8v Bites The Dust - Ali Knockout Punch!

[V33DUB 0]

Monday mornings. We all love 'em. Monday just gone started with the usual hatred for breaking my sleep and leaving my house to go to work after 2 days of freedom. About 200 metres from work I was driving along a reasonably busy but not wide or straight road approaching a junction on my left. A car was waiting to turn right into it and a car waiting to turn right out of it. I'm about 10 metres away at the moment. The driver waiting to turn in across my path saw me and stopped. The driver turning out, acknowledged her position, head turned towards her. I'm about 5 metres away now. Still looking towards her he goes and pulls right out, glancing my way once about halfway across my path. Wet road. Older brakes. 3 metres or so of distance and the outcome was inevitable. Doing my best to avoid him I tried steering to the right but because of the other car there wasn't much room for manoeuvre. Because of this I hit him nicely with the corner of my car, just to maximize panel damage cos that's what I love to do on a Monday morning! Busy junction and every witness drove off. I had by now clocked that the car that pulled out infront of me was a taxi. Pulled over and the driver was most unforthcoming with details. He gave me his name... Ali... nothing more, nothing less... refused to give a phone number. I took his reg, taxi firm, driver number, picture of both cars and damage and went the rest of my journey to work. Headlight, indicator, fog, wing, slam panel and bumper bar (if this is seperate to the slam panel) all shafted. Crack in his bumper, that's all.

 

Reported the incident to Chris Knott who took down the details and passed me over to Drive Assist. I had no previous knowledge of Drive Assist or what they do so just (naively probably) went along with it all. They offered me a hire car and explained they claim the cost back off the other driver. I was dubious about Ali and his honesty or insuredness (is that even a word?) and so was wary about this but the guy offered me a £10 one off insurance that covers me should they not be able to get the money of the other driver. He then asked if I'd like them to handle the claim. By now I'd worked out that this was a third party no doubt money making company and told him I wanted my insurance company to handle that. He said he'd let them know that and all was done.

 

Yesterday I received a BMW 1 Series as my hire car. £133 per day rental. I read up online about Drive Assist. Didn't fill me with much confidence it has to be said! Hadn't heard anything from the insurance so today I phoned Chris Knott again who swiftly put me through to my insurer, Highway. It became quickly clear that Highway had no record of such incident and so went through all the details again. I now have an 'authorised repairer' contacting me to assess the damage. I'm pretty damn confident it will be written off :(

 

I've double checked with Drive Assist and they say the £10 waiver covers me should they not be able to collect the hire car cost off the third party but I'm really unsure to this! I've requested the terms in writing, awaiting their receipt. The other driver, although at fault did not accept blame at the scene and no blame has been assigned as yet, but they are renting me a £133p/d car and if they cant get the money off the third party all I pay is £10! Seems fishy as a fish monger on a fishing boat in fishy waters to me!!

 

Between Chris Knott and Drive Assist they have been nothing short of confusing and unsupportive. 1 call to Highway and I have a booking for a damage assessment and things seem to be progressing!

[sciroccotune 0]

bad luck mate, just keep a record of everything like when phone calls are made and who you speak to etc. Why not try and buy back the car and repair it your self even if its a write off?

[V33DUB 0]

bad luck mate, just keep a record of everything like when phone calls are made and who you speak to etc. Why not try and buy back the car and repair it your self even if its a write off?

Pretty much what I'm planning. The bloke I spoke to at Highway said their shouldn't be a problem with buying the salvage back. Been quoted £400 to spray the front end. Will need a headlight, wing, slam panel, fog, indicator though so depends what I can get the second hand panels for.

[dragon green 4]

Because of the Corrado's age your insurer may let you use 2nd hand panels to keep the cost down ! Mine did

Gutted for you,this is why I always offer to be a witness,think hard, are you sure one of your mates didn't see it,and has come forward as a witness !

[KIPVW 0]

Ah Gutted for you mate Ali is unquestionably liable, you cant pull out of junction into the path of a car and get away with that one. To me it's as cut & dried as being run into the back of whilst driving a yellow car which is sat stationary at a roundabout :(

 

Keep on at Highway but i'm sure they are dealing with it, it seems there's not many good words for Chris Knott these days to be fair.

