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So as some of you know, I had a small accident in my GT86 in July. I wanted to write this post for a few reasons… To hopefully share my experience and some lessons learnt! To give some insight to how insurance companies handle claims. Praise the fantastic work that RRG Toyota carried out on my work. So first things first.. The accident... Great Yarmouth, coming out of town with my girlfriend to go get a milkshake. Very familiar with the roads, cruising around 15 - 20 mph past the hollywood cinema. Not paying attention and gave it a little too much throttle before the car was in a straight line. The back snapped out of place as if we we’re on ice. I tried to correct, over corrected as the back of the car just felt insanely light. And unfortunately the front end met with a road sign post. I think it was a mix of greasy roads, not paying attention as chatting about our milkshake and the fact i’d got to complacent with the car and trusted the budget tyres too much! Impact was probably around 25 mph. We were turning a sharp right hand corner, so nothing dramatic and well within the legal limits…. On initial inspection the engine is fine, it drives and rolls, apart from a flat tyre. Everything just looks cosmetic. at this points. Anyway the car is transported off to the insurance to deal with.. Now this is where the lessons start and some pointers. What was different? I’ve done this corner hundreds of times, hundreds of times faster, many times a little sideways, it was one of those ideal corners to just blip the throttle and get the back end out of shape. But enough room to correct. Tyres! About 2 -3 weeks prior to the accident i’d decided to buy some new 18” wheels. They came included with some budget tyres. Excited to get the wheels on, and not really in a position to spend £400 - £500 on new tyres. I lived with them. The tyres seemed great. I’d even taken them on track once or twice. However in conjunction with the very dry weather and then a sudden down pour the Sunday afternoon, this particular corner was like ice to these cheap budget tyres. Progression was zero, control was zero and any chance of correcting was slim. The tyres were doing nothing. So lesson one. Never put budget tyres or trust budget tyres on any car. I will never be tight on tyres again. And this has been an expensive lesson learnt the hard way! The fun begins… The insurance company approved repaired decide to write it off due to being uneconomical to repair. But being persistent and pretty gutted at this outcome I decided to enquire. Turns out they’d quoted £3000 I repeat, £3000 to repair the fog light. Which considered of a broken plug on the end of a harness. They wanted to replace the entire harness, which included all the engine control stuff. For £3000! They also missed most of the chassis damage and misdiagnosed this. They hadn’t quoted the Air Con correctly as the GT86 uses a different gas which is more expensive etc. etc. etc. These things went on and on. Spraying an entire door because of a stone chip etc. And these are the insurance companies “Approved Repaired and professional body shop dedicated to repairing your car”... After telling the insurance company I wanted a second quote I paid and got the Car to Richard (Riceburner) of RRG Macclesfield to quote. RRG were fantastic, and the repair was approved and went ahead. Now as some of you know I have done some modifications to my GT86. Suspension, Exhaust, Wheels, Tyres, Brakes and some stickers. Main components as the suspension and exhaust were declared. But i’d not really ever bothered about stickers or the tyres etc. Not thinking anything of it. The insurance company come down hard! REAL HARD! People. Declared everything! My policy actually became VOID for a short while, and RRG were not given authority to repair the car. Now with me in serious disbelief thinking, how can they void the policy for some stickers and tyres! Which 90% of cars on the road have changes or are not OEM spec! I finally get to speak to the underwriter, I have to explain my reasoning for these modifications and why they are not on the policy. Why have you got ‘blacked out badges’ and Subaru BRZ Side Fenders. Now this wasn’t a problem, and I just paid an extra £12 to add them to my policy and the policy was Legal again and the repair continued. Lesson 2, Declare everything! And I mean Everything. My policy now has, stickers, tyres, brake pads, bug shit and swirl marks listed. I was lucky and got a kind underwriter and managed to convince him it was a genuine mistake and didn’t think they needed