The V60 is no longer pristine after someone ran into the back of it on the M25 this afternoon. Fairly busy traffic doing about 60. The gantry signs flicked from off to "40" and the cars underneath, naturally, jumped on the brakes. Prats.
To put it succinctly, the Volvo stopped; the white Audi A4 behind didn't and crunched somewhat painfully into the back.
Left him dripping radiator fluid and picking up what remained of his headlights while I drove home. Fortunately it was a company car and he gave me a copy of the insurance certificate so I'm anticipating minimal hassle (though wouldn't surprise me to read "I was driving safely down the motorway at 70mph when a red Volvo reversed into me...").
The car's going to be collected tomorrow; Enterprise are ringing tonight to provide a hire car; and I'm going to have a stiff drink and jump in the bath 'cos my back hurts.
Some thoughts to take away:
* The Volvo is build like the proverbial brick ****house. The Audi cannoned into me and smashed the bumper / parking sensors / CTA radar / exhaust / splitter etc, but I was able to drive home. Not even that noisy with the exhaust concertinaed and snapped...
* The whip-lash preventing head restraints and seat back snapped reliably into position, as the car jerked forward.
* He must have been really close, as I was at a pretty low speed when he hit me and the adaptive cruise is limited to 40% max brake power.
* The City Safety system worked as designed and applied full braking after the first impact to stop me being catapulted into the car in front.
Frankly I'm hoping it's a write-off because I have a replacement car guarantee on the insurance. Even better, I renewed the policy yesterday so they can't whack me with a price increase until next year.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Tue 21 Jun 16 at 18:25
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sorry to hear about that, similar happened to me last year. Bit of a faff waiting for parts, mine was drivable, however the other car was almost certainly a write off. So not a massive drama.
I guess it's nice to know all the fancy bits of kit worked.
How come you want it written off to get another one?
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>> How come you want it written off to get another one?
>>
Well, it's not been washed since I bought it and the interior has developed a rather unpleasant "eau-de-mountain-bike" smell. Also, the windscreen wipers need changing.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Tue 21 Jun 16 at 18:39
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Rather than have people crash into your dirty cars and get them replaced, you can get people to clean them, it's fairly easy, there's plenty of places about. Less paperwork as well.
;-)
Last edited by: sooty123 on Tue 21 Jun 16 at 18:43
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>> Well, it's not been washed since I bought it and the interior has developed a rather unpleasant "eau-de-mountain-bike" smell.
Won't have my bikes in the car for that reason. I have a teenage son I'd rather strap to the roof for the journey home when he's been up a Welsh mountain on his bike too come to think. ;-)
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>> How come you want it written off to get another one?
Presumably because potential problems with a repaired car.
My neighbour had a similar experience to FF with a brand new Prius. M40 in his case.
Even I can see the slight colour difference between original car and replaced panels. They'd be a sore thumb to anyone trained to look.
And what happens when, like my Xantia's driver's door, the replacement bits corrode long before rest of car.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 21 Jun 16 at 18:46
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Just spent a bit of time crawling around it. Untrained eye but looks like the bumper caught the worst of it with the various bits that connect it to the chassis / body all broken / twisted / bent etc. One would assume that the bumper contains the weaker elements.
The exhaust has come off its mount and been twisted / pushed forward so there's only about 2 inches of ground clearance now. It's not broken, but there are significant ripples and dents in the heatproofing that surround where it used to run (hopefully not to the body underneath). Not sure what the consequences of that will do to the exhaust manifold / DPF, as it's roughly 12 inches displaced sideways and rotated by about 30 degrees.
The parking sensors / radar have just become disconnected from the wiring harness, so if physically OK (can't find one of them) it should be an easy repair. There's no damage to the boot lid / doors. There's a dent in the boot floor where the exhaust clonked it.
I think I was lucky in that I hadn't stopped at the time of the collision, so there was less speed differential and some energy could be absorbed by the brakes after the collision. The bloke was obviously trying to drive around me as the impact limited to one side of the bumper with it pushed slightly sideways too.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Tue 21 Jun 16 at 19:09
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Doesn't really sound that bad tbh, especially on a new car. Looks like you might have to get it washed after all. ;-)
Last edited by: sooty123 on Tue 21 Jun 16 at 19:13
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>> Doesn't really sound that bad tbh, especially on a new car. Looks like you might
>> have to get it washed after all. ;-)
>>
Gets worse. Just reading the insurance documentation and the company (Volvo Insurance, for crying out loud) have listed the car as a V40 and not a V60. Not sure how they've managed that.