 

Good Luck with it.

 

Kip

[RW1 0]

Sorry to hear.

 

Had the same just before Christmas with my Scirocco being clipped on the rear bumper.

 

RAC gave me two choices.

 

- Claim through the RAC policy, take a the hit of paying access and a raised premium this year cos I was claiming. (Inyour case take RAC as being Chris Knott equivalent.)

 

or

 

- Use Drive Assist who would handle the claim and just keep my insurer under the RAC policy informed at the begining that you've had a bump and using Drive Assist, in my case LV Insurance.

 

So I took the Drive Assist route because I had a clear case of being driven into, ie. I was sat in the house with the car parked outside stationary & locked. Never spoke to LV again after informing them of Drive Assists involvement as Drive Assist had been given the job of repairing and recovering my costs.

 

In your case if its very clear cut it was not your fault backed-up by witnesses, then Drive Assist will work independantly of the insurer Highway. Going this way, you effectively set a hound on the tail of the third party who are definitiely at fault. You are using Drive Assist to claim all your costs off the 3rd party's insurance policy. If Drive Assist win the case, then you have made no claim on your insurance with Highway so, no access to pay and no increased premium to pay at renewal. (My renewal dropped £90 this year despite the bump as the RAC saw no claim made on the LV policy)

 

Now the stings.

 

Repairing. No choice I believe where it goes. Drive Assist take the Corrado away and repair it at one of their bodyshops (which have better VAG approvals than VW dealers!) Mine was with ADR Bodyshops. The repair was very good but for me, only 98% of a job, little things on the bumper skin could have been better. But credit to ADR, they did their level best to return the Scirocco as before the bump, even down to refitting the protective body screw caps I had fiited myself. They used genuine VW parts but as said, a little more difficult to acheive with a Corrado.

 

The hire car. There is a sting with Drive Assist car hire. They took your credit card number details at the car hire handover???? If the 3rd party's insurer refuses to pay for the hire car under the Drive Assist route you have taken, all the hire car costs kick back on you. Thats a risk you are taking. And thats why it has to be an open & shut case it was the 3rd party's fault with witnesses.

 

The only negative, is communication with Drive Assist and the bodyshop. You will find yourself having to pull both of them together along with the hire car aspect at the end.

 

Would I go this route again? .... yes as its avoided any affect on my policies for my cars and therefore no increased insurance plus I paid no access on the repair.

 

.

Edited April 25, 2012 by RW1

[britpop95 0]

My god V33DUB my 8v was hit sunday and i find out friday weather they are writing it off or not. all because a women in a ford KA reversed off her drive and hit my bumper. I wish you all the luck in the world mate . We need to keep us 8 valvers going mate haha.

[KIPVW 0]

Bummer 2, Ya cant write it off for the sake of a bloody bumper, tell them you'll get a 2nd hand one :)

[britpop95 0]

Thats what i am planning mate. You have yet to here the best part though kip... The women offered to pay for my repair keep the insurance out of it. So i got a quote for 130 for the bumper and she said she wasnt willing to pay that amount of money! So she asked could we go through insurance i said yes.

 

So my own insurance said they want me to have a new bumper and indicater lense. So now for the price New bumper: 550.61p from vw germany , indicater : £60 , body shop to spray and fit it final price £1061 ! If they dont write my car off her insurance will go through the roof on her renewal.

[V33DUB 0]

So I've got the Terms & Conditions for the £10 Insurance cover I took out with Drive Assist to cover me should they not be able to recover the costs of the hire car from the third party. Usual hard to understand 'financial' language but one bit that stood out is that I'm not covered should the accident be my fault. Now I know it wasn't my fault but the lack of witnesses (well ones I have details for at least) and the fact Ali was, at best, of questionable honesty after refusing to give me many details at all, I can see a big "50/50' neon sign on the horizon which I'm guessing by the word of the law, me half at fault and so half the hire car costs to be paid by me. I've gotta phone Drive Assist today to get this confirmed but I feel I've been misled and ill informed from the beginning of this kerfuffle!

