bjd said:
Just wanted to update this thread incase this situation happens to a fellow Z4'er. I dropped the car into the BMW bodyshop and accident exchange delivered an M3 (2 hours late but who's complaining?).
No idea on timescales but I was told it won't be ready before Xmas. Anyone got any guesses as to when I might be able to pick it up? I've no idea on bumper leadtimes, re-spraying etc..
Be careful about accepting a 'hire car' for periods longer than absolutely necessary, as the 3rd party can get shirty about you not 'minimising costs'. The M3 I was given for 2 weeks had a headline figure of £350 a day, but everything else was extra (e.g. delivery & pickup costs @ £100 each way, additional driver insurance @ £10/day, business use insurance @ £10/day). After speaking to the bodyshop, it looks like work wasn't even started for about a week (or about £2k of hire car charges have racked up).
If they're not going to get to it until after Christmas/New Year, and your car is driveable, then they should tell you to keep yours until they're ready to start work.
I had the same issue when mine went in for its little scrape, and in the end Accident Exchange settled for about 50% of the claimed hire car cost - and had about 12 versions of the court papers for me to check through over the course of a year. Most of the time even the basics were incorrect in the papers (e.g. county, car, 3rd party).
After it was settled they claim they'd 'forgotten' to add my losses onto the claim (despite me seeing it clearly on every copy of the court papers after the 3rd). But I think they were just trying to keep as much of the settlement as possible.
Also, the insurance policy (included, but at an additional cost) that they claim stops any costs coming back to you if the 3rd party denies liability (or wins the court case) has a little clause which says it's only valid if you support them in the court case all the way. So when little things are put into your statement in the court papers and you ask them to remove them (as they're false or misleading), then they warn you that if they lose due to that it may come back onto you - which means all their costs in the pursuit of a settlement, plus the original claim, will be sought from you.
In the end mine all worked out, but it was only 6-12 months down the line that things started to get a bit ropey, and it was another 6 months after it had been settled (just before court) that I finally got any monies back off them.
