Car park accident procedure

jamesjoyce1710

Hi,

I recently scraped a car in a car park and i have been contacted by the other car owner with a quote and asking did i want to do cash or insurance, I want to do cash but the price seens quite high so i was wonder if anyone could advise me on how to verify the amount he is telling me.
basically 2 small scrapes on the back passenger door about 6 insches long, not deep. quoted 500 euro

Thanks

Jarren

My brother in law recently scrapped a car in a carpark,the other party only wanted to go through insurance and when the bill finally arrived.... 1400 blips .

I would take cash option anyday providing other party agrees .

awec

This post has been deleted.

MarkR

jamesjoyce1710 wrote: »

Hi,

I recently scraped a car in a car park and i have been contacted by the other car owner with a quote and asking did i want to do cash or insurance, I want to do cash but the price seens quite high so i was wonder if anyone could advise me on how to verify the amount he is telling me.
basically 2 small scrapes on the back passenger door about 6 insches long, not deep. quoted 500 euro

Thanks

Have to paint the whole door. Lucky they're not billing you for a hire car! 500 sounds about right. Get something signed maybe, saying that the 500 is acknowledged as full settlement?

jamesjoyce1710

cheers guys, i've hadn't this happen so i dont know anything about cost or that if ye think 500 is reasonable fora re-spray then i'll go with the cash option

triple-M

I would if i was you.I was in a situation where i scraper a bumper in a car park,owner wanted 350 for repair which i thought was a bit high,i declined and they claimed off me and i ended up losing 5 years ncb!

biko

Unfortunately it's more than just filling in the scrapes with some colour from Halfords.
Spraying a car door is costly, I've been driving around with scrapes for ages because I'm such a cheapie

BroLo

500 sounds about right. Go with the cash option. Garages often don't charge VAT on these sort of jobs and don't put them in the books officially. As a result it ends up cheaper for everyone.

If you go the insurance route, the Garage is forced to put it on the books and charge VAT etc. This drives the price up, and the garage often puts on some "padding" costs as well, as it's for the insurance company. You could end up paying 1000 if you decline his offer.

Lantus

Having had several friends and family involved in minor incidents there is often the idea that cash is the easy cheap deal. It is not. Cars are expensive to repair properly. At least you kept your cool. All of the people I heard of when provided with quotes got very nasty and very angry at the amounts being asked. Even though they were garage quotes from typically one or two establishments. All eventually went through insurance.

There is an idea that the other person can just go down a back lane and with a few cheap wacks of a hammer and some almost close paint matching it will ok. The truth is we dont care about other peoples cars, only our own. So we dont care if the repair is shoddy or cheap or lowers the cars value or makes it unsafe.

Thats why we have insurance.

I'm always in 2 minds about cash offers outside of insurance. My own personal experience is that its not worth the hassle. The last person I tried to 'help' in this manner begged me not to go through the insurance with tears in their eyes but when presented with the quote turned very nasty and accused me of being aggressive ad threatening and if I went near him again he would call the gards on me. 1 hour later I called his insurance company. So much for trying to help people...!!!