Oh No. Tractor 1-0 G-Wagen
After more than 20 years, my G230 had its first moving accident and came off worst.
Wife was driving and passing a tractor waiting to turn right, pulling one of those huge long ploughs, and as it turns the plough swings into the stream of traffic and bang - she cops it mostly on the rear quarter, ripping the fuel filler and wheel arch with it. Typical, I had just filled up with petrol and it was spilt all over the road.
I'll see it tomorrow as I am away til then, but it looks repairable to me from this pic. I think she was lucky because it seemed to take the wing mirror with it on the way. So noone hurt - all good there.
The tractor driver stopped, then did a runner! We think they switched the trailer back at the yard but there was a witness in the following car and CCTV around which the Police will get. Its a pain though as the G is no longer a spare fun luxury but used every day.
Any good G repairers in the Abingdon/Oxford/Wycombe area?
I may be in the same boat as Audiominx getting this cherished G sorted without being written off.
As the police said to me, was lucky she was driving the G and not a Fiesta.
That's very sad to see. I'm no fan of regulation and additional tests but it's scarry how a 16 (15)year old can drive a huge tractor with a plough on a public roads. Round here they drive enormous things as if it were a fiesta. Only last year a friend had a lucky escape when a muck spreader went over his bonnet.
Good luck with getting back on the road.
"Only last year a friend had a lucky escape when a muck spreader went over his bonnet".
Fnar fnar, Tsssk Tsssk.
opps, bit of a Finbarr moment then.
Haven't seen that for years, off to news agents now.
You're both showing your age now....
"You're both showing your age now...."
.......the cheek of it!!! My dad used to read it to me when I was a todler;-) or was that the beano????
So sorry to see your G damaged but mercifully no one hurt. Have driven tractors and big kit on the road all my life and it is not easy. However there now a lot of very young (16) drivers using very big and fast equipment without the experience needed and accidents like this will happen sadly. New legislation is required but is very slow to materialise. I will never defend a poor driver but I hope everyone will give tractors plenty of room to manouvre and expect the unexpected !
More pics from this morning. Hopeful this is not so bad, but who knows ?
Still not heard if the police caught up with the farmer/driver yet.
Petrol tank seems intact, as is exhaust which was well protected behind the 4inch tubular chassis. Even the light cluster can be re-used.
give me a call as i stilll have a spare panel for that side and have replaced the other side and refurbished that side looks preety simple to be honest.
Got some odd picture of how bad mine was before here.
http://s380.photobucket.com/albums/oo241/gengis-khan/#!cpZZ5QQtppZZ16
Well so far I am being completely kippered by my own insurance and its been a complete disaster so far.
**** main rant removed - not worth sharing publicly ***
They ignore my emails and offers, the formal complaint I just made is just being passed on. This could take a while.
The news on the Police and 3rd Party tractor driver is not much better - I won't go into details but the driver was finally interviewed and so far it doesn't look like the tractor is insured. Great.
I would have been MUCH better off just driving the G-home and fixing it myself and sorting out the tractor driver myself too - now he is in a deep hole with the police, my insurance is screwed (so is the G) and I have to claim from the Motor Insurance Bureau.
If you need help shift the G around give me a shout as i may be able to help
Just to update the outcome with the insurance and G
Junior handlers unable to value a G or deviate very far from their assessor finger in the air guidance. After waiting patiently, then escalating, a more senior one did the sensible thing and called around places like James in G-Wagen to get a view of the cost to replace (i.e buy a fair replacement). As a result they increased the value to a fairer £6k (1987 G230 SWB) which I consider is still cheap for a car I have owned for 20 years(sentimental value and all that), but slightly more than you could buy a good replacement, if only you can find it and know its history.
They still didn't want to repair it though, so made a cash settlement, less salvage value, and have left it for me to repair. Not buying some parts new will mean I can at least get the Blower replaced at the same time. Apparently, a cash settlement should mean that the car is not in fact CatC/D 'd and I was just able to SORN it online as a result.
