This is why you need insurance!

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by EBII Fairmont

About 7 years ago, I wrote off my eb Fairmont. The guy who cause the accident was uninsured. As I had 3rd party fire and theft I got a small amount of money and the car back. I had the details of the person who caused the accident and therefore they could chase him up. After all this, my insurance requested of me to go to court as a witness to have this fella prosecuted. I never went in the end as from what they told me, he admitted fault and agreed to their payment terms.

Im glad the person who hit you was willing to pay.

I had a not so nice situation with my old XC Fairmont. Women in a beat up HT Prem pulled out of a side street without stopping and which had a stop sign. I 'T' boned her. She had no insurance, gave false details, was under the influence of alcohol. She did a runner. Called the cops to file a accident report. Found the car the next day in a back street with Vic rego on it. Gave the police report and all the details I could find on her to insurance co. I got my car repaired under insurance, found out the insurance co didn't bother chasing it up as the details were false, the car was not registered in her name, and all they wanted was someone to pay for the excess. She walked away scot free, didnt have to pay a cent, mean time I got left to pay for her stupidity with my excess which she should have paid for. I hate scum like this!!!

[MITCHAY]

Yes comprehensive is a must especially in the situation where they do the runner!

Someone reversed into my rear quarter panel in a car park. It moved my car across at least 1 foot I reckon.

On the surface the panel was dented and the bumper popped off. They estimated $2k to get it repaired as the initial quote. Right there was a win as the excess was only $625.

But the more I looked at it the worse it was. The wheel well was all bent, inside the panel was pushed in enough so the I couldn't get the jack out and the panel was parting from the wheel arch. The boot floor under the bumper was pushed so far in that part of it was indented from what I guess is the chassis rail.

Probably easily double the initial quote if not more. So was very happy I had comprehensive and it was a smooth process thankfully.

I know of another 2 cars that have been hit in the same spot with the same damage, the latest being today.

Also make sure you report it even if you don't know who did it. They can't and won't do anything but it is on the record if someone is stupid enough to claim you hit them.

[XR8putts]

When I bought my first car, my dad didn't let it leave the garage until it was fully insured (even though it was mine and I paid for it). I wish more parents were like my old man.

To those saying insurance companies don't bother chasing down the other party - I can assure you they do, and so they should!

[mad cow]

Originally Posted by blueoval

I dislike people with a loathing who do not have the basic 3rd part minimum insurance for their vehicles. It ticks me off no end to see scum get away with it and think it's ok and not get punished for it.

The fact of the matter is, 90% of the time the insurance company will pay out the policy owner, and won't bother with the culprit because it's not worth spending big $$$ going through the court system to chase down the money. Therefore the premiums for those who are more responsible will increase to cover these louts.

So in effect it still costing us to support scum like this.

Am I wrong? If so, please correct me.

ive been on the "other" side of this. back in my younger days I was un insured and in an accident. I tried to make a deal with the insurance company which they denied. they pursued me rather vigorously for the full amount PLUS all of their costs and if needed also the court/solicitor fees. trust me, its damn scary how quick it all adds up. An insurance company will NOT just wipe off a debt. anyone who thinks they can get out of such a situation is kidding themselves.

[commonrails]

It's not just uninsured people who don't pay or take accountability for their responsibilities unfortunately. I had an incident at the local Bunnings Warehouse, where their red sales sign blew over into my rear quarter panel as I was driving past the front of the building causing a nice pin stripe. It wasn't secured like the others were under the wheel of the wheel barrow and behind the plastic chain. I went and saw the manager she was as nice as pie and she took photo's, I explained what happened and she agreed that it wasn't my fault. She gave me a reference number with contact details of their insurance company and advised me to get two repair quotes and send them off with a letter of claim and to drop a copy at the store. Long story short I ended up going through my insurance company.

[Nashy86]

Got the call tonight, its a write off. As much as I didn't want to be driving a car that has had that much damage repaired, I'm soooo disappointed. I really liked that car, it was exactly what I wanted and it took me ages to convince myself to lash out and buy it (previously always had much more sensible cars on LPG to keep costs down)
Bought a new house a few weeks ago so difficult to justify lashing out again on another toy car...

If it ends up at the write-off auctions it will make an awesome purchase for a lucky bidder. Perfect driveline to transplant into a project, 38 000km's Turbo in perfect condition with a manual gearbox!

Originally Posted by XW WA

Id say someone will be going back to un zud pretty soon

Even if they do I sent the insurance company a photo of his passport, so they should be able to find him.

[Jastel]

Tough luck on the car mate.

Insurance companies make business decisions whether to chase offenders, they cant get blood out of a stone, so often not much more happens. As others have said its easier to jack up everyone's premiums.
If all accidents were paid for by someone insurance would be cheap as...we all know its not, so often people get away with not paying. I am not saying its right...just a fact.

