# The dangers of using a mobile phone...



## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

Italian driver drifted lanes and into me whilst playing with his mobile sat nav 

The right hand side of my BMW E91 (3 Series Touring) has taken a real battering 




























Luckily he was insured and the police were able to check his details over the phone. Going to be fun dealing with his Italian insurer though.

Needs a new wing mirror, driver's windscreen, driver's door, rear passenger door, rear panel + respray and :buffer:

Anyone want to have a guess how much this is all going to cost?


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## nick_mcuk (Jan 4, 2008)

As irritating as it is least you are ok...the car can be fixed.

As for dealing with the Italian insurance co....you shouldnt have to inform your insurance give them the details and step back...not your job to chase round thats why we pay insurance.

As for cost that isnt going to be cheap to fix...2 new door skins for sure....replacement rear 1/4...if the car is high miles and older it could be written off.


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

nick_mcuk said:


> As irritating as it is least you are ok...the car can be fixed.
> 
> As for dealing with the Italian insurance co....you shouldnt have to inform your insurance give them the details and step back...not your job to chase round thats why we pay insurance.
> 
> As for cost that isnt going to be cheap to fix...2 new door skins for sure....replacement rear 1/4...if the car is high miles and older it could be written off.


Thanks

Yeah, luckily it was not head on or could have been a lot more serious.

I've read about the pitfalls of going through my insurance company. I've notified them about the accident, but am going to chase the driver's insurance representative in the UK. The reason being that my insurance company will probably look to write my car off - as I will be claiming on my policy and they will seek to recover it as a non-fault from the other driver. What I don't want is to have a writeoff (even non-fault) against my name. If I go through the other party, they cannot write off my car.

I was looking realoem.com and reckon the parts will be around 2k. But I need the dealer to check the car as the abs warning light has suddenly appeared so something may have gone wrong elsewhere.


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## robdcfc (Sep 17, 2012)

They can and will write your car off if they deem the repair too expensive. 

Who told you this rubbish?


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

robdcfc said:


> Who told you this rubbish?


Financial Ombudsman website - _"This note covers our approach to the valuation of a vehicle which is treated as a total loss (popularly known as a "write-off") because either:

- the insurer estimates that the repairs will cost more than the vehicle is worth; or
- the vehicle has been stolen and is never found."
_

The repair will not be higher than the value of the car. My insurer has said they would look to write it off if the repair exceeds 60% of the value of the car (which is possible).

Not quite sure how the rules will apply to the other driver's insurer though, as they have a general claims company working for them in the UK.

I hope the other driver's policy is not invalid for any reason as he's a young student with a rather beat up old car (Italian plates).


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## robdcfc (Sep 17, 2012)

I work in the repair industry and all insurers (yours or 3rd party) will look to write off at 60% as they are run by accountants. 


Repair 4k
Pay you 6k 
Sell salvage for 3k 

They are 1k better off. Plus rental car etc!


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## Aaran (Sep 18, 2007)

as its a non fault accident it wont effect your no claims though.

tbh iv had a few cat c/d cars before and they are difficult to shift for good money second hand etc.

id put a price of at least 4k for a insurance repair center to fix that using OE panels etc. i bet an entire new door mirror from the dealer is about £500 for it alone let alone the door skins and the labor involved in fitting them

a couple of guys on here work for bmw in the paint section so im sure they will give you a much better idea of price


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## robdcfc (Sep 17, 2012)

To add to that, 

Parts approx 2k 
Fit parts, paint, rebuild etc. 1.5k in labour 
Paint and materials 600 quid 
Bits and bobs 3% of parts 
Add the Vat 

5 grand to repair it.


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## robdcfc (Sep 17, 2012)

I would say doors rather than skins as well.


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## carl robson (Nov 16, 2011)

It's going to be cheaper to bury the tool that hit you than fix your car feel for you I really do lets hope they throw the book at him


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

You have my sympathies, this is what a Portugese Artic did to my Mondeo, cost approx £4k, reckon yours between 5 and 6k


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

It won't affect my no-claims (12 years+!) as long as I don't claim (even if non-fault). It's my understanding that if I was to claim on my policy, even though the other driver has admitted liability, it would be logged on the systems as a claim. This is why I was advised to avoid my insurers and go direct to the other party, which is a little complicated being an Italian company.

I had a friend who's 2 month old X3 had a similar incident where an old man pulled into them on the motorway. That repair, through the BMW workshop, cost €4,000 and was only the 2 door panels and an alloy wheel.

I forgot to mention that I will need a new door handle too. The wing mirror looks complicated as it looks like you cannot buy the whole thing, you have to buy the individual parts (casing/glass/motor/wiring loom). The glass alone is £90 through BMW and the motor is nearly £200!


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

@ S63

Did they try to write off your car?

This is going to bump my premiums up too. Someone reversing into another one of my cars at a supermarket while I wasn't even in it pushed my premiums up 20%.


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## S63 (Jan 5, 2007)

-AndyH- said:


> @ S63
> 
> Did they try to write off your car?
> 
> This is going to bump my premiums up too. Someone reversing into another one of my cars at a supermarket while I wasn't even in it pushed my premiums up 20%.


No, that wasn't an option ever discussed. (Saga Insurance)


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

Just an update on this one.

Took delivery back this evening from the BMW Approved Bodyshop and I'm not impressed.

The total cost of the work was just over £5,500 and the paintwork is not good. Without even checking the colour, I've seen the following problems (so far):

- They didn't remove the rear bumper parking sensors before spraying and there is paint dripped on the inside/on the sensors
- The rear door handle wasn't prepped properly and has bumpy paint underneath
- The is a paint blob on the rear door edge
- There is paint on some of the trim around the windows which they obviously didn't remove
- The plastic trim around the windows is raised where they have bent it removing/replacing it

Very very annoyed and frustrated. I told them I would be very meticulous over the expected quality of the bodywork/respray and they haven't listened one bit.