The other update is that the farmer and owner (not driver) of the tractor came though with a general farm vehicle insurance and hopefully the insurance will be reclaimed from that and I will get the XS back too. Not having the 3rd party insurance in the first place caused an awful lot of inconvenience (no replacement vehicle for a start). It was only because of the Police persistence in following it through that it surfaced.
So, 1 trusty G saved. 1 not so trusty driver brought to account. 1 repair still to be made. 1 Fiat500 imminent as a replacement in the meantime!
Hi, unfortunately the vehicle will still be recorded on the Insurance Register as a total loss cat C or D (uneconomical to repair) because they have settled your claim. A cat C means the repair cost exceeeds the pre-damage value of the vehicle and a cat D is the repair exceeds 50-60% of the pre-damage value of the vehicle.
Both of these markers reflect only that the insurance company took a view that it was not economical to repair the vehicle and it was in their interests to classify it as a total loss. It is not a reflection of the road worthyness of the vehicle. In fact on older vehicles there is often very little damage.
Insurance companies can be quite firm when negotiating salvage values and generaly they are looking for around 40% of any settlement offered. In your case that would be 40% of £6k = £2400. If you were able to get it for less than that you have got a good deal.
The only problem you may have is if it is a cat C total loss then DVLA / VOSA are informed and they will not issue a new V5 until the vehicle has undergone a vehicle identification check (VIC). If it is a cat D the DVLA / VOSA are not informed. Did you get your V5 back from the insurance company ?
The other problem you may have is that certain insurance companies will not insure a vehicle that has been the subject of a total loss categorisation. My advice would be to ask your insurance company what category of total loss it has been given and if they will continue to insure it.
Sorry if any of this sounds pesimistic I am just trying to offer some advice which hopefully makes the murky world of car insurance a bit clearer.
Yes its murky and as a victim you can end up losing out. I suspect CatD might be recorded, whereas they had originally wanted CatC, but see the twist at the end.
What really p'ed me off was the speed at which the junior rushed to do this (first day on the case in fact). Being helpful and to support the valuation discussion, I scanned and faxed bills, photos, MOT etc and also the V5 document (which I thought was to ID the vehicle correctly). Seems he used that scan to notify DVLA there and then before we had agreed anything, probably to force the case closure.
Subsequently, I think this has been adjusted - hopefully to at most a CatD, or nothing at all (agree, unlikely) because I was able to SORN it when before it was rejected online. Since I am keeping the G for another 20 yrs this is probably not a problem, except for the insurance. As we know, insurance companies use ANY little excuse to screw you into paying more, and historically, a G has been a really reasonable insurance cost for us (like around £300 fully comp) which helped justify keeping it (shame about the high tax tho).
I noted that on this years insurance, I had only put the estimated value at £3k (what do I know), but surprisingly it wasn't used against me (officially) in the same way that it would not matter if I valued it at £10k. I suspect it would if circumstances were different though.
So, long story short - I still have the V5. No Cat listing on it. Technically I probably could have just re-taxed it online (didn't try that) and may even be able to do so when the repair is done without a new MOT (and certainly no VOSA check).
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Its true that an accident normally takes two people - one person to make a mistake, and the other to fail to avoid it!
The best thing was that a lady (with baby) in the car behind took the time to stop and provide her details as a witness. Its so refreshing to see someone take just the 5 minutes to do this. If you are ever in the position of actually witnessing an accident, please at least leave some contact details. Its easy to think you dont want to get involved, but its really useful to the 'victim' in the accident (the one who failed to avoid it I mean ;)
Saw the G this evening and the first point of contact was the wing mirror, then along the side, somehow avoiding smashing the rear side window, ripping off the rear air vent and putting some cosmetic dents/scrpaes there. The main damage was some lower part of the plough hooking into the wheel arch and taking the rear quarter out like a tin opener, along with the petrol filler pipe. Thankfully the open petrol tank didn't ignite!
Assessor will look at the costs next week I guess, in the meantime - anyone got a spare G for hire :) Commuting use only.