85 year old lady + Astra + car park the size of Wales = 4" dent in Coop bonnet.
Upsetting, but not the end of the world.

She admitted liability and her insurance arranged for the Coop to be repaired.

I requested that the body shop trailered the car away. Not a problem they said.

However, having left the keys in a safe place for them due to being at work, two guys arrived (trailer-less) and one of them drove the Coop away.

Short time later my phone rings. Car has broken down 3 miles from my house - Apparently it began Kangaroo'ing, cutting out and died in a plume of black smoke.

If this wasn't bad enough the body shop guy starts getting arsy telling me what an inconvenience it was for them and that I should arrange recovery. Obvious argument followed and he finally agreed to get it collected.

Meanwhile I couldn't leave work, but the other half could, and raced to the scene to find their driver had taken a route though speed-bump city and the FMIC pipe had been ripped off
The car was parked in a side street...In the opposite direction to the body shop

The garage refuse to accept that they caused the damage, 'the pipe must have been hanging off when we collected the car', but as a good will gesture they'll re-attach it free of charge! And their driver was off route 'to avoid road works' Also, no record at all of my request for a trailer collection.

The insurance say they'll investigate, but I've got a feeling I'm going to have a lot of shitty letters and calls to make!

that's pretty poor service from start to current position, lets hope it gets better from here on in if they're still doing the work?

Bad times mate. Send the boys round I'd say.

That's real unlucky... I certainly feel for you!

Can only get better .. Chin up...

On a minor plus side - if you need help with your letters - I'm an expert on letters

Sounds like they were hooning it around Simon

Hope you get the old girl sorted with minimal hassle. But it hasn't started well

Hope you get it sorted mate. Thats a sickening story.
Personally I would not have let them drive it only trailer away. Best of luck with it anyway.

The garage still has the car - it can't be touched until it's been inspected by the insurance comp.

So, I haven't a clue what damage has been done to the engine, or even if its repairable.

I can just see a lot of hassle in the coming weeks. Gutted.

Yep hooning, bet it was young guys in a flash and powerful car, trouser member brain takes over...I'd be so bloody mad

screw the garage, i'd be there NOW taking pics for the process of suing them.

End of.

Funny how they now are taking care of your car, AFTER it's been damaged ?

They are NOT your friends / nor do YOU owe them any generosity.

I know what I'd do, & it would involve some very expensive legal advice, followed by a solid size 10 foot up the arse of the driver.

I had the same problem where the bodyshop caused more damage to my car than the accident did.

This makes sad reading, you can't trust anyone. When I had a dink in mine I was in a similar situation to you.

I drove the car there myself not trusting some chump to turn up and rag my car back to the garage.

Lets face it, who wouldn't put their foot down in a 20VT?

If I were you I'd make a serious complaint to the insurance company and get the car taken to another of the insurers recomended garages!

Good luck.

Completely unacceptable.

P'd off to hear this news mate

Don't suppose any of the speed bumps in question [assuming there weren't trillions of them] might reveal a recent scrape or traces of your FMIC?

Oh jeez, I'd have insisted on driving it to their premesis myself and made a note of the mileage when I dropped it off!

Hope you sort it without too much trouble mate.

Wont have damaged the engine if it's just a boost pipe blown off.

I think you need to:
1. Ask Insurance company for a copy of their formal complaints policy.
2. Ask Bodywork company for a copy of theirs
3. Ask body shop for the route that the driver was planning to take and then find out what roadworks he was avoiding? See if it makes sense.
4. Contact the insurance company and tell them that you want the car collected from the body shop and taken to the repairer of your choice, (nearest specialist) at their expense to ascertain the damage caused.
5. Ask for a Subject Access Request under Data Protection Act, specifically mention that this includes copies of telephone conversations.

I suspect that this is going to end up in Small Claims Court and you need to start collecting evidence.

Definately take some photos and collect evidence. The small Claims court can work very well.
Years ago I had an Alfa 156 and the wife came home saying she had put a full length scratch down one side after driving down a street. I could not understand how it had happened so I drove to where it occurred and found a building site. They had left a piece of concrete slab lying next to the kerb which had a 12" section of braided wire sticking out into the road. This had scratched the car as the wife drove past.
I knew it was a Health and Safety risk so took tons of photos and submited an online Claim to the Small Claims court after I warned the builder. A few weeks later I had a cheque through the mail for all costs plus a £1000 towards a respray! (which I never actually did in the end!)
Get your camera out and film the damage and the road taken.....

