So THAT's what a $5K repair bill looks like ...

[mr bern]

My wife was proceeding in a westerly direction city-bound in Barkers Road, Hawthorn, in the leftmost of two lanes of traffic the week before last, at about 6pm, when a muppet coming the other way made a dash for her home on the opposite corner of the road through what she thought was a gap in the traffic.

Result shown below. Currently in the RACV's capable hands, and estimated at $5K to fix. Actually stood up to it very impressively, as you'll note -- headlights not even chipped (hence only $5K, I guess).


MY99 206GTi
Clio 1.4L auto

 

[Brad]

You're trying to make us cry...right?

 

[pugrambo]

all i can say is that renault parts must be awfully expensive or the repairer is making a packet through the insurance company

your lucky she wasn't slighty quicker or it could have been more than frontal

 

[Pug307]

all i can say is that renault parts must be awfully expensive or the repairer is making a packet through the insurance company

Now imagine if it was a RCS with Xenon lights and a wee bit more speed...

 

[Europa]

all i can say is that renault parts must be awfully expensive or the repairer is making a packet through the insurance company

your lucky she wasn't slighty quicker or it could have been more than frontal

Oh come on!

You can hardly deduce the cost of a repair from four external photos of the car!

Put it this way, would you expect to get a quote from a repairer in this situation if you walked in with four snapshots of the accident?

How can you suggest that is a high price?

 

[DoubleChevron]

My wife was proceeding in a westerly direction city-bound in Barkers Road, Hawthorn, in the leftmost of two lanes of traffic the week before last, at about 6pm, when a muppet coming the other way made a dash for her home on the opposite corner of the road through what she thought was a gap in the traffic.

Result shown below. Currently in the RACV's capable hands, and estimated at $5K to fix. Actually stood up to it very impressively, as you'll note -- headlights not even chipped (hence only $5K, I guess).


MY99 206GTi
Clio 1.4L auto

Good greif,

it look like it hit at barely any faster than walking pace. They'll fit a new bonnet and grill, probably throw the bumper in an oven to straighten it (so it's doubtful it'll even need painting). But $5000grand .... blood hell....

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[pugrambo]

i have seen 306's with much more get repaired by an insurance suggested repairer for just over $6k

that was internal damage like lower tie bar bent, headlights, fog lights, bonnet, bumper, grille so on and so forth

like i said $5k for that is pretty expensive

 

[Europa]

i have seen 306's with much more get repaired by an insurance suggested repairer for just over $6k

that was internal damage like lower tie bar bent, headlights, fog lights, bonnet, bumper, grille so on and so forth

like i said $5k for that is pretty expensive

Tell me your secret. How can you tell what damage has occured? How do you know that a chassis member hasn't been distorted requiring cutting and replacing? Radiator damage? How many brackets / mounting points require replacing?

Lets see an itemised bill before complaining!

 

[pugrambo]

Tell me your secret. How can you tell what damage has occured? How do you know that a chassis member hasn't been distorted requiring cutting and replacing? Radiator damage? How many brackets / mounting points require replacing?

Lets see an itemised bill before complaining!

i agree you can't see inside and see what else may be bent or damaged but from the outside compared to the 306 i saw there is a major difference

the 306 had the bonnet pushed 1/3 of the way back with the bumper hanging right off it and lights broken beyond recognition, the radiator was sitting against the engine

it looked far worse and as such i would say that the repair for this renault seems to be very expensive in comparison

i hope that seems like a fair statement and no i'm not saying i'm right/you're wrong i am just stating the difference i have seen between a couple of cars and the repair bill

thank you

 

[N5GTi6]

Ouch - what a bill! You say the headlights weren't 'chipped'. Does this mean the Clio has glass lights?

When our Scenic had a hit in the front the headlight to me looked like a throw away. The repairer told me that because the headlight was plastic, and because the lense wasn't cracked, that they could 'polish' out the scars on the lense, and plastic weld the rest - my response was 'you've got to be kidding me - I wan't a new light', but he won, and went ahead with the headlight 'polish'.

I went over it in fine detail and buggered if I can see any scars on the headlight lense. It's like brand new.

Headlight + mudguard + bumper = $500

 

[winnie]

An associate of mine owns a company that specialises in plastic welding of car headlights for the insurance game. Seen some of their work and it can be very impressive, seen what it costs them and what they charge and that can be impressive also.

 

[Europa]

Heres a good tip for any scratched plastic that people have. This works really well for instrument cluster panels (great for a R25!)

Got to the supermarket and buy the cheapest, plainest toothpaste you can find (none of this gel stuff, just boring old toothpaste)

Use this on a open weave cloth and apply it in a firm circular motion, clean off the residue with a damp cloth.