This is the third body shop I've been through in Milton Keynes and another one to add to my blacklist!


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## squiggs (Oct 19, 2009)

I'm sure many more could expand on this - but insurance work (as far as a bodyshop is concerned) is totally different to private work.
Basically insurance Co's turn the screws on £'s spent repairing (= time allowed to do the job properly) so every job becomes a rush job.
So even if you're a little bit ocd  the chances aren't good of you having your car back from an insurance job, inspecting it and being 100% happy with the work ...... cos no matter what you told the shop of the standards you expected the shop still had to cut corners cos the insurance Co wouldn't pay for the repairs to be competed to 'inspection' standards.

But if you took your P&J to the same place for private work and paid realistic prices for a proper 'to be inspected' :buffer: job the chances are you'd be a happy.

Nothing I've said wil ease your pain - sorry!


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

The thing is their quote wasn't cheap - it was £1,000 more than another bodyshop and £400 or so more than the surveyor estimate. But they still got the work approved as I made a fuss with the third party claim handler.

I went with them (TCW) because they are suppose to do high quality work. They wanted the car an extra week to ensure things were done to a high standard. But clearly they have cut corners in the prep work.

Frustrating!


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## majcas84 (Aug 24, 2012)

It's hassle I know, but don't accept the standard of work if it is bad.

Take it back and keep on at them until it's acceptable. You shouldn't be obliged to accept any old tosh they chuck back at you. It'll annoy you every time you clean the car if you leave it as is (and reduce its resale value too).

Good luck with it.


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## spursfan (Aug 4, 2009)

-AndyH- said:


> Just an update on this one.
> 
> Took delivery back this evening from the BMW Approved Bodyshop and I'm not impressed.
> 
> ...


Andy, are you going to name the body shops that you have used and had crap work from?
Would be good as it may help other members on here avoid the places.

Cheers Andy, sorry for your problems..........Kev:thumb:


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

spursfan said:


> Andy, are you going to name the body shops that you have used and had crap work from?
> Would be good as it may help other members on here avoid the places.


Hi

Sure. The bodyshop who did the work to my BMW was TCW Milton Keynes (they are based in Bletchley next to Wayside). They are the approved body shop for BMW in the area.

I am going to take some pictures of the problems in a sec to prove these are not unsubstantiated claims of problems 

The others are:

Elite Carbody in Bleak Hall, Milton Keynes - All private work, they have previously charged me for some new parts which they glued/masticed without replacing. I also had issues less than 12 months after a door respray with the paint cracking and peeling under the window trim which they hadn't sprayed properly. They also managed to get paint on trim parts showing they were not removing them before spraying.

DF Crash Repair - All private work, this is going back a number of years (5+) but I had quality issues with some work which they refused to rectify. I can't recall the exact issues however.


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## robdcfc (Sep 17, 2012)

How did they manage to paint the door trims? 

That should have had 2 new doors on it which would have been painted bare and then built up afterwards!!


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

Some pics...


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

robdcfc said:


> How did they manage to paint the door trims?


No idea - there is dripped paint on two areas of trim (so it's not sprayed).

Another big problem is they have scratched both the driver/rear passenger windows. I would imagine they have got some debris around the windows when replacing and testing them up/down? The driver's window should have been brand new and has three scratches already!

There is a scratch on the rear lights which looks like where they have used a rotary to polish without taping the light.

All of this comes down to bad prep work. When corners are cut to speed things up and save time, the end results really are bad.


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

majcas84 said:


> It's hassle I know, but don't accept the standard of work if it is bad.
> 
> Take it back and keep on at them until it's acceptable. You shouldn't be obliged to accept any old tosh they chuck back at you. It'll annoy you every time you clean the car if you leave it as is (and reduce its resale value too).
> 
> Good luck with it.


Thanks

This is without doubt the worst bodywork I have ever had done. There are so many problems, I don't know where to begin! What's really frustrating is that they have damaged new parts and old parts that were in mint condition. There is absolutely no excuse for that.

I hope that the bodyshop is proactive in trying to resolve the problems, but there are no guarantees about that either.


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## simonpj145 (May 7, 2007)

Hi Andy I feel for you in this tale. Have you an update?


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## -AndyH- (Oct 11, 2012)

Hi

Yeah....the fiasco continues!

It took the paintshop 2 weeks to sort some of the problems out (they resprayed everything again). The respray is much better than before, but still not perfect. I also don't like the way they have fixed the quarter panel/door frame together with a rivet like tool and it looks like the door frame is damaged (but apparently this is the BMW method for repairs).

The car was with the BMW dealer for about 2 weeks. They made a total mess of things - screws missing, trim damaged, screws inserted where they shouldn't be and some broken clips in the boot. So I am waiting to meet the service manager about that.

I am frustrated and tired with the whole process. To make matters worse, after picking the car up at the bodyshop and taking it to the car rental place, someone opened their door against the recently resprayed side! 10 days later, I am still waiting for the car rental company to review the CCTV and tell me whether it was one of their drivers or a hire driver that did the damage. Not quite sure what to do with it as it's in the middle of the passenger door, half way up. Silver is a total pain to touch up...

In Sep I get the new 3 series Touring and it can't come any sooner at the moment.


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## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

I feel for you. I had a motorbike hit the rear of my old E91 about 18 months ago. Instead of going through my insurance company, I used an accident repair claims company who delivered a identical car (well it was a newer E91 LCI and had built in sat nav) and took my car to the BMW bodyshop in before to be repaired. Who in turn did an excellent job and I enjoyed having another E91 for the week it was gone.

Hope you get this sorted soon!


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