My Supe driven into today, gutted!

Driving back from a day out at the coast and as I aproached a big roundabout with traffic lights on near Kings Lyn the lights changed, I was in two minds whether to go but chickened out at the last moment and stopped. My bird said "thats unlike you" and as she said it there was a squealing of rubber and BANG!

My car was pushed about 4 foot forward. Looked in the mirror and all I could see was chrome. Bloody bloke in a Nissan Navara twin cab towing a sodding boat on a trailer had smashed into me. We both jumped out and he started apologising straight away and said we should pull of the junction to sort it out. By this time I could sense my bird getting a bit upset. So we pulled into a farm drive off the roundabout and there was him and a load of blokes in the Navara adn another car load of blokes.

They could see I was fuming and were really apologetic about it. I think the driver said he didnt even see the lights! All I could think about was the damage to mine, but suprisingly, despite what I imagined with the amount of noise and the impact we felt there was not so much damage to mine. The number plate had I think taken most of it and the mtal bracket behind has been pushed to one side and one of the fixings ripped out. There is some bruising underneath the plate and to the right a long scratch which I didnt even realise until I got home. Otherwise it came off pretty light, unlike his Navara I am pleased to say. Thank god though he didn't have the normal bull bar rubbish on the front or I would have been fucked.

His car had came off worse, all the black plasic bumper was pushed back on one side and the chrome grill was bent quite bad. One side of the bumper had been pushed into the wing. He didnt want to go through his insurance and I am guessing that was because it was a Co. car. But, nor did I, TBH I have so much rubbish going on at home and work just now I really dont want to have to go through the whole insurance bullshit thing, arguing about my no claims afterwards etc. He offered me £20 at first but in the end gave me £30 towards it.

In a way I feel like it was partly my fault as I hesitated, but of course he should have been able to stop in time. Suppose I handled it wrong and I maybe should have gone the insurance route for a new bumper, but then I am without it for ages and have to go through the whole painfull proccess, been there before and it was a real pain.

Compared to some of the accident damage we have seen on here it is nothing, but to me it is something and has really pissed me off. Will try to upload some pics. Will spend next weekend trying to sort it.

Under the bonnet I have a paint code "3L2" does anyone know if this is what I need to get a match?

He hit you hard enough to push you 4 feet, and he gave you £30 ?

Lets hope you dont find something nasty under the boot floor.

£30!!!!!!!!!!111one!!

Did you get any insurance details from him? Any personal info from him?

Good luck getting it fixed, hope you have enough change for a hanky to cry into when the bodyshop drops the reality bomb on you

I know, I know I am mad! I do have all his details but by accepting the cash I have now made it messy. Only thing I can say is that I had just taken my foot off the brake when he hit me so I am hoping most of the energy went into moving the car. As far as I can see it all looks ok but will get it on a ramp asap. Trouble is I work in London all week and wont get chance unless I take a day off to get it looked at before the weekend. Feel like the prat I am but went into panic mode. tried to upload the pics but they were too big. The are jpeg, anyone know how I can reduce the size?

£30?! Seriously? Sorry to say but if the impact was hard enough you could be looking at a write off! Hope you got his details. Good luck with it dude

Now to make a bad day even worse the bird has just come down to take some pain killers because she reckons her neck and head hurts! What a muppet (me that is not her).

Good luck getting it fixed, hope you have enough change for a hanky to cry into when the bodyshop drops the reality bomb on you

agree with this, sorry fella, but i forsee many large clouds on the horizon for you

It's still not too late to change your mind and claim on his insurance. I would, it's clearly his fault.

I'm presuming you didn't sign anything saying "£30 in full settlement"?

It's fairly clear that your mind wasn't working at full speed at the time of the crash, understandable enough.

What you need to to now is try and claw this back so that you aren't going to be out of pocket due to someone else being unable to drive.

Personally I'd be jumping on the phone to http://www.helphire.com in the morning, this takes it away from your insurance company and for £10 or so you get legal cover and they will deal with the claim for you, on top of this they will provide you with a car so you don't have the hassle of being without while the car is fixed.

There are other similar companies around but having used them twice myself and passed on their info to others I'm happy to keep telling others to try them.

Ideally get the missus to the doctors for a checkup, worth having one yourself, you could find all kinds of aches and pains appear once you've had a night in bed.

If you have the details of the chap just pass it all on to Helphire and let them deal with it, you might want to post him his £30 back too - right now he's probably feeling pretty chuffed with himself and if he has a big 4WD and a boat it's not like he's poor.... do it properly and get your car repaired.

Claim on your insurance.

£30 will hardly buy you a number plate

Claim! I think you'l find a the bumper bar has squashed the ends of the chassis rails at least.

No I didnt sign anything or say anything about settlement. i was just so relieved not to see a gaping hole in the fibre glass bumper on mine, because that is what I was suspecting. Em my bird reckons by the way I am exagerating about the 4 foot she reckons 2 at the most.

I do know a proper bodyshop in Northampton (Brockhall coach works)who I have used a few times over the years and may try and get it to them on tuesday. I cant tomorrow for sure as I have just had 3 days off work and am going through a tricky time there with huge workloads deadlines.

Thanks for the advice and link.

Will let you know the outcome and if I find a way to reduce the size of the photos will add them to the post.

Going to bed to cry and beat myself up for being a div. That's what is really getting me just now.

What's amazing is that despite being miles from home the Co. who owned the Nissan (made a note of the signwriting) is only about 6 miles from me!

