Advice needed - car wasn't fixed properly after the accident

[orys]

As some of you might remember (I think some of you might, I remember that it caused a great joy and amusement ) previous winter I skidded on ice and crashed my car.

The car was repaired from my fully comp insurance, with some adventures (first it spend over three months in Nationwide, who turned out to be complete muppets and then it has to be rectified in another garage… Enough to say that Nationwide billed my insurer with 800 and to rectify what they done wrong + to fix what they damaged (they damaged my steering wheel, my tailgate, cracked windscreen etc etc) costed them another 1200…

The car was finally returned to me about may 2011. Since then I wasnt using it much, mostly just to go to work and back, to the uni and back and I wasn’t going much for the trips to the Highlands as I used to… Just to say - last year I did about 6000 miles with my car only, and it was 99% in town driving.

But I still could not come to terms with wheel alingment: i was few times in two garages and it was either the car was not driving properly or the steering wheel has to be kept at angle to drive straight… Also my rear tended to skid when I was driving a bit faster over bends or roundabout and it wasnt like that before, as my car drives quite well for this class of the vehicle… I was not thinkin that its something with the accident damage, I was just thinking that Scottish garages are not the best ones (to be diplomatic) - I see that from our work vans, the recently serviced one has the steering wheel at 30 degree to drive straight…

Just before I went to Europe I had to MOT my car and to do a warranty service. None of them found anything wrong with the car. I also ordered them to set the wheel alingment properly and they gave me car that was driving less or more straight, but the steering wheel was at the 10 degree angle… I demanded it to be rectified and I ended with the discussion with the service manager who was trying to convince me that I demand too much and that it is technically impossible…

I know they are just too lazy, they just alingn the steering from one side, while they should do it on both end, but since I had no time to argue with that muppet, I just told him “I am going to Poland, I will do it there in a proper garage and prove to you that its possible, and then you will return my money to me”. He was so sure of himself that he agreed.

So of to Czech Republic I went, then to Poland and I went to the trusty garage that deals with the suspension and stuff.

Off course it was possible to set the front wheel alingmnent correctly (it was not correctly done in Scotland) and to have steering wheel in position. But guy found out more.

1. My rear suspension bar (I don’t know how its called in English, the bar between the rear wheels) is bent after that accident and therefore its out of the norm. I can see my rear tyres are worn differently and as I can see from the printout, the suspension is 6mm over the maximum tolerance allowed by the manufacturer. According to the mechanic, this car would not pass past-colision MOT in Poland (yes, in Poland after the car was involved in the collision bigger than just a small bump, it has to go through special MOT where apart of the ordinary stuff they look especially in how it was fixed - interesting point for these of the forum users who thinks that British cars are safer than Eastern European ones…).
2. I had to change shock absorbers as they were burst. I noticed that car is driving funny, but I thought it is due to the wheel alingment. The guy, again, associated it with the collision, sayin that my shock absorbers mounted by Daihatsu were very good quality and should last easily 100 000 km… My car had about 22 000 miles at this moment…

So now I think I should go back to my former insurer and demand it to be done properly. But I am afraid that they will tell me that over a year after the claim was settled its too late. But I would say that I had no way to see that it wasn’t fixed properly, as I do not have specialist equipment to measure the car’s geometry…

So do you think I should approach them and politely ask to do that for me? Or should I seek a lawyer, maybe one of this “no win-no fee” accident specialists, who advertise that they can take up the accident cases for up to five years after it happened? Or do you have any other ideas?

[pete-b]

Maybe if you didn’t " order them " or " demand " they would have done a better job

[orys]

pete-b:
Maybe if you didn’t " order them " or " demand " they would have done a better job

If they did the job properly first time, I would not need to demand it to be rectified…

[dri-diddly-iver]

orys:
So now I think I should go back to my former insurer and demand it to be done properly. But I am afraid that they will tell me that over a year after the claim was settled its too late. But I would say that I had no way to see that it wasn’t fixed properly, as I do not have specialist equipment to measure the car’s geometry…

I think that as well. They would probably say you have hit something else and trying it on.

[mike-c]

You should go back to your insurer, thats your first call. It doesn’t matter that its over a year. Tell them your problem and see what they will do. If you get no joy, try reading here…Association Of British Insurers.

