Does this sound like its been fiddled?

Ok, let me know what you think of this, doesnt all seem right to me.

I had my first prang in July (sadly 5 Days after I bought my Cat ) I went into the back of a 55 Plate Merc M Class, after the owners husband took it to a Merc dealer for inspection it was deemed that the rear bumper would need replacing, after much tooing and frowing it went through the insurance companies.

After nearly 6 months the claim was settled, I lost my 2 years NCB and the insurers paid out for the repairs, the final bill came to, and I am not kidding here,

£4006.44p!!!

Now he was original looking to get just over £3k out of my insurers, now is it me or does it seem that he has fiddled the cost somehow, as how on earth could a rear bumper come to that cost! maybe if it were a hand beaten peice of body work from a fezza or some sort of top end carbon fibre sports car.

annnd the bloke got just over £3k out of someone else's insurers as his wife was involved in a identical prang in feb, so he got over £7k this year in bumper repair costs, all seems fishy to me.

What do you guys and girls think?

I think someone is taking the piss. I cant fathom how even with Merc main stealership prices for parts and labour it would come anywhere near. To have a rear bumper replaced and resprayed including towbar on my mondeo (not a merc I know) when something happened to it I think it was £500 all in. Was he claiming for whiplash or something? People like that are the reason insurance premiums are so high because they all take the piss. You also find when a dealer/repair garage finds it's a job on the insurance the price will creep.

I could maybe think £1500 for it but £4 seems alot, I have been informed if I had all new yamaha parts, ie full front and side fairings, headlights, fairing frame, inner fairing covers and front forks plus labour at a yammy dealer would be near £3k, which I could get as its alot of parts.
But four grand for a bumper to me sounds excessive, for a merc, maybe if it were a fezza or a high end sports car or something I could understand the high cost.

ah well its all done now I lost all my no claims, got to start again and my premiums could go up by 30% next year but after that it should even out, all I can say is thank the baby jebus for insurance as I would never have been able to pay that out of my own pocket!!

Dave mate, it matters not if its 4k or 4 quid to your particular claim, it will be a claim against your name regardless of how much.
That said we will all pay for stupid inflated repair costs on our premiums

please all don't blame me to much for crashing and pushing everyones premiums up!!

MrNutt wrote:please all don't blame me to much for crashing and pushing everyones premiums up!!

and why not.
we're let off the hook if you take the blame!


seriously I would consider getting the police involve.
if he or she has done it before,then its possible the the owner and the repair shop are in it together.
go and price the bumper up for that particular merc.
if its only say £500 some thing is drastically wrong.
get all the information as you can and send it to the insurance etc.
I'm sure they'll be interested and so will the police.
if every body did this in this particular claim.
this in the long run would cut out most of these scams.
I watched a program about this type of scam and the police said if the general public did report this type of thing as above. this would eventually cut the majority of scams.
the interviewer ask the police why they can't do it and the reply was as usual we haven't the time or resources etc.

Not long after I came back to biking and got my 'Cat I ran into the back of a (newish) Ford van. Cost of a bumper for that, including fitting? £130 (plus VAT). Needless to say, the damage to the bike was quite a lot more!

It was after that I decided I needed advanced training.

similar thing with my bike, pretty much a whole new front end and fairing set.

And to follow like a sheep I have also signed up for a bike safe course next year, then will gone on from there