Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Not exactly car appreciation, but I'd appreciate some car based advice from those who know more than me.

I've had quite the week, especially given how little I drive!

Thursday morning sat in a queue waiting for a red light to change. After about 2 minutes sat there, reverse lights come on in front of me. I get in reverse, but before I can take the handbrake off, the bloke has reversed straight into me. He has a terrible attitude when he gets out - "oh well, stuff happens, this is why we have insurance, why are you acting frustrated about it?"

Friday afternoon I slow to give way to a bus coming under a low bridge. High vehicles have to go into the middle under this bridge, and there's a big flashy LED sign telling me and drivers behind me that there's an oncoming vehicle in the middle of the road. Boom, the car behind smashes into the back of me with quite some force. He says he has his brakes full on to try and slow down but his car skidded. This driver has what I feel is a normal attitude to it. He was incredibly apologetic, wanted to check if occupants and car were okay. He's a 17 year old who begged me not to report anything to his insurers as it's already so expensive, and promised he'd pay me in cash for whatever damage he had caused.

There does not appear to be any damage from either collision, apart from a small crack in the rear numberplate. I genuinely can't believe it, particularly the hit from behind as it really felt like a decent bit of force. I've had the boot floor out to see if anything is crumpled or pushed back there and it's fine. Panel gaps in the area all still look even. Parking sensors also somehow work perfectly.

Local mechanic has recommended I take it to a local body shop and get them to take a look in case there is damage I can't see that needs repairing.

I'll avoid a long(er) story, but basically I've got 2 kids under 3 at home and we're all struggling with sleep at the minute. As such, I know I'm not making the best decisions right now. Would you get it checked out or not bother?

The car is nothing special. It's very much a utility family vehicle in my head - a Seat Leon estate. I look after it well mechanically, but it's far from a pride and joy type car.

On the one hand I'd hate for there to be an issue that causes issues down the line that I end up footing the bill for one way or another. On the other hand I'd really rather not have the cognitive load and hassle of needing to book time off work, book in at the body shop, arrange a way to get back home from there while they're looking at it, etc.

If I had two kids under 3 I'd want to be dam sure my car was fine and not having any hidden damage that could cause an issue.

Personally I would have taken it to a mechanic, but they said to take to body shop. Either way, if the shunt is as you say, id get it checked.

Ps tough times with the kids, sympathy.

I feel for you. It's so hard to make decisions when you're in the thick of it.

If the mechanic said get it checked by a body shop then I'd do that.

There's a lot of illness at the moment, including Norovirus, so I don't think work would be supprised if you were out sick for a day. Also with life stresses I think having a bit of downtime away from work and kids might do you some good.

What I would be concerned about would be the shock load of the impact being transferred into the suspension and related struts and control arms- if for example you had your foot on the brakes when you were hit.

It’s a pain, but I’d want to get the vehicle up in the air with a good mechanic looking over the chassis to ensure that nothing got tweaked.

I’d get it checked out properly.
#csb I was hit up the arse by a 4x4 a long time ago. No damage save for a cracked bumper or so I thought. I still took it in to Renault to have it sorted. Turned out that the whole back end was twisted and they wrote off my Renault 25 V6 Turbo. Man that was an awesome first car (obviously on my mum’s insurance) I’m not sure if French cars were made of paper or not back then, but better to get your car checked over than find out there’s an issue further down the road.

Report the collision and go through insurance and get it checked out, it's what you pay it for. It's not your fault the driver is 17 🤷

Renault 25 V6 turbo is indeed an awesome first car! My first was a 2000 Clio, and I can confirm it was made of soft French cheese 😉

I'm definitely not keen on reporting to insurance until I know there is damage costing more than the driver is willing or able to pay for. Doing so will make my premiums increase despite neither collision being my fault. I did check with the local police if I should report the collision to them, and they said only to report if someone was injured or there was significant damage causing the road to be blocked.

But yup, @pifko totally with you on it not being my fault they're 17. It's absolutely their fault and was a very avoidable thing had they left enough space and paid close enough attention

The rear ending experience sounds like a classic case of driver looking at his phone!

Could well have been. I see so much of it on the bike that it really depresses me. Almost certainly distracted somehow, whether it was a phone, changing the heating, or just general daydreaming on a bit of road he knows well.

He had his phone up in a holder on the dash and said it had fallen off in the impact. He said he was using Waze, but also said he was headed from his parent's house to his girlfriend's house 🤔

Sounds like you are being kind but you've already been inconvenienced by a poor driver. Will a mechanical inspection be free? You shouldn't have to pay anything out.

