Sounds very good…
You could have reclaimed any uninsured losses (excess etc) through the other party yourself. I always include legal protection on my cover to make this easier.
I find it hard to believe that an insurer would penalise you £200 to use a manufacturer approved garage. I would take this up with the insurance ombudsman because next time it might not be someone else’s fault (but it might just be the risk you take with the cheapest insurance quote and their smallprint).
On my MoreThan policy it states:
We take pride in the claims service we offer to our customers. Where your policy provides cover for damage to your car we have a network of recommended repairers. The repair process will commence immediately your car arrives on their premises. To ensure there is no effect on any existing warranty you may have, they provide a lifetime guarantee on all repairs. Where you choose not to use one of our recommended repairers we will arrange for your damaged car to be assessed by one of our motor engineers to agree the repair cost with your nominated repairer.
I’m a little lost. I was always told that if you had an accident which was not your fault, you call the other party’s insurance company not yours, and claim on their policy? The 3rd party’s insurance company will then pay out, not yours.
Yep, that’s the theory. In practice the other guy may not report it for weeks and his insurance company (if he has one and you got the details off him correctly) will not hurry themselves. In the meantime you’ll be left hiring a car or walking. Don’t pay out for anything either unless you have an absolutely cast iron case and the other insurer has accepted the claim. Otherwise they may contest it or only accept half responsibility.
That is the world of Third Party Only insurance which I had as a youngster and never paid out for me. Without Fully Comp or at least Legal Cover they know you are just a single guy against their corporate sloth(!) and will settle for what you can get.
You should inform your own insurer, whether or not you intend to make a claim on your own policy.
Yep that too 
Mind you - with the forthcoming GPS / 3G car trackers (mandated by the evil EU from 2015 on all new cars), the insurer will know all about it before you get home!
I thought I’d update the thread as my claim has now been settled.
My opinion of Mazda Accident Aftercare was in general very positive. When I needed clarification on anything or was just after an update they were always very helpful and were a UK contact centre. The hire car company that they used were also good. I was given a Mini Countryman which was a bit nicer than the Ford Ka I’d have got from the insurer.
Overall the claim took 2.5 weeks which I felt was a reasonable turn around and I got what I wanted which was the repair done with Mazda parts at an approved garage. Both sets of insurers had requested that I used their nominated garages (neither were Mazda approved). All in all, I’d probably use the service again (although I hope to never have to). I did not have to pay anything throughout the claim.
That’s a good result and I’m pleased for you. It’s how insurance should work with you getting the car fixed quickly by an approved repairer. It is worth noting though that they only took your case on as it was clearly not your fault and they will have got agreement from the third party insurer relatively easily. We tried with them for our claims which were less clear cut and they politely dropped us. We did get some useful info though so they are certainly worth a call.
Unfortunately there will be Mazda First’s wages to add to the bill which motorists in general will end up footing. Shame insurers can’t get their act together. I can confirm the same ludicrous situation with Sheilas Wheels of being asked for an extra £200 excess if we insisted on our own repairer rather than theirs. They are the same group as Esure, what would dear old Michael Winner say? Calm down dear 
We did get an approved repair in the end as we went to their insurer and the Mazda bodyshop, forwarded the quotes, and the Mazda shop was 10% cheaper! Ours both took 2 weeks end to end but it needed me prodding it along and we have yet to see the excess refunded.
The cheapest insurance quotes are the cheapest for a reason (or indeed for several reasons), caveat emptor.