Word of warning.

Biro

Hagar wrote: »

My friend took out maximum "walk away" insurance, the guy is an actuary and not short of a few shekels. You would have to know him, his is so careful it's boring.

I usually take that out and assume that everything is OK. What's the story so? I'm now beginning to think that if you have the full cover for a car and something makes mince of the underside of it, you're better off just setting fire to it than taking it back, am I right?
What company was it? PM if you can't post it up.

cantdecide

VeVeX wrote: »

TICK THE BOX - Which tyre is flat?

Take that as a fact !

They are called Run-Flat-Tyres They were flat- he was concerned, he was told to run on them. From their very name alone, you could be forgiven for thinking they could be physically flat and it's safe to drive on them if you didn't know better.. He wasn't sure- he double checked and they made a mistake.

If they were called Run-When-Deflated-But-Not-Physically-Flat, Like Tyres and he had not been told to drive on after not being vigilent enough to check with the rental company, then yes your point would be 100% valid. But he had been vigilent and cautious.

You may be at least partly right but the rental company can't be 100% innocent after telling him drive on, but they've charged him 100% of bill.

MercMad

This is all very strange, but someone is not telling the truth !

This car hit something, as can be seen from the photo which shows damage to the lower front spoiler area. This damage appears at least 6-8" high, and judging from the angle of the scuffs its was not caused by dropping down from 3" !

The damage to the inner wing/valance area is fairly substantial, and was caused by the lower arm being brought back significantly, and again IMO could not have been caused by the so called 3" drop.

Whatever about the whole "run-flat" saga, if he was told to drive, tahst fine, people do it all the time, but when they do, they are careful enough NOT to drop the car off something bigger than 2". Hell I would drop my car off a 2" surface with properly inflated tyres !

He probably DID get a puncture, he probably DID make the call, but clearly what he did AFTER that is in doubt !

He either dropped off something significantly larger than 3" or he hit something, and he wasn't tootling along either !

From what I can see there is a lot of stripping involved to repair that bodywork damage, and thats before he buys suspension/wheels and tyres !

Good luck to him !

Hagar

You are correct about the strip down costs. The labour element of the quote is €3740 the remainder is parts.

If you choose not to take what I have said on behalf of my friend as truthful and honest for whatever reason, fair enough. I'm not going to attempt to persuade you otherwise.

daedalus2097

VeVeX wrote: »

I have seen alot of cars with run flats driven deflated and the tyre was able to be economically repaired.

Other then the dashboard light you would be hard pushed to tell sometimes to be honest.

In complete contrast with a puncture in a normal tyre it lets you physically know that its flat.

What if you've never seen a run flat tyre before? If you're told by a rental company (who should obviously know what they're talking about) that it's ok to drive on it, I see no reason not to assume that's what run flats look like when they're umm... Flat.

Even if this tyre was indeed a genuine run flat there should still be at least a thought that something may not be right when you hear alloy wheel munching into the tarmac.

True, but I think that's what prompted him to pull over, don't you?

My wife has never had a flat either but id guess she can tell if theres air in a tyre or not.* Maybe there should be a multiple choice question on the driving test i.e

Like I said above, if she didn't previously know that a run flat tyre doesn't actually look flat, why should she assume it doesn't look any different to a normal flat? It's not the difference between air being in the tyre and not, it's about not knowing the difference between run flats and normal flats and being told by an "expert" that it's ok to drive on them. Maybe the rental people should have asked more questions, like does the tyre still look inflated.

MercMad

If you choose not to take what I have said on behalf of my friend as truthful and honest for whatever reason, fair enough. I'm not going to attempt to persuade you otherwise

........it isn't a case of not believing you, I feel someone is being conservative with the truth, and why wouldn't they !

richie_rvf

I admit that I have not read every post here as there are so many but surely all he should have had to pay was the insurance excess?

SouperComputer

Jeeze this is a wierd one. The damage to the wheel rim does not seem proportionate to the body damage.

