Has anyone had an accident during a test drive or with a courtesy car?

[CalzoneOnLegs]

Were you at fault or not and did it cost a lot in excesses etc, just pondering this having had a few test drives recently

No but it could always happen. I'd imagine every case would be different so you need to check what insurances you have that are covering you for the drive and what the excesses are.

For example when I test drove my last car the main dealer garage checked my licence etc and then I had to sign their document which had the cover and excesses detailed on it. This was 7 years ago now so I cannot remember the details.

I was rear-ended while test driving a car but the sales rep was with me and dealt with it all. Wasn’t my fault so nothing much to do with me.

@Guidanceplease20 yes still the same with the checks, the excess on the document was £1,000 so I was quite anxious !

@EveryKneeShallBow what bad luck, I hope you weren’t injured. Don’t suppose you bought that car either !

No, I didn’t 😆

Had a courtesy car, and while parked on my drive that night, there was a storm and a tile came off the roof and put a major dent in the bonnet! Insurance sorted it fine though!

Yep! We bumped another car at some traffic lights and broke the headlight of our hire car. Ended up paying £1000 in excess. It was a horrible time as we only had the hire car in the first place as we’d been sold a dud car by someone else and were desperately trying to both get our money back and find a new car.

Still owed £2k nearly four years later :(

Someone drove into my car (parked and I wasn’t in it) in a car park. Luckily I saw it as the driver denied they had done it until I pointed out the paint from my car on theirs.
The car was in for repair and I had a loan car. DM was taken ill and I had gone to hers and was returning about 1.30 in the morning. A deer came out from the side of the road and literally walked into the side of the car, scratching down the side with its hooves (they rattled), smearing shit as it went, and gouging out a good portion of the rear driver’s side door skin with its horns.
You can imagine how ridiculous I felt phoning my insurance company and starting a sentence with ‘you won’t believe this but’. I had to pay a £50 excess but that was all luckily.

@vipersnest1 poor deer 🥲

Not an accident but we took a Nissan Quashqi out for a test drive and about 2 mins after leaving the dealership the car conked out on a mega busy roundabout. We were not accompanied and the attitude from the dealership when we phoned for help was appalling.
Eventually 4 of them turned up with some sort of "gadget box" and never an apology to this day.
We bought something else.

Some time ago now and I think garages have tightened up insurance and excess payments etc as you have found.

Anyway I had a courtesy car while mine was being serviced and went to the multi story to park and go shopping. It was busy but I saw a car reverse out and drove into the space. At which point some woman erupted, apparently I’d stolen her space. She had been waiting further along planning to reverse back to it but I genuinely hadn’t seen her. If she had been polite I might possibly have given it to her but as she wasn’t I wasn’t having it.

She screamed at me “You’ve got no fucking manners”.

I put on my poshest voice and said “But much better language”.

When I came back she had keyed the full length of the car, a really deep gauge.

I went back to the garage in trepidation and said “I’m so sorry, look what happened” (obviously omitting the finer details.

They just shrugged and said not to worry.

I’ve been a bit more cautious about getting into parking arguments since then though.

@Karistyleaftea FFS yes not reassuring at all.

@FannyCann some people🤷🏻‍♀️ the local Audi dealer has a £2k excess on their test drive insurance I would think that amount would focus the mind. I expect you do get chancers that just turn up with no intention of buying the car but just want to thrash a nice car for half an hour for the thrills.

I think it survived - I went that way the next day and there was no sign of it.

Slightly unrelated but about 15 years ago I was in a taxi and one of those hangliders / microlite things crashed into us completely out of the blue. I had to fill out a very long insurance document for the driver and give phone evidence and I didn't get a penny. and I still had to pay the fare. Never again

@CalmShaker that has to be less likely than winning the lottery!

I really hope so Calzone , it was so long winded and I hate anything paperwork at the best of times. Whenever I'm in a cab now though it's always on back of my mind

@EveryKneeShallBow I was also rear-ended on a test drive! I was at the traffic lights (on red and with the handbrake on) at the time, so it was the idiot who drifted into the back of me at fault. Very funny. The garage dealt with it all.

I have a courtesy car at the moment while mine’s being fixed after someone drove into the back of me. I asked about insurance and they said it would be the same cover as my usual insurance but the excess would be £0. I was quite impressed by that I must say.

@noonames yes that is reassuring, this must be playing in my mind becuase I had a borderline nightmare earlier about car accidents. I’m actually happy to be awake now but it’s not faded yet, no micro lights involved though, that one is completely out there.

Ask Jimmy Carr.

He was telling the story of crashing a car on a test drive on 'would I lie to you'.