 

Also found out from research that my insurance will go up regardless of whether the accident goes down as non-fault, 50/50 or my fault. Pretty much by the same amount. Or at least it does when typed into the comparison sites with different details.

 

You legally have to report any accident to your insurer and regardless of whether you even make a claim, regardless of fault, the very fact you've been involved in one, most insurance companies will raise your premium as you are viewed to be "more at risk" as you've had an accident.

 

From a pessimistic, 'don't believe the insurance companies will fight that hard on my behalf', if the claim goes down as 50/50 I have to pay and not recover my £350 excess.

 

Then there's the devaluation of an accident repaired vehicle, even more so if they write it off and I can buy it back as a cat c or d.

 

Whatever the outcome of this, I'm out of pocket and probably by a few hundred pounds. I really can't help but feel that this is just another "screw you" that this country has to offer. No matter what kind of driver you are, unless you're lucky enough never to have an accident or claim, you end up getting bent over and buggered!

 

Rant over, I'm off to look at sponsored jobs in Australia!

[guildmage 11]

I do feel for you man.. and I really wish you will get it sorted in the best way for you. I'm sure everyone here will keep fingers crossed. You know ... in the end of the day, you will get pass this and things will be bright again.

 

The sad part of all this is that, from what I have seen so far here in UK. If you are trying to be "law abiding" citizen and you pay all your bills, insurance and taxes .. you will get punished this way or another in the end!

Now, uninsured drivers and people who do not pay anything... will get better off than all of us! What a lot of rubbish really!

 

Regardless, there is always hope... wishing you all best man, just stick to it and try to get as best deal as possible.

[RW1 0]

Cos of this sort of situation, as of last week my daily runner is now kitted out with a video camera that just switches on/off with the ignition and just loops round a 32Gb microcard all the time (8 hours recording - black box). So no need to touch it and set it up everytime. Not bad for £45 and £29 for a Class 10 micro-card.

 

Within 1 day of fitting, had an idiot pull right towards me in the offside lane going into a roundabout. Just signalled while along side him on his rear/mid quarter and immediately started to move right without checking his right hand side. All on video so there would have been no arguement about his driving.

 

.

[guildmage 11]

Cos of this sort of situation, as of last week my daily runner is now kitted out with a video camera ...

 

Can I ask what model/brand did you get? I want one too...

[G60 CS 0]

Can I ask what model/brand did you get? I want one too...

 

 

 

Me too ! Although my car was stationary at the time parked outside my house whilst i was at work a neighbour reversed into it with a tow bar destroying my reiger front bumper 4 weeks after getting car back from the bodyshop after a repaint and fitting the kit. My Policy is with also Highway via Brentacre who seem to be pretty good

[RW1 0]

I wasn't intending to hi-jack this thread..... so here goes but I think a mod should do some snipping out.....

 

I had a good look round for a Dash-Cam over the last few weeks as I was getting fed-up with near miss situations, red light runners and Astra chavs buzzing the Scirocco.

 

After looking at quite a lot from £25 upto £400, I came to the conclusion that the video quality did not improve once beyond £60ish, just more bells & whistle like GPS. So why buy a £220 Dash-Cam with GPS if the video quality was no better than a £60 one. Was it necessary for me - No!

 

Then I came across Techmoan, who has done some really practical hands-on reviews of various Dash Cams via YouTube. After consideration of my needs, ie. black-box recorder with no real daily maintenance to set up and bulky awkward size.... I decided upon this one, the SmartCam HD (not the VGA version).

 

- It runs continously (15min segment recordings or less, each end on end and then loops to the beginning when the micro-card is full)

- It could be switched on/off by the ignition.

- Video quality was good.

- Sound recording not too bad.

- Reasonably wide angle lens without too much distortion, 120 degrees.

- Good night time imaging.

- Compact but with mini viewing screen.

 

Techmoan does a very good review here and there are two to choose from. The HD version is best. In fact just under the YouTube screen you can download a daytime and nightime raw video files out of the SmartCam.

