I've had my little Suzuki Alto since new (2002), and apart from a couple of incidents in late 2004 (one of which involved taking a corner too fast in icy weather, the other someone shunting the car's rear end), I'd driven without incident until last November...

End of November:

Driving to work, while on a roundabout another car hit me side on, passenger (LHS) door impacting on my driver's side (RHS) wing. Damage: scrapes to the wing, broken indicator housing, wing mirror bracket broken, steering knocked out of alignment - but still driveable with tape holding the wing mirror in place. (Her damage: scrapes along passenger door).

So I report it immediately, and they organise a pickup for a week's time.

Accident + 1 week: my car's collected and I get a courtesy car.

Accident + 2 weeks: call from the garage: insurers have decided the car's a write-off and collect the courtesy car.

Accident + 3 weeks: call from the garage: insurers think the cost of scrapping it + paying out is fairly close to the cost of repair. A day later, garage phone again, and they think they can do the repair for less than the 'write-off' cost. I get the courtesy car back.

Accident + 4 weeks: another swapsie - this time, returning the courtesy car and getting mine back.

So I had my car written off, then the insurers recalculated their sums and changed their minds! Prats!

Fast forward to January, and the insurers decide I need to fill in a claim form. So I fill that in and send it off.

February: The third party insurers write to me, asking to pass their details along to my insurers.

May: Nice little demand from a company handling the legal expenses cover for the third party, asking me to pay  £200 within a week or risk court action. Esure are helpful for once and ask me to forward it on to them and don't worry about the threats, as my legal expenses cover with them will protect me.

September: A few days ago, I received this:

"We have pleasure in enclosing a cheque for the sum of  £50.00 which represents a partial recovery of your uninsured loss claim. Should you require any further information then please contact the Third Party Department..."

So as my excess was  £100, I assume the two insurers decided the fault was a 50:50 split. Since the claim form and that letter have been the only two documents I've had from them since, Esure as hell won't be using them again!

-oOo-

Needless to say, ever since the events of last year, I've erred on the side of extreme caution when driving onto and around that particular roundabout!

And to finish off, a couple of piccies. First up, taken when new (the picture's a little grainy as it was taken on a film camera and scanned in several years later). The photogenic creature with a plastic bone chew sticking out of her mouth is mum's yellow labrador, Bessie (oh come on, how could I resist finding the one car pic I had featuring her?)

The second looks a little distorted because it's a close-range panorama of the damaged end of the car when it was parked at the garage - there wasn't much room between the car and the concrete block wall.

What? You want more pictures of Bessie? Go on then...
(Just be aware her photos are completely random, they are definitely NOT in chronological order!)