Lum

A404M roundabout, I was turning right onto the M4 towards reading, in the second of the two lanes about to exit the roundabout. Blonde in a Nova decides they dont want the M4, signals right, drifts in front of me, I drop the anchors, she swerves back into her lane, I come to a complete stop, am about to swear at the Nova driver, *THUD* an Audi 80 has just hit me.

They left no skid marks, appear not to have even tried to stop, my car is about a foot shorter and there are 3 inches of box section chassis sticking through my bumper and appear to have punctured his oil and coolant as that was all over the road.

I could drive my car to the hard shoulder, he tried to start his and it when chug, chug, chug, chug, clonk and seized which is amusing.

Two coppers turn up, one is great and the other is a complete arsehole. I have whiplash, probably wont be able to move my neck tomorrow and I've somehow got to get all the way to ******* Liverpool to get my insurance certificate and MOT or I'll have comitted an offence, and I bet they car more about doing me for that than they did about the accident, they didn't even want the Nova driver's details.

40 quid taxi fair for my GF to complete her journey (buying a car from someone who is emmigrating tomorrow morning) recovery truck takes me to storage, then he shuts up the shop buggers off home and leaves me standing in the cold trying to direct my GF, in an unfamiliar car, to pick me up from an unfamiliar location in Bracknell. At least he gave me some hot chocolate before buggering off.

This was at 1PM and I've only just got in now, huge clue at the doctors, neck back and knee hurt. I always said I'd never cry whiplash after a shunt but this really hurts.

And all of this wouldn't have happened if some retard in a call centre in India hadnt given my GF faulty information (namely: yes you can withdraw £lots over the counter at Maidenhead on a Saturday.. that branch stopped doing counter service on Saturdays 2 years ago)

So anyway, is the car likely to be a write off, there is a wonderful smell of burnt electrics from the boot too and my exhaust is now audi coloured and sounds like a modded STI. They also had to use a forklift truck to get my boot open!

Chris L

Not good Lum. Hard to say if it will be a write off though. My only personal experience was being rear ended when leaving a petrol station about a year ago. It was very low speed (no more than 10 mph), but there was still a bill for nearly £2K, by the time they'd sorted all the damage out and resprayed the rear of the car.

You'll just have to wait and see what the insurance company says

little'un

iTrader: (9)

Jeez - sorry to hear that, so many people seems to be getting hit up the ****.

What did the guy in the Audi say - apart from chug & clonk, any admission of liability?...what did the coppers have to say? Get the name of either of them - I'm local to this area and know a few of the traffic plod.

Hope it gets sorted for you asap

little'un

Lum

The coppers were very vague hinting that they may or may not prosecure me or the audi driver and may or may not offer a driver improvement course.
I have the name of the nasty one but not the nice one.
Audi driver neither admitted or disclaimed liability, but I have the nova driver and an uninvolved person as witnesses, and at the end of the day a rear end shunt is pretty much an open and shut case.

What's annoying me is Churchill are threatening to pay "market value". I paid over the odds for that car, I know I did, but it had FSH, new cambelt and was in Violet Blue Mica which is a gorgeous colour and quite rare.

Of course, being a JDM car, the parts will have to be imported so if they do decide to repair it will be bloody expensive.

BTW has anyone ever imported Subarus from Australia, and if so are they better for UK roads, what is the fuel like over there? A Liberty B4 is looking tempting

little'un

iTrader: (9)

Totally agree, the guy in the audi was obviously too close which is why he probably did'nt brake.

Mind you I was hit up the **** in Maidenhead town centre years ago by some pr1ck in an old bucket and purely for the principle of the matter I tried to claim from his insurance as he was too close to me and travelling too fast around the one way system. It ended up going to court and the judge said that I was lying!! and that I had changed lane at the last minute. I took photo's etc and gave exact spot where my and his car had been. They guy claimed for a new bonnet, wing and lights etc on his nasty old Renault (apparent total £1000), I only needed a new black plastic bumper for my Astra - £120 fitted.

Good luck mate, lot of us know what it's like!

Lin

Lum

This one is, near as damn it, square on rear end colission, and I have a very nice person who stopped as a witness so it should be ok.

Problem is, I want another Legacy B4 RSK and specifically in the same colour as most of them are in horrible horrible silver. There's a manual one on auto trader that's the same colour but it doesn't have the spoiler. I guess that can be fitted from my one though.

One trader is claming you can't import post 97 Legacies any more, because of some change in the SVA law. What's that all about?

Apple

When I had a crunch a few years back and wrote my car off, the insurance co paid me out the value of a similar car in Autotrader minus my excess which came to a better deal than trying to sell it privately as the scoob delivery was only a few months away...

If you've got a modded one or it's a bit rare then you'll have a problem proving it's value this way IMO so you may be in for a battle

GC8

The law hasnt changed; but a loophole that existed allowing people to avoid using a model report has been closed. As no one had ever needed a model report (because we all used the 'disabled fiddle) one hadnt been compiled and now its not likely for less common cars. The cars can be imported but registering them will be impossible in England until a report is created at a cost of > £2,000.

