Ahhhh! I can't believe it. I was backing the Tiguan out of my garage and forgot my wallet inside, so I went in to grab it and at some point while I was inside, my 3yo daughter managed to grab the remote for the garage door and lowered it down onto the car. Now there's a massive gash on the hood. I need to know, is this coverable by insurance, or am I gonna be required to pay for it?
Garage Door Closed on Car by 3yo
L[Deactivated] on 24/03/2019 - 15:31
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Are we that americanised that almost everyone in this thread has called it a "hood"?
And even those that know it is a bonnet cannot even spell the word properly.
I'd get a quote for the repair and if it's under your insurance excess, just do it, you'll avoid the premiums price hike
Teach your kid how to paintless dent repair, and spray paint.
Sorted the kids' career on ozbargain, well done chaps.
Wait for your daughter to find job, ask her to pay back with interest as soon she is able.
Wait for insurance but I am gonna say no. My dad hit my car in our driveway and after many angry discussions they (RACV) said no as we are family and it happened at the registered property of his car.
I got done the same way… Never heard before of that clause… They will repair it but each car has to pay access..
Might be a better option to pay for a replacement to be painted and fitted (or sourced in the same colour from a wrecker and fitted) rather than claiming on insurance which will probably impact you negatively next year for premiums.
you will have to pay excess for your insurance, depending what it is and the cost to fix car. Sometimes easier and cheaper(in the long run) to just pay and fix without using insurance and avoid premiums going up
OP gone missing and a picture would be great
Are you sure your 3yr old is to blame?
Every automatic garage door I've ever had will close them selves if left open (if in the fully open state).
It may have just reached its "I'm left open and auto closing" time threshold.
That sounds terrible
Not really, the idea is if you want to intentionally keep it open just stop it before it's in it's fully opened state.
If you accidentally forget to close it, or if you accidentally hit the open button it's not left wide open all day.I'm pretty sure it's a standard feature on a lot of roller doors (it's been the same in the previous 3 houses I've lived in).
Like the IR safety beam earlier in the thread discussion, I think it's probably more an optional extra than standard. Your sample size of 3 or 4 is a bit small.
Although, I wonder how many different house residential garage doors the average person experiences…
maybe AlienC can start a forum topic.
It sounds like a terrible idea. I spend hours in the garage with the door open while working on stuff. Would be a pain in the proverbial to have it close automatically at random times. Although, I also regularly leave the door up while I go out by mistake so ….
First I've ever heard of this.
I definitely don't have that 'feature' on my door. I've left it open for prolonged periods of time before when I've been gardening
Pay excess , move on.
Switch insurer next renewal coz it will go up.Get quoted privately if fix is cheaper than excess. Fix privately if cheaper
put it on youtube, make money out of ads
Panel beater will probably be cheaper as your premiums will go up.
If the paint hasn't come off, perhaps you can get it repaired by the paintless dent repairers.
So you're up for your excess. Your premium shouldn't go up for just that claim unless you're on a no claim bonus structure, and if you are, it's a poor policy. The good insurers who are in the domestic space no longer do no claims bonus and their wordings are light years ahead.
That's completely opposite with what is happening in practice…
If you are under a "no claim bonus" structure with NCD/NCB protection, your premium will not go up.
However if you are not eligible for NCB, then you claim experience directly determines your renewal or new business premiums.
Source: I work in the insurance pricing industry.
Maybe where you work. There are a lot of disruptor brands out now who don't price this way.
Source: I'm with them at the steadfast conference right now.
Hope your little one is fine. Must have been quite a scary experience for her . Esp, if she was in the car when it happenned. At 3, everything can be overwhelming. And if dad and mum are the kind of screaming when something like that happened , it can be quite traumatic for her. Your car can be fixed , so no need to blame her. If you have full comprehensive insurance, you will be able to claim it and pay the excess ( so make sure you enquire first how much you gonna pay before calling your insurance as sometimes you are better off).
