Scirocco Central

I was driving my scirocco last night and got caught up in the heavy snowfall. Muest have only ben doing about 10-15MPH max in third gear when I'd slightly tapped on my breaks to slow down on a slanted road, that my car when sliding about 10 yards to hit a stationary car on it's bumper. Think the ABS kicked in as all I could hear was thuds and the car trying to stop itself.

I don't know what to do now!! The other guy isn't going to claim via insurance as there is not much damage to his car and at most only needs a new bumper.

Would like to know if anyone else has had body work done on their 'rocco privately or whether it's best to go through my insurance. I need to take it to a garage and get an idea on the costs involved :'(

Any help or advice would be useful.




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Thanks in advance.

It's repairable but that'll cost. I'd guess new front bumper, new bonnet, new wing, new light cluster. Depending on the wing structure damage you could need a new end which would push costs up.
How's the radiator, does AC still work?

It'd guess the costs will be in the low thousands say 1500 to 2000 if it's basically cosmetic panels,if the mechanicals / radiator are involved double that figure.

In terms private repair vs insurance if the effect of a claim plus excess is less than the repair cost then paying privately makes sense if not claim. I'd guess that level of damage is an insurance claim.

b0rk, thanks you for the prompt reply. What do you mean when you say I may need a new end?

Radiator and AC still work and I've not touched the bonnet or attempted to open it but I can see that the engine and surroundings look visibily ok and seems the plastic damage is only localised to the light cluster area.

The passenger door makes a slight sound when opened but on closer inspection this seems to be because the right hand side panel has been pushed in a little so that will need to be replaced. Wheels look fine to me, but guess I will have to take it to a garage to get their opinion too.

Firsly, I hope you are OK.

It looks well over the excess you may have to pay. So its insurance unless you won the lottery last week. It will be viewed as you being at fault as he was parked and you've driven into his car. Can't be helped in the conditions. As it will go against you, insurance premiums will be raised for a few years. It would be wise to declare it, as if the other party changes their mind (as I once had a long while back). After all, the other party's judgement may fall short of the real repair cost when his car is taken apart for repair.

Your insurance may get funny with you for remaining stum.

Plus if you haven't bought the Scirocco outright, the lease/loan party who technically own the car may wish to have a say in how it is repaired. If so, check your agreement concerning repairs.

Repairs costs, talk to the insurance first to find out how they will handle it. Given what your second post says just now about the door ..... insurance route.

In my case, in December I've never saw an estimator or the cost. Mine was driven into while parked and I was in the house. All done with the insurance over the phone within an hour of it happening. Scirocco collected the following day and hire car dropped off. All charges 100% including excess went to the other party. In your case I think you will have to pay the excess being yourself at fault.

As b0rk says, its repairable and it doesn't look like key chassis part is damaged.

Write down some notes on road conditions, speeds etc. while still fresh in your mind tonight. Then get a good nights sleep. Little job for the morning on the phone with the insurance. Unless your insurance is open 24 hours like mine.

C.

Can`t believe with that impact damage that no airbags wents off? If so, just head toward insurance. I`ve seen less impact damage with the airbags off.
I think even without the airbags its just the insurance you want to ring. So you`ll be paying our excess and the other partys bill....whatever they want to quote you!!!???

a4gee wrote:Can`t believe with that impact damage that no airbags wents off? If so, just head toward insurance. I`ve seen less impact damage with the airbags off.
I think even without the airbags its just the insurance you want to ring. So you`ll be paying our excess and the other partys bill....whatever they want to quote you!!!???

Considering how slow I was going, it just seems that's a lot of damage to my car. But the car took the impact well and I didn't feel anything at all. Maybe that's an area of the car that supposed to absorb any impacts.

RW1 wrote:Firsly, I hope you are OK.

It looks well over the excess you may have to pay. So its insurance unless you won the lottery last week. It will be viewed as you being at fault as he was parked and you've driven into his car. Can't be helped in the conditions. As it will go against you, insurance premiums will be raised for a few years. It would be wise to declare it, as if the other party changes their mind (as I once had a long while back). After all, the other party's judgement may fall short of the real repair cost when his car is taken apart for repair.

Your insurance may get funny with you for remaining stum.

Plus if you haven't bought the Scirocco outright, the lease/loan party who technically own the car may wish to have a say in how it is repaired. If so, check your agreement concerning repairs.

Repairs costs, talk to the insurance first to find out how they will handle it. Given what your second post says just now about the door ..... insurance route.

In my case, in December I've never saw an estimator or the cost. Mine was driven into while parked and I was in the house. All done with the insurance over the phone within an hour of it happening. Scirocco collected the following day and hire car dropped off. All charges 100% including excess went to the other party. In your case I think you will have to pay the excess being yourself at fault.

As b0rk says, its repairable and it doesn't look like key chassis part is damaged.

Write down some notes on road conditions, speeds etc. while still fresh in your mind tonight. Then get a good nights sleep. Little job for the morning on the phone with the insurance. Unless your insurance is open 24 hours like mine.

C.

Appreciate the reply! Just found out this morning that the guy wants to go via insurance so I have no choice but to go down the insurance route. Will give them a call this morning and see what they have to say. I just want my baby back to how it was!

sand33p: Think very carefully about where you want your Roc to go if you want it to be trouble free for the rst of your ownership.

My local VW dealerships own body shop made an apalling repair on a Golf of mine 5 years ago (they screwed up 3 different things at first attempt) and countless visits for remedial action didn't stop a replaced body panel rusting up every 3 months. I got shot of it prematurely because of this.

