Car damage while parking not covered by Lexus insurance

[chitradurga]

Dear all,

  Unfortunately I damaged my new Lexus NX while parking at work today. 

  I have attached the photos. I bought the car only a month ago. Dealership is saying there might be extensive internal damage. I was probably doing about 5 miles an hour.   

  They have asked me to involve my Admiral car insurance as they said it might cost thousands of pounds which will not be covered by my Lexus insurance.

   I bought the following from Croydon dealer - Asset protector / tyre and alloy wheel / Smart cover / Supagard protection / Gap insurance.

  Can you kindly look at the photos and guide me with this. 

Kind regards,

Thanks, Sunil

 

 

[steve2006]

Hello Sunil, welcome to the LOC and sorry to see the damage to your new NX.

The main damage appears to be to the plastics around the rear arch, these would hopefully have absorbed most of the impact so damage beyond this to the metal structure should be minimal if any. The plastics are generally clip on or screwed.

The door should knock out with a decent body shop and paint job.

If you go via your insurers it shouldn’t be a write off but if that is the case you have the gap insurance, your NCB will of course suffer plus your premiums due to a claim.

[rich1068]

Straight forward insurance claim through Admiral I'd say. As Steve says, GAP/Asset covers you for something 10x worse (ie a write off) but the others aren't relevant. 

[bernieeccles]

Check out some of the Paintless Dent removal videos on Youtube. Some of their work is amazing.

[stox]

The Lexus asset protector insurance only covers minor cosmetic damage that can be repaired by an operator from a mobile van on your drive.

I would say your options are:

1. Claim on your insurance policy. An insurance repair should use new replacement parts and if the car is less than six months old most insurers will replace the car. Obviously you lose your damage excess and, even if you have a protected NCB there will be an at fault claim on your insurance record so your premiums will go up. Note this may be your only option if you don't own the car outright - e.g. it is leased or financed on a PCP arrangement.

2. Have the damage repaired by an independent repairer at your expense. Given that Lexus 'know' your car you can expect them to take a very hard look at that repair if you ever want to trade the car in for a new Lexus. Theoretically you are supposed to let your insurer know if you have had an accident even if you don't make a claim.