Random theory 1: Suspension/bodywork was already damaged by previous renter and not spotted by rental employee. This is quite possible, depending on the actual effect of the damage to the car on it's handling. Tyre deflating was a separate issue.

Random theory 2: The driver in question is being econmical with the truth and it dropped further than he thought. It would need to be a long way tho, 7-8" at least I would think.

Random theory 3: Its a Monday morning bimmer with some serious production/QC issues!

In any of the three cases I would be kicking the rental company's ass. They took the easy option, unfortunately now you friend has to fight back and go through the rental contract and "insurance" with a fine tooth comb.

MercMad

Yeah either way that Insurance situation is a load of b0ll0x !!

Anan1

MercMad wrote: »

Yeah either way that Insurance situation is a load of b0ll0x !!

Very true. After all, it's not like the rental companies don't know how to charge for insurance.

Fey!

I've only read the first two pages, so apologies if this has already been asked.

Has your friend had the opportunity to get an independent assessment before that money was shelled out?

I'd get the credit card company to halt the payment until everything has been checked out.

From recent experience, rental companies will do nothing to protect the customer. They'll just bill as high as they think they'll get away with.

oleras

Hagar wrote: »

The car was being driven on a winding kerbless country road up a mountain. ................... He just drove along until there was some place to pull in safely

/Edit Quality of road was fine. Good surface no potholes. Road condition was bone dry, it is the south of France after all,.:D

I drove those roads In june this year.....nice open drains running down the side of mountain roads.....with a 2 foot drop into them.....

As for the insurance.....they are having a laugh, tell him to query the payment with his card company and get it rejected.

Speaking of which, some credit cards give rental insurance when you use the card to hire, should check that out also.

Hagar

Your right about the storm drains, they are really deep. It doesn't rain much here but when it does those drains are needed.

They are the reason my friend couldn't pull in immediately, he drove on until he came to a wide spot on the road.

The rep from the rental company already advised him to check with his credit card company. Basically they don't care who pays as long as someone does. I think they are appearing more and more shabby as this goes on.

MercMad wrote:

This car hit something, as can be seen from the photo which shows damage to the lower front spoiler area. This damage appears at least 6-8" high, and judging from the angle of the scuffs its was not caused by dropping down from 3" !

It's not as high as it seems, on a car with fully inflated tyres you may have 6" or so but you lose a lot of that clearance with a flat tyre. Lean on the front wing of a car and try to push it down, how far does it go? 1" to 2" maybe with your weight , now try it again with the 1.5 tonne weight of the car, the suspension will travel a couple more inches. Now picture a rough kerbside with maybe a few loose stones...

MercMad

It's not as high as it seems, on a car with fully inflated tyres you may have 6" or so but you lose a lot of that clearance with a flat tyre

...........does a run flat go down this much ??

Hagar

It did when the sidewall gave out.

Santa Claus

Hagar wrote: »

It did when the sidewall gave out.

If this thread runs long enough then people will eventually stop doubting your friends version of events and stating that he must have been gunning it on the run flat tyre/drove off the edge of the mountain/not used to this type of car/etc....

Independent engineers report FTW ! As he's an actuary he can afford the €300 (max) this would cost and would be cheap if it saves him a 6k repair bill.
An independent engineer could be able to show that some (not all) of the repairs required could NOT have been caused in the same accident, as many people have stated that the damage done is inconsistent with your friends version of events and he shouldn't have to pay for previous damage that may have been done to the car !

Hagar

The thread, and all the doubts expressed, has been very useful.

The whole thing stinks to high Heaven. Either the run flat tyre wasn't up to the job or it wasn't a run flat tyre. The small body damage was either caused while driving off the road or was there all along and wasn't noticed. If it was there before it might mean the car was involved in a previous un-reported incident. Unless it can be proven that the car was deliberately damaged it must have been accidentally damaged and should be covered by the Insurance.

An independent engineers report is being organised and legal advice has been taken, my Friend is not going to take this lieing down.


I'll put up an update as soon as I hear anything. Thanks for all the responses.