Ask around for a good bodyshop and even if they aren't VW approved, they may be better than one that is approved.

My Roc got clattered in November and it was repaired by a non-approved repairer that has a good reputation. I made sure the insurance company would honour the same level of cover as the 12 year anti-perforation VW guarantee themselves if problems developed beyond the 5 year guarantee that applies to all their repairs, and that they would be using genuine VW parts in all cases. I'm happy with the repair, the car looks as good as new, the paint thickness and colour match is perfect (unlike the Golf's repair).

Generally the insurer approved garages are very good, they're vetted regularly, and the insurance company make sure they get things right first time otherwise they'll be stumping up for the costs of the remedial work.

"VW approved repairer" is not a guarantee of quality.

very good point. try shopping around first. don`t just go with what your insurer uses. whoever you choose ensure you know what their guarantee is and if they can give you a courtesy car. Insurers always likes to make out that you`ll loose that option if you don`t use their recommended bodyshops.

Other point about going down the insurance route is making a injury claim. Get to the hospital to ensure you have a injury!!!

Thanks guys. I've called up my insurance company this morning and they've recommended the nearest approved dealer. I forgot to ask if I can choose the garage or if there was several garages I could choose from.

I've got to take it in tomorrow morning to let them have a look at it but may call my insurance company now to see if I can choose from other garages.

did exactly the same damage to mine 51 weeks ago, just the right side, not the left, its like a mirror image, repair company gave the insurance the £2100 bill.

no airbags went off, and i drove it 80 miles home like that. god knows how i did that... police even said i was fine to keep driving it next day when i saw one of there cars at a petrol station

i went into the back of a volvo XC90, I'll let you guess the winner!

sand33p wrote:b0rk, thanks you for the prompt reply. What do you mean when you say I may need a new end?
.

The wing is a two part assembly the visible outer skin and an inner structural strut, from your pictures it isn't clear if the bent piece visible behind the wing corner is part of the skin or the strut. Both are repairable just the strut is more expensive/complex to repair.

My condolences! I know from experience how much these things crumple in a fairly low-speed bump...

Sad to hear this . Id be gutted.

Look on the positive - No flesh or blood

Took it to my local VW garage who took it to the local approved VW repair garage around the corner. They've estimated £3k for the repairs. Let's just hope my insurance approves it! :S

Think you`ll be fine
What about claiming for injury? The other person maybe doing so as they wanted to go through insurance. Insurances are very good at convincing you to do it.

a4gee wrote:Think you`ll be fine
What about claiming for injury? The other person maybe doing so as they wanted to go through insurance. Insurances are very good at convincing you to do it.

if your not injured dont claim . This is why insurance is so expensive

It is annoying when things happen but they do - never the less it's only a car and repairable. In my instance the other half fell in love with the local bus that was parked picking up passengers in 2010 and scraped from the B pillar all the way to the rear bumper.

I claimed as there was no way I was going to pay for that, you will incur it on your insurance. A couple of points to let you know about...

1. Don't pick your insurance companies approved repairer take it to someone you know and trust. Approved repairers are generally crap, the reason being is they get paid half of what a general repairer get paid under agreements with insurance companies and will not take care an attention over the vehicle. You will regret it. In my instance I needed the car repaired and for the first time in my life I didn't follow my own advice, it took a year for the car to be repaired correctly.

(Not to deviate too much but when they first repaired it it was appalling - an independent engineer was sent by the insurance company to assess and demanded it be reinstated in it's original state - too much filler was used, paint wasn't correctly applied, didn't replace things correctly - won't go on with the rest but they did manage to damage in door card also and get welding sparks in the window)

2. Make sure you take pictures and don't settle on repair for things that will not match (insurance companies only want to basically repair the car and reduce there exposure)

3. If there is a third party involved they will be claiming on your policy anyway so it will effect you regardless if you make a claim or not, and also if you don't claim on your policy you will have to declare the incident on your next insurance policy, if you don't then your policy will be null and void (and trust me as many people as I have seen get away without declaring I have also seen as many get a policy terminated which then makes it incredible hard to get insurance because it is that magical question - Have you ever had insurance refused, terminated or declined!)

4. If you have gone to the approved repairer or anyone for that matter, make sure you go over the car when you collect it and they have done what they are supposed to do (with me the merely repainted the bumper even though the screw was broken and couldn't fit back again correctly, pushed it back in place). So I had it replaced again from them oh dear more cost and the poor insurance company thought they could do it on the cheap...lol

Anyway, premiums will rise regardless, but I will say this - If the claim costs around £3k which it will do if not more (mine was £2990 excluding the return which was another £3250 - they paid dearly )

It has cost us another £100 last year and £40 this year in an increased premium - in your instance if you don't have NCBP then it will be slightly higher, but even if it adds around £250 per year to your premium, that is still better than repairing it yourself because you will still have an increase to your premium as you have to add the incident to your policy next year.

The only time it is worth doing it yourself is when it costs less than £500, as insurance companies place more emphasis on if you had an accident rather than the overall cost (though this is taken into account it is not the over aching consideration).

Hope this helps and I didn't waffle too much

Yellowplum >> Thanks for the reply. I took the car straight to the nearest VW showroom and they then took it to the local approved VW repair garage. I refused to go with the insurance companies approved garage, so reading your comments about this made me feel better!

~£3k later, I'm off today at some point to collect my 'rocco. Is there anything I ought to look out for when I collect the car? Anything I ought to check for in the repairs they've done? Or any questions I should ask?

I'm doing this for the first (& hopefully last) time ever so I just want to make sure I check everything is in order before officially paying my excess and taking the car back.


Thanks in advance!