declaring. But if you get an un-happy underwriter or can’t justify why you’ve changed parts. Then your policy is void. you get 6 points for illegal insurance and the repair bill to pay! It also delayed the repair by nearly a week! Urggh! Although my insurance modification fiasco didn’t stop there. I then got an email asking me to justify why, I had fitted…….. A Turbo system, Brace bars and cold intake system. My car doesn’t have a turbo. And it is impossible to have a turbo from the photos the insurance company got. … Tell me how there is a turbo fitted in that picture… The brace bars are standard, and the cold intake was the air intake funnel behind the bumper… All stock! Anyway, finally after they’d called Fensport, RRG, and a few other places to confirm my car didn’t have a turbo, the repair continued. From this point it all gets a little more relaxing and things begin to take shape and be repaired. I decided that I would bite the bullet and go TRD Body kit whilst it was in for repair. I was going to get the car back pretty much stock, without my originally body kit fitted as that was damaged and couldn’t be replaced under insurance. So decided to order the TRD Kit. Which Richard agreed to fit and paint for me. (Obviously not being paid for via the insurance) But any additional was from my own cash. Of course the other thing I done straight away was bought a set of very good premium tyres. Eagle F1 XLs. Which I had delivered at RRG and they fitted. Whilst this was all going on I had my birthday which I got a Fensport Voucher. I was determined to spend this on something I wouldn’t usually buy myself and didn’t want to put it towards repairing the car. So decided to go for the Smaller TS Steering wheel which i’d always fancied but couldn’t justify buying myself. On its way to RRG it went. Another thing Richard very very kindly agreed to fit whilst being repaired for me. Also managed to get hold of the full Samco kit. Guess where this ended up going…. (Sorry Richard). More stuff to fit. Next up was JAE, where some how I was convinced to buy a front strut bar…. And who was there. Richard. After this I think he went home before I gave him anything else to fit. Anyway by this point I was now quite excited to be picking up the car again, New TRD, Steering Wheel, Samco, Brace bar and a few other little bits. Richard kept sending me teaser photos, which I wasn’t sure if I liked or not. Especially once I knew it was back together and he was driving it. Anyway, the day came, he gave me the date to pick up! Extremely excited we traveled up to Macclesfield and stayed over the night before. 5 minutes from RRG. We got to RRG about 10pm and actually managed not to go and peek at it, Not wanting to ruin any surprise of seeing it properly in the sunlight. For some reason I woke up at 4am that morning. Due to pick the car up at 10am. Wondering how on earth I was going to wait until 10am to pick up! Whilst sitting in McDonalds I get this photo through and the caption…. "Ready when you are Jay Smith" I’ve never eaten a McDonalds Breakfast Porridge so fast! Turn up at RRG and there it is, under a dark black cover. Looking at me as I park the “Yaris 1.3 Trend+ with Chrome Accents” for the last time! And Richard reveals it! At this point I can honestly say that i’ve never been so impressed and so emotional about seeing a car! But in all honestly it was so so so much better than I could ever imagine. Photos do not do it justice! But the finish, the lines and everything was absolutely perfect! I can not praise Richard and his team at RRG bodyshop enough! So Lesson 3 - If you ever have an accident, cut the crap of the insurance repairers and go to RRG Macclesfield! Since done a couple of little points to finish the car off… Carbon Handles TRD Stickers OEM+ Style SUB TRD Seatbelt Covers So to summarise a couple of points and lessons i’ve learnt the hard way. Never use budget tyres. Declare every modification to the insurance, even stickers. Use RRG for repair work! Don’t get complacent with the car. This is a quick car, you realise that when you spend 3 months in a Yaris! Hope nobody else ever has to learn these lessons the hard way. I have had a string of lucky events which has meant I’ve got my car back. And with the massive help from RRG is better than before! I’m still waiting to hear about how my insurance company are going to compensate me for the massive delays and balls up regarding my car and modifications and mis-quote from the first garage. But I maybe expanding on this post with the full story about my insurance and how they made such a huge mess up of everything! Keep posted!