Motors What do you drive? - The Photo Gallery

Way ahead of you. I'm on Amazon ordering one at the moment. Enough is enough with this bull****. If my insurance goes up any more on this car it'll become more expensive to insure than the 'Four will be.

We had a thread about it started by EC a while ago, in which Neil posted a link to Technoman's channel. All the info you could want on dash cams.

 

Doesnt Look that bad tbh, nothings out of line, doors still fitting square.

Most places will probably pull that out, filler and re-spray. about £4/500 for the door, £300 for the rear.

Source: had similar damage repaired without insurance a few months ago, got allot of quotes.

 

It's worse than it looks then. It needs a door skin and rear quarter, it won't pull out and fill to any sort of standard. Already had it at a local body shop this afternoon but it's going to the insurance approved place first thing in the morning. The rear panel on this car runs from the boot right to 3/4 of the way along the the door sill. If they're cutting the damaged part out and replacing it with a new panel cutout, they have to buy a whole panel. It's 1/4 of the exterior of the car.

 

All my cars have them fitted now, front and rear

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in relation to the dashboard cameras. Does anyone know a good company that can fit them?

I want them connected to the ignition and all the wires hidden and the cameras placed out of sight.

Can't really find anywhere in the midlands to do it online? Any ideas guys?

 

How do you power all of these dash cams - using the 12v socket?

I could never leave it plugged in all the time - I'd be worried that it would be nicked in London. Plus I need my 12v socket for the GPS...

 

Depending on your car it shouldn't be that hard to wire in yourself.

In the case of my Civic and my Dad's Astra it was an easy job.


Wiring coming out of lining

Plugged into option connector with a spade terminal

On my Civic I just had to connect it to the "option connector" socket using a spade terminal, but for the Astra we used a fuse tap on something that was live with the ignition.

I do not leave my camera in for the same reason as you described - I fear some idiot may break in even though the camera isn't worth much. My Dad leaves his camera in all the time though as he has the Mini 0801 which is fairly discrete.

 

On most cars I think the nicest place is up behind the rearview mirror and wired into the interior light under the roof lining, it's a very easy job usually

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That's where I'm putting mine too, wired off the interior light with the rear facing one wired to the same place behind the headliner. In my case a regulator is required to get from 12v to 5v which I have also ordered along with the two cameras.

Warren, I have no idea who could fit them for you if you don't feel like doing it yourself, but there's so little to it that you should at least have a go. Remember that any car audio installer will do this sort of work. In fact, it's something that Halfords auto centre technicians might do as well.

I was driving a little 2003 Polo SDI for a few days whilst the Clio was in the body shop - one like this but nowhere near as neat externally:



I can tell you that the 2010 Clio is nowhere near as comfortable to sit in and drive, as quiet nor as smooth riding as the car which is 7 years older. I did miss things like the CD player, iPod integration and acceleration (SDI is dead as a dead thing) but holy crap, for a 10+ year old car it's a tight machine. Again, like all courtesy cars there are things that have been neglected like the paintwork - still not getting my head around that one for a body shop courtesy vehicle - and a couple of tiny mechanical things like a squealing PS belt at startup and a windscreen wiper that over travels and hits the A pillar, but nowhere near as bad as the MK2 Clio that I had the last time mine was with them.

The Polo really opened my eyes. I'm seriously considering a VW as my next daily now. I still love the MK3 though. There's no getting away from the fact that it's a better, nicer car than the Polo 7 years its senior, no matter how uncomfortable it is to drive by comparison.

Anyway I got the Clio back on Monday afternoon. Here are some before and after shots:









Here's what it got in the end:

New N/S door & spray
New N/S wing mirror & cover, colour code to O/S mirror
New Door mouldings
Rear quarter panel pull, fill & spray
Rear QP moulding
Respray rear bumper

All in all, without an insurance claim it would have cost me somewhere in the region of £1200. They opted not to cut and weld in a section of rear quarter panel to preserve the integrity of the car, and as you can hopefully see, John does impeccable work. Up close you really cannot tell that the car has been damaged at all. I've looked at every square inch with the Brinkmann and it's perfect I will get much higher quality photos when it's been to the detailers for another in depth detail in about 6 weeks time.

