So… there I am in a queue of traffic, crawling along at 1mph in my lovely '5 which I’ve had for 2 and a half days.
THUMP straight into the back of me, a Renault. Out gets the woman and she says ‘oh dear, I had a sneezing fit and looked up and saw you, braked, and slid in to the back of you. Te he he, ho ho ho’.
I didn’t find it very ******* funny! She’d been following me for 100 yards in stop-start traffic, so my (bright red) car shouldn’t have been much of a surprise.
Luckily nothings broken or dented as she was probably only doing a few mph when she hit me, but the bumper is now out of whack with the bodywork, it’s been pushed back 3 or 4mm. I’ve got no compunction on claiming on her insurance (except I know no-fault claims do affect my premiums, even if it’s only a little), but what’s likely to be damaged? Has it just bent the brackets that hold the bumper in place? Or is there likely to be hidden problems too?
I’d like to have some idea of the likely scale of problems before I call my or her insurance company.
Damnit, I’m not happy 
I don’t wish to cause excess worry but check your exhaust system; a few years ago my Alfa was backed into the garage…literally! The rear box was fine but, because the pipe stuck out further than the bodywork, the (full stainless) exhaust system took the brunt of, what at first seemed like a lucky escape. The problem was the cat, as the weak link in the system, the cat had been squashed, rupturing the filters inside it and costing me the best part of £300 to fix!
If it’s just the brackets that have bent (not sure what NCs are like underneath) then any decent bodyshop worth their salt will be able to replace these for small change.
Good luck…
Don’t drivers with that attitude [male or female] p**s you right off!!!
Have a very careful look around underneath, it’s not unknown for the diff to get damaged in a rear end shunt. Also the fibreglass/plastic rear bumper will show cracks at some time down the track [I know, I’ve been there] Also check the boot floor for ripples…Grrrrrrrr
Thanks for the quick replies… my car isn’t an NC, it’s an S-reg Mk2 that was in lovely condition.
I’ll go and check those things, and get the garage to check 'em too. Luckily I have a Mazda dealership very close to my home, so I’ll get them to take a look.
Sorry to hear that buddy. What dreadful luck.
I don’t think sourcing a replacement bumper in your colour should be a problem. Mk2’s are being imported for salvage so I’ve heard - no shortage of s/h parts around right now.
I can’t comment on any knock-on effects 'cos I haven’t seen the damage , but let’s hope the rest checks out ok.
Perhaps get a quote for the repairs and give this nasally-challenged dimwit the chance of paying it for you. Her excess may well be more than the repair and she might be glad to save a few quid.
The good point is that she admitted being wholely at fault and you would surely want to inform your insurance co. of the accident and to pass this detail on.
Good luck with it.
Things are different now but when I moved to Sweden in 1984 with my Mini Clubman I decided to stay fully-comp with my company in England for the next year, after which I intended to import the car.
2 months into my stay and a Volvo 144 backed into me quite heavily and smashed the wing and headlight. I took his phone number and seethed all day. My girlfriend’s parents eventually got this guy on the phone (at work) and told him that either I came down to pick up a statement of guilt from him, or the police would be called. After 3 weeks and eventually me going down there fully fired-up - I got my statement.
My insurers had been informed but I wasn’t making a claim. His insurers gave me an address for a bodyshop and I took the car down there. What I didn’t know was that in Sweden they have basically a 3-month holiday in the trade and that my car would sit for 10 weeks before commencement of work. I spoke to the insurers and they said I would get a daily allowance for the loss of car. OK.
I eventually got my car back . The work was good and I was a bit happier ,although I’d spent the whole summer on the bus. 3 days and the alternator failed (£80). Then the brakes failed completely one day approaching a Zebra-crossing with pedestrians. I had to literally steer around people on the crossing. Everyone survived I’m glad to say but it cost me a wheel cylinder and a lot of shoes and fluid before I had brakes again.
