Car Accident

thomasross20

The commute to work each day is getting worse and worse, now up to 50 minutes! £250 a month in petrol!

There was a massive tailback today and I was doing 20mph along with the rest in the rain. All of a sudden everybody braked, car slid as I pulled to the right to avoid the person in front... but ended up bumping into him. Bumper/bonnet damage but nothing major. The guy seemed ok with it and said he almost went into the person in front of him! Police called out but told not to bother in future for minor incidents like that. Going to sort it through the insurance (offered to do it privately but never took up the option). 7 years ago I was paying close to £2k for insurance, now £240. Hopefully that wont go up by much. They mentioned if I have another accident within my insurance year, it wipes out the no-claims discount... and also mentioned something to do with 3 years but never caught that...

Car is Ford Focus 07 plate, 68k miles. Pretty good drive and could go longer but needs timing belt changed. Half-wondering whether to get a new car (trade-in I reckon is £2K) or just run it into the ground. So reluctant to spend any more than I have already, ugh!!

Also, I never buy the "hire car" part of insurance (or do you get that through breakdown cover??) - but I will be doing so from now on..!

frankus

thomasross20 said:

The commute to work each day is getting worse and worse, now up to 50 minutes! £250 a month in petrol!

Worlds smallest violin - my commute is an hour plus and my monthly costs are £450 on a good day - if things go pear shaped as they do twice a week, it's two hours to get home...

Fords are meant to be pretty good cars - I'd keep it running till the repairs start being a regular feature.

Emp_Fab

Sorry Tigger, what was the question again ?   :-?

thomasross20

No question, just gutted!
My commute used to be 1hr30 each way and that really was unbearable.
I'm a poor engineer, though! But £450... wow!!

joeyowen

Just be thankful everyone is ok

Be warned though, people will start calling the both of you with claim this, compenstation that... and some people (devoid of any common decency...) will take action.  You will then get a lovely letter asking for money, or we'll take you to court.

Happened to a friend of mine after a complete nothing accident

thomasross20

Hopefully not!! The guy seemed ok with it all, none of us were harmed. What a nightmare for your friend!

mike_l

Be prepared to get 1,000,000 text offering compensation. I had shed loads following surgery offering compensation following my accident, when I hadn't had an accident.

As for the car, my general feeling is, if it ain't broke, there's nothing to fix. So far it's been reliable, and generally ok, do the service jobs (inc cambelt) and keep running it. If it needs regular repair, that's the time to get rid.

Oh, and hope you're ok following your incident.

Axe_meister

Goes to show in this weather you really need to keep your distance and watch the tail lights of the car in front of the car in front or even further and drive with the "force"

Driving at dawn/dusk in heavy slow traffic can be quite hypnotic will the constant blinking of white and red lights it is quite easy to drift off into a bit of a trance slowing reaction times.

 

TTony

Just bought my monthly train ticket this morning.

£951.20.

Plus I get to pay for car parking at the station (£70/mth).

And a gallon of diesel each day to get to/from the station (so, about £100/mth).

thomasross20 said:

 £250 a month in petrol!

Lucky man.

frankus said:

my commute is an hour plus and my monthly costs are £450 on a good day - if things go pear shaped as they do twice a week, it's two hours to get home...

For me, 2 hours means that there have been no pears on the line and it's been a good day.

See, there's always someone worse off ...

mart

TTony said:

...

For me, 2 hours means that there have been no pears on the line and it's been a good day.

See, there's always someone worse off ...

Bah, you'll get no sympathy from me. Sometimes my commute takes nearly 10 minutes, like if I have to wait for a car on the one road I have to cross. Even worse, sometimes there are puddles when I'm walking through the park, and I have to step round them. 

And just occasionally (but hardly ever, cos Wales is like that), it rains and I need to wear a coat.

Other times the sun is shining, the sea is looking lovely with the sun reflecting off it, and I have to work really hard to stay grumpy. It's terrible.

Col_Decker

TTony said:

Just bought my monthly train ticket this morning.

£951.20.

Plus I get to pay for car parking at the station (£70/mth).

And a gallon of diesel each day to get to/from the station (so, about £100/mth).

thomasross20 said:

 £250 a month in petrol!

Lucky man.

frankus said:

my commute is an hour plus and my monthly costs are £450 on a good day - if things go pear shaped as they do twice a week, it's two hours to get home...