Simon

Lum

Not modded, but Legacy B4 RSKs are quite rare.
There are 6 on autotrader at the moment. Black and Silver go for 7-9 grand, other colours start at 12 grand.

There's one on there that's identical for mine, except it's manual and doesn't have a spoiler. just under 13 grand, which is about what I paid.

Re: Model report. One outfit claims to be able to still import them, so I guess a model report has been done. I need to find somewhere that will purchase 2nd hand from japan to my specs.

Darbo_wrx

and i bet you r fekin sore this morning
took me 10 minuets to get out of bed the day after my accident
wiplash hurts lol
i didnt even get rear ended but my head hit the steering wheel even with seatbelt on
broke some ribs off the seatbelt :/
that was with a impact speed of approx 40 mph-that is all

as for the import game that is well fekked up
the government have really stiched every 1 up
gone from approx 30.000 gray imports a year 2 next to nothing
the other month the 3 main southern sva centres had only 3 cars to do all week and there is apparently 6 sva testers a 1 of the centres lmao i want a job like that


hope u r not 2 sore

Darbo

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

Lum that is terrible hope you get it sorted mate, best of luck
Colin

AJbaseBloke

From another B4 owner - feel very sorry for you. I too got rear ended, but luckily at a much lower speed than yours, + I was on the hand brake, so the car rolled a bit. Still, every bit on the rear of the car needed replacing...

Then the aches and pains started

Hope you find another to your liking m8. It is pretty hard to go another way once you have tasted the B4 way Keep your head up.

Cheers

wez_sti

feel for ya mate, had a crash a couple of months ago and it took fooking ages for em to repair it, all the parts were very expensive as you say (mines an import to) as for it being a write off, dont sound good, chassis damage is never cheap.

on a different note, could you not pick up one of the 'horrible horrible' silver legacy's and pay for a full respray?? would work out alot cheaper and you could add any spoiler you wanted at that point for a perfect colour match aswell..???


good luck either way mate.

wez

Gary C

Yes, thats a total loss, no way are they ever going to fix that if your chassis is bent by 12"

And your independant witness statement will be worth its weight in gold (if its signed).

I hit a lorry from the rear once (NOT my fault, he pulled out of a layby straight in front of me on a dual carrigeway with the second lane full of traffic overtaking me). I got a statement from a person in the layby, the opposing insurance company did not want to know until I sent them a copy of the statement, they then payed up in full within the week, no further argument.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Well an impact speed of 30mph will write off pretty much any car (bends the roof usually, kinks floor pan in the middle etc.), any higher and your counting the number of cracked ribs etc.

Sorry to hear about the accident especially in case when your stuck in the middle of it all with no real way of avoiding it. Glad no there was no serious injuries, and hope the whiplash isn't too bad.

Having experienced it myself - and blacking out the next day whenever I looked up was not a pleasent experience not to mention the pain.

Lum

Well I hurt, but my GF came off a lot worse, bruised by the seatbelt and barely able to move this morning. So we're in the state of she has a car but is in no fit state to drive. I could possibly manage short distances but have no car. Thank god we saw this coming and stocked up on supplies last night.

Respray may be an option on a silver one. No offence to anyone who owns a silver car but I just can't stand that colour, and black is just asking to be hit in the side at night.
I'm not sure I want mine repaired now, ie. I wouldn't trust it again. Roof isn't bent but boot floor definately is, have to wait till monday to find out what happens now.
Are there any companies that will import used cars to spec? Get the insurance to pay for the model report

Gary C

Churchill can be difficult when paying up, just keep rejecting their offer. I got an extra £1500 on £6000 on a mk1 MR2 with them, almost fainted when they initially offered £4500.

Direct line on the otherhand paid out full value with no hassle on a mk3 MR2 (note to self, never get another MR2), good service.

Lum

But surely Churchill wont be paying, but the other guy's insurance will (Sainsburys)

I'll probably try to get them to pay for an import and SVA. Are tokyocarsuk.com any good?

Gary C

Very good point , but he did mention that Churchills are going to pay 'market value' in his reply. Maybe thats the other persons company.

Lum

No Churchill are my company, the person who hit me is insured with Sainsburys.
Apparently they pay then claim it back.
I hope they dont just search autotrader as there's hardly any RSK B4s on there right now, most of them going for 7-8 grand (all black or silver). I paid 13grand for mine because it had 15 months warranty, was a rare colour and was in excellent condition. I bet the 4 cheap ones on there are mingers in comparison.
The only one I'd accept as equivalent to mine (no spoiler or autobox, but it does have leather seats which mine doesnt and more importantly is the same lovely violet blue mica colour) is going for 13grand.
If they insist on me getting one of the silver ones, I'll have to insist they pay for me to get it resprayed, anyone know how much ScoobyClinic would charge for a full respray?