 

Looking as good as new, Uni. I take it that your insurance covered you after your accident?

 

That has yet to be decided. The claim is ongoing but the accident investigator strongly sided with me during my interview at the scene, but there's still the other driver's side of the story and with no witnesses, it's his word against mine. However given the damage to both vehicles, the layout of the road and the fact that the accident investigator mentioned having looked into several similar incidents at the same location, the odds are in my favour. I've had to pay my £250 excess to the body shop but if the claim is successful and the other driver is found to be liable, I will get that back.

 

They made a good job of the repairs and fingers crossed you will win the claim and get the £250 excess back.

That's why I pay the bit extra to have no excess

 

Seeing this just makes me even more unhappy about the time it's taking to sort my incident

Managed to put my car in a ditch the other week (28th), however damage seemed minimal - ripped off the arch trim, and maybe a couple scratches under the dirt. So I expected to have it back fairly quickly.







After much chasing trying to sort out the courtesy car, which ended up being useless so was sent back, I finally got a quote for the damage and a time frame. So, the cost to clean the dirt off is £1600, and is apparently going to take a month to do.

Seeing your damage, how quick it was resolved, and the estimated cost, I really think this garage is taking the p*ss. Not only that, but on the Monday they received the car they tried to get me to pay "a couple hundred pounds" as they would only be respraying a small portion of the front bumper, but lacquering the whole thing, and due to this, it would make the bumper look sh*t as it had a few stone chips on which would apparently be emphasised by the lacquer. Hence they wanted extra cash to move their paint gun a bit more and actually paint the whole thing.

I am certainly going to be interested to see the list of work that has been done for £1600 - if I ever get my car back that is...

 

Ouch! Yes it does appear that you're getting ripped off just a bit there Sadly that's the thing about body repair these days though, there's no money in it any more and as a result you get people charging an arm and a leg for simple repairs. I hope you get it sorted soon - Thankfully I've found a good one and I'll be sticking with them for any work that I need done in the future.

This is up for its first MOT test next week, so today we're addressing a serious rattle that has developed in the front end over bumps. We've already discovered one very sloppy ball joint on the N/S ARB link arm - that's now out and Dad has nipped into town to get a new one. Still got a bearing to put in and check the same link arm on the other side. Tens of thousands of miles on rough roads are hard on a car :/

 

How's that track rod end holding up? I tend to chuck a pair of those on when I do the drop links, as long as you can get the tracking done ASAP afterwards.

The rubber gaiters all tend to perish at around the same time being exposed as they are, and the parts are so cheap it's rude not to!

Good luck with the bearing though, much less fun...

 

It's being done through the insurance company so luckily it's not me personally being ripped off, and for some reason my excess is lower than I anticipated - they told me £400 (it states this on my policy too), however I was sure I put £250 compulsory plus £500 voluntary... Can't complain at saving some cash though.

I just hope the work they do is to a decent standard, however I still don't understand why it is going to take a month to fix. I would have considered going to a different garage if I had known a reputable one, but I think if you go to one of their "approved" garages you get some sort of guarantee on the work for a few years.

We have requested the report which is apparently being posted to us by the garage rather than the insurance company as supposedly they work with the garage on "trust", hence are just provided with a figure for the repairs rather than what is actually being done.

My car is also up for an MOT in a couple months, I suspect the brakes will need replacing as the discs were marked down last year as being worn and lipped, however I am hoping to replace these myself, especially since my dad was just quoted a whopping £600 to change the pads and discs on his car. I'm fine with taking apart the interior, but have never done any sort of mechanical work on the car.

 

Track rod ends are fine so far, they were all changed ~12 months ago after the suspension damage. She'll get a lot of work in around the front end once I have the proper facilities and time to do so. At the moment I'm just doing what's necessary to keep it on the road, but I will put more time and effort into it at some point. I'm not happy with the state of the lower front subframe arms and the ends of the chassis rails, so they'll get a tidy up and the track rod ends/gaiters will probably need looked at again around the same time as the drop links next fail. Harsh roads, man

Funny you should mention the bearing. It took every pound of pressure on a 10T press to get the thing out! It gave an almighty crack when it did break free but it was a tight one! I will take a shot of the two races from the old bearing to show you the wear. It was well gone.