£Sorry to say but if the impact was hard enough you could be looking at a write off!

Mate you would be really surprised at how hard a rear impact can easily write off a car.

You might find yourself stiff in the morning (neck or back that is!) As I'm typing this my neck is still hurting from a very low speed accident over 2 years ago.

Phone your insurers, and tell them you panicked into taking the money because there were 2 car loads of blokes there intimidating you.

Like Geoff said, £30 will barely cover buying a new numberplate, and who knows what damage has been done to the car that you can't see.

Mate, dont beat yourself up over this too much, we all make mistakes at times but what you have to do now is make sure you recover what your due. If nothing is damaged underneath/behind the bumper then the biggest outlay you might be out of pocket for is the cost to get the bumper sprayed. Your £30 might cover the cost of a second bumper if you could source one but its the respray you gonne full short on.

Just make sure you learn from this, as Im sure you will........we all need these learning curves, its just annoying that you feel you have to learn through experience....

if you did get his info,.

i would go down the insurance route.., when the £30 is brought up - then mention there was about 10 of them and you felt intimidated ( thats why yo took the £30 )

I'm sorry to say that it doesn't take a great deal in the way of impact to stuff the hard bits underneath soft bits of the car! you need to look ASAP my s14 was hit in the back at very low speed and the bumper was trash and the boot was pushed in, and just the trim clips were over £30, also get your lady checked by a doctor, my wife suffered really bad whiplash from that, she won't feel it to much until the next day or so, it took my wife six weeks of physiotherapy to sort it out, sorry:(

Sometimes, when life is giving you its share of *hit, it's nice to just take the money and forget about it. No whiplash shennanigans, no solicitors, police, insurance claims, blah blah. I don't think 30 quid was a good eal, but what the hell... It's only a bloody car, no ones hurt (be wary of girlfriends that get "whiplash", think what they might do at the divorce courts if you marry them, if they are the litiguous sort VBG )

I can sympathise with you, I also tend to try and put myself in the place of the guy behind, I am sure he didn't set out hoping to damage HIS car either, but these things happen and sometimes it's so easy to wind them up out of al proportion. I remember smacking a reliant 3 wheeler up the back in very similar sounding circumstances, years and years ago. it was a minter (if a Robin can be thus described), and I did it a fair bit of damage. The guy took 20 notes and an apology. We both went home with blood pressure normal and an end put to the matter.

If the damage to his car was as extensive as you suggest, then beware - he might call on his insurance and if you haven't informed yours it may appear that you were liable. Particularly if he had plenty of witnesses. I would contact the insurance anyway.

As also mentioned the damage to your car maybe more extensive than it would outwardly appear. Jamesmark on here had a car that looked fine all panels aligned etc, but the chassis was badly twisted. Presumably as a result of a shunt.

Good luck mate

Mike

If the damage to his car was as extensive as you suggest, then beware - he might call on his insurance and if you haven't informed yours it may appear that you were liable. Particularly if he had plenty of witnesses. I would contact the insurance anyway.

How could he become liable for being hit up the arse ? Even with witnesses, I thought hitting someone up the arse you shouldnt have any get out clauses what so ever as they was obviously to close to stop in time....???

Nearly 3 years sgo i rear shunted a gal in manchester (ohhh vicar!) there was hardly any damage to either car so we went on our way 2 months later the insurance companies get in touch and she is claiming for nearly a grands worth! supposidly it bent alot of the chassis behind the bumper.

You should tell your insurance company, if your GF's neck gets worse and worse over the next few years and she needs medical help your covered coz u told them, but your f*cked if you didn't.

Yeah I would think that with any rear end shunt the blame is clear. However, what if you braked suddenly without warning? You could get someone to rear end you easily (particularly if they were towing a boat). By failing to declare the incident, if the other party does, it could appear that you were guilty. Just a thought - plus I thought you were supposed to declare all accidents, if you decide not to pursue an insurance claim, there is provision to do it through the insurance, i.e. you pay rather than the underwriters.

Mike

Yeah I would think that with any rear end shunt the blame is clear. However, what if you braked suddenly without warning? You could get someone to rear end you easily (particularly if they were towing a boat).

But isnt that the point that they should leave enough distance between you both that if you did suddenly brake without warning they still have time to stop........so if people suddenly slam the anchors on for a bunny that jumps out in front of them, their liable for the peson shunting them from behind ? I dont think it works like that mate, as I said they should always leave enough distance.......????

It may be "nice" to take the money and walk away and forget about it, until the morning when you spot the inside of the boot is crumpled and its going to cost you a couple of grand:rolleyes: and as for the "whiplash shenanigans" real whiplash is bloody painful and can take a while to heal! so get it checked, doctors can tell if it the real thing, and its better safe than sorry, also inform your insurance company anyway, you can just tell them that unless you inform them otherwise, any claim will be dealt with by the other partys insurance, then at least your covered.

Ash, don't get me wrong I agree entirely, I would always say for exactly the same reasons that the person at the rear is at fault.

That is why I would always go through the insurance in these circumstances. I can however, imagine the Navara's insurance company (if they are called) would try to use the fact that Shane hadn't informed his insurance company as an admission of guilt. Let's face it all insurance companies (including Shane's) will try whatever they can to dodge a payout.

btw, you cannot brake heavily for Rabbits, I think it's only dogs and deer. Otherwise you will be at fault..

Mike