[chas]

I once recovered a car that had broken down on a busy island, I whipped the towing eye out of the boot, screwed it in the front & hastily connected my winch hook. Car got about 4ft up the bed when most of the front end crash landed on the bed, the rest of the car slowly rolled back into the island causing a 3 car collision.

Unknown to the owner, the car had a previous front end collision repaired by (guess who). It turned out that (guess who) pay their panel beaters by the job, with very little in the way of quality control. Mr. Inarush ToEarn-Some£Money simply pop rivetted the repair panels instead of spot welding.

It shouldn’t happen in an insurance approved bodyshop, but it does.

I don’t know the bestest & easiest way to get your mess sorted, but our insurance company, faced with a considerable bill from 3x angry car owners, employed a bodyshop repair professional witness type bloke to examine the original repair & rip them apart in court.

[mike68]

Someone who works with my wife had her car repaired by Nationwide was told by an AA patrol not to drive the car as he deemed it unsafe, Never use an approved repairer I had a Fiesta fixed by them and it was a joke, they had the car for six weeks and gave it back to me with runs in the paint and no bulbs in the headlights.

Remember you have the choice, these big national companies cozy up to the insurers for the work if you catch my drift.

And remember when dealing with these characters, they work in the motor trade because they are to thick to do anything else.

[thelorryist]

Any repairs carried out by a garage the insurance chooses should be guaranteed for 5 years

Don’t take any crap off them!

[fatboy_slimslow]

pete-b:
Maybe if you didn’t " order them " or " demand " they would have done a better job

Customer is KING!

[damoq]

Chas:
I once recovered a car that had broken down on a busy island, I whipped the towing eye out of the boot, screwed it in the front & hastily connected my winch hook.

Tut Tut. That was s big no no when I done recovery with the AA. To prevent the kind of accident that happened to you. I know you said the whole front end of the car came away due to a previous dodgy repair, but most towing eyes are just spot welded onto cars and not a suitable place to hook the winch on. Also best to leave the handbrake on a few clicks so the car wouldn’t get too far if the winch failed.

[orys]

Fatboy slimslow:

pete-b:
Maybe if you didn’t " order them " or " demand " they would have done a better job

Customer is KING!

Actually it might be just my English: when I go somewhere - like to restaurant, I order my meal, right? Nothing wrong with that.

So I just assumed that if I go to the garage, I order some work to be carried… If different word should be used here, I am happy to learn.

As for demanding that they fixed what they screwed, I am happy with the word “to demand” there.

[diversion2]

Too right orys and I would think that you sholdn’t be expected to have a high level of car repair knowledge just to get your car repaired properly. If I had my boiler repaired and it was done badly it would hardly be my fault because I know jack bout boilers so coudn’t check the work.

Ages back I had a rover turbo diesel, wen for mot and they told me turbo is seized. £600 for a replacement. However, I know enough about diesels that when I went to collect the car I could tell them they were talkin crap. My girlfriend at the time was angry though, she said if it had been her she’d probably have had the work done. Most big shiny garages and dealers are the biggest crooks, insurance companies are far higher than them in the crook league tables though.

[chas]

Diversion2:
Ages back I had a rover turbo diesel, wen for mot and they told me turbo is seized. £600 for a replacement. However, I know enough about diesels that when I went to collect the car I could tell them they were talkin crap. My girlfriend at the time was angry though, she said if it had been her she’d probably have had the work done. Most big shiny garages and dealers are the biggest crooks, insurance companies are far higher than them in the crook league tables though.

A single, lone female, blonde, neighbour once called me at work in tears, she’d taken her XR3i in for MOT & they were quoting her £1000+ for it to pass. I’d pre Mot’d & serviced it for her a few days before & I took it personally that they were calling my judgement into question.

Me & a few selected mates from the yard popped down hastily to the garage & asked for all these horrifically expensive faults to be pointed out to us, & not to a very nice yet very naive schoolteacher who knows lots about Shakespeares Twelfth Night but SFA about Fords XR3i’s.

It must’ve took us all of 7 minutes to get down there, but all those faults seemed to have magically rectified themselve’s, I think the objectivity of the average MOT testers decision making process is simply amazing. It’s all based upon how stupid you look when actually presenting the car, not how much you weigh in an oily boiler suit

[orys]

Called the insurer today, they acknowledged my claim and told me to wait for them to call me back… We’ll see…