What to do when your friend crashes your Ti?
 

Here is the lowdown:

Before I bought my Ti, just after my Skoda Fabia was written off by another friend driving his m3 a little too fast down my road, I borrowed one of my best mate's spare car; a clapped out old fiat punto.

It was a woeful car, with a gaping hole in the exhaust manifold, but I kind of liked having to keep it above 3000rpm to avoid stalling and heeling and toeing on every corner to avoid this.

Anyway, this friend had this car as a spare as he had finally purchased a new clio, which he had been going on about for a few years, but never actually bought untill he totalled his corsa last summer.

On Monday he rang me to say that his Clio was in the shop, being repaired under warrenty, because all the electrics had gone funny, and could he possibly borrow my Ti for a week while they repaired it.

Naturally I said yes. I dont need a car to get to work and he does, he is a very good friend and also I owed him a loan of a car as he had generously let me borrow the punto when I was without.

Unfortunaly this Friday, on the way back from picking up the keys to his repaired Clio, he crashed it into a sign post. He was not used to driving a rear wheel drive car, and even with AST+T on, the tail kicked out as he exited a roundabout, and as he regained controll with some oppposite lock, the tail flicked the other way and he had a choice between either another car or a signpost; he chose the post.

This was the state of it when I viewed it later the same evening, a few hours after the accident : http://www.ubiquity.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ti1.jpg

This is a picture after we spent 3 hours this morning stripping off all the cracked bodywork, subframe, and a numerous list of other parts:

http://www.ubiquity.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ti2.jpg

As far as I can tell, the engine is still alright, but the radiator and the entire front end needs replacing. I now have a tough decision over whether to claim on my insurance poilicy, who my friend was listed as a named driver as, or to pay for all the repairs myself and gain the cash back from my friend over time.

I have 3 1/2 years no claims discount, and the excess is £650, but I am quite sure the repairs will be over £3000 :(

**** that sux. what's your friend willing to do? gonna be a lot of work and hopefully the frame posts from below the windshield out to the front aren't bent. do you get to drive his new clio when yours is back in the shop? ;)

Looks exactly like mine when I hit a tree with my front, oddly coming out of a turn too... Anyways it was totalled becasue of a bent frame, so you should check that out.

I personally would file the claim, have the friend pay the deductible and whatever rate increase you incur. It spreads out the payments and has got to be less than 3000GBP.

You might have to remove your friend from the policy, but he should understand.


That totally sucks, but I feel that's pretty obvious.

ouch!

unwritten rule when borrowing cars - 'you bend it, you mend it'

If your mates skint though. I'd claim, you've payed through the nose for insurance in the first place so might as well use it. The premium wont go up that much

I'd probably just kill him. :rolleyes:

That sucks, sorry about your car.

No unfortunatly the hood emblem is scratched so cant be reused!

He doesn't have the money, but will pay me back I am sure. The irony was he was only on my insurance for a week, ending today.

I am going to get a quote on it monday. I really dont want to loose the 3 years no claims but on the other hand Im not sure I valid that at 2k or above. It won't count as my accident so hopefully the policy should not go up too much, but its still a pain in the backside.

If the repairs come in under £3000 I might well make a few changes to the car at the same time, such as carbon fibre bonnet, m3 bumper and a new induction system. I will have to wait and see.

Well that is a good excuse to put some new stuff into your car. That really sucks about the accident though. Makes me feel better about the damage on my ti though! Yours is the same color as mine so it was easy to compare as "this is what could have happened" to my car. Just dont give up on the car and take it to a bone yard. That would be bad.

get some second hand panels, take it to the jiggers and do the bulk yourselves. should save you a SHED load!

you'll only need the painting done pretty much that way.

Well the worst that could happen is the chassis is twisted and it would be too expensive to fix and the car would be a write off.

If that is the case, I will buy the car back and strip it for parts. I may well seek out the 318ti Sport Compact Dakar edition that I originally sought after, but it was too far to travel to.

I do like the idea of a carbon fibre bonet / air intake and a m3 bumper though, but it all depends on the costs involved in fixing the car without going through the insurance.

well, if you need a good body shop, i know a very very good guy out here in watford. (only any use if you are this side of london)

you sound pretty understanding, i'd have given any of my friends a good slappin if they'd done that to my car!

i think Matt_UK works in the same estate as LittleKnocks.co.uk. They do GOOD work!!!

they did a car for a guy i know recently. bonnet didn't come out to their standard even though my mate liked it. they sanded it all down and did it again.

yeah, matt live just outside watford i think. i was talking about Autoprep, but ive heard of littleknocks.

I dont suppose anyone knows of any bmw breakers yards around the south east / London area, especially around the Croydon area? Need to save cash on parts so I am thinking second hand!