Minor damage and insurance claims

[Dash6]

Hi all, looking for other's experiences when its come to making insurance claims for minor damage. Hope the whole scenario doesn't seem petty...
My scenario: Took the Tornado thru a McDonalds drive through and have swiped the curb with the front bumper on the passenger side, taking off a section of paint, down to the raw bumper in some places, about the size of a two iphone 5s' end to end. Made me sick to my stomach when it happened.
The issue with this drive thru in particular is the curb around the drive thru is the same height, its the base of the drive thru that tapers down to the centre from the curb edge on both sides to a drain. So as you are driving round the drive thru turning right, you are paying more attention to not collecting the drivers rear, so you take it a little wide, then as you turn harder right to get around, the drivers side lifts because of the ground profile and the passenger side drops because of the ground profile and the bumper collects the curb. The ute is standard factory height all round as well.
Has anyone had any experiences similar ; ie, had damage due to carparks, drive thru's etc? and made an insurance claim.
Im not the first person to his this curb and i wont be the last. Ive seen this same mark on other falcon bumpers in the area and the curb is rubbed up all black from tyres etc.
Please no comments about my poor driving, just trying to find out if anyone has made a successful insurance claim for something like this and if premiums went up or it was/wasnt worth it in the long run.
My view is we are expected to have vehicles meet a standard (height ) and drive where designated, so if i cant drive my standard height car through a designated drive thru without sustaining damage, there is an issue with this drive thru in particular. It hasnt happened in other drive thru's in the last 4 years of ownership of the ute. ....

[SensationFG8]

If the excess is more than the repair bill don't claim is my rule.

You could try asking maccas to pay the excess but I would think their response would be something along the lines of "our curb doesn't move mate".

[Olbucko]

Fix it and forget about it, if you make a claim the insurance Co will not forget, your premium will go up next year.

Even one claim on your record is one claim too many.

Hopefully you have learnt a lesson, you won't do it again.

[Bossxr8]

Excess would probably be more than the cost to fix.

[petered]

The advice so far is 'spot on'. You can, though, read the Provisions of your Insurance Policy in terms of preserving No Claim Bonus (i.e. Lifetime Rating #1 etc.)

If this obstruction at Maccas is tricky AND they are aware of it AND have done nothing to remove / reduce the risk, you could have grounds for a claim. Worth 'trying on', especially if you have a Lawyer as a friend. If you do pursue it, put the details in a carefully worded letter headed "Without Prejudice" and see what happens. Always worth a try.

[Itsme]

You can only ask them to pay but I think we all know the answer, just cannot understand why you went through it knowing the risk of this happening.

[Matty4]

Fix it yourself.
Might cost $100 or so in materials and half a day.

Start with a sanding block (or a DA sander if you've got one) with 180 grit, then 240 and 320 to feather the edges. Couple of coats of primer, basecoat and then clearcoat.
Polish the edges. Job done. Google "Custom Spray Mods" on youtube. He has a couple of videos on how to do it all with spray cans.
That low on the front won't be an issue with the colour as you won't be painting to an edge.

Then sit back with a couple of frothy's admiring your handiwork.

[damo76]

3 weeks after i bought my 2012 ford focus, missus went shopping at coles and someone reversed out and scraped some paint off the bumper and drove off.
It wasn't bad but it was noticable if you were looking.
Anyway, got insurance to fix it, lucky i did $500 excess and the job cost $1750 because they had to take the bumper off and respray the whole bumper with metallic black ect.
Just get it fixed, since it happened in car park, it doesn't affect my no claim bonus apparantly.

[simon varley]

depends on what cover you've got. fully comp will cover it no questions, but you will pay the excess and unless you have protected your rating 1 then your premium will go up next year.
3rd party or claim off Maccas? forgetit.

[Magna]

another option might be a mobile paint touch up, especially if there isn't too much damage to the bumper. most of them offer free quotes.