They were pretty good about it when I spoke to them - they've asked me to pay the difference (about £60) for the new policy which starts next month, but have amended the current policy for no charge as they accepted I'd not deliberately given the wrong info.
Moral of the story: double check everything on the certificate... ;-)
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>> >> Doesn't really sound that bad tbh, especially on a new car. Looks like you
>> might
>> >> have to get it washed after all. ;-)
>> >>
>>
>> Gets worse.
Look on the plus side, after it's been repaired I'm sure the body shop will wash and hoover it out.
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>> The V60 is no longer pristine after someone ran into the back of it on
>> the M25 this afternoon. Fairly busy traffic doing about 60. The gantry signs flicked from
>> off to "40" and the cars underneath, naturally, jumped on the brakes. Prats.
Surely it's just prats.
Interesting demonstration of how folks nearest the hazard are OK and it's those following and lacking in long distance observation that have a problem.
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Bad luck FF, I can see why you'd prefer not to have it back. Is it on one of those finance deals where you can hand it back after a while or choose to buy it outright sort of thing? If so, has that got long to run?
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Bad luck, Fursty. Glad you're OK.
I'm with you: I'd rather not be back in a car that's required extensive straightening out. For one thing, bent and re-straightened metal is not the same at the crystalline level as pristine metal, even if it looks the same shape as before.
I imagine, incidentally, that there's an appreciable delay between the gantry speed signs changing and the camera trigger speed adjusting to match. Yet still the muppets hit the brakes.
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'May' have mentioned this back in the mists of time, but some Plod here used to drive an XR4x4 which got smashed quite badly. When it got repaired they said it drove far far better than when new!!
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I understand the speed cameras are not activated at the first notified reduction, but the second. Also, there shouldn't be more than 10MPH difference between successive signs.
If the cameras are active at all!
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>>Interesting demonstration of how folks nearest the hazard are OK and it's those following >>and lacking in long distance observation that have a problem.
And also that your safety space is YOUR space. If the numpty behind is sitting on your bumper then ease back from the car in front to create a large space to allow for the fact that he's not going to stop in a hurry. Not easy on something as busy as the M25 granted....!
Modern cars are designed to just 'fold up' at the front in an impact - even relatively low speed impacts can demolish most of the front - but the passenger cell will be intact and the doors can be opened easily.
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Claiming off your insurer rather than the 3rd party!
Was this deliberate or just the least hassle at the time?
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>> Claiming off your insurer rather than the 3rd party!
>>
>> Was this deliberate or just the least hassle at the time?
>>
I pay £550 a year for insurance. I'm damned if I'm doing all the messing around when it wasn't my fault. With Volvo it gets trailered to the nearest dealership where they'll fix it and bill the other insurance company.
They'll load the premium next year anyway so as far as I'm concerned they're merely doing their job.
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Not that it makes anything better FF, but a friend of mine picked up his new car from the dealership a couple of weeks ago and the following evening, less than 24 hours into his ownership of the vehicle, a flatbed truck hit the back of him at a roundabout.
He's just got the car ( a Peugeot 508 SW ) back from the bodyshop having had a new tailgate, bumper, lights etc fitted but a happy lapin he is not...
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Bad luck Fursty. I was in a similar situation in a much older car (Vectra B) years ago. The only reason the car behind didn't hit me was I lifted off the brakes and risked getting closer to the cars stopping suddenly in front. Car behind had smoke coming from their locked tyres and the look on the drivers face as they suddenly realised they had been to fast/close.
He left a lot more space from what I could tell when we all started again.
Had I had the equivalent of city safe braking or braked as hard as possible - he'd have hit me.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 21 Jun 16 at 22:16
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No sympathy here.....obviously driving too close in front of the Audi, the car of choice for the tailgater......even a white one !
I hope you don't drive your aeroplane as close as that. :-)
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>> Load the premium! Why?
>>
Statistically, I'm more likely to be involved in another accident now.
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>> Statistically, I'm more likely to be involved in another accident now.
Yep, applies even when there is zero contributory liability. My premium is loaded by quite a few quid because I claimed for damage when a car park barrier dinged my roof. I know it is around £150 in an £800 premium (high cost due young drivers on policy) because I forget to mention it until prompted when getting a quote from Admiral.
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>> Statistically, I'm more likely to be involved in another accident now.
>>
As I have said before I think the statistical basis for that is v dodgy.
In any case I have found what adds to or doesn't add to premiums at renewal is all a matter of the market anyway.