Yeah she didn’t seem too shaken. In fact I reckon she was the slightest bid giddy but I let it side. We basically just told her that the remote wasn’t a toy and that she should never play with it. She seemed to understand.
Won't somebody think of the children?
If you are in the area North East of Melbourne. Drop in and see Super Tek Collision Repairs. Could not rate them higher. Fixed my car over Christmas after Major collision in just 16 days.
dab on her
Provide MS Paint sketch…please.
Of what exactly?
Of how the culprit did a hit (press the button) and run.
Do you a have a photo of the bonnet gash?
Don't worry, if insurance doesn't pay out you can always seek damages against the 3yo.
If only haha
Get it fixed by insurance but expect to pay excess or higher premiums, just suck it up I guess. If you can provide a picture you can get a better idea if its worth it to go straight to a panel beater or not.
I had a brain fart and drove out of my garage with the hatch open. It left a big gouge in the paint & panel.
The repair was $1200. My excess was $1k. It was likely a claim would increase my premium as well. I just swallowed it up and paid for it even though insurance would have covered it.
Maybe the mark in the paint will polish out and the dent can be done paintless?
Also, you might look at what level of force the auto stop / reverse is set at. It might be a bit high.
I love all these people that have never made a mistake in their lives. Jesus must be jelous.
Is this the same daughter that crossed the road that cause the driver of the other thread to rear end another car?
Does your daughter know no end to her evil
You could remove the bonnet, take it to a carbon fibre hood maker, get them to make a mold up. Then sell carbon fibre bonnets for Tiguans, and slowly recoup your investment.
Bonnets weigh a fair bit, and original replacements aren't cheap. The insurance company will pay for a new one, and the repairer will likely just make the old one 'like new'.
So you also get the benefit of
- Avoiding ending up with a non factory 'matched paintjob'
- A far lighter bonnet; so less fuel consumption
- Lower CoG, less forward weight too
- First ever Tiguan with a cf bonnet in Australia, at least(?)
- Not having to pay an increased premium, or the excessHas to be engineer certified for ADR approval, complete with reinforced hinge & latch point as bonnet pins are illegal.
Had fun watching custom CF hood flipped up, smashing windscreen at 100km/h follows by crashing into other cars on highway.
Won't get approved anyway, as CF doesn't crumple. It'll just cut pedestrian body into half.
Fair point there.
Pretty sure it's not ADR approval we're talking for bonnets though, it just has to comply- and to do that officially requires an engineer's certificate IF it is a 'changed panel' or a modification to the car's structure.
Bare in mind that the structure of a CF car like a Lotus is not actually ADR approved- IIRC mostly it is safety items like lights and seat-belts, seats and mirrors and windows- individually. The model is locally 'complied' however, by the relevant manufacturer, before any can be registered.
No law I've read mentions CF or fibreglass panels, let alone bonnets.
It is however illegal to modify the structure of the vehicle.
The thing is, a bonnet's skin is not structural. Sure CF breaks differently to metal, but as all modern bonnets are designed to be curved and not lead with a sharp edge, they do not present any real/bigger risk to pedestrians. It it did, metal would be a problem, as we make knives out of metal as well as CF. However to cover yourself against lawyers who think they know better than engineers- makers can use the structure (frame) of the old bonnet, to leave no doubt that the vehicle structure is unchanged. This is also a cheap way of keeping all the locking and hinging mechanisms, anyhow.
If doing this and not painting it, the CF will be obvious, so for peace of mind you might like to get the car complied as this is a legal requirement when 'changing forward panels'. You should probably do this legally speaking, however in my book, a bonnet that is the same, just with a different skin, is not a different panel or a material modification under the law. And a well-painted one is unlikely to draw attention at any point.
All a matter of interpretation of course, IANAL and yes, am probably wrong… (but if so, how?)
Update?
Picture?
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aka the bonut