I bought a 3 litre Citroen XM from citroenxm (Fellow Club XM member) on Thursday in North Wales, and on the drive home, around Junction 35 Lancaster on the M6, there was quite a serious accident.

I saw lights on the motorway in funny positions, so i slowed down to about 20mph, and managed to swerve around the wagon that was on its side, then once i had passed it, there was a bloody great exhaust silencer in the middle lane, there was another artic in the inside, and debris all over the outside, so i had to go over it it was so quick i couldn't even come to a stop before it, after going over it, there was a scraping from the car, and it has ripped the fuel tank mounting bracket in half, leaving my tank swinging in the breeze according to the AA man with 15 gallons of petrol in it, and it has also hit the sump and cracked it too

The AA refused to take it home as it was classed as accident damage not a breakdown, so the recovery guy took it to a garage that charged £15 a day to store it in there car park, and dropped us off at Lancaster station at 4.30am, the train to Glasgow was at 6.30am After arriving home at 10.00, we had to get a car transporter trailer, hitch it to dads Discovery and go fetch it home.

When we got there, they wanted to charge us £25 for opening the garage to get us the keys (the guy lived next door to it) and £15 for a days storage.

When we dropped it at the garage this morning, turns out that it has cracked the sump, and ripped the fuel tank brackets. Thank god i have the parts from the one i am breaking for spares.

All this was only about 4 hours after i picked up the car too

Sorry for the long post.
Rant Over.
David.

Get a police report. Who ever the cops say is responsible will reimburse you.

But the guy who was responsible will then make me tell my insurance who would of written the car off wouldn't they?

Regards
David.

I think I'm right when I say the ins. co of the person who damaged your car are on the hook, legally they are required to put you back in the same condition you were in before their insured damaged your car..

Contact them directly. I wouldn't go near my ins. co.

Ask that the car either be repaired to the condition it was in prior to the accident or that they give you a cash settlement and let you keep the car.

I'm not a solicitor, but have done this twice myself.

I did this because once I had to sort out a £1,500 claim AFTER my ins. was notified and couldn't be bothered to investigate. They were prepared to settle "knock for knock" with the clearly guilty party (with me losing my no claims bonus) rather than spend a little time to see that the other guy was at fault.

my 2.5 was run over by a bin wagon.the police were not interested,the C,A,B, wernt interested my insurance company just wrote it off over the phone, so i claimed the scrap back and got £1,100,quid in my pocket out of, them then put a claim in to my local council for injurys,,(no win no fee) i said that when it ran over the front of my car it squished the front down and the steering wheel spun round and wrenched my shoulder and thumb as i had my hand through the small gap between the spokes on the wheel (S2 wheel) it took a year but i got another £2,700quid for the wait, then i set about repairing my car, it took a couple of days to get the bits off my spare cars then two days to put them on my 2.5, then i rang my isurance company and told them i wanted to re insure my 2.5 and they said it was writen off so i said yes but only by your incompitence, and it has been VIC tested and mot tested ,so they coverd it ,and gues what, i got a discount about a month later,from £640.00, down to £420.00, and thats with a drink drive conviction,so dont be affraid to embelish the truth to get your car fixed, caus i have allmost got my insurance company to think my car is a cherrished/future /classic car, also the specialist that the insurance company sent me to said that i might have problems in the future with my thumb joint and put it in writing for the solicitors, so who knows,,, if i get short of cash?????,dont foget the insurance companys wil use any excuse to get out of payingout, ie, you did not tell us you have a tow bar? you have air horns? your nearside wing is the wrong colour?you have changed the tyres?you have put pinstripes on it? etc ,etc,

i got a letter from there insurance company a week or two ago, admitting liability, so i posted off an invoice for transportation costs, repair costs, and a little bit for inconvienience.

Regards
David.