[Express]

Get a quote and compare it against your excess payment and you may find it's better to just pay for the repair yourself.

Be aware the insurance company will see it as a ‘you’re at fault claim’ and that may have ongoing repercussions in that if you change insurance companies you’ll be asked for the next 5 years have you had a ‘you’re at fault claim’ and it if you stick with your current insurer they’ll know anyway.

That could impact on your premium.

Also you can discussion these issues with your insurance company without raising a claim.

They can advise you straight up what this type of claim will do to your policy.

As you’ve done here getting advice is free, I’d speak to the insurer and get a repair quote then make an informed decision.

I had a P plater run into the back of my car last Friday and I know it’s different as I’m not at fault but a phone call to the insurance company sorted it all out in my head and now the claim has been made, the quotation done and lodged and I’m now waiting for the insurer to approve the quote so the work can go ahead.

All that took about 4 hours of my time with the phone calls and driving over to an approved repairer.

All quick and easy and it’s not going to be the huge inconvenience I thought it would be.

Arm yourself with knowledge and that'll make the decision easy for you.

[LTDHO]

Claiming off Macca's is laughable.

Get the repairs quoted ASAP.

Then if it's high enough over your excess, then lodge a claim. I normally go on a rule of 150% of the excess to claim, that will justify any change to NCB and/or premium.

[mik]

if it was for myself i would not even bother thinking about making a claim for 2 or 3 hundred dollars, just not even worth mucking around with insurance companys imo,

it would be fix it myself on the weekend if i was able , or just drop it off to someone who can do it, pay the money and never worry about it again, and perhaps find another drive through.

[TheInterceptor]

Don't pay insurance, save the hundreds of dollars each year that would have gone to the insurance company and then you have a wicked sum of money after 5 years and you'd just go and get resprayed then use other drive throughs

Insurance is happy to take money, they will take back every cent they give you.

[Express]

Originally Posted by TheInterceptor

Don't pay insurance, save the hundreds of dollars each year that would have gone to the insurance company and then you have a wicked sum of money after 5 years and you'd just go and get resprayed then use other drive throughs

Insurance is happy to take money, they will take back every cent they give you.

Tell that to the uninsured 33 year old P plater who ran into my C63 last Friday.

Apparently he’s upset because if he doesn’t cough up cash for the repairs the insurance company have told him they’ll start recovering the costs by taking his damaged FG XR50 but that’s what you get when texting is more important than watching the road ahead of you.

[XG_Falcon]

You'd have to be mad to drive around with just ctp insurance. Not good financial advice.

[TheInterceptor]

Tongue in cheek more than serious.

But each to their own regardless.

[ltd]

Originally Posted by Express

Tell that to the uninsured 33 year old P plater who ran into my C63 last Friday.

Apparently he’s upset because if he doesn’t cough up cash for the repairs the insurance company have told him they’ll start recovering the costs by taking his damaged FG XR50 but that’s what you get when texting is more important than watching the road ahead of you.

Wow, just wow.
Have you got any pictures of the damage?
How much have they estimated the damages to be?
Did he run into your car whilst driving on the road or in a car park?

[The Monty]

You say that plenty of people have hit it. Look at the otherside of the coin, how many people go through this drive through and dont hit the curb. Just repair it yourself and save the hassle.

[Express]

Originally Posted by ltd

Wow, just wow.
Have you got any pictures of the damage?
How much have they estimated the damages to be?
Did he run into your car whilst driving on the road or in a car park?

Here’s a couple of photos taken with my phone when it happened and they don’t show anything.

You can’t see the ripples and buckles where the bar has flexed or the damage to the underneath of the diffuser on mine.

And his bar also has a noticeable buckle and is pushed in under the passenger side headlight which the photo doesn’t show.

It was just a love tap by someone who was inattentive and uninsured and for that the repair bill to my car alone is just over $7,000 and that is if there is no other underseen damage.