Thanks, I ended up booking Brands again (20th Feb) while there was a Black Friday code, Bedford was the other one that I was thinking actually so good to know, I might book that too! I like the idea of more run off, seeing two cars going into the barriers fairly heavily at Brands was a bit unnerving.

A video from the day we were there popped up on youtube from one of the guys my brother recognised who was there in his M2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDNc94fJScs

The MX5 looks awesome, great pic! I was getting tempted by the thought of a track day car that my brother and I could share but I don't think it's a very practical idea, i may have lingered on a few adverts for Clio's and RX8's... Annoyingly I did have an R53 that I was reluctant to sell when I got my 996 and offered to my brother but he wasn't up for it, it was tuned a bit and very nippy would have been perfect ugh.

Wishful thinking unfortunately. You've got to find the right car that's already been welded and then if it's not been rust proofed, take it for rust proofing, then baby it to keep it rust free.

Or don't do any of that and just enjoy it and get it patched when needed.

Mine was rust free, garaged, and barely driven when I bought it.

I did have it rust proofed but it wasn't the best job and it needs welding now but I'm ignoring it.

Very much this, don't try and do this kid a favour and fuck yourself in the process. Hope all goes well. 🙏

Go through his insurance.

Whilst it is nice to be nice and understanding of other people, I don't feel this is the time.

It's not your fault he's 17 and has only passed and his insurance is sky high, he went into the back of your car!

You'd be surprised how much damage can be done to a car even without it looking bad, the majority of new and even fairly new cars have crumple zones and sacrificial plastic and even metal parts, all in aid of safety.

You don't want him to pay for the bumper to be resprayed and then you notice a huge amount of work that needs doing during or after.

Getting insurance involved means everything is above board and your car is safe to drive.

What car was the 17 year old driving? As if sa modern car they don't skid anymore due to antilock brakes.

Car that reversed in to you, do you have dash cam or witnesses? As that seems an odd thing to do. Was there a reason he reversed?

As for the one that went in to the back of you, the damage behind the plastic cover can be the reinforcement and any energy absorbing foam set up can be altered.

Also aren't child seats supposed to be replaced after an impact?

I assume what really happened is he put his foot to the floor on the brakes and ABS prevented him from skidding. I bought a car a while back with a new set of really cheap tyres on it, and they were lethal. I replaced them very quickly.

I don't have a dashcam, I do have a witness. He said he was reversing because he had been waiting 10 minutes, thought the lights must be broken, and was reversing to then pass the person in front and go through the red light. Moron.

I rang the police on the non emergency number to ask if I should report it and shared my concerns about a dangerously poor standard of driving and lack of attention paid. They said they'd only do anything about it with dashcam footage or a witness who was prepared to testify in court.

I've decided to get the car booked in with a body shop to assess and quote for any damage that may or may not be there, both front and back. If it's front then it's clearly an insurance job. If it's rear I'll let Mr 17 y.o. know what the damage is, and unless he can pay for it upfront, ahead of the work being carried out, I'll go via his insurance. If the assessment isn't free, Mr 17 y.o. will be paying for it.

Thank you all for the perspectives. I completely understand those of you saying don't even think about anything other than claiming on his insurance. I know I'm being far nicer than I need to be, and I'm good with that.

Fingers crossed it does end up just being the numberplate 🙂

Just FYI if you need to claim from his insurance, I’m pretty sure you go through your own and they will liaise between the two companies - they have to agree liability between themselves first.*

*someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but this is what I’ve experienced in the past being on the ‘wrong side’ of the situation 😬

When people have run into me I just tell my insurance company. Then follows "release the hounds" as a claims company steps in and they try and screw as much from everybody from hire cars to body shop.

I assume they are on some sort of percentage?

They are paid a fee and very very high hire rates.

I don’t know why but I think this places cars might be quick.

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Dropped my key (mk6 golf) and the housing(?) that holds the key to the fob snapped.

I have a spare key, so it's fine. But obviously it means I don't have a fully functioning spare. I was wondering about jbwelding a blob onto the end so in an emergency I'd be able to turn the ignition, but Google shows clones on amazon. https://amzn.eu/d/2GoIJfL

What do we reckon? Can I just buy one and take it apart?

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Buy a replacement fob case. I have done that to mine (same era VW keys) and it's been fine. Although it looks like you might need to do more than a simple swap given where it is broken. There are several of tutorials online on how to do it.

Timpsons will do this. Takes about 20 minutes

I did this for a Mini key and it was fine