So there I was, sat quietly in a queue of traffic when I get an almighty great shunt up the rear, enough to need the head rest!

A quick glance in the RHS wing mirror and sure enough, there's a car at an angle. I look to its rear end as I can only assume it has been crashed into at some speed in order to ram it into me - I couldn't believe that someone could drive into a stationary FFRR in a line of traffic. But no, this is what seems to have happened.

Happily the driver stopped and I got details, along with a witness. I dropped into my local Dealer to get them to have a look, which, given that their service dept was closing up for the day, they didn't have to do , and it seems the only real damage is to the tow bar (detachable type, but fitted and now sits several degrees to port) and a small scuff to the bumper cover.

All told, it could have been a lot worse, but it is still going to be the inevitable chafe with the insurers, the knowledge that my premium will rise several hundred pounds next year through no fault of my own and a faff whilst I get it fixed, meaning that the other half will have to try and find something else to tow her horse box with until the matter is resolved.

Oh well, at least nobody was hurt, but it does bring one to question the faculties of a certain generation of motorist. I have no doubt Sterling Moss can still cut it, but I have my concerns…

Similar thing happened to my wife when we had our P38, driving up a lane one day in the village past the church, road is narrow and she always drives with headlights on, she sees a van coming down the lane so she stops and pulls over as much as possible to the left and this guy drives straight into the front of the car!

When my wife got out his first words were 'I didn't see you'!!

How car you not see a sodding great Range Rover with its headlights on!

Not surprised he stopped after hitting a FF. Would have been more surprised if their vehicle was in a fit state to drive if you felt the collision. FF's are not the lightest of vehicles to hit! What doesn't kill you is just bidding it's time.

Had similar happen in the D3 when queueing (I was stationary) on the M5 once. Was a big thump but no damage except the towball cover - the benefits of a nice fixed bar. Probably gave the bloke the fright of his life when I got out of the car and shouted (only briefly; didn't "go off on one" or anything - just wanted to see that he'd be more careful in future). There was considerably more damage to his car, so lesson learnt methinks... I left when the traffic moved on, being in the middle of the motorway, his fault, and not wishing to cause him more trouble by trying to make any sort of claim. Visiting from DISCO3.CO.UK
Discovery 3 TDV6 Auto HSE Zambezi Silver

Hope your claiming thru their insurer and have just told your own of it and no intention to claim from them?

Been there done that twice now in the FF and one took ages and another was sorted asap with the haulage firm just paying it all out of their own pocket and a suitable contract to no further claims signed for a lump sum payout that they offered straight up

Hopefully when the get under it the actual towing support crossbar hasnt taken the shunt and transmitted it into the chassis it wouldn't be the first time ive seen or heard of it happening  FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

i would think all that has happened is the quick release part of the tow bar is damaged where it locks into place. So it's about £400 from PF jones for the replacement part, and it's just two bolts to fit it.

If it was me i'd order up the new one, fit it myself and keep hold of the old damaged one for the insurer to look at, that way you'll still be able to use it for towing.

It's clearly a non-fault accident. So even if you claim via your own insurers and it drags on past your renewal, you'll get any increase in premium and NCB refunded once it's settled. It's what happened with my mini when someone backed into it, i think the renewal went up by £300 but i got that back along with the pay out, 3 week later when it was settled.

http://www.pfjones.co.uk/range-rover-2002-detachable.html

on offer at the moment (have been for a while. includes all parts back to the armature, so hitch, storage bin, and receiver.) There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
Fiat 500x 1.4 multiair Lounge 2015
2010 LR D4 Commercial 2.7 TDV6

Thanks for the tips, chaps - it's in the hands of the insurers at the mo, they are happy it's a 'no fault' incident on my part. I will keep you all updated as to the progress!

definitely order one for that price, then claim for the Land-Rover price from the insurers.

wokkadriver wrote:

Thanks for the tips, chaps - it's in the hands of the insurers at the mo, they are happy it's a 'no fault' incident on my part. I will keep you all updated as to the progress!

It would be acceptable to insist the three parts of the tow bar are changed sir... The detachable unit, the receiver & the armature... I certainly would not accept anything less sir

^+1 You simply have no way of knowing what stress the impact caused to the towbar assembly, for all you know it could be cracked somewhere. New components is the only way to be sure of future safe towing.

I was expecting a right mess but its barely a scratch No doubt you'll have whiplash from the incident

nicedayforit wrote:

^+1 You simply have no way of knowing what stress the impact caused to the towbar assembly, for all you know it could be cracked somewhere. New components is the only way to be sure of future safe towing.

Speaking from experience of front and side shunts in the rangey its a bit of a minefield.


The damage on the outside can look very little but underneath is a very different matter.

One that i had nearly resulted in a new whole side panel being ordered. Thats the one that does the A, B & C pillars and sill. a LOT of work to fit and in the end after spending a lot of time on the jig the rest of the car was found to be well within spec so they opted to spend the time on pulling it all out instead.

Another was a front ender. more time on the jig being checked over as the bumper/bonnet/grille took the brunt of that being pushed up the road.

It really depends on what they find when they take it off. If there is the slightest crease comparing one side to the other then its going to need a pull or more likely these days they would just Cat C/D it to save the agro and pay you out. Some insurance co's are fussy about doing this as i found.

After the side impact and first assessment i offered to let them Cat it as long as i could retain salvage and got paid £xxxx for it(about 3/4 of their rated value payment) but was declined.
The car was valued at £12500 approx for condition, age and mileage.
The total repair bill after 3 months all in came to £23k.....
A good whack of this was from the fact they argued over a Micra or Insignia being a suitable replacement. As i had no other car with a towball i said it was far from that and would happily accept a pickup or defender that was capable of pulling 2200kg without issue. they said no so i went and got a Disco4 HSE hire vehicle and they paid for it and were happy enough to do that
Ironically the whole side panel isn't that costly for what it is and the labour to fit it would have been a lot less than the pulling out of the old one but they were told to keeps parts costs down and with 2 new wheels, front wing, mud flaps, lower door trims and front door and a fair old amount of the car being sprayed they were bound to be in for a big bill... FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

The problem with repairs on cars these days, is the insurer looks at it they can spend £5000 fixing something, and the customer still comes back and complains a shut line still isn't quite perfect, or points out there are scratches or dinks that weren't there before (even if they were). So the insurer ends up paying out for all that too. It's easier for them financially just to write things off and leave someone else to worry about if they can fix it or not.

With courtesy cars, they just get supplied by the body shop or from a normal hire firm. Most of the mainstream hire firms or bodyshops will just keep generic cars like a Mondeo sized family car and some compact city cars because they'll suit 99% of people needing a courtesy car. Your insurer will just claim back the cost of supplying a courtesy car from the third party if it's non-fault, so i doubt they'll really care where it comes from so long as you can show a specific need for a 4x4.