Minor Rear End Bump grrrrrrrrrr

[Boxerboy]

Yesterday the sun shone brightly. Around freezing though.

My wife and I were hardly 1/2 mile from home. A 30 road with several parked cars as usual.

I had to slow to a halt as the eedjit coming towards me fails to yield as she should as a parked car is on her side of the road.

A second later it’s Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma’am.

The second eedjit who’d been a reasonable distance behind me must have been wondering what to have for tea and woke up too late and gave us a gentle thump.

This was the gentlest of the 3 rear end bumps I’ve had. My wife was enjoying her first rear ender.

I find it’s the sound of the impact that is such a shock. The bang on the back of the head as the headrest saves your neck is a bonus. Even at very low speed, there’s a lot of momentum in a 1 Ton+ vehicle.

I leapt out with my normal WTF smile on and the lady was already apologising. What a fuckin’ t**t.

Details quickly taken down.

Her A4 seemed to be suffering from loose grills and the spoiler clips were out of place.

Our poor Polo seems to “only” have a handful of small chips and scratches on the LH side of the bumper section. The short number plate is unscathed.

She couldn’t argue the “sun was blinding her”, ‘cos it was behind us.

An hour or so later, while strolling in the afternoon sun, I get a call from guilty party’s insurer (Aviva) who have immediately accepted the blame and are eager to get me booked in for a repair.

I’ll have to argue with them as I have a preferred body shop who I’ve used before which is much closer to home than their first choice body shop.

It is soooooo fuckin’ annoying that we have so many incompetents around us.

Even without taking a financial hit, it is such a nuisance sorting these things out.

ps - as I had to notify our insurance company of the incident I took the opportunity to ask for a refund on the policy price due to lower than expected annual miles and was immediately given £15 back. With another £25 on my own car policy. But they were never gonna offer me a refund without my prompt. Robbers.

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Minor scratches

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[SRGTD]

Sorry to hear of your incident @Boxerboy. It sounds as if no one was seriously injured, which is the main thing.

Damage looks to be minor, although even in a minor impact there could be hidden damage - e.g. behind the bumper - so there’s a possibility the repairs might be more extensive than it initially seems. The annoyance and inconvenience an incident like this causes is also a pain in the butt!

IMO you’re right to stick to your guns and use a repairer of your choice. You can also use the list or map at the link below to see if they’re VW approved so that you maintain your corrosion and paintwork warranty.

Good luck in getting it sorted (hopefully quickly); please keep the forum updated on progress.

https://volkswagenapprovedrepair.co.uk/ ... ocator-map

[stevereeves]

Hate seeing this kind of thing. Main things: OP & wifey are ok the other party & their insurance accepted blame, which makes the process a heck of a lot eaiser. Stick to your guns with preferred reapairers and hope it gets sorted soon....

[Andy Beats]

Remember your rights as the innocent party.

1. You're allowed to choose the repair shop
2. You're entitled to a loan car 'in keeping' with the one you already drive, don't accept a Hyundai i10 with bodyshop stickers all over it.

[Harrihealey02]

I’ve had a rear ender with my 19’ polo. Yours looks like it’s only got visual damage. They’d replace the bumper, the foam behind that and possibly the metal bar as it looks like it’s indented a shape in the plastic slightly. I was surprised they were able to fix mine considering it was a 30mph impact. Needed new boot floor, and back end all replaced. These new polos are very tough.

[Andy Beats]

My A4 only had cosmetic damage after an old woman ran into the back of me in her small Mazda.
Her thing was crumpled beyond belief, the fact I was able to continue to my appointment at the dentist was amazing.
Around £2000 damage though, bumper + sensors + foam + metal bracket behind the bumper.
I learnt a lesson that day, as I jumped out of the car with a "WTF DID YOU DO THAT FOR YOU BLOODY IDIOT" attitude, to be confronted with an apologetic and upset old lady.
I ended up sending her flowers to apologise for my actions and I won't react like that again - it's an accident and it's only a bloody car....

[vc-10]

These sorts of accidents are why insurers love Front Assist- these systems massively reduce the risk of these types of accidents.

Glad everyone was OK. It's a shame about the damage to the cars but really, that's what insurance is for.

[monkeyhanger]

Sorry to hear of your incident @Boxerboy. It sounds as if no one was seriously injured, which is the main thing.

Damage looks to be minor, although even in a minor impact there could be hidden damage - e.g. behind the bumper - so there’s a possibility the repairs might be more extensive than it initially seems. The annoyance and inconvenience an incident like this causes is also a pain in the butt!

IMO you’re right to stick to your guns and use a repairer of your choice. You can also use the list or map at the link below to see if they’re VW approved so that you maintain your corrosion and paintwork warranty.

Good luck in getting it sorted (hopefully quickly); please keep the forum updated on progress.

https://volkswagenapprovedrepair.co.uk/ ... ocator-map

Volkswagen approved means nowt, there are some truly awful bodyshops out there affiliated with your local dealership networks (The Lookers owned bodyshop at Newcastle made the shodfiest repair I gave ever witnessed on a car of mine and the Silverlink bodyshop didn't reconnect my headlight washers on my Golf R after repainting the front bumper so it was peeing washer fluid constantly.

