My car has looked better!

[Geordie Iain]

On the way to work today, i was stuck in traffic (nothing new there) I came to a stop behind a queue of traffic. I bet you know where i'm going with this!
I always leave a distance between me and the car infront, then a loud bang and i'm starting to move forward, so i hit my brakes harder to avoid hitting the car infront of me. My car is now about 1" shorter than it was yesterday, bit the car that hit me looks as if it will be a wright off!
The bloke must have craped himself as i got out of my car, a 6' bloke wearing a uniform and hi-vis coat, although i'm nor a copper (i'm a paramedic) Not the type of people to run into, you can immagine the kind of response i got when i called work to tell them i'm on the outside land of the A1!
Got a few aches and pains now, just hope that they dont wright my car off now!

[Brunty]

Sorry to hear it Iain - guess you don't need to be told to get yourself checked over at A&E just in case.

Hope you prove to be alright and that the insurance and repair are resolved speedily. Good luck.

[Nick VR4]

Bugger another VR4 gets hit

Hope you get ot sorted soon

[Nick Mann]

What is it with people in this club being rear-ended? That seems to be a high proportion of the accidents involving VR4's. :embarasse

Hope the car is fixed properly and quickly. /yes

[Geordie Iain]

Here's a few pics
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid195/p49f58ef295d4e96c29354b5dce207930/f1478900.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid195/p2bfbe84e4f47f73ff4fe86924c2f13f9/f14785a1.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid195/pc8587d69ca565ef53e2b69211f766c37/f147831a.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid195/p4715abbed4b568a44e2cfcbf24af919e/f14781a8.jpg

[Polabear]

Glad to hear your allright mate.... :thumbsup: hope the car gets sorted asap...spoke to me mam earlier today (she lives in Birtley) told me it has only just started to snow there.... :inquisiti probly been snowing fo about 6 months already up in Consett...(bloody place)

[Wodjno]

Sorry to here it Iain.. Hopefully not 2 bad and maybe just a rear bumper :inquisiti
Just a thought that maybe VR4's keep getting rear ended cos of drivers trying to get close enough find out WTF is the car in front /Hmmm

[Geordie Iain]

Thats what i was thinking ;)
The dammage that i've found is the bumper, tailgate is badly creased and does not line up with the rear posts now, the spare wheel well has been pushed up so it's now touching the spare wheel and the boot floor does not fit in the hole any more! The floor bits at the side have a gap between them and the sides of the car, however the side where the AYC resavoir is has a bigger gap. Hope that the AYC has not been dammaged!

[Wodjno]

Thats what i was thinking ;)
The dammage that i've found is the bumper, tailgate is badly creased and does not line up with the rear posts now, the spare wheel well has been pushed up so it's now touching the spare wheel and the boot floor does not fit in the hole any more! The floor bits at the side have a gap between them and the sides of the car, however the side where the AYC resavoir is has a bigger gap. Hope that the AYC has not been dammaged!

Ouch .. :inquisiti That don't sound good at all. Sorry can't view pics at work, so am just going on your discription. It does sound quite serious though.. /yes

[Geordie Iain]

I have a nasty feeling that i'm going to be told its a write off :(

[WildCards]

Thats a mess isn't it. Fingers crossed X for you.

Steve

[Kieran]

Oooo-er!! :( And it's a facelift, so the tailgate is a special order from Japland... /help

Fingers crossed. You could always inform the company that you are happy for 2nd hand parts to be used in the repair, and then contact Mo?

[Geordie Iain]

Oooo-er!! :( And it's a facelift, so the tailgate is a special order from Japland... /help
I bet thats going to be cheap!
Does anyone know how much this may cost to fix or price of any of these parts?

[WildCards]

Zedy1 is the resident parts bod. PM him with all your requirements and/or post a new thread listing what you need, people may have a few things knocking around they could sell you.

[kitefighter]

Dear Iain,

Firstly, sorry to hear about the accident and obviously, better the car took a hit than you.

