[Brobbo]

Was leaving the work car park on New Year's Day and one of my work colleagues just reversed out of a parking bay and went straight into my near site rear wheel arch!
Didn't think it was too bad until I got half a mile down the road when the driving stabilisation error, cruise control error, my steering has strangely become twitchy and no longer straight.

What do you guys think?

[robbiep]

I think you inform him and your insurance company

[Watsey]

Didn't think it was too bad ?? Well it's not going to polish out.

Insurance job, and seemingly more to it that meets the eye.

[JNW1]

Sorry to hear about this OP, hope you get it resolved quickly!

However, to me it's another illustration of why it's far safer to reverse into parking spaces so you can drive out forwards - if I had a fiver for every near miss I've seen due to people reversing out I'd be a rich man! Some companies make it policy to reverse into their parking spaces at work and quite right too IMO...

[MattOz]

Appears to have suspension damage too. That alloy is toe-ing out massively. Insurance is the best way to sort it. What a pain in the backside.

[Pobsey]

That looks a right mess! I’d be fuming

[KRS_SN]

Probably bent suspension components etc. take it to a reputable independent. get a no obligation quote for work. then ask your colleague if he wishes to foot the bill. if no then insurance it is. i may be wrong but no one wins when insurers get involved unless absolute necessary/repair bill is 1000s etc.

[Wills2]

Take it to a dealer and get the work warrantied properly, you won't be paying.

[Junebug85]

Sorry to hear this!

Have you got spacers on? Wheels looks like it's sticking out the arch more then normal so to speak. Wonder if it would of caused less damge to the wheel/suspension if there wasn't a spacer...

Got me thinking as i've got them on mine.

Hope you get it sorted without too much hassle

[RobUK]

Sorry to hear this, shite way to start the new year. I suppose one saving grace was that you were there to witness it. There's every chance that had your car been parked and received this damage, then the culprit may have just left the scene.

Hope you get it sorted quickly.

[ian332isport]

Nasty.

I hope he did the decent thing and owned up to it.

[Eddamoo]

Ouch, they mustve given it a right whack, they bent the suspension wishbone by the look of it. Don't drive on it as that amount of toe is dangerous and ripping your tyres apart!

BMW have an accident management facility. Id tell them rather than messing with your insurance. They will get it done at BMW, warrant the work and it shouldn't affect your premiums.

[Brobbo]

Originally Posted by Eddamoo

Ouch, they mustve given it a right whack, they bent the suspension wishbone by the look of it. Don't drive on it as that amount of toe is dangerous and ripping your tyres apart!

BMW have an accident management facility. Id tell them rather than messing with your insurance. They will get it done at BMW, warrant the work and it shouldn't affect your premiums.

That's what it feels like, i literally drove it home and it stayed there since,
I rung bmw and I'm now using their accident management service.
Mines been collected this morning and the hire car is already here so cant fault so far.
It's going to my dealer to get sorted

I'm gutted though

[Brobbo]

Originally Posted by Junebug85

Sorry to hear this!

Have you got spacers on? Wheels looks like it's sticking out the arch more then normal so to speak. Wonder if it would of caused less damge to the wheel/suspension if there wasn't a spacer...

Got me thinking as i've got them on mine.

Hope you get it sorted without too much hassle

Yes mate 12mm, what probably didn't help was that the towing eye thread/cover area on the other vehicle was what come in contact with my car so was a solid piece

[KRS_SN]

Originally Posted by Brobbo

Yes mate 12mm, what probably didn't help was that the towing eye thread/cover area on the other vehicle was what come in contact with my car so was a solid piece

which makes me wonder do we have to declare that we have spacers on to the insurers? I had to declare that my car had lowering springs etc.

[haagm58]

Originally Posted by Brobbo

That's what it feels like, i literally drove it home and it stayed there since,
I rung bmw and I'm now using their accident management service.
Mines been collected this morning and the hire car is already here so cant fault so far.
It's going to my dealer to get sorted

I'm gutted though

So sorry this happened to you, what a shame. Hopefully it wasn't a close colleague or worse, one of your superiors.

[Brobbo]

Originally Posted by haagm58

So sorry this happened to you, what a shame. Hopefully it wasn't a close colleague or worse, one of your superiors.

Not close but friendly enough. He actually dealt with it well at the scene.
And then ruined it later when he phoned and asked if i was planning on taking any responsibility for the accident, at that point i had no idea what he wanted me to say :-(

[haagm58]

Originally Posted by Brobbo

Not close but friendly enough. He actually dealt with it well at the scene.
And then ruined it later when he phoned and asked if i was planning on taking any responsibility for the accident, at that point i had no idea what he wanted me to say :-(

So sorry to hear this, it's the last thing any of us wants to deal with. Hard to believe he assumed you would be taking partial responsibility...you were parked, in a spot, and not in the car. Hopefully it all gets resolved soon and your car can be repaired for little to no money out of pocket.

[Watsey]

Originally Posted by Brobbo

Not close but friendly enough. He actually dealt with it well at the scene.
And then ruined it later when he phoned and asked if i was planning on taking any responsibility for the accident, at that point i had no idea what he wanted me to say :-(

As soon as anyone starts along this line, i.e. shared liability for what sounds clearly like a non-fault incident for you, it sounds the alarm for me.

I hope you took plenty of photos immediately after the incident, not only of the localised damage but also wider shots of car park, the location of your car, the other car, where the other car was parked (i.e. its orientation and distance to your car), whether you had parked across the rear of the other car (i..e. too close), and made lots of notes (were you in the car ? time of day. was it dark/light ? any car park lighting ? did you witness the incident ? where were you stood i.e. did you have clear line of sight ? etc etc).

Claims handlers don't know you, the other driver, the location, etc. The more information you can provide, the better. Any dash cam footage which may have been trigerred while it was in 'parking incident recording' mode, will be invaluable.

I expect the BMW bill will come to a few thousand £ (new rear wing and paint; suspension work; etc), so get liability firmly established in writing before the repairs proceed.

[Wills2]

Originally Posted by Brobbo

Not close but friendly enough. He actually dealt with it well at the scene.
And then ruined it later when he phoned and asked if i was planning on taking any responsibility for the accident, at that point i had no idea what he wanted me to say :-(

WTF? How can you take responsibility if you were not in the car? Some people are jokers....(Ah just reread your OP and you were in the car, I guess you hadn't moved at the time of the accident?)

[Watsey]

I've also just had a re-read. That makes some of my suggested questions irrelevant, but the direction is the same for the OP : provide as much info as possible.

Sounds like the OP was driving and the TP reversed into a moving vehicle. That might muddy the waters a little, but the burden of responsibility tends to be more on the reversing driver to make sure that they are driving with care and attention.

Dash cam footage would be a godsend here.

[JD6]

While from the OP's description is sounds like he's not to blame, without conclusive evidence, it feels to me like insurers would probably treat this incident as 50/50, as they tend to with car park dings.

I had someone reverse into me in a car park while I was stationary. I had no dashcam at the time, but I did get an independent witness and I covertly recorded the driver's admission of fault at the scene. Despite all of that, my insurer, Aviva were utterly hopeless and wanted to settle 50/50. I only avoided that by providing the third party insurer with the covert recording and threatening to sue their driver. Consequently they paid up, no thanks to Aviva.