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So on it’s 4 week birthday some nice person decided to scuff my bumper up whilst trying to park, was long gone by the time I got back. Impossible to keep things nice these days. Managed to rub most of it out but it’s taken the paint off in 3 small areas.

Did they leave you a note?

No respect for anything some people


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Such a joke if they didn't leave a note. Hope you can find out who did it.

So it turns out the person left there details at a shop near by. Is it even worth going through insurance? I guess it would need a full respray, all the paperwork and my insurance premium would probably increase. Not sure what do do.

They admitted liability. Probably a £150 smart repair or £400.proper full bumper respray. If they left a note they've admitted liability. Ring them up and ask of they want to go through insurance or get a few quotes, or just go through insurance. Your premium may go up by 5% if you're within 3 months of a renewal (according to my mate at Aviva you're at heightened risk of hitting someone for 2 months after being hit, that's their excuse for opening up your wallet.).

@TheRacingRat; It’s so annoying when this happens. The problem is that there just seems to be a total disregard for other people’s property by some others. Fortunately in your case, at least the person had the decency to leave their contact details at a nearby shop.

One of my pet hates is parking in locations where you have no choice but to put your car at risk of damage. Last time I was a victim was around four years ago and someone put a nice ding in one of my wheel arches on my (then) nearly new Polo GTI while I was parked on a public car park. Luckily for me it was easily put right by the local PDR guy.

Fortunately the damage on your car does look to be restricted to just that part of the bumper and no damage to the adjacent metal panels or cracks/ splits in the bumper. Therefore, it should be a fairly straightforward repair and IMO probably not worth going down the insurance route to get it fixed as it’ll affect your no claims discount and premium.

In your position, as you have the contact details of the person responsible for the damage, I’d be giving them a call and hopefully, they’ll agree to pay for the repairs. Assuming they agree to pay, then I’d get 2-3 estimates (one from VW) of repair costs from some reputable body shops in your area, and then let the person responsible know the cost. Hopefully, they’ll settle up, you can get the repairs done and put the experience behind you and get on with enjoying your car. If you wanted to use a VW approved repairer, you can find which are near to you on the VW accident repairer locator at the link below.

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

Hope you get it sorted quickly so your car’s back to looking good again. Please keep the forum updated on developments.

Do be aware that "VW Approved" is not assurance of a job well done. I've had 2 very poor bodywork repairs from my.local Lookers bodyshops.

The best by far near me is the local Coopers BMW bodyshop in Sunderland. I wouldn't go anywhere else.

Choose by reputation - that bumper will never rust as it's plastic, and the non-VW bodyshop might give you a longer repair paintwork warranty than the balance of the VW 3 year paintwork warranty.

First thing to do is to check if they have informed their insurance company, if they have, and you don't mention this to your insurer, within a few days, letters will start dropping through your letterbox insisting that their insurer and your insurer both are desperate for you to pass business their way, this I know by bitter experience when an older guy wiped out my wife's 2015 Polo mirror, but he was in shock and so did what he thought best, as maybe your 3rd party did.

Edit:- "did" was missing!

2 months into my ownership someone pulled out of a junction and caught my rear drivers side wheel and wheel arch.
Very similar damage to yours, plus the wheel had to be re lacquered.

For the paint, it had to be a respray, as it had gone through the colour.

Only you can decide whether it's out of pocket or through insurance, but I'd do a respray to get the proper job.
You don't want to come back in a few years time and accidentally polish through the last of your clear coat because it was too thin after being fixed.

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MattHGR wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2020 5:25 pm 2 months into my ownership someone pulled out of a junction and caught my rear drivers side wheel and wheel arch.
Very similar damage to yours, plus the wheel had to be re lacquered.

For the paint, it had to be a respray, as it had gone through the colour.

Only you can decide whether it's out of pocket or through insurance, but I'd do a respray to get the proper job.
You don't want to come back in a few years time and accidentally polish through the last of your clear coat because it was too thin after being fixed.

