Mazda accident aftercare

This post isn’t strictly about insurance, but I thought it would fit in this section.

When I bough my second-hand Mk3 from a Mazda dealer, they offered me free “accident aftercare”. In case of an accident they suggest I should call them first, not my insurance company. They claim they would contact the insurance company on my behalf, and make sure the car is repaired by a Mazda approved garage. I see where they come from, they just want get the money from the insurance company.

But how does it work for us, drivers? I really don’t mind the car being fixed by Mazda, even if it costs more, as long as the insurance company pays for it. Does it really work well? Is it worth contacting Mazda, or should I rather phone the insurance company first in case of accident?

Did anyone use Mazda accident aftercare?

I was going to mention this as well. In my local dealership they have been giving out plastic tags with the “Call Mazda First” number.

More details here http://www.callmazdafirst.co.uk/

 

Small print below…

 

Mazda Accident AfterCare is provided on behalf of Mazda Motors UK Ltd by Retention UK Limited which is regulated by the Ministry of Justice in respect of regulated claims management activities. Retention UK Limited is an appointed representative of Original Insurance Services Ltd, which is regulated by the Financial Services Authority. This service may be reduced if you are not comprehensively insured or your policy has restrictions in cover. By using this site you agree that we may use your personal information for the purposes of fulfilling your above request, and for future communications from Mazda Accident AfterCare if you have selected these options. You may opt out of communications at any time by emailing help@verexgroup.com.

Yes rang them about daughter’s bump in the snow. They offer advice and arrange recovery to a Mazda bodyshop if you need it and are covered.

They’re an accident management company. You still need to report the accident to your insurer but they’ll take details too and if they feel they have a good chance of recovering your losses will take on your case, making profit on your hire car and their fees for handling it.

If it looks like you’re to blame and they won’t be able to send the bills to the third party they’ll politely drop you and advise you to get in touch with your insurer.

In short, they may be useful for advice and contacts for recovery and an appoved repairer in your area to keep your Mazda body warranty but don’t go spending on any costs if you’re not sure you’ll get it back.

(If you have the car repaired by a Mazda approved bodyshop it will retain the body warranty. If you go elsewhere you’ll get whatever they offer by way of warranty on the repair.)

Thanks, Rich. My car is 6.5 years old, I’m not sure how long the body warranty is. Anyway, even directly with the insurer I’d insisnt on repairing it by a Mazda garage. I guess assistance company might save some hassle, but without them all I need to do is to talk to my insurer and then arrange recovery, so probably it does not make huge difference.

To make things more complicated, Mazda gave me 1 year warranty on the car, and it came with “Mazda European Assistance” with a different phone numer (0800 777 179), a policy number and expiry date. I have no idea if this is the same company or someone else.  As this is linked to my warranty, perhaps I’m required to use them in case of an accident to retain the warranty. I don’t know really, I think it is time to read the small print… 

Claims management companies are actually part of the problem of why insurance premiums have risen so much. They charge insurers large amounts for hire cars and I expect encourage personal injury claims as well.

Too true !

 

 Accident recovery is as people have said a 3rd party accident management company, probably similar to those used so controversially by the insurance companies, and use of which by my insurer resulted in a 50-50 agreement being made with someone who had hit my car, while I was still trying to claim the full amount!

Maza European Assistance - Think AA or Green Flag cover -very common as part of warranty deals for breakdown. Network Q included RAC some yars back (or was it AA?) - so I suspended my own RAC breakdown cover while I had the inclusive one that came with the warranty.So if you already have RAC/Green Flag/AA etc. check your Mazda policy and see if there’s overlap and perhaps money to be saved.

I’m a little bit concerned about this. I had a prang in my 2 week old MX5 this morning (some idiot decided to drive into the back of me while I was stationary at the lights).

Aside from being absolutely gutted at my new MX5 being damaged, I thought I’d use the Call Mazda service because it was emboldened on every window and in the documentation I’d been given. I am also wanting offical Mazda parts and engineer to carry out the work rather than some 2 bit garage that my insurer is using on the cheap. Did I do wrong? Confused

Bad luck about the accident.

Claims management companies don’t actually do anything that you can’t do yourself. You can insist upon a Mazda bodyshop and genuine parts, especially for such a new car.

Most bodyshops are “insurance approved” in any case, but usually the only difference might be in the length of the repair guarantee given. The more important thing is to look for a manufacturer (in this case Mazda) approved place. This can include good independent bodyshops. You might have to get a couple of quotes if arranging it yourself.

Insurers will not refer you to dodgy bodyshops (in my experience working in the insurance industry for many years) - indeed the one my insurers use is the local Ford/Mazda main dealer! What they will have is approved labour rates that they pay for, so if you want Rolls Royce at Goodwood to repair your Mazda - you may have a problem…!

When I paid for a minor bumper repair some time ago, the Ford/Mazda main dealer was actually much more competitive than an independent bodyshop.

