Hi I have had some drama! some body decided to drive into the side of our much loved AL green 500l mpw at a roundabout. No damage to me but but they have mangled the nearside wing doors and scratched rear quarter it also upset the steering. A good thing was a van driver josh quickly said he saw what happened and gave me his number. My insurance comp seam keen to sort it out so I hope to get it fixed soon.

Glad to hear you're okay and have a witness.

What age is the vehicle, and with that extent of damage it'll potentially be a write off, especially if its caused steering issues.

Just make sure that your own insurance company is dealing with your claim and that it's not farmed out into an accident management firm who will be dealing on a credit repair, and credit hire basis. This will leave you with a potential financial liability if the fault insurer don't deem costs to be reasonable (such as excessive hire duration etc).

Even if your own insurer is dealing, make sure again that any courtesy vehicle given to you, if its from a hire company rather than the repairing garage, is on a direct hire and not a credit hire basis!

https://www.confused.com/car-insurance/guides/the-hidden-cost-of-hire-car-claims

Thank you I will bear all that in mind our MPW is 41/2 years old and 27000 miles on the clock it is also a 1.6 diesel 120 with every optional ticked inc leather! I hope that they will repair him as damage does not look to extensive front wing and a door skin. The pillar in front of the door looks fine, however the steering has taken a knock but might be limited to the lower wish bone or track rod throwing the tracking out if they do write him off I will get very little back!. So far Esure have been great, the help desk adviser is sorting out my claim and I assume will repair our car. We are not having a hire car we can use my wife's Venga.

Keep us up to date, fingers crossed it's repaired for you

I have take some photos for the repair shop it does not look to bad i can't see anything ben suspension wise but the tire has rubbed the strut though 10mmm gap now fingers crossed all will work out I can't think why I shall have to pay £250 excess when they drove into me!.

Oh that’s not as bad as I was imagining.

An excess is an uninsured loss and something you’ve contractually agreed to pay in the event of a claim on your comprehensive policy.

You’ll be able to claim it back from the insurer of the at fault driver once liability has been accepted

Yes I have checked and I should get that cash back. I have been contacted by a repair shop in chesterfield who seem keen so I hope not be waiting to long.
I took the wheel off earlier to photograph any damage the only thing I can see is that the tire has brushed the strut that could be that the Audi pushed it briefly as there is a 10mm gap now, The track rod is straight the lower suspension arm and attach points all good. The door pillar and door hinges all ok. I don't know what they will do with the paint work which is water based but not unusual now.

I am thinking the damper rod in the strut is very likely bent and should be changed but it is a simple cheap procedure.
Road wheel and tyre need to be checked for safety sake.
Clearly the full suspension geometry needs checking / adjusting following repair.

Gemini arc in chesterfield are picking it up in the new year I will make sure they
check the geometry the wheel is quite scratched I am thinking the Audi hit the wheel hard more than the body work. After the bump driving home I had to pull the steering wheel down on the left the car wanting to lurch right very obviously quite wrong. I will have look and see if the strut has moved if it is like the Punto/Idea arrangement a rubber in a hole effort it may have moved or some thing. Gemini get good reviews on trust pilot so fingers crossed.

Worth getting the wheel and tyre checked over thoroughly

Most FIAT alloys are @£550 each..
So you dont want to discover troubles in February

Have looked at all the pictures and would agree with other comments:

o Yes upsetting and a worry regarding outcome

o Looks like the wheel took the brunt of the impact with offending vehivle striking mainly the wheel and glancing off into the wing and door edge

o Wheel pushed into strut with visible strut casing damage - THIS WILL CERTAINLY throw the steering angle on the wheel off. That wheel will be turned in and the car will want to drive to the right requiring left hand down counteraction

o A good body shop and assessor will probably want to replace the track control arm as a precaution. It is only another three bolts and will take less than 30 minutes to do once the strut is removed

Thank you I am sure you are right there is only panel damage and a heavy gouge to the wheel. I cannot get to the strut top as it is buried in plastic trim I will leave that for them to sort!. I have not used the car since the bump as driving home the steering was quite wrong. The replacement suspension parts are not expensive so hope they change anything suspect, the wheel is expensive and the panel repairs will be time consuming especially changing the N/S door skin if the wiring will need disconnecting inside the door! if like my old Croma where everything was behind that steel pressing and involved quite a lot of emotion to get at anything in there!. They are picking it up on Monday
so should not be long before I get a verdict.

Bumps like this often damage the wheel bearings, it may not show for a few hundred
miles so listen for any roughness.

At least you walked away, cars can be fixed.

Hi good news Gemini ARC have phoned and are repairing Al they are going to change the damper and check the steering geometry. they are ordering parts new wing and wheel arch liner etc and sort out door and paint work so should not be to long . They seem keen and have ok reviews.
Righting him off would not have been a good out come for us so fingers crossed all will be well.

News on the wheel and tyre?

Normally the Repairer would start with a geometry check (and perhaps that is what they have done). From that, the items to be changed would be obvious.

Hi when I spoke to Gemini they had thankfully decided to repair, I had left a note about the bent damper rod and they are changing that and then doing a geometry check. He said they had ordered parts to repair the front wing and wheel arch liner, He also said they will straighten the front door? and make good the damaged paint. I do not know how a repair shop deals with water based paint as I think the lacquer is oil based and would have thought you can not just blend old and new we will see. They will inspect the wheel and tire though they looked good as I said we will see!.

Telegraph said:

Hi when I spoke to Gemini they had thankfully decided to repair,
They will inspect the wheel and tire though they looked good as I said we will see!.

Click to expand...

If the wheel was flexed enough to put a kink in the strut..
Think about it.. thats likely to be 3":75mm to 4":100mm
I would be getting it off and down to a tyre place.. I suspect its well out of balance : true

As I said before thats £600 in a tyre and alloy.. you dont want to pay that in Feb-March once you start driving and realise something is amiss

Hi they have given it good a visual and are putting it on their balance machine Andy said if any issue at all they would scrap the wheel cost not a problem but he said he was confident that the deep scratch/gouge was the limit of damage to the wheel. He said the water based paint was not a problem at all I suppose they have been using it for years and have the right tools! they get good reviews and appear very professional. My old Croma had been resprayed on it's left side it had a good finish to the paint but they had not removed any thing just masked up especially round the door handles and door edges so up close a pigs ear!. I think our L will need a door skin so hope that that will mean a much better job than our old car!.

Re: Bump fixed

Hi Al is back from Gemini ARC and I am pleased now no worse for the bump!
It has a new wing and wheel arch liner door skin and Damper the paint job is very good with now masking marks! all we need now is wait for summer.