So, I was making my way to the hospital for the start of today's clinic, bumbling my way through Wandsworth towards Kingston. One road has parked cars down one side, but my side is double-yellow with free-flowing traffic. As such, the highway code says I have right of way, and I can clearly see stationary traffic ahead of me in the opposite lane waiting for a space. I drive down, maybe at 20mph, when the lorry at the head of the queue in the opposite lane gets bored and swings out. No way is a lorry and my car going to fit, and he floors the accelerator. Right then I have two choices: 1) Enjoy losing my wing mirror at best, or more likely the front corner of my car. 2) Try and mount the curb to get the hell out of the way. I chose option 2, as a crash wouldn't be ideal. Lo and behold, scrape scrape scrape then bump, andI get out the way. The lorry just carries on regardless, several cars beeping horns at him and so forth. Unmarked, no indication of who owns it. When I finally park, I get out and take a look. Well great, my two month old car has a badly scratched front alloy (replacement cost = £330) and some grass in the grille. All because some moose of a lorry driver decides he can't wait about 30 seconds and tries to fit a square peg in to a round hole. So, people of Bit-Tech, have you used these alloy refurbishment companies before? Mine are diamond cut which apparently complicates things
Should have gone with option one At least then it would be the lorry drivers responsibility and you could report him for leaving the scene of a collision. On a helpful note what alloys/car are they? Average refurb is about 80ish if there painted it makes it cheaper.
It's a Fiat 500, with 16" diamond cut multi-spoke alloys. These to be exact: Option 1 would have been slightly more inconvenient I think. I do wish I had a dash cam installed though, but I doubt the police or an employer would be interested anyway. I've had a quote from a place down in South London that will do them for £90+VAT - normal alloys are a lot cheaper, apparently the diamond cut nonsense ramps the cost up.
TBH £90 doesn't sound to bad if they do a good job altho I'd push for 80 inc vat, I paid £150 for a refurb on two of these not to long ago. http://www.ozracing.co.uk/car_wheels_var/OZ%20Racing/25183/RACING/ULTRALEGGERA/25502.aspx Main thing is to get a garage that will do a good job pay once for a good job not twice for a bad one. EDIT: Make sure they include fitting and rebalancing in the price btw.
I've seen prices of about £65 per wheel for non-fancy diamond cut alloys, so £90 sounds fairly reasonable...
I'm sold on paying once for a good job, it's just hard finding somewhere that looks reliable to be honest. Websites aren't the best for judging these things!
Gotta agree, had similar situations and I've actually came to a stop and put hazards on and as my phone is dash mounted on goes the camera. Don't suppose you got the reg? Can still report it at least
Alas, didn't get the reg because it all happened so damn fast. I was then concentrating on actually not getting my car completely written off with the neighbouring lamppost, only realising the lorry hadn't even stopped/slowed down once it was too far gone. Really really do need a dashcam :/ Think I'm going to take it to these guys for the £90 + VAT all in service, leaving the wheel with them for a week. I'll drive home on my spare and use the train for a week. They would do it faster, but there's no point as I can only get there on Saturdays anyway. Hopefully I'll get a wheel back that looks the same as the other three. There are home-repair services for over £100, but they also don't seem to do the diamond cut wheels. On a related note, does anybody have any advice on tyres that include a protective 'bulge'? Car runs 195/45/16 84V tyres.