 

 

Daytime raw AVI video file out of the camera http://www.mediafire.com/?ddgir87v9iedfv3

Night time raw AVI video file of the camera http://www.mediafire.com/?s4r29acet2x9yb5

(Use the "Save target as" option on the right click of the mouse to download. Give time to react as the files are large 54Mb & 42Mb resppectively)

 

What I will say is that it comes with no micro-card. So you have to buy that separtely. It has to be a Class 10, any slower causes poor video, sound sync or missed frames when the video is stored. SO THIS MUST BE CLASS 10. Got the SmartCam here....

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SmartCam-HD-Car-DVR-720P-Dashcam-Driving-Recorder-HDMI-2-0-LCD-UK-SELLER-/200745123135?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item2ebd577d3f

 

Scott sells them and he's very good in responding to queries so no worries buying off Ebay. Delivered the next day!

 

The 32Gb Class 10 Micro Sd Card I bought was this one.....

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005FY61EK/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

 

It works very well with the SmartCam. Good video, seamless storing no noticeable loss when a segment completes and the camera starts the next.

 

The rate is 4Gb/1 hour recording. The 32Gb should give me about 7.5 to 8 hours historical recorded video blocked into segments of 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 10 or 15 minutes depending how the SmartCam is set-up. Bear in mind that when the micro-card is full, that SmartCam deleteds the oldest file first as it loops so that deletes 15 minutes if you have it set to 15 mins. So if retention is really critical, work with small segments of stored video file such as 5 minutes.

 

It comes with a screen mount as you have seen in the YouTube review. I didn't want that as sucker rings indicate a SatNav being used and that means little light fingers getting interested. So I decided in true Blue Peter fashion to make my own mount on top of the dash out of hard foam, draft excluder foam and a bit of none slip mat from Maplin.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60809[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60825[/ATTACH]

 

The power wire will eventually be hidden next week when I complete the installation. I've flipped the mini-screen in the menu so it looks right if I want it flipped up to see in that position.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60813[/ATTACH]

 

It just pops into the foam frame and there is a mini USB connection to fit, pretty easy to do in that postion.

It doesn't obscure the windscreen view. No windscreen mount, although the mount supplied is pretty small. And no dangling wires when I've finished tracking it over the fuse box on the end of the right side of the dash.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60817[/ATTACH]

 

From the front through the windscreen, not much to see. I've left the two little LEDs off. Its postion is no worse than being on the sucker mount it comes with, still see all in front over a 120 degree angle.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60821[/ATTACH]

 

Easy to disconnect and the SmartCam can be then popped into your top shirt pocket if removal dictates. Its no different in size and thickness to a mobile phone.

 

In practice, in that position on the dash is what I see when driving, so the120 degree wide angle pretty much covers it. The hard foam mount is good enough to reduce dash vibration. I found in high lateral "g" situations such as going round a roundabout, the unit initiall slide on the dash a little. So added the Maplin sticky anti-slip mat (trimmed). That worked a treat.

 

Aiming is not an issue as the lens is so wide angle. If its pointing forward by eye, that will do but it is best to reduce as much visible sky in the frame otherwise the road & vehicles become under exposed (dark). You'll soon see when in use. I fitted some tape as Techmoan did on the underside to stop the camera part vibrating and to ensure it was point straight ahead, not skyward or into the bonnet.

 

The Smart Cam is also a stills camera. File size of 1.3Mb suggests with 4Mp - 5Mp definition with a lens zoom (Which also operates in the movie mode as well). The lens quality is not as good as a standard digital camera picture though.

The internal battery will give about 40 - 45 mins when I measured it.

It will play back on the miniscreen the video/stills files.

 

So all round VFM for me. I decided that if I get two years use out of it, video camera sensors will have moved on again and I'll consider moving on from there.

 

If you want better coverage, then this maybe worth looking at but it looks bulky and I've seen no video from it yet. I expect it to be the same quality as all the crop of 2011 Dash Cams like Smart Cam.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140730789116?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_npmv%3D3%26_trksid%3Dm570.l2736%26_nkw%3D140730789116%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1

 

.

Edited April 27, 2012 by RW1

[V33DUB 0]

Interesting info about the camera RW1! Will be looking into this!

