We bought our fantastic 15 plate 500s 105bhp last week Thursday and unbelievably, someone drove into the back of it on Monday!!! So gutted, I can't tell you.

Has anyone got any experience of this or advice to offer? We had the assessor round today and he seemed to think it was nothing serious - replace bumper and repair tailgate and all would be good as new. The rear bump bar status is unknown as yet, but no side panel crumpling at all and the boot panel looks fine.

Worried that the car will never be the same again!! Is this unfounded?

Looks fairly minor, even if it needed a new crash bar that would be an easy enough to do.

It will be fine the car would be just as good after a repair. It’s not like they have to cut large chunks out of the structure of the car.

Have a good look inside the boot (under the carpet with the spare wheel, if supplied, removed. If there is no warping, cracked paint or deformed joints then all you lost in the shunt was bolt-on parts (bootlid, bumper and the crash bar). Fitting new ones is the same process the car goes through when it is built, so no bother.

Just make sure the repairer does actually replace the crash bar and the tailgate, if that's what they say they are going to do. Practically 50% of every repairer I've ever used seems to say "replace" but then "repairs" (usually not that well) the parts... and presumably trousers the insurance company cash.

Having said that... if it's possible to repair the tailgate by twisting it back into shape then that's not fatal. If they have to cut it open to repair it, or re-skin it then there's 90% chance that the factory-applied corrosion protection is compromised and it will turn rusty where they welded it or at the seams, if they re-skinned it. Factory joints are the ones you want, however you get there (e.g. buy a second-hand bootlid, respray it and fit your 500S door furniture).

Bumper is best replaced if it has a crack in it. Again... a repair is "great" until you tap something and discover the joint/filler doesn't hold up and instead of flexing, it cracks.

Repairs look good but are basically a compromise. Get new parts wherever/however you can.


Ralf S.

He’s right. That’s very very minor. It’s very very unlikely that the rear reinforcement beam would have been touched.

Ralf S. said:

Have a good look inside the boot (under the carpet with the spare wheel, if supplied, removed. If there is no warping, cracked paint or deformed joints then all you lost in the shunt was bolt-on parts (bootlid, bumper and the crash bar). Fitting new ones is the same process the car goes through when it is built, so no bother.

Just make sure the repairer does actually replace the crash bar and the tailgate, if that's what they say they are going to do. Practically 50% of every repairer I've ever used seems to say "replace" but then "repairs" (usually not that well) the parts... and presumably trousers the insurance company cash.

Having said that... if it's possible to repair the tailgate by twisting it back into shape then that's not fatal. If they have to cut it open to repair it, or re-skin it then there's 90% chance that the factory-applied corrosion protection is compromised and it will turn rusty where they welded it or at the seams, if they re-skinned it. Factory joints are the ones you want, however you get there (e.g. buy a second-hand bootlid, respray it and fit your 500S door furniture).

Bumper is best replaced if it has a crack in it. Again... a repair is "great" until you tap something and discover the joint/filler doesn't hold up and instead of flexing, it cracks.

Repairs look good but are basically a compromise. Get new parts wherever/however you can.


Ralf S.

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Thanks Ralf - much appreciated. The boot panel seems fine, and from below, all seems to be unaffected.

Regarding repairs to the tailgate/lid - I see that there are a few available from cars being broken on eBay etc. Would you consider those to be preferable to a repair?

Thanks again.

Thanks - good to have the reassurance.

typecastboy said:

He’s right. That’s very very minor. It’s very very unlikely that the rear reinforcement beam would have been touched.

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Is there anyone on the forum that does parts and/or breaks cars that I could get a new boot from? New here - apologies if that's a basic question

frankdoylezw said:

Thanks Ralf - much appreciated. The boot panel seems fine, and from below, all seems to be unaffected.

Regarding repairs to the tailgate/lid - I see that there are a few available from cars being broken on eBay etc. Would you consider those to be preferable to a repair?

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Sorry, scratch the above - that's EXACTLY what you're saying! I'll learn to pay more attention!

Yes... I'd go for a straight second-hand bootlid rather than a repair, if the repair is any more complicated than just popping out a dented area.

Your bootlid has the advantage of being fairly new, so *if* they can fix it like the dent places do, by easing rods behind the dent to pop it out, then it'll be okay to go that route.

