BG 182 FF
Hi,
I was recently reversed into by a Volvo v70 (aka a Tank) whilst static, he caught my bumper on the rear passenger corner, which pushed by bumper in and scuffed the paintwork, it caused the car to judder sideways as he continued to reverse, old gentleman said he didn't even realise he had hit me....
A individual behind me in a large SUV called me over and to use there words saw my roof flex, when I looked over the roof sure enough in the rear drivers side corner of the roof roughly 3 inches from the back and 2 inches from the side is a very very shallow dent which in certain lights has a very light crease in the middle, this was not there before the incident with the Volvo as I had just cleaned the car and would have noticed it. When i asked them to be a witness to the fact this occurred they swiftly wound up there window and drove off uttering the words sorry no.... Nice
The insurance, LV (his company) where all happy and accepted all liability (after a small battle with him denying it!) i got several quotes from my own garage and all seemed well they said they where happy and it just had to be signed off by another engineer, and then all of a sudden they ask for a 'independent' assessors report, to which I agree, I take the car to meet the assessor half way as he fitted me in-between visits, he had one look over the car and said it couldn't possibly have been caused by the incident and he would not authorise a repair to the roof but only the bumper. Upon closer inspection it turns out he works for Lv and so in my opinion cannot be independent! he also disregarded the fact that I had been to several body shops who said that it could well have been caused at the time but maybe the impact was not the root cause and rather the juddering or other factors could be the issue.
I asked the assessor to give me a reasonable explanation of how such a small shallow dent could have appeared on my roof with a perfect straight crease, to which he replied you could have dropped something on it? I returned with the argument well why is there no other damage or scratching around the area of the dent and no difference in paint finish that would be related to polishing it out.
As a result I have now elected to go through my insurance as they seem to be more understanding, however where do I stand with proving how it got there, is the emphasis on them to prove that in no possible way could it have been caused or do I have to provide exact proof, as obviously like others I do not take pictures of the corner of my roof every day! It may well be a 'freak' result but after all the clio roofs are like tin cans and the damage is coherent with the direction of the juddering/impact from a much larger heavier car!
Others have suggested PDR however it appears to be in the area where the rear support bar finishes and so may be double skinned or the bar may obstruct it!
Apologies for the essay,
Cheers,
Ben
I was recently reversed into by a Volvo v70 (aka a Tank) whilst static, he caught my bumper on the rear passenger corner, which pushed by bumper in and scuffed the paintwork, it caused the car to judder sideways as he continued to reverse, old gentleman said he didn't even realise he had hit me....
A individual behind me in a large SUV called me over and to use there words saw my roof flex, when I looked over the roof sure enough in the rear drivers side corner of the roof roughly 3 inches from the back and 2 inches from the side is a very very shallow dent which in certain lights has a very light crease in the middle, this was not there before the incident with the Volvo as I had just cleaned the car and would have noticed it. When i asked them to be a witness to the fact this occurred they swiftly wound up there window and drove off uttering the words sorry no.... Nice
The insurance, LV (his company) where all happy and accepted all liability (after a small battle with him denying it!) i got several quotes from my own garage and all seemed well they said they where happy and it just had to be signed off by another engineer, and then all of a sudden they ask for a 'independent' assessors report, to which I agree, I take the car to meet the assessor half way as he fitted me in-between visits, he had one look over the car and said it couldn't possibly have been caused by the incident and he would not authorise a repair to the roof but only the bumper. Upon closer inspection it turns out he works for Lv and so in my opinion cannot be independent! he also disregarded the fact that I had been to several body shops who said that it could well have been caused at the time but maybe the impact was not the root cause and rather the juddering or other factors could be the issue.
I asked the assessor to give me a reasonable explanation of how such a small shallow dent could have appeared on my roof with a perfect straight crease, to which he replied you could have dropped something on it? I returned with the argument well why is there no other damage or scratching around the area of the dent and no difference in paint finish that would be related to polishing it out.
As a result I have now elected to go through my insurance as they seem to be more understanding, however where do I stand with proving how it got there, is the emphasis on them to prove that in no possible way could it have been caused or do I have to provide exact proof, as obviously like others I do not take pictures of the corner of my roof every day! It may well be a 'freak' result but after all the clio roofs are like tin cans and the damage is coherent with the direction of the juddering/impact from a much larger heavier car!
Others have suggested PDR however it appears to be in the area where the rear support bar finishes and so may be double skinned or the bar may obstruct it!
Apologies for the essay,
Cheers,
Ben