 

Had a call from a loss assessor working for Highway today. Basically my car is a total loss. He asked a few questions about condition and mods. Asked how much I thought it was worth. Put on the spot I said "£1500-£2000 maybe but there isn't many for sale, especially 8v's". He said, "yeah well I've got exactly that figure down here, £1700 is about the top I can go". I didn't really know what to say? Seems like a decent price. I asked about the suspension change as the KW kit cost me a fair whack and it was on the insurance as being worth £200 and I was told would be factored into the cars value. He said £1700 is still as high as he'd go.

 

All seemed a bit too simple and set in stone. I wonder if it just happens that the price was decent or if I'd pushed I couldv'e got more? I'm not really sure how much a clean 8v with desirable mods is worth? Keeping the salvage for £300 as well though.

 

It's not very clear if this claim is going down as the third parties fault or not however. Need to speak to Highway to confirm what's going on!!

[Purple Tom 0]

To be honest £1700 sounds like a pretty good valuation, especially if you're able to keep the salvage for £300.

[V33DUB 0]

To be honest £1700 sounds like a pretty good valuation, especially if you're able to keep the salvage for £300.

That's what I was thinking but I'd kinda built myself up for a fight and to reject the first valuation but there was no fight and a decent valuation. Kinda knocked me off stride!

[Purple Tom 0]

Yeah, generally it's like that with insurance companies, I can see why you did that :) If the damage is as it appears in your avatar then I'd be repairing it and using it. Has the assessor said what it'll be categorised as? I imagine Cat 'C' based on the damage.

[V33DUB 0]

Yep Cat C. Am gonna see how much it'll cost to repair and weight up the options. Can either fix this one and put the rest of the money into it or break it and put all the money into a looked after other one off here. Not sure which route to go yet?

[Purple Tom 0]

If you were planning on keeping the car for a while then I would just repair it and carry on.

 

It's not going to cost you £1400 to get it back to a decent condition (even if you can't get panels in the right colour and you have to get it painted) and to be honest the cars are so cheap that it being declared Cat C won't make massive difference to the value.

 

I think you could end up with it back on the road for not a huge amount of money (assuming its all straight etc) and have a bit of change left over to carry out some more modifications etc :)

[Supercharged 2]

RW1 - excellent info - maybe worth copying into a new thread if you have time?

 

I was discussing the same with Yan and Jim a few weeks ago and saying I'm suprised Garmin havn't come up with a SatNav solution that does this yet!

 

V33DUB - sorry to hear this, usually they will only write a car off if the repair cost is 100% or more of the value - is this the case?

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again - with parts prices and parts deletion I think everyone should have an agreed value policy!

[Portent 0]

Sorry to hear about the hassle. £1700 + £300 scrap value doesn't sound too bad. I think you should certainly consider getting estimates for a repair. Look at KIP's repair and he has got the car to a state he wouldn't have been able to achieve without the payout.

 

My insurance renewal is due this year and I think I'll certainly consider an agreed valuation now.

[V33DUB 0]

Well I'm guessing (using genuine new parts), a headlight & surround, fog, indicator and surround, wing, slam panel, bumper and bumper with paint and labour on top that it was a pricey insurance repair? Like Tom said above I don't think being a CAT C repaired will affect it's value massively and I'm probably better off financially with £1400 + the car to repair myself. Never been in this situation before so I'm finding it hard to call. I dunno if breaking it, adding that money to my £1400 and then adding some more from savings and holding out for a better example around the £3000-£4k mark may be the way to go? I mean I think C5OEM's green one went for around £4k recently didn't it and that was in much better condition than mine (different models granted). A couple more around that price range and standard are floating around or have recently gone to new homes too. Decisions, decisions!

 

A big factor in what I do will depend on how my insurance is affected. As I've said, doing some quick quotes on the comparison sites it seems to go up by about £300 regardless of being 50/50 or non-fault. With less than 3 years driving under my belt it may be time to drive something boring for a bit until my premiums drop :(

[Supercharged 2]

One option would be to break it for parts then and scrap what's left - you'll get your £300 back on the shell as they're still relatively heavy cars...

 

Buy a VR or another Late 8V and you'll have a load of parts that you can restore then swap over if needed