ok so I'm ready for loads of abuse but would love a sensible answer if possible, my polo was parked up overnight and i went to it the next day and my bumper,alloy and wing was damaged due to a vehicle hitting me and driving off. I told the police and the chippy it was parked outside gave them the cctv footage of a fish delivery truck reversing into my car and driving off! so theres the hard evidence that 3rd party is at fault with the police officer as a witness. I have the company name,reg,drivers name e.t.c and will call my insurance company with the details ,,, however ,,, my car is lowered about 100mm and has porsche alloys on it and i didnt tell the insurance company :-/ what will happen next ?

Honestly, I wouldn't ring up insurance for it, unless theres some major damage to the car, I would just get replacement bumper/wing and refurb the wheel.

The problem you have is that the evidence showing him driving into your car, also shows your car as it is!

It'll save you a lot of hassle and shouldnt cost all that much unless they were custom fab parts, but they woudnt have been insured anyway and insurance would likely turn around and tell you to sling one.

your quite lucky it isnt your fault in this situation, you can just grumble and replace the bits, if it was the over way round it would be trouble!

edit: whilst not directly related remember what the term insurance means, it covers you if something were to happen that you couldnt cover i.e. a total loss, IMO a fender bender should never go through insurance as most people can afford to buy a replacment wing in such a scenario, why go through insurance for such a small thing? Insurance is a legality nowadays thats true, but that doesnt mean you have to use it, if you can settle an issue without using them its much cheaper and easier for both parties, especially when certain companies are all too willing to strike off no-claims or charge you when it wasnt you at fault, think about it!

Edited 16 January, 201511 yr by R10tz0r

Since the third party is at fault your insurance shouldn't really matter. Obviously you'll need to tell them but they will just act on your behalf with the third parties insurance. Due to the cars ages and value it is likely that no one will come and see the car. You'll probably just need to get a quote to repair the damage from an approved body shop.

But take this as lesson learned and declared the mods from now on.

hold fire a bit

call the company and email over the video , they might be willing to sort it out themselves?

http://www.clubpolo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=337538

Could message him and ask what happened to him. Don't think insurance even looked at the car.

Always feel good for declaring mods when I see these threads. It was £20 cheaper to insure my car modded and I was only 19 with 1 year NCB!

Edited 16 January, 201511 yr by vdoubleu

I dont have acess to the video but the police have seen it and called the company they have admitted liability to the police , it may be just bumper,wing and wheel damage but thats 40 for second hand bumper 20 for paint and 80 for wing/bumper respray thats without wheel damage.140 quid that i shouldnt have to pay because some idiot drove into me and did a runner regardless of me declaring mods :-/

should i ring the company and see if they will pay for damage in cash ?

I can pretty much guarantee they will wright the car off i had a clio with a cracked bumper because someone drove into me the cost of repair was 850 quid so they sent me a check for 600quid and let me keep the car!

It might be £140 quid because some idiot drove into you, but thats £140 quids worth of stuff you didnt have insured, and if you went through insurance and they really didnt want to pay out, it would cost you a damn sight more than that in the long run at least

You could ring them up, and see if you can sort it without insurers stepping in, for all they know you do have everything declared so the ball is in your court there, as long as you can get through to the right people and not just janet at reception lol.

If you already think the insurance will write it off, then again, dont go through them, because if you do it will be at least a CAT D, need a VIC and show on a HPI as a write off, if you ever wanted to sell it.

Your right i may just ring the company to see what they can do , why would it cost me more would i get fined for no insurance?

O and cat D dosent need a v.i.c check , i asked when my clio got written off :-)

To be honest mate, it doesn't cost that much with a lot of companies to declare mods. I'm with Admiral, I'm still on a provisional and the cost for adding non-standard alloys to my policy was £7 and my quote for when I've fitted my coilovers was £24. Isn't it better to pay £31 to declare mods but also be covered in an event like this?

Food for thought.

I know mate the only reason i didnt was literally because i kept forgetting to call them , it sounds like a shit excuse lol but I'm been deadly serious :-/ i have learnt a valuable lesson

To be honest buy steel wheels put them on wind the coilovers up no one will know. Get the insurance to repair the bumper and wing and get the wheel done yourself.

Don't even try to claim for the wheel they'll more than likely be like this

I think they can tell the difference between a spring and a coilover.

Always worth asking the company to settle it privately, will save you both hassle in the long run. Get a quote on the work needed on head paper from a garage, send it to the company and see if they act upon it.

Your right i may just ring the company to see what they can do , why would it cost me more would i get fined for no insurance?

I don't know the ins and outs of the law side of things, but if the insurer was to invalidate your policy because of undeclared mods, then when you try and get insured a lot wont insure you and those that do are likely to be very expensive.

what was the outcome for the other guy? anyone know

I emailed him and apparently the insurance company didnt bother looking at his car and wrote it off . I tried contacting the company with no luck so started insurance procedings , just waiting for the 3rd party insurer and enterprise to contact me :-/

Spoke to insurance today and they will send an engineer to look at the damage and see if its a right-off :-/

I always thought you can insist on repair if its their fault. If its a write off you will loose out as they will offer bugger all.

Insurance said i need to take it to a local repair shop for an estimate , i doubt it as when my clio got hit and one little crack in the bumper it was a right-off and i got a check for 600quid and got to keep car. The company has claimed full liability so i doubt it they will give me nothing for it ? Surely i will just get a check and the car will then be cat D (which I'm not bothered about as i want to keep it a few years) they said i have no excess to pay and dont loose my no claims

For it to be a Cat C or D will depend on the estimate. If they can give you an estimate of less than 2/3 (two-thirds) the value of the car then it shouldn't be classed as a write off at all. Over that will be a cat D and if the estimate is higher than the total value of the car then it will be cat C.

I recon they will value work at 850 and car is only valued at 900 :-/ i will see tomorrow i suppose , thanks for that advice tho learn something new every day :-)

Took it to repair shop , guy and little assistant girl took loads of photos all round car , chassis number , clocks with engine running e.t.c and asked if my insurance knew about car been lowered :-/ i said springs have snapped (which they have) but he was having non of it lol however he said it shouldnt affect the claim as it was 3rd party fault but couldnt guarantee anything :-/ I THINK IV FUCKED IT TBH

make sure enterprise give you a nice car. as its 3rd party at fault they can reverse the charge onto their insurance instead of yours.

for me when i had a crash last year, I ended up driving a '14 plate Passat about for 6 weeks. I would have had a Ford Ka otherwise

Lol when i was 18 my 300quid saxo got nicked and burnt out , i got a brand new bmw 320d for 2 weeks :-) it was amazing . I dont think they will give me a hire car unless the car gets repaired . Enterprise said they mirror my insurance :-/ god knows what that means

They will give you something they think is comparable to your car. So you'll get an Astra or something along those lines.

When my G40 got hit nearly 6 years ago now the hire company phoned me up to say I was getting a 1.2 Corsa. They said they chose that because of the engine size. So I argued and said there is no way a 1.2 Corsa is in any way similar to a 1.3 Supercharged Polo. The next day they turned up at my house in a brand new 2.0TDI Jetta 140 :)