Thanks for the advice guys.

Debi got to the car before the recovery truck and got some pictures. They'd even caused further damage by parking it half-on half-off the pavement (fresh kerb scratches to prove!)

I'd left the car with the petrol very low (light on) to deter ony trainee boy racer types, but Deb checked the guage and said it looks like they've topped it up - It's mapped to run on 97 octane, doubt very much thats what they put in!

It was a major looking pipe that was ripped off the FMIC and the car apparently won't even run now, just chucks out black smoke while turning over.

Me and a couple of mates are finishing work early tomorrow to see if the garages customer service is any different face to face

Sorry to hear about that

Is there a way of fiddling with the car so it can't run any boost though? I'm sure I've read various ways on restricting it on here

This story gets worse every time I read updates of this thread Simon. Have they damaged side skirts as well as kerbing the alloys?

I knocked off the boost pipe on the FMIC during my ownership hitting one of the many coop friendly speed humps in Bristol, it definitely won't run as compression can't be maintained. Not sure on the black smoke though, must be related but I doubt any damage has been done, just needs reconnecting. That's what I did before.

As you say, probably threw a few £'s worth of 95 Ron and hooned it. Hope that's not done any damage. Like others have said, insist on getting the car transported to the nearest specialist so they can assess the damage. And collect evidence.

Coop justice will be done brothers and sisters

Hi Simon

If it's any help and you can arrange it, get the car brought to me at:-

Chandlers BMW Bodyshop
Victoria Road
Brighton
East Sussex
BN41 1YH
01273 423312

If not, feel free to call me if you need any more advice, and remember, you're the customer, don't take any crap from these guy's, something is very wrong here so get the insurance company involved and demand what you want, I'm sure they will be very interested in what these people are up to.

Regards

Alan

Everyone's worst nightmare, good luck. If you manage to get it started I would take it away with you and tell your insurance company that they are cowboys!

A quick update, but first thanks for all the advice and help offered - It's great to know that there's decent folk out there that'll go out of their way for fccuk members

As it now stands, the garage has replaced the IC pipe and are saying the engine has not suffered in any way, running 'sweet as a nut'.
The insurance have arranged to have the car inspected to confirm this, although exactly who will do this and what tests they'll do has not yet been clarified.

The cosmetic damage won't be fixed until the mechanicals are given the all clear and I've been told they'll need to keep the car until at least the end of next week. By this time the MOT will be due, so even more time off the road (needs a cat fitting for a start!)

Seriously wishing I'd accepted the old ladies son's offer of £500 to save the incident going through the insurance

Seriously wishing I'd accepted the old ladies son's offer of £500 to save the incident going through the insurance [/quote]

This bit of information would have swayed me.

Hmmm if car is off the road pending an MOT while in for insurer's repair then I would be banging on about consequential loss and need to keep hire car for a further week after coupe returned (at insurer's expense)!

Have you got an update on the old girl Simon?

Hold on, they offered you £500? I would have accepted, got a second hand bonnet and respray and still had change to buy some toys.

At least then you wouldn't have had to deal with complete morons...

Have they sorted it yet?

Respray from where halfords?

The guy offered me the cash as he was convinced that 'due to her other little knocks' his mother, at almost 85, would be deemed as un-insurable with another 'at fault' against her.

Quite frankly she's a danger behind the wheel and though I was tempted to take the money, I thought it better claimed against her.

Anyways... Finally got my baby back last week, looking good, valeted and running perfectly

Then, after failing the MOT on a bulb (Doh!) she passed with a few advisories and I whisked her up to Wembley for a couple of days break - Oh, and to see Take That to keep Debi happy

So a happy ending? ...Not quite!

Change of circumstance mean's the coop's now my main vehicle clocking up around 70 miles/day.
So, I may be forced into cooplessness (again!) until things stabilise.

Isn't life fun

Any pictures?

Hehe, I have quite a few friends that could respray it for the cost of paint - lucky me...