[blueoval]

Nashy - sorry to hear mate. It's gut wrenching to know stuff like this happens to good people. But at least your not hurt (r anyone else for that matter) and insurance is going to cover you for it. That's why you get insurance for things like this.

Hope you are able to find another car as good as if not better than this one was.

[ford71V8]

Originally Posted by Nashy86

Got the call tonight, its a write off. As much as I didn't want to be driving a car that has had that much damage repaired, I'm soooo disappointed. I really liked that car, it was exactly what I wanted and it took me ages to convince myself to lash out and buy it (previously always had much more sensible cars on LPG to keep costs down)
Bought a new house a few weeks ago so difficult to justify lashing out again on another toy car...

Sorry to see what has happened to your car.
I've just had one of our cars deemed a write-off too, with far less damage than yours but its an older (and therefore cheaper) Falcon.
I understand how you are feeling. To me I feel my hand has been forced. I was quite happy with our family wagon and now due to someone else's error and stupidity my situation is compromised. I certainly don't feel like just buying another car out of the blue, we had plans to drive that through til 2016 and then upgrade. And like you, the only part we played in this was parking our car on a street and walking away. Very disappointing and frustrating, but there's nothing to do but accept it.

[99AUXR]

Originally Posted by usernametaken

yep, insurance should be the last thing you skimp on - even more so when money gets tight.

skimp on the take away, booze, coffees etc... before insurance.

Someone at my work has booze and coffee and recently money got tight so he cancelled his health insurance. Month later he was riddled with heart problems and its costing him allot.

[NAK302]

i only insure things i owe money on, oh, and my life.
the rest is, well, just a rip off, imho

[chrisandsharon]

I had just sold our beautiful 100 series Kakadu on a Saturday morning about 5 years ago. That afternoon when parked out the front of the neighbours house the young bloke across the road jumped in his jacked up hilux and reversed out of his driveway straight into the side of it. Over 10 grands worth of damage. The bloke who put a deposit down was supposed to pick it up on the Monday!!!

Lost the sale obviously, bloke got his deposit back and insurance looked after everything. Got it fixed straight away and our insurance mob chased the young bloke for the cash.

The young bloke at the time said 'my mates a panel beater'.......yeah fn right!!

2 weeks later when our cruiser was at the panel beaters (inner city smash Alexandria) the joint burnt down! My father knows the owner well, I couldn't believe it when the old man called me and said 'inner city smash just burnt down'.

Our cruiser was one of only 2 vehicles that wasn't damaged.

Got it back and it sold a week later.

Thank god for insurance, it went from being sold to ten grands worth of damage to nearly getting destroyed in the panel beater fire.

[Feathers]

I had some idiot in a ute go through a red light, out of a side street, in front of me, while driving one of our coaches a few weeks ago.

Guy followed me back to the yard after I forced him to give me his details, and then told my boss, that he'd let his insurance lapse a few weeks earlier because he didn't have the money for it, and had the audacity to ask if we could get the repairs done on the cheap as a favour to him, and he could pay it off in instalments.

$4300 in repairs, plus at least $1200 in lost earnings while the vehicle is off the road...he's going to find that suddenly the insurance premium was cheap...

Stupidly, the boss is just letting the information sit on his desk, and not chasing it up.
He isn't sure if we'd have to pay the excess for making a claim through our insurer, and even then, has decided that he'll do the repair himself "when he gets time", instead of handing it to the repairer opposite us, and having it done in about 4 days.

So in addition to having to find the time to actually fix the thing, he's also going to be the one chasing this moron for the money. Sounds like too much effort to me.

Same story when someone hit mum's old Mercedes.
Uninsured, promised to pay in instalments, but only paid half, then changed his name and disappeared.
Car never got fixed. It's still sitting in the shed at work, and needs a complete respray at least, but that's never going to happen.

[Kingsley]

My wife was working as a community nurse was parked at a clients house when the client yelled out to my wife that her car had just been hit. The bloke across the road reversed into her with his 4WD overloaded with wood. She went out got his details but couldn't get the rego number because the tailgate was down and the wood was ahnding out the back. There was no plate on the front He was also cagey about his licence details but since we knew where he lived we went to the police station and reported the accident for insurance purposes. While we were there the police ran his details through the system. Surprise false details. We told them where he lived and they went around there to talk to him. Turns out he was wanted in QLD and NSW for various fraud charges and the vehicle had false plates and no rego. He was living under a false name. He was charged but released on conditional bail. In the meantime we contacted our insurance, gave them the details the police gave us of his real name, phone number and address and left it with them.
My wife was back around there 2 days later and when she went back to the car found that someone had keyed the entire drivers side. Went back to the police who couldn't do anything because nobody saw him do it. From then on she had to drive my car when visiting that client. I believe he ended up in gaol in QLD.