When we moved to Admiral multicar for wife & daughter a few years ago it was because Elephant wanted to load the premium because of a no fault, all costs recovered accident and Admiral (part of the same group of companies) said they didn't load premiums in those cases
I would certainly be looking to change if my insurer was loading because of a no fault, costs recovered accident. I would bet that loading could be made to disappear if it were challenged.
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Deep commiserations FF. Glad you are ok
I thought you had returned to N Yorks, so additional commiserations on having to return to the SE. Fortunately, I only ever go there on t'train these days.
Hope you have settled in at your new abode
Regards
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Moving in three weeks (in theory). Removal company booked, exchanged on house dahn sarf, but still waiting for search results on the place oop north. Apparently due within two weeks...
Fingernails are a bit chewed.
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The main thing is you are ok Fursty.Cars come and go.>:)
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Update:
I think the Volvo repairer that's been booked is a bit useless. They were supposed to call yesterday; didn't and then promised to call this morning. Again they failed to do so and when I finally got through to them this afternoon the person who deals with this stuff had "gone home".
Apparently - and I use the word loosely - they're going to call tomorrow to arrange collection. I won't hold my breath. Besides, I'm away for five days so it's not as if they can do anything.
On the upside, Enterprise delivered the hire car I've got for the duration. Turns out that if you demand a diesel automatic estate their options are limited, so I've got a brand new 5 series to play with.
Seems nice, but it's got the rock hard M-Sport suspension and the iDrive / sat nav thing is already broken. Cost me £50 to insure it but it's zero excess, so as long as I have some part of the car remaining they don't care what condition it goes back in.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Wed 22 Jun 16 at 19:52
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So they did call yesterday morning and asked if they could collect today. Told them they could come in the afternoon - I'm in Italy today - and posted them a set of keys by special delivery (with their agreement)
9am this morning the phone goes. It's the man come with his trailer to collect the car... told him I was 1000 miles away and that the keys are in the post. He's not impressed. Then a phone call from the bodyshop along the lines of, "sorry, you've done WHAT with the keys?!"
Not entirely convinced they'll be able to screw a new bumper on at this rate. I can't tell whether I'm dealing with about three different companies, or whether work is being subcontracted out, or what.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Fri 24 Jun 16 at 10:39
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Hope you were on handsfree at the time!!! :)
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>> Not entirely convinced they'll be able to screw a new bumper on at this rate.
>>
I'm sure they'll make a V40 bumper fit somehow..........
;-)
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Update:
It's fixed. Being delivered back on Monday. Have asked for a copy of the invoice. Hope they've cleaned it, been over a year since it got washed.
Looking forward to ditching the 520d. It's got a better turning circle, navigation system and gearbox than the V60 but in other regards it's a poor imitation. The seats are APPALLING, the fuel economy is dire and the heating alternates between cooking and freezing at 15 minute intervals.
I also lost a day yesterday having a tyre replaced after I got bored of topping it up between service stations on the M6. Turns out it had a small nail in it but you can't repair run-flats. It'd actually been going down gradually every few days - the tyre pressure indicator is genuinely useful here. Bit of a surprise when tyre place (National) insists that both rear tyres are replaced together because they're "less than 3mm".
Bear in mind that the car has only 8000 miles on it and my conservative guess is that there was at least 5mm of tread left on both. I'm not a tyre fitter but I do think that National (correction: this branch) are pulling a fast one. Not my car, but if it was I'd be having a chat to trading standards.
It's also a pretty good indication of how people who've been hiring this car are driving it if they're chewing through a set of tyres in less than 10,000 miles! Although if I was paying what the other insurance company is coughing up I'd want to thrash it to within an inch of its life too. (£218/day is the rate quoted on my hire paperwork, no wonder your insurance is going up...)
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Sat 9 Jul 16 at 21:26
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Oh, and the LED headlights on the BMW are bright, but lack the auto-dipping and shading capabilities of the Volvo. They are, however, instant and highly amusing to use on a quiet motorway at night if you give a quick double flash when the Mercedes in lane 4 is doing over a ton and going under a camera gantry.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Sat 9 Jul 16 at 21:31
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>>Mercedes in lane 4 is doing over a ton and going under a camera gantry.
Oh, I see, that was you was it...?
;-)
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>> Oh, I see, that was you was it...?
>>
...it wasn't FF, the NIP is in the post....
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>> ..when the Mercedes
>> in lane 4 is doing over a ton and going under a camera gantry.
>>
I thought they worked all the time now?
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Not on the M25 north of Heathrow. Otherwise I'd have a string of NIPs for cheerfully ignoring them when they're stuck at 40mph at two in the morning.
I don't think you could drive like some on the M25 and still have a licence if they are on.
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Nooooooooooo - sooty123
