Had an accident today in my MY94 STI 1, much to my annoyance. Numpty pulls out from his lane into mine, no indicators, nothing, with me around 6 feet behind him, I barely had time to hit the brake before I'd hit him. Got the details, address etc etc, and have been in touch with the brokers (Greenlight via Keith Michaels).

Now, whats concerning me is that, as far as repairs are concerned, I've got one of two options apparantly. Option 1 is I let the "Insurance Approved Repairer" take the car away, fix it and bring it back. I don't get told what the costs are, and I suspect I wont be told what repairs have been done, what checks have been made, what parts etc etc. Option 2 is, I get 2 quotes together and go for the cheaper.

Now, I've told the insurance company I want Option 1, but now I've cooled down, I'm wondering wether I've done the right thing. My car is a STI Wagon Version 1, and as such a rare car ( 1 of a 100 ), and I'm concerned about the "Approved Repairer" botching the job, as well as using the wrong parts etc etc. Most of the damage is bodywork, front wing, headlight etc etc, but I also want the geometry/tracking checked even though it was a sub-30MPH crash.

Should I go for Option 2 ? The garage who normally work on the car, ProSport in Stockport, would be my preferred choice, but I don't want the hassle of driving a damaged car around 2 garages just to get a quote. And who pays for these quotes : me ?

Seriously pissed off..... http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/images/icons/icon8.gif

I would go with option 2 and get the car sorted by someone you trust!
I used to have a V6 Probe which got rear-ended and went to the "insurance-approved" bodyshop for repairs. Fortunately I took the car there myself for assessment before it went in for any work and pointed out ALL of the damage (like bent tailpipes on backbox which they missed) and also insisted on a NEW bumper, not a refurbished one.
The car went in for repair (6 weeks later 'cos they had to order a bumper from the States!) and after 2 days I got a call informing me it was ready for collection. Went to pick it up and to my horror, across the car park, I could see the bumper was completely the wrong shade of white. So I refused to accept it and insisted they paint it the correct colour. After much hassle they agreed and it went back in. Went to collect it again only to find they'd painted it the same colour again but this time managed to get big runs in it!!
So I refused to accept it again, they refused to paint it again saying it was the right colour. Big arguments ensued as it wasn't just a shade out, it was completely the wrong colour. Anyway eventually, out of the goodness of their hearts (bless 'em) they got an expert in to analyse the paint who sided with them and blamed oxidisation of the original paint for the difference. So in their wisdom they tried to polish the back end of the car to match the new paint. Guess what? My car was now 3 different shades of white!! Apparently they couldn't do anything else for me and the insurance company refused to take any further action.

I ended up taking the car to a mate who painted the bumper the right colour in his garage and polished the rest of the car to match and charged me £30 for the paint!

I would definitely take my car to someone I trust from now on!!!!

Sorry to here about your accident, my year old WRX wagon and I got involved in somebody else’s accident last Thursday and unfortunately it was left un-driveable. After talking it through with both my insurers and the dealership I tend to use I discovered that the bodyshop the car has gone to is actually the dealers preferred repairer (they have not got their own bodyshop). Also the bodyshop is required, by the insurance company, to use only new Subaru parts.

I know this is not completely relevant to your situation but at least by being able to leave it with the insurers have had no problem in getting a courtesy car as this was sorted out for me on the day of the accident. Something I couldn’t have guaranteed if I’d gone elsewhere.

I’d therefore you ring/visit the bodyshop and discuss your concerns with them before deciding to move it.

Good luck