As to whether you can take back control over the claim yourself - I don’t know - but make sure there wouldn’t be any cost penalty if you did this.

 

 

 

I started this topic, because, just like you, I didn’t know the answer to this question. Since you are actually using Mazda Acccident Aftercare, we would appreciate sharing your experience on this forum when you are finished with them. I think many people might find this sort of “testimony” useful.

I hope it will work well for you and you have you 5 back on the road soon! 

Since I’ve already spoken to them I will continue with it (don’t want to over complicate things by contacting my insurer as well as Mazda First).

I’m going to call them again on Monday when they are open for normal working hours and chase my claim as just seeing my poorly MX5 sat on the driveway is depressing me no end. It should be an open and shut case so long as the numpty involved admits fault, I was sat stationary at traffic lights, next thing I know there is a Merc CLS 320 attached to my bumper… :frowning:

I’m also going to see my GP tomorrow as I’ve started to get the beginnings of neck ache, I don’t know if it is connected but we will see…

If you don’t mind I will use this thread to keep you up to date with my experience? 

You need to contact your insurer with full details of the accident. Mazda First are only a management company. If anything goes wrong with their third party claim on your behalf (the other driver is not insured for instance) it will be your insurer who will be paying for your repairs or trying to recover your losses. In any case you need to declare the accident to them under the terms of your own insurance. Your insurer may decline to cover you if you have not told them at the earliest opportunity. Claims companies are not your insurance company and are totally unnecessary in most cases.

Explain to your insurer you have a 12 year body warranty you wish to retain and that you want it to be repaired by a Mazda Approved Bodyshop. In most cases this is not a problem. We had (believe it or not) both my wife and daughter’s Mazda’s repaired last month by a Mazda bodyshop with 2 different insurers and no problems arranging it. The jobs are also excellent, spot on, and the receipt details the genuine parts used right down to the wax protection injected.

 

I’m confused now.

See here in the first FAQ: http://www.mazda.co.uk/assets/uk/buying-owning/files/mazda-aac-leaflet-v4-1205.pdf

So I should contact Esure and tell them that Mazda First are dealing with the claim?

Ha ha. Don’t kid yourself…where do you think the insurance company gets its money from?

You are paying for it. We all are.

That is a misleading leaflet. Repeat, they are not your insurers and if they cannot get your claim accepted (along with their own fees for handling it) you will be left to pay it yourself or ask your own insurance company to do it.

It does say you don’t need to tell your insurers. That may be the case if you give them authority to do it on your behalf but if you read the small print of your own insurance you will find you need to tell them of any accident. Not doing so could lead to them declining a claim.

The tick list is also very wrong in that once you contact your insurers you are perfectly able (it is your right) to ask that the car is repaired by a Mazda Approved Bodyshop. In that case most if not all of those ticks change. Further they’ve ticked themselves for just 5 years cover on the repair. Most insurance bodyshops now offer that as standard anyway but I clarified with Mazda that if it is repaired by a Mazda shop the full 12 year warranty will continue and will be transferable so you won’t compromise any resale value.

By all means let Mazda First handle it but I’m just explaining the possibilities of being left with it back in your lap if the other driver is not insured or his insurance company contests it or becomes tardy with replies knowing they are about to be ripped off. By talking to your own insurer you do not compromise any of your options and it is on record should you need to ask them to help. You also need to do it anyway for your next insurance quote fault or no fault.

 

OK thanks for the advice. I’m going to call my insurer first thing tomorrow so that they are aware and mention that I’ve spoken with Call Mazda about it. Will see what they have to say. 

Good stuff, you’ll do what’s best for you but I’d hate to see you tripped up by any small print. In theory you (or a claims company on your behalf) should be able to get your car fixed by the guilty party without your insurance paying for it. In practice it can take a long time and the pragmatic way tends to be to get it fixed on your comprehensive policy and let your insurer reclaim from the other party in due course. If they recover all losses you’ll get back your excess and will not suffer. If not, well the car was going to have to be fixed anyway wasn’t it, so better sooner than later. When I was booking one of ours in a girl was booking hers in too but she had been waiting for the other party’s approval since Oct and that was Feb. Of course a claims company would try and speed this up by getting approval more quickly so good luck and let us know how it goes.

Quick update.

I had a call from Mazda First on Monday, a very friendly lady who took all of the necessary incident details and gave me a ref number, she advised me to call my insurer to notify them of the incident and that it was an ‘information only’ claim. Had a further call later in the afternoon from Mazda First again to let me know that the other party’s insurer would be processing the claim and advising me of the nearest Mazda parts repair centre and said that I should expect a call from them within 1-2 days to arrange a quote.

Spoke to the accident centre this afternoon and all booked in for a quote tomorrow. So far very impressed with the service. I’ve not had to pay any excess so far. If I had gone direct through insurer there would have been a £200 excess on top of the compulsory £150 to use my preferred garage as their’s was an independent.

So far so good…