He was lucky as the Mercs usually absorb this type of low impact without doing any damage to the body and frame.

As an example there was a C63 parked at the same repairer that had been hit in the rear and pushed into the car in front at a much higher speed which caused a lot more damage and the repairer said it was going to cost about $30,000 to repair.

For mine:
3 day job
Disassemble & fit
Paint & blend
New rear bar
New rear diffuser
New 3 piece absorber mount plates
Replace body hardware & Clips
Check exhaust alignment & repair if necessary
Check boot alignment & repair if necessary
Car rental

These type of rear ender accidents are so common the car has already been approved for repair and the work starts next week.

As my old man used to say to me, if you can’t afford to insure them you can’t afford to drive them as the car you may eventually hit could be a Rolls Royce.

And looking at the photos there is hardly any damage and yet I still wouldn’t want to be paying out of my own pocket.

The moral of my story is if you are uninsured and have an at fault accident then the other driver’s insurance company is going to go all out to recoup its money.

[Express]

Originally Posted by ltd

Wow, just wow.
Did he run into your car whilst driving on the road or in a car park?

It happened during the afternoon outside a school while the 40 zone restriction was in play.

I was stationary in a line of traffic consisting of about 30 other vehicles.

Lucky it was a car he hit and not a child.

[ltd]

Originally Posted by Express

It happened during the afternoon outside a school while the 40 zone restriction was in play.

I was stationary in a line of traffic consisting of about 30 other vehicles.

Lucky it was a car he hit and not a child.

Yes, very lucky indeed.
Being 33 years old and still a red P plater, also uninsured, I think we may surmise this genius has lost his license before, and is not smart enough to get at the very least third party property. You're really lucky he didn't try to flee the scene.

[XG_Falcon]

People that damage C63s should be deported to Siberia.

[Dash6]

Cheers for the input. To answer a few points, yes full comp insured with protected maximum NCB. Reason for going through the drive through was i was unable to walk into the store at 0330 on a sunday morning after just leaving the hospital. The main reason for enquiring about insurance is if worst case scenario the damage cant be fixed by myself or a mobile scratch repairer, then insurance would cover a proper repair.
Ill enquire on a mobile repairer for a quote and go from there.

Express: I hope your C63 repairs are made promptly and correctly.

Cheers

[xisled]

Originally Posted by Express

Tell that to the uninsured 33 year old P plater who ran into my C63 last Friday.

Apparently he’s upset because if he doesn’t cough up cash for the repairs the insurance company have told him they’ll start recovering the costs by taking his damaged FG XR50 but that’s what you get when texting is more important than watching the road ahead of you.

He is full of it. The insurance company would not even bother with his car.

All they will do is send to a debt collector. The debt collector would then recover the money, they would just keep calling him, sending letters. I think it may be against the law for items to be taken as payment.

[xisled]

In regard to the damage, get a repairer to quote if less than the excess get them to repair, if more get the insurance to fix it. Its as simple as that.

In regard to insurance price increase etc. The price may go up because you do make a claim and you may loose a Rating/No claim bonus with that insurance company, but each insurance company have their own system for Ratings/No claims bonus and you will probably find that it is not a massive deal to make a claim at renewal time.

Rating and No claims bonuses are the same thing, just different states / insurance companies call them different things.

One thing people do is get caught up with a Rating/No Claim bonus. Basically each insurance company have their own way of calculating your Rating/No claim bonus. Yes by making a claim it may have an impact, but that's when you go to the next insurer at renewal time who gives you a better price and probably a Rating 1 for life/Maximum No Claim Bonus for Life.

If you are concerned call your insurance company up and ask them, what would happen if I made a claim when I hit a gutter. What will happen with my Rating/No Claim Bonus and premium.

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by xisled

I think it may be against the law for items to be taken as payment.

I think only a Sheriff of the Court can seize personal property if there's a judgement against them.