Just under a year ago, I had bang (tyre exploded at high speed) resulting in what appeared to be serious damage to the driver front wing and bumper.

My brokers were almost certainly going to write off the car, (and mine is much older, 1992, than yours).

However, what I did was this.

Got in touch with a local, cheaper but good body specialist. If you don't know any, ask around with people you trust locally.

Tell them you don't want to write off the car and can it be saved.

In my case, my local man repaired the wing (which was worse than your taligate) and sent the front bumper to a specialist who glued and repaired it (my bumper was as bad as yours).

He then went through his contacts to source second hand lights, cables, inner splash guards, fog lights, cables etc.

It took a long time, but he managed to undercut the total value of the car, and I'm still driving it now.

What I'm telling you is that if my 1992 VR-4, much older with harder to source UK parts could be saved, then so can yours.

It could be that the chassis is damaged, but even that can be pulled out with special jigs.

Anything can be repaired.

And it worst comes to worst, you can buy the car as a write off and get it repaired yourself, but you'll of course have to know someone good who can do it for you at a good price.

I hope you can do it mate.

kitefighter

[Geordie Iain]

The car is booked into mitsubishi on wed for it to be assessed, i'm more worried about the hidden dammage, the wheel well is dammaged so what else needs reparing! I dont even know what would be done to straighten the floor!

[Geordie Iain]

Just been out to lock my car and take everything out, i've had another look at the back, and there is a 2" piece of the bumper missing and i can fit my finger inbetween the tailgate and the car body on the drivers side from top to bottom, my finger doesnt fit in the same gap on the other side.

[Nick Mann]

Sounds stupid, but check the side of the car for damage.

Look at the wheel arch to see if you can see any shapes or creases that weren't there before. Usually vertical, usually at the top of the arch. Also check the gap between the trailing edge of the rear door and the leading edge of the rear wing. Compare them side to side. The more gaps and creases you find, the less likely your car will be fixed.

[amsoil]

With the kind of damage you are describing the car is very likely to be a write off, (sorry). If you want to keep the car and either have it repaired or break it (The value of the parts appears to justify this if you have half a mind and the space to do it). you must never loose control or physical possesion of the vehicle. Many insurance companies will just send someone to collect it and may not even pre warn the owner. Once they have the car you are so unlikely to get it back that you are wasting your time. Now I have heqard theat people in such a predicament have injuries (whiplash) that keep them off work for a couple of weeks, (minimum payout appears to be £1200) A hire car to which you are entitled, but sort it with the other parties insurance company first, will tend to hurry up settlement as it cost them. A friendly dealer who will charge storage (one may hear the sound of a 50/50 deal here)also piles on the financial pressure. The whole idea is to get the most you can out of the people because they sure as hell wont pay you what you think its worth nor will you easily find another that you are happy with. One would hope that at the end of the day you walk away all square which is only fair as it wasnt your fault. Of course I wouldn't dream of suggesting any action untowards especially to our nice fair and ever helpful insurance companies. Name and address supplied etc etc

[g6acb]

This has a lot of similarities to what happened to my GLS saloon 8 weeks ago.... although obviously a lot different at the rear end I was hit in the back by a car going less than 10mph... seems the galant has a cunning way of absorbing impacts by suiciding itself!!

Bumper wrecked, bootlid buckled and wont shut, both light clusters moved about a bit, bumper mount brackets pushed against the petrol tank, exactly the same thing with the spare wheel well and boot floor .....

the engineer who assesed it couldn't believe there was only one bumper reinforcement but none of this was what actually did for the car.... that was all down to the fact that the rear 3/4 panel was kinked at the petrol cap.... that was what tipped my car over into write off territory

If all is as it should be on the 3/4 pannels you may be lucky.....

Hope it gets sorted soon, 8 weeks on and I am now in a new Galant:leer:

[Geordie Iain]

I'm going to crawl under the car tomorrow and have a better look, from what i've seen the exhaust has not been touched! Not sure how i got away with that!