If it's an insurer approved garage doing the work, a month is ridiculous for what needs done. Going to an approved garage saved me 100 - I'd have been paying £350 excess with a non-approved one.

I enjoy working on the car but I'd rather do it on a lift in a workshop than lying on the driveway on a cool evening As I've mentioned before, I learned (and am still learning!) from the best - I never fail to learn something every time I do some work on the car with Dad

 

They originally quoted an unofficial time of two weeks, which I still thought was somewhat generous for the repairs. So I certainly agree that the official figure of a month is just not acceptable, however there is not a lot we can really do about it.

So far the insurance company has been fine, except for the 0844 number which is a pain, however the garage has not really provided the service we would expect to receive on many levels, so we are now dealing through the insurers rather than the garage so they are aware of everything happening first-hand rather than us just telling them.

For example sorting out the courtesy car was a nightmare. Had to ask on the Monday what was happening and was told by the garage I would get a call back the next day to arrange one - no call back by the afternoon so called myself, was told I could have one on Wednesday no problem by 3pm. Wednesday 2pm, nothing, so give them a call and they say they don't have any cars. Thank you for telling me that, as I had been waiting since 9am for one. They say they will call back in 30 minutes after seeing if they can find one. About an hour and a half later they call back and say they found one for me, will be there at some point today (I told them after 3pm is now fine). A couple hours later someone appears at the door and throws a set of keys at me, does not ask who I am, whether I am expecting a car, or shows me any paperwork. I ask if the car needs to be checked with him and he says no and leaves.

I go out and check the car, typically the smallest of the three they offer, a 107, but the state was dire. The car was covered in dust and dirt outside, and rubbish inside, plus the washer fluid was completely gone, not even a drop left. Clearly the car had not been checked over before being given to me - I suspect it had been brought straight from another customer.

Called back the same day and mentioned the above issues (the petrol level was also empty and flashing but apparently this is normal), and asked if it would be possible to swap to a different class A car that they offer (Corsa or Fiesta) as the 107 wouldn't be practical for me to take my stuff back to uni at the weekend. Was told this shouldn't be a problem and I would get a call at 8am the next morning.

Gets to the afternoon and what a surprise, no call, so I call them again and say what I said the day before, and they tell me they have no cars. Not even an attempt to check when they would be getting another car back for me to swap with or anything, completely uninterested in helping.

At this point we contacted the insurance company and have gone through them since, including getting the courtesy car sent back as we were unhappy with the condition it was provided in, and we did not want the liability of it sat outside our house for a month doing nothing. Also had to get my dad to drop me off at uni which caused additional inconvenience and unnecessary petrol cost for what is now four journeys instead of two.

The garage then had the cheek to complain that I would be unable to return the courtesy car when mine was fixed as I would not be at my home address! They seem to forget the fact that they are required to collect the car and drop mine off, and when this was mentioned to them they said they would refuse to drive the ~2 hour journey to collect it from uni. I cannot for one second believe that I would be the only person that is not at their home address every single day. This is of course irrelevant anyway as we said we no longer wanted the courtesy car.

The whole thing is just a nightmare really. I didn't plan on having this accident, and I certainly don't plan on having another, especially if this is the experience I am going to have, not to mention the increased policy cost etc!

I would definitely like to learn how to do some bits on the car myself, however at the moment I will just stick to the simpler things that require basic tools such as brakes and filters. Although the car does very few miles (I think less than 3000 this year) so I would hope it does not really need much maintenance work.

 

Just about to pick one of them up for a 24hr test drive, As our civic is the biggest car my other half has ever driven it gives her more time to see if she likes it. If not then it'll be a new civic, we were looking at either a Volvo V40 or XC60 but the Volvo dealer was a complete ***** that treated us like **** tbh. I'll take my £30+k elsewhere then!

 

I have a CRV for kids / Triathlons... It's a bloody amazing car for the money. Great riding position and the standard pack is pretty good.