Reputation is much more important. For a non-fault claim, the semi local bodyshop belonging to the local BMW dealership group is great. Don't immediately think of loud local dealership by default.

[SRGTD]

Sorry to hear of your incident @Boxerboy. It sounds as if no one was seriously injured, which is the main thing.

Damage looks to be minor, although even in a minor impact there could be hidden damage - e.g. behind the bumper - so there’s a possibility the repairs might be more extensive than it initially seems. The annoyance and inconvenience an incident like this causes is also a pain in the butt!

IMO you’re right to stick to your guns and use a repairer of your choice. You can also use the list or map at the link below to see if they’re VW approved so that you maintain your corrosion and paintwork warranty.

Good luck in getting it sorted (hopefully quickly); please keep the forum updated on progress.

https://volkswagenapprovedrepair.co.uk/ ... ocator-map

Volkswagen approved means nowt, there are some truly awful bodyshops out there affiliated with your local dealership networks (The Lookers owned bodyshop at Newcastle made the shodfiest repair I gave ever witnessed on a car of mine and the Silverlink bodyshop didn't reconnect my headlight washers on my Golf R after repainting the front bumper so it was peeing washer fluid constantly.

Reputation is much more important. For a non-fault claim, the semi local bodyshop belonging to the local BMW dealership group is great. Don't immediately think of loud local dealership by default.

Agree there are some poor ‘approved’ body shops out there. I don’t think I said or implied that VW approved was an indication of a high quality repair. The reason for posting the link was that some owners may consider maintaining their VW bodywork and paintwork warranty as important - or at least a consideration - when choosing a body shop.

Also agree regarding reputation being important. I would always choose a body shop based on their reputation, whether they’re VW approved or not.

[Boxerboy]

I’ve told Aviva, the guilty party’s insurance company, that I’ll be using my closer, previously used, body shop.

Not their “recommended body shop” further away.

And I’m Very sure that the repair will be cheaper than their workshop.

Their man said “we’ll need pictures from you so we can order up the parts”. Fcuk Off - my man will whip off the rear bumper, clean it up, re-spray it and it will look good as new. I’ve experienced this same scenario in 2019 on my other car.

“Recommended repair shops” are just out to maximise the cost of repairs in conjunction with insurance companies. The end result of customer satisfaction is not part of their objective.

[Andy Beats]

These sorts of accidents are why insurers love Front Assist- these systems massively reduce the risk of these types of accidents.

I've had mine give the horrible 'warning' lock of the brakes quite a few times, in the Beats and the Gti.
I have to ride the brake pedal every night going down a slip road from high speed, as it seems to think I will be driving directly into the grass bank at the bottom if I leave pressing the pedal until when I'd like to.
The weird thing is, on the odd occasion I've decided to test its resolve past the warning noise/brake, I've seen no evidence at all that it will actually take over and slam the brakes on for me completely.
It would seemingly be quite happy to let itself slam into the bank - because it's at the point where even me (last of the late brakers) is thinking I'm running out of room.
So I see nothing to suggest it would do much to totally avoid a rear ender at all.

[vc-10]

Watch one of the videos demonstrating it- it really, really, slams on the brakes hard when it has to. It also operates differently at different speeds.

The way it reacts to stationary objects (such as a grassy bank) is different to reacting to a car, and it does different things at different speeds.



This Tom Scott video is good for explaining a bit more about what the systems can see and react to. They use a Volvo, but the systems are broadly similar across multiple brands.

And this study from EuroNCAP, a while back in 2015, shows that there is a significant decrease in crashes in cars fitted with AEB, which is why all new cars have it.

[Boxerboy]

Car dropped off at body shop this morning.

Setting an early alarm is a very rare thing for me these days.

Mileage & fuel level noted - I don’t want any joy riders

I enjoyed a 3 mile stroll home.

[Andy Beats]

Car dropped off at body shop this morning.

Setting an early alarm is a very rare thing for me these days.

Mileage & fuel level noted - I don’t want any joy riders

I enjoyed a 3 mile stroll home.

WTF?
Not only should they collect the damaged car from you, but the courtesy car should be dropped off in advance.

[Boxerboy]

Car dropped off at body shop this morning.

Setting an early alarm is a very rare thing for me these days.

Mileage & fuel level noted - I don’t want any joy riders

I enjoyed a 3 mile stroll home.

WTF?
Not only should they collect the damaged car from you, but the courtesy car should be dropped off in advance.

WTF - WTF??

When I said “I enjoyed a 3 mile stroll home” - I meant it. I need all the exercise I can get.

So much so that this afternoon I strolled back to the body shop to collect the good-as-new car.

And I didn’t want, or need, a courtesy car on this occasion. No one’s going anywhere (much) these days.

An appropriate Enterprise car was on offer from bday 1.

All things considered, Aviva did a decent job of sorting things out after immediately taking full responsibility for their careless driver’s action.