For me, 2 hours means that there have been no pears on the line and it's been a good day.

See, there's always someone worse off ...

Holy crap!!! I thought my £350 a month was bad enough!!! (In fact it is bad enough). Is it worth going to work? Get yourself knocked up and be single mum, you'll love it

Axe_meister

Ahhh I have approx 12 steps to climb to my office at the moment and the cost of a home made bacon butty and a cup of coffee.

I can even go to work in the buff if I want. ;o)

mike_l

Col_Decker said:

Holy crap!!! I thought my £350 a month was bad enough!!! (In fact it is bad enough). Is it worth going to work? Get yourself knocked up and be single mum, you'll love it

Just don't let Decker knock you up. ...

TTony

Col_Decker said:

 Get yourself knocked up and be single mum, 

Not at my age.

ICBM

thomasross20 said:

The commute to work each day is getting worse and worse, now up to 50 minutes! £250 a month in petrol!

There was a massive tailback today and I was doing 20mph along with the rest in the rain. All of a sudden everybody braked, car slid as I pulled to the right to avoid the person in front... but ended up bumping into him. Bumper/bonnet damage but nothing major. The guy seemed ok with it and said he almost went into the person in front of him! Police called out but told not to bother in future for minor incidents like that. Going to sort it through the insurance (offered to do it privately but never took up the option). 7 years ago I was paying close to £2k for insurance, now £240. Hopefully that wont go up by much. They mentioned if I have another accident within my insurance year, it wipes out the no-claims discount... and also mentioned something to do with 3 years but never caught that...

Watch out.

Years ago in Edinburgh, some old buffer reversed into the side of my car - very little damage done to either, small dents and paint transferred basically - and seemed perfectly happy to just swap details 'to be on the safe side' and get on with life. Later I had a call from my insurance company say that he was claiming that I had driven into his car - physically impossible from the position of the damage, which I had a photo of - and it would need a new wing and other repairs. Wouldn't back down, and my insurance weren't interested in fighting it for a small amount, so I had to settle for 'equal liability', which affected my No Claims and pissed me off somewhat... and that was even when it wasn't my fault!

If you're really unlucky it will be like the singer in my band, who did something similar to you - her car was a write-off, even though not that badly damaged, because it was old and cheap - and the other driver tried to sue her for 'whiplash', which usually translates as 'ambulance chasing lawyers want to take the case on'. I seem to remember it went on for months until it was all sorted out, meanwhile she couldn't take out insurance on a new car without there being a punitive 'temporary adjustment', so she just didn't drive.

Cirrus

thomasross20;27746" said:

Car is Ford Focus 07 plate, 68k miles. Pretty good drive and could go longer but needs timing belt changed.

I had a diesel '06 focus estate. I thought the timing belt only needed changing at 150,000 miles and I waited 'till 156k because it didn't seem that much more. The mechanic basically fell over when I told him it had never been done on the car before.

Iamnobody

Cirrus;415696" said:

thomasross20;27746" said:





Car is Ford Focus 07 plate, 68k miles. Pretty good drive and could go longer but needs timing belt changed.





I had a diesel '06 focus estate. I thought the timing belt only needed changing at 150,000 miles and I waited 'till 156k because it didn't seem that much more. The mechanic basically fell over when I told him it had never been done on the car before.

If you keep the vehicle get that belt changed!

A broken belt will most likely cost at least 4 times as much in repairs as a simple replacement.

Paul_C

I sometimes get delays on my way to work, usually because my 18 month old daughter has been throwing things down the stairs again, other than that it usually takes about 30 seconds.

thomasross20

Wow, some horror stories here!

In truth I'm probably going to get a new car. I'd have liked to have kept it to ~150k miles rather than 68k miles but I feel the time's right. There's the odd creak here and there and I'm spending a fortune in fuel. A good diesel might set me in good stead. 

Any recommendations? VW Golfs and Honda Civics seem to get good mpg these days. 

FYI recommended timing belt change on Focus is ~65k miles. 

thomasross20

Can you fit a hulking great Blackstar 260TVP and large PRS case in a VW Golf?

Fretwired

My commute takes five minutes on foot .... I spent years going down the M1 and round the M25 ... you all have my sympathy.