Looking forward to driving the car on the Samruddhi Expressway this weekend.
BHPian ndp88 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Hello everyone, update here. Not a happy one. Got delivery today and as we were bringing home a brand new car making the last turn, some underage kid dashed it from behind tearing apart the rear bumper. He was without a licence, driving without headlight in his XUV700.
The panel is broken. Taking it to the Honda Service Centre tomorrow. I think Replacement is the only option here. Any idea how much this will cost?
Repair update:
Since this Car was a gift, we wanted to drive it down over the weekend and present ourselves to father in our hometown. That is why Delivery on Gudi Padwa was critical (which took a different fight altogether with the dealer). And so after the whole ordeal of the accident late into the night, I was convinced that now I needed to get the Panel replaced by checking with ASC tomorrow. We were thoroughly disheartened and kept wondering why this happened to us. But I was confident in my heart that the decision to forgive the kid was correct.
In the morning, I took a look at the car in full daylight. Fortunately, only the rear bumper was damaged and broken. No impact on the underbody guard quarter panel or wheel assembly body. My biggest worry was structural integrity and not the cosmetic look. Again by god’s grace, there was no serious damage to the structure and only the Fibre Plastic part was damaged. In my assessment, the kid was at speed and tried to control impact at the last moment by breaking, a steep right-turn to the steering wheel. Had it been a full 180-degree impact, maybe the car would’ve been pushed ahead and damage would have been everywhere from the Boot panel to the entire back body. Maybe airbags might’ve also been deployed. I felt grateful that no major accident happened both of us were safe, no injury to anybody else either.
I called Viva Honda (where I purchased) for Service centre contact before I actually drove down, in case of appointment is required. Perhaps it was too early for them, and nobody called back after promising a call-back. Then I called another Honda ASC, the girl promptly directed the call to the Service site head who took down the details. I sent photographs etc. He reached out immediately after 10-15 minutes, saying the Panel needs to be replaced which costs 15k+ GST including painting, labor, and everything. The only catch is the part is not available, and would take 3 days for stock availability. I called another Centre and they also said part is not available in Mumbai altogether. Strange.
So in meanwhile, I had already registered an Insurance claim late last night. Now I was confused mind, what to do. It was important to me the panel be fixed immediately as our travel plans were aligned accordingly. But good repair was also extremely important. Another factor was claiming Insurance, this would’ve meant letting go of the No Claim Bonus and adding accident history to the Car within the first 24 hrs. While I am not averse to claiming insurance and have done so in past, the above factors were important as well. One may disagree, but avoiding the claim was my personal preference.
I decided to bring my local garage guy just to get an opinion on repair. He examined it and showed readiness to fix it. I quizzed him for half an hour as to how the process would go and to what extent he could fix it. He showed me a few example videos of past jobs. He assured me that if the progress is not up to satisfaction, I can withdraw and go for full panel replacement. It seemed like a good idea to try at least. I was worried about the broken patch of the bumper, even though the damage was limited to only a small area. I made up my mind and gave go-ahead. Since the damage was limited to fibre plastic, I thought this could be fixed.
What followed was 8 hours of gruelling job, which I personally sat throughout with each technician till the Car was fixed. It became good as new. Nobody could tell (except me) if there was any damage to the bumper. These chaps did amazing work, must appreciate their skills. Such a job typically takes 2-3 days to complete, but guys were willing enough to put aside other tasks and focus on this one car alone.
Only polishing work was pending, which I got done a day later since you need to let the surface dry a little more and settle. I was overall satisfied with the repair, there was no sign of damage or shoddy fix. The whole thing cost me 6.5K, I didn’t take compensation from anybody. By looking at the result of the repair, I had already forgotten the whole unpleasant experience of last night. I was happy again. I was looking forward to weekend and driving this beautiful baby on the Samruddhi Expressway.
Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
