After nearly being crush to death by an Asda arctic going in to the blackwall tunnel (he stopped when I applied the horn) i now have a lovely dent/stripe down the side of my coupe. ;(

Asda will pay up, but I am worried that a repair to one side will end up looking rubbish due to the rest of my paintwork being 10 years old....

Does anyone have any experiance? Would a good Mop be ok, or should I push for a full respray?

Cheers,
Ben.

go for as much as you can take it to a mate or a bodywork shop that will do you a favour and get them to write an estimate a big one they will cough up

full respray. you are going to notice the color match. Is this going though insurers as a general accident, or have they decided to pay out on a quote... If its the first option, depending on the valuation of your car, a paint job may be the least of your worrys

What colour is it?

Wake up Si, what does the title say?

non metallics are easier to match than metallics, but it's never going to be perfect given the age of the car

if you can get them to do a full respray go for that!

grrrrrr.....and there was me looking at the avatar for the colour.

Not a hope in hell of colour matching 10 year old sprint blue I'm afraid as it fades.

if you are going through insurance then a re-spray and repairs will cost a lot more than the car is worth....

Oh god...that is what I was afraid of.....

I have to call their insurance company.....I shall not leave the car anywhere just in case i never see it again....

*starts stripping parts*

When I got a light T-boning from a utilities van I was more interested in keeping the costs down just to prevent it from being written off.

I doubt asda will pay for a full respray and the an insurance, forget it, they WONT.
Big companies like this have massive insurance excess £5000-£20000. try speaking to Asda direct and see if they will settle on a cheque to the value of a geniune repair, ie not taking the p'ss with a full respray, a good bodyshop wont need to spray the whole car,

Depends on the bodyshop and degree of fading on your car.

The whole of my front end has been sprayed, since in my ownership, as well as the rear bumper and side skirts, etc, and you can't see any difference in colour

Wait a minute.

Asda are required to return your car to the condition it was in before the accident. Its not bens insurance paying, its ASDA's (or they are paying themselves).

Ben can't be out of pocket or worse off as a result of the accident, so you can force them to respray it or pay for you to get it done correctly.

AFAIK.

Ross

h2ypr wrote

Yes but it can still be written off, would they return it to original, say if was crushed by the lorry and needed every new panel replacing and complety rebuilding from scratch, no they probaly pay out, and we all now what an insurance companies idea of market value is, About half what its worth

Yeah but in that scenario, they would need to give him enough money to replace his car like for like. He can't be worse off becuase there F*nny of a driver made a mistake.

I know this from personal experience, as a 1996 216 rover, had a full side resprayed for £1000 as he wanted it returned to pre accident condition, rather than written off. The car was only worth £600.

Ross

agree with h2ypr, looks through my posts and you will find one I posted in the insurance section (I think) about reclaiming the money. If its not your fault you can have the car returned to its state before the accident, which was referring to an article in the daily telegraph.

Here is what you need to do, get some examples of cars in similar condition to yours from here, autotrader, pistonheads. Then get some quotes for a full/part respray and insist that you want a perfect match on the paintwork, Burnt Mill coachworks in harlow is very reputable, get a quote from them. A good mop might work with a respray.

You could try talking to Asda direct and seeing if they agree to the price, if not you have to sue them through the small claims court.

I was recently quoted £1300 for a windows out full respray which i think was was exceptionally good (pm me if you want more details). I dont see why he couldn't go for that amount and get it.

The problem with going to the small claims court is that while you are entitled not be any worse off because of a non-fault accident that does not mean you're entitled to have your damaged car repaired.

If Asda can show that they have made an offer which reasonably represents the cost of replacing your car with one of similar age, condition and mileage then there's a good chance the court will go with them.

Thanks chaps...I knew I'd get some good advice (and debate)on here....
I know to put the car straight will take close to the write off level, but having spent close to £4k with sensible mods and the usual maintainance over the past three years(post purchase price), there is no way i could replace my car for £2k....

Asda have fobbed me off and told me to speak to the insurance co directly, I will get proper quotes from two bodyshops that were recc'd on here, one in tunbridge and one in Ashford, and if I get no joy, I'll contact "anniesdad" on pistonheads, who has a great rep for straightening out insurance co (for high end stuff).

I don't see why I can't get a decent result out of this, especially as I have turned down a hire car while someone sorts this out on my behalf already.....(appointed by Asda)
I would rather have a decent job done than a fiesta I don't need for two weeks, but maybe it doesn't work like that... ;(
Sugerbear, £1300 sounds good to me....I'll pm you.

Thanks chaps....I don't want my car written off.....

Good luck with it all, hope it gets sorted out the way you want it.

Argue like anything with them if it comes to it. If you can get a specialist to put a value on your coupe then that will help you as well.

It's also worth going for an agreed value policy with your insurer for anyone reading this - they then can't mess about in the event of a claim.

Who is Asda's insurance company? Most large companies "Self insure" up to a point (around £50,000 or so).

I think in all honesty they will write it off as an "uneconomical repair".

I doubt that would help in this case. Just because you and your insurer have agreed a value for your car it does not mean that any 3rd party insurers have to take a blind bit of notice of it.

Well - you do have a certificate from the insurer which states the agreed value of the car, which is a very good bargaining chip.