300TE rear end crash

Last week I was driving my 300TE in the wet.   I was stationary at the lights, when I felt something hit the car.   A Honda SUV had crashed into the drivers rear corner.  As I was stationary at the lights, I had not been looking out the rear. Consequently, I didn’t see the actual impact.   But when I got out of the car to exchange details, it became clear what had happened.

The road I was sitting on had three lanes.  Two through lanes, and a right hand turning lane.  I was stationary in the middle lane, which was the right most of the two through lanes.   The Honda SUV (driven by a P-plater) had attempted to change lanes into the turning lane and been cleaned up by an Audi SUV.  The impact of the two SUVs had taken most of the impact of the accident, but the Honda had pushed into my rear bumper.

The drivers of the Honda and Audi could not agree whos’ fault it was.  I didn’t really care as it clearly wasn’t mine.  I just exchanged details with both drivers and let them continue their argument.   Both the Audi and the Honda were in a bad way.  It would not surprise me if both cars were written off.  It doesn’t take much these days.

My 300TE is insured with Shannons.  Since being integrated more into the Suncorp parent company, I’ve heard mixed reviews on claiming with them.  Having talked about this with a friend who owns a panel shop which does insurance work, his comment was:  “They are all pretty terrible these days, but they are probably still the best to deal with”.   Having said that, my experience was very good and I was able to put my claim in quickly, and choose my repairer.

I took the car to be assessed recently.  The bumper bar took most of the impact, and we’ve found a good second hand bumper cover in Melbourne, minus the impact strip.   There is a small amount of damage to the paint underneath the tail light, so the rear quarter will need to be painted.   The tail light also has a crack.   Still, this should easily be doable in the insured value of the car.