If they can only knock out "most" of the dent and then resort to filler to smooth it off, then I'd go for a replacement bootlid, since a filler'd finish is never entirely perfect, you can get pin-holes forming later and the paint/clear coat will age differently to the other metal panels. The bootlid is a big panel, facing right into the sunshine, so it'll heat up/cool down a lot and you'll be able to see anything in the surface that's not 100% perfect.

Meanwhile... painting a "good" hatch lid from a different car and getting a paint match is about as simple a job as any paintshop can hope for. It'll be easy to get it perfectly right. But take it completely apart (glass and all) .. otherwise they'll shortcut it; mask it up under the glass, where water sits.. and the top coat will lift in time as the water will seep under it.

If the panel is too creased up to fix and/or fill then the shop might re-skin it.. but fortunately this is more aggro' than just ordering a brand new hatch (or using a second-hand one but telling you it was a new one... ) so the paint-shop won't tend to go this way.

If you look at the welded seam inside the hatch (where the outer skin is folded over the inner skin) you'll have a rubbery inset bead that's about 5-6mm wide.. That's the pukka factory fnish so you'll know that the inner join is also clean and won't rot. If the seam comes back looking like someone has skimmed filler over it, then it's been separated and the inner joint is likely to have split the white body primer finish and in a few years you'll have old-styley rust bubbles.

The OE join is infinitely better than any repair... and a second-hand hatch won't be any more expensive than the labour for some fella to poke your old one perfectly smooth (but remember they'll tend to get it 90% there and then skim the surface with filler).


Ralf S.

If it’s going through insurance then let them deal with it and how they are going to repair it, don’t worry about looking for second hand parts or anything like that.

Yes if it’s going through insurance get everything new in fact that’s what they’ll do by default. If you’re not then you could pick up a tailgate complete on eBay for less than £100. Straightforward job. Only fiddly thing is running the boot cables but by using string to pull through it’s nerve racking but works a treat.

Our 10 year old car was rear ended whilst parked, new bumper crash bar and tailgate repair all done by the other guys insurance, it was shunted 3 car lengths down the road!but the other car going backwards hit it square on luckily.

Your full of doom and gloom
Your making it sound really serious that will put the owner of this 500 really nervous
The damage is really minor and I can 100% say the crash bar is as good as new.
My Fiorino back doors were literally smashed in beyond repair and the crash bar and interior structure was absolutely fine
LUIGI

Ralf S. said:

Have a good look inside the boot (under the carpet with the spare wheel, if supplied, removed. If there is no warping, cracked paint or deformed joints then all you lost in the shunt was bolt-on parts (bootlid, bumper and the crash bar). Fitting new ones is the same process the car goes through when it is built, so no bother.

Just make sure the repairer does actually replace the crash bar and the tailgate, if that's what they say they are going to do. Practically 50% of every repairer I've ever used seems to say "replace" but then "repairs" (usually not that well) the parts... and presumably trousers the insurance company cash.

Having said that... if it's possible to repair the tailgate by twisting it back into shape then that's not fatal. If they have to cut it open to repair it, or re-skin it then there's 90% chance that the factory-applied corrosion protection is compromised and it will turn rusty where they welded it or at the seams, if they re-skinned it. Factory joints are the ones you want, however you get there (e.g. buy a second-hand bootlid, respray it and fit your 500S door furniture).

Bumper is best replaced if it has a crack in it. Again... a repair is "great" until you tap something and discover the joint/filler doesn't hold up and instead of flexing, it cracks.

Repairs look good but are basically a compromise. Get new parts wherever/however you can.


Ralf S.

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Thanks for all the feedback - really appreciate it. I realise that this is a relatively minor shunt - it's just bl**dy annoying to have had it happen a few days after getting it...really gutting. We'd saved up a bit of cash to buy the car and chosen carefully, so to have this happen....

In any case, thanks for the reassurance and advice, and I'm hoping that the repair work is good.

Here’s a tailgate in colour complete and they will courier it to you for £40.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/292503043383

frankdoylezw said:

Has anyone got any experience of this or advice to offer?

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Condolences. It's not a nice thing to have happen to you.

As others have said, on a scale of 1 to 10, this rates about 0.5. In the final analysis, it's just a piece of metal, and it can be repaired easily, so although it may seem like a big deal just now, a year or two on and it won't matter a jot.

Take all your personal possessions out before it goes to the bodyshop, and - this is important - remove the rear parcel shelf and put it somewhere safe. I've lost track of the number of times I've seen these lost or damaged by repair shops. If you're paranoid, take out the spare wheel, tools and boot carpet also.