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Wise words....
MJ

So I got an estimate from my local VW approved body shop£940!! It’s now going through his insurance. Full bumper respray and new sensor.

TheRacingRat wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 3:21 pm So I got an estimate from my local VW approved body shop£940!! It’s now going through his insurance. Full bumper respray and new sensor.

Shocking. However, could have been worse if that person didn’t leave any information. My girlfriend had her car bumped into by a lorry on a roundabout who admitted full liability eventually, the crash took the entire front bumper off with headlights. Then the day it arrived back, overnight it was smashed into without any details left or any CCTV footage of the incident so it came out of her insurance at her cost.

Insurances are day and night robbery, the systems messed up.

MrTomOates wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 3:34 pm

TheRacingRat wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 3:21 pm So I got an estimate from my local VW approved body shop£940!! It’s now going through his insurance. Full bumper respray and new sensor.

Shocking. However, could have been worse if that person didn’t leave any information. My girlfriend had her car bumped into by a lorry on a roundabout who admitted full liability eventually, the crash took the entire front bumper off with headlights. Then the day it arrived back, overnight it was smashed into without any details left or any CCTV footage of the incident so it came out of her insurance at her cost.

Insurances are day and night robbery, the systems messed up.

In 2007 my 2 week old Golf GT Sport TDI170 was crashed into by a bus.

I parked up to collect a takeaway only to find my car 12 feet from where it had been parked, pushed into the car in front. The back end was wrecked on one side was wrecked from the impact, the front end was wrecked (from being pushed into the other car) The bus didn't stop, but luckily a passer by left a note to say I'd been hit by a white bus. Had to check the nearest 2 bus stops to determine what bus it was likely to be and phoned the depot. When tge bus arrived back they confirmed it had extensive side skirt crash damage and my red paint all over it. The bus company were easy to deal with, but even after admitting full liability, my side (Admiral's legal team) were a ball-ache to deal with - only interested in lining their own pocket by supplying a hire courtesy car at 3x the going rate to bleed the bus company dry and delayed my repair by 5 weeks to prolong the gouging hire car provision. VW garage repair was awful. I hated that car the whole time I had it after the crash.

monkeyhanger wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 3:44 pm

MrTomOates wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 3:34 pm

TheRacingRat wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 3:21 pm So I got an estimate from my local VW approved body shop£940!! It’s now going through his insurance. Full bumper respray and new sensor.

Shocking. However, could have been worse if that person didn’t leave any information. My girlfriend had her car bumped into by a lorry on a roundabout who admitted full liability eventually, the crash took the entire front bumper off with headlights. Then the day it arrived back, overnight it was smashed into without any details left or any CCTV footage of the incident so it came out of her insurance at her cost.

Insurances are day and night robbery, the systems messed up.

In 2007 my 2 week old Golf GT Sport TDI170 was crashed into by a bus.

I parked up to collect a takeaway only to find my car 12 feet from where it had been parked, pushed into the car in front. The back end was wrecked on one side was wrecked from the impact, the front end was wrecked (from being pushed into the other car) The bus didn't stop, but luckily a passer by left a note to say I'd been hit by a white bus. Had to check the nearest 2 bus stops to determine what bus it was likely to be and phoned the depot. When tge bus arrived back they confirmed it had extensive side skirt crash damage and my red paint all over it. The bus company were easy to deal with, but even after admitting full liability, my side (Admiral's legal team) were a ball-ache to deal with - only interested in lining their own pocket by supplying a hire courtesy car at 3x the going rate to bleed the bus company dry and delayed my repair by 5 weeks to prolong the gouging hire car provision. VW garage repair was awful. I hated that car the whole time I had it after the crash.

Reading that mate made me stressed and annoyed, simply down to the fact of actually ringing insurances and having to deal with all the ball-ache that insurances bring, that’s quite possibly the most off putting bit about the entire process.