Hit and Run- WWYD

[Camperqueen]

Recently I posted about car drama and I got a lovely new car. Just over a week later and yesterday evening my DH pointed out that there was a scrape on the front bumper of the car. Attaching a pic.

I have certainly not hit anything - I only used it to go out for an appointment for an hour and it had been in a parking garage. I believe the person next to me on the right must have pulled out and scraped my car as they would have had to turn left out of their space to get into the one way to leave. I didn’t notice it at the time as the car park was quite dark where I was.

I’ve contacted the operator of the parking garage and they have confirmed that they do have cctv however I need to either file a police report or I need to claim through my insurance to get access to it (fine)

What would you do? Just get it fixed at a shop or file a police report and go through insurance to find the culprit? Am livid! My pretty new car!!

Get the footage and if the police can identify contact them and say they pay for damage or you give to insurance.

They'll pay!

It will cost you £100 (around £100/panel is normal) to get this fixed at a non-branded body shop. It will cost you far more in both excess and premiums over the years to claim it.

Do not claim- it would be ridiculous.

Additionally if the scratches are quite superficial, get some acetone (nail polish remover) and mix it with water around 50/50 then use a soft cloth and wipe the scratches. If they’re very shallow it will get rid of it. Remember to flush the area with a lot of clean water after. Good luck.

I’m going into the dealership tomorrow, I’ll ask them who they recommend. Thanks all for the advice!

If you can afford it, I definitely wouldn’t call your insurers, I’d just pay to get it repaired. The cost increase in your insurance for a second claim over the next 5 years I’d guess will be way more than the couple of hundred quid to get the car fixed. It’s not fair, some people are arseholes!

^ absolutely this.

The insurance company actually told me that DD's car insurance went up the same amount irrespective of whether she was at fault or not. Our situation was similar except the other person did the decent thing and left a note. Whilst DD didn't lose any of her NCB her premiums were still increased as a result of the accident for the length of time she had to declare it for. 5 years with most insurers 3 with Admiral.

It’s just so unfair ! As pp put it, I am now known to my insurers to be ‘someone who parks next to shit drivers’

If you don’t want to go through the insurance (and I agree, I wouldn’t) what’s the point in reporting to the police?

@glintandglide I don’t know, I’ve filed a report now but can’t see the point really. If the dealership tell me it’s going to be expensive I’d claim. But I am hoping fixing it will be less than my £500 deductible

If the dealers fix it expect to go thru insurance and pay top dollar. Obvs you do this for mechanical work or guarantee will be invalid.
For a little scratch I would get a local bodyshop and pay cash.
Too late now tho, you have involved police, so have to notify insurance, NBC will be affected, there are people who chase up uninsured losses. Claims management? Insurance may chase the perpetrator and give you courtesy car

That’s kind of it, I want the perpetrator to be chased.

We once had a situation where we were having to go through a very very tight gap in our village and when we got home (3 mins later) realised DH must have scraped a car as there was a mark on ours. He went straight back and knocked on doors to find whose car it was to give his details to for insurance. In the 10 mins that had elapsed, The lady whose car we’d scraped had seen it happen, taken our reg plate and had quite rightly called police - police arrived at our house 5 mins after he returned from her, giving our details to her and profusely apologising. She was very gracious. Thankfully he had done this as the police turned up and saw us outside inspecting the car and said ‘gotcha!’ thinking they had a slam dunk case for hit and run! When it emerged he’d already been back to exchange details as really didn’t know it had happened till we got home, and it was all in order, they sheepishly left us to the insurance.

These bastards weren’t so thoughtful- there’s no way they didn’t know they’d done this to my car! To take it down to the base there must have been an almighty scrape!!

If you go through police you will have to go through insurance.

The police won’t pass you the details of the other driver (but will be able to advise the insurance)