A week later the brakes failed again. I asked those insurers if the car had been checked and they said no. The bodyshop was only that. They were not willing to do more as they considered the damage minor. I called my guys in England and asked if they could possibly help by forcing this bunch to assess the damage further. In fact they probably hadn’t seen the car.
Luckily the brakes were fixed by tightening the wheel-bearing on the damage side, which had been knocked loose. My car was now 100% back to driveability so I drove to the big insurance building on the other side of town (Stockholm) , the company is Trigg-Hansa and are the biggest insurers in the country.
I had been promised about £4 per day allowance. Plus the cost of Bus cards and expenses. I decided to not mention the mechanical problems and instead just take my £500 and get out of there.
The guy I’d spoke to was busy and another chap was dealing with me. I showed all reciepts and had itemised every day for them. After an hour of waiting he came back and proceeded to offer me £18. That was it. No explanation, just £18 - which I didn’t take.
Jesus , I let loose a bit in there but it’s all safety glasss and security doors and I wasn’t able to actually get my hands around anyone’s neck!! Security escorted me out after a while!!! Once my bird’s family had calmed me down at home I thought Oh well - I’ll just forget the whole thing now as I will end up in jail if I do anything.
I sent all expense paperwork to my insurers and asked if they could get the money from Trigg-Hansa. Nothing was heard for 2 months.
Because of the Swedish winter it soon became apparent that a Mini was not the thing to drive on their roads . I decided to take it back to England and sell it. I lost £400 plus the cost of the trip.
I informed my insurers of the sale and told them that as I had 6 months left then I would be requiring a refund. “Oh No” they said!!. Can’t refund you because you made a claim!
That was how it ended . The car had cost me £720 initially. After the repairs and travel and the fact that I’d had to let it go for £350 , I would say that driving that car for those 2 months out of the six I owned it , cost me near on £1000.
Sorry about the long story but hope it makes you feel a bit better.
Do get your stuff checked out as , in my case, the damage had spread itself out to other areas. I almost flattened two kids at 25mph with my lack of brakes!!
Good luck anyway with it all.
Cheers Pete
Blimey, that’s a tale of woe, and no mistake. Very sorry to hear of that. It puts my experience into perspective!
I’ll certainly take it to Mazda, rather than my normal back-street garages, for a check-over.
I believe that you are supposed to inform your Insurance Co if involved in an accident, even if you are not making a claim on them.
What a nightmare - I feel your pain! If I were you, I would inform the insurance company and get them to check it out. Who knows what may have happened underneath? You are not a fault that sl*t is! Are you injured at all? Where there’s blame there’s a claim.
I have had my 5 for a month, it was a replacement for a car that was written off by a stupd cow driving into the back of me. A few months on and I am still having physio on my neck. Its no joke and I am sorry to say, but woman drivers do seem to be the worse offenders! And to not apologise!!!
I think this one is simple. She drove into you so she is 100% to blame. Advise your insurance company of the accident, giving them her details, and get a quote for any damage, however minor, to be rectified at her insurers cost. You will not be penalised when getting insurance in the future as you have not had a claim against you.
I’ve phoned her and got her insurance company name. She was bright and breezy and still didn’t apologise.
Anyway. I’ve reported it to Norwich Union. They can’t be too happy… two days in to a 7 day free ‘Driveaway’ insurance deal! They wanted me to take my car to Nationwide Crash Repairers, but they ‘fixed’ my old Eunos… badly! So I’ve insisted the car goes to Pilling Mazda, even though it’ll take a bit more time to arrange for NU’s engineer to visit the site and ok the repairs.
You are doing the right thing in claiming.
A woman ran into the back of the lovely Molly and knocked the bumper out of place and had cracked it around the boot lock. I had a right fight on my hands as the woman who had been speaking perfectly good english beforehand suddenly lost all comprehension once I started talking about insurance! I called the police, and she called her big male friend in a BMW who insisted that the damage was done previously.
The police were on my side, said it was new damage, and said it must go to the repair shop to determine how much the car had been damaged underneath from the shunt, luckily Molly wasn’t and it was just the bumper.