It will restore scratches/marks which initially appear totally irreversible. Works a treat.

 

[pugrambo]

i have been using just ordinary car polish on headlight covers for years and it works well and brings them back up to new

i even use it on the polycarbonate headlights in the 306 and i use it on both the cars tail lights

have to try the toothpaste trick, i know it's good for cleaning up brake cylinders

 

[mistareno]

I would suggest that (at least) the following would need to be replaced on that car...

Front bumper skin ($600+)
Front bumper reinforcement ($300)
Front bumper mounts x 2 ($100)
Top Radiator support panel ($150)
Headlight support panel ($50 each)
Bonnet latch ($20)
Lower radiator support panel (remove and replace) ($100)
Headlights (plastic headlight mounts are probably broken) ($250+ each)
Radiator ($400)
Condensor (300)
Cooling fans ($300)
Bonnet ($300)
LH gaurd (hard to tell as they are very flexible) ($300)
Remove Refit and Respray entire front of car (the bonnet has mostlikely scratched the RH gaurd as it folded up) ($1000)

It all adds up....

I think you will find that the little clio has had a bigger hit that it appears....They have a very solid bumper assembly and it is mangled...There will be a bit of stuctural damage behind that skin....

 

[mr bern]

A few points:

(i) The Clio has plastic guards -- brilliant at a time like this!

(ii) If it's any indication, I wasn't able to open the bonnet at all, but the radiator was intact, judging by the fact that she was able to keep a couple of appointments and then drive the car home with no overheating, and nothing leaking;

(iii) When my old 306 XSi sustained similar damage about 5 years ago (but including one headlight), the RACV-blessed repair bill was $4500.

MY99 206GTi
Clio 1.4L auto

 

[XTC]

And I thought it was a PUG that supposed to have a squashed in nose.

- XTC206 -

 

[David Cavanagh]

You can do more than $5,000 in a car park these days in any car. I remember the RACV figures a few years ago, a Honda Civic reversing into a pole in a car park at 5kph and over $7,000 damage.

A few years ago my sister in law went into the back of someone in her BX 16V, car was still drivable, broke one headlight, front bar, grille, blinker and driving light. Bonnet and gaurd were repaired, radiator wasn't touched. cost of repaires was over $7,500. BX 16V front bar/spoiler had a list price back then of about $2,800 + GST.

The BX crash was about 3-4 years ago and didn't have anything like the damage to the Clio (by the look of the photo anyway) and yet cost quite a bit more so new Renault parts must be cheap by comparison (with Honda as well).

David.

 

[kaiser]

I can belive the $5k. I clipped a roo a couple of years ago and that cost just over 5 to fix. It was only spoiler and guard damage, nothing on the bonnet. Lets just say these guys know how to make a quid

Ky

 

[Alan S]

A certain somebody in our household planted a pole in his ricebox at what was supposedly just above walking pace :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: and managed to do $18,500 damage. (I was never allowed to see the car so I can't say what it looked like; I wonder why?) :roflmao:
Another point though; I wonder if the Froggy will be back on the road in less than 14 months? 'coz the ricebox fortunately hasn't.
I say fortunately, because if it don't go it can't run into things can it!!


Alan S

 

[Kenfuego]

Hi all

Having seen a little bit of the "inside" game that goes on as insurance companies play "hardball" with their customers, I wonder if inflated prices are a true indication of the actual cost of the repairs. Most large insurers use after market parts where they can get away with it, good secondhand and or repaired parts, and have stringent oversight of costs.

Maybe this is why there is a booming market in repairs at a more reasonable price for those who are not insured.

Is the price inflated so that you realise you MUST be insured and it was worthwhile paying an inflated premium? Is the excess and the higher cost of reinsuring after a prang set at a level where in the long term it provides a neutral cost to the Insurance companies? particularly if the excess you pay actually covers 90 per cent of the actual cost of an in house insurance repair? (Note, I have no actual evidence of that percentage!)

Maybe there will be some intrepid investigative reporter that will do an expose on the insurance repair business and then we will know the answers

When you do have a prang, its wise NOT to disclose that you are insured as [in my experience] once this is known some repair shops put together a wildly inflated quote, do the work and then onsell the inflated Bill to a debt recovery specialist who then hit your insurance company with it and their costs, fully prepared to take the matter to court if required knowing full well that the company will settle out of court when push comes to shove!!

That just gets added to the premium table. then of course there is the knock for knock agreements between insurance companies and for policies held by the same company....

There are a thousand stories out there, keep them coming and maybe someone will be tempted to look into this whole issue!


Ken