurers didn't query the new door bit, even after the club pointed out it was a rear quarter that was dented.
Damage was caused by a young under-13 player, who can't normally hit the ball off the square, hitting the ball into the car park and hitting the Lexus on about the fifth bounce, weight of the ball 4 3/4 oz.
Pound for pound, weight-wise, I reckon the Ka was punching well below its weight!
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Let's face it once lawyers and doctors get involved in a whiplash/injury claim then £10k is nothing.
Not questioning what happens when doctors get involved, but most lawyers, and insurers, know that a 'standard' whiplash injury, i.e., one which may require some physio, but resolves within 3 months to a year, will usually attract a compensation offer of £1500-£1800. Most lawyers will advise clients in this situation to accept this offer. However, some 'no win / no fee' practitioners will try for more, but not always be successful. Bear in mind, the client may still end up with the same, but the 'no win / no fee' lawyer will have his income on top of that
I think all lawyers, doctors and insurers know that the majority of genuine whiplash injuries will resolve within this time frame.
Still smile when I remember visiting casualty with my daughter, who had injured her ankle in a tennis match. A family of mother, father and teenage son were in the cubicle opposite. Before the casualty doctor came to see them, it was clear from their conversation that they were all going to have very sore and stiff necks (someone had run into the back of their car). Sure enough, when they were examined, there was very little movement (although in my experience, the stiffening does not usually manifest until the following day), and a lot of pain when asked to try and move head.
As soon as the curtain was opened and the doctor had moved on to see another patient, a most remarkable improvement was observed, i.e., normal range of movement, and no sign of pain!
Even my twelve year old daughter picked up on this. I found it amusing - but she was most indignant , quote "They're just acting!" It was all I could do to stop her 'shopping' them to the doctor!
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>> Even my twelve year old daughter picked up on this. I found it amusing - but she was most indignant quote "They're just acting!" It was all I could do to stop her 'shopping' them to the doctor!
That's what small children are for - to do the things you no longer have the courage to do yourself.
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People don't usually choose what they crash into. One of the reasons for insurance are these situations. You are covered for crashing into pretty much anything, if you crash into a £100,000 vehicle you (or your insurance company) need to be able to pay for it.
It sounds to me like it may have been a genuine mistake by the KA owner. We all make mistakes. If I was the Porshe owner I would be asking myself whether I could have avoided the collision though. Did he consider sounding his horn? Did he position closer to the centre of the road? Did he slow down? There are lots of ways to reduce the risk, but the majorty of drivers don't and choose to blame others, when they make innocent mistakes. I'm not trying to point the finger at the Porshe driver, but we only have half the storey and we would all feel very guilty if we were in the KA.
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A few years back the average damage for a claim was under £1000. Even the OPs £10K claim is small beer.
The big claims are often those than involve survivors rather than death.
A few recent cases where comparatively young to middle aged have survived accidents with serious injuries have been settled out of court @ circa £5m up front and regular reviews after this.
The largest recent claim was for £50m when a Land Rover ran off the motorway on to a railway line - derailed an Inter City Express & coal train killing a number of railway employeees and passengers. The LR driver was jailed as he was driving, fell asleep and was over tired having not any sleep for more than a day.
Since that crash barriers over railways and bridges have been strengthened and lengthen to try and prevent a similar event.
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Well a Ka is still almost a tonne weight to hit, despite its diminutive size compared to a Cayenne. Some of the big 4x4s certainly give the appearance of indestructability, I guess this helps market them. I would still rather have been in the Cayenne than the Ka though!
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We don't know the speed of the Ka and the Cayenne - remember that kinetic energy = half of mass times velocity squared, so double your speed, and you quadruple the energy. Even a small object has lots of kinetic energy if the velocity is high enough.
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The Cayenne is a sort of auto soufflé: all marketing hot air and no substance.
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The Cayenne is a sort of auto soufflé: all marketing hot air and no substance.
Pepper.
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Often small birds can damage airplane to make it grounded. So, there is nothing unusual that a Ford Ka damaged Porsche Cayenne to that extent. It's the momentum, not the mass of the car alone, which caused the damage.
Regarding the claim amount, as others already said, £10k isn't that big.
Whether Ka owner will be welcomed by his insurer, it is another story. Insurance companies simply distribute the expense among all of its customers next year.
So, if you and I use same insurer as of that Ka driver, rest assured that our premia will go up to compensate that amount ;)
If you search for quotes using screen scrapers, you may note that your premium won't depend on the size of claim i.e. a claim of £400 or £4000 will raise the next year premium by same amount.
PS:
The vehicle pulling out of side road should not be "automatically" held liable (although usually it is the case). Most accidents happen because one driver makes a mistake and the second driver can't avoid that. Instead of the Ka, a cyclist could have been emerged from the same road. In that case, Porsche driver could have been prosecuted for man slaughter.
Edited by movilogo on 27/03/2008 at 21:52
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Crumple zones + NCAP + Marketing = expensive repairs for minor shunts.
And how much does it cost to hire one of those things for a week or so?
Edited by martint123 on 28/03/2008 at 09:12
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According to ROSPA the average cost to society of a single fatal RTA is £1.35m. tinyurl.com/ypkhp7
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Regarding the claim amount, as others already said, £10k isn't that big
I believe the Insurers of the van driver responsible for the Selby sail crash paid out over £30,000,000.
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>>If I was the Porshe owner I would be asking myself whether I could have avoided the collision though. Did he consider sounding his horn?
SNIPQUOTE
A single mistake by anyone shouldn't result in an accident. It's when one person makes a mistake and another then fails to react appropriately that accidents occur. It's an attitudinal thing I think - easily tested by asking someone what a green traffic light means. If their answer is "go" then you can be certain that that person will be involved in a crash at some point.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 28/03/2008 at 18:54
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If their answer is "go" then you can be certain that that person will be involved in a crash at some point.
Surely, their answer for amber will be "go faster" :)
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