Jetta Vandalised...help!

[Blitzen]

I'll cop that young drivers are more likely to have accidents, but start to drop the premiums earlier, let a 21 year old who has been driving for four years incident free get the same premium as an older driver... and dont get me started on NSW green slips...

AAMI did a study in 2005/06 that found that women aged between 55 and 65 were more likely to have an at fault accident then male drivers aged between 17 and 25. I don't see why the excesses are so high.
Another thing at got me was RACV(though which I had my last car when I live in Victoria)said that I would have a lower premium if I was to do a RACV endorsed defensive driving course, but they wouldn't tell me who to do it through, because they "weren't allowed to give out that information..."

[Maverick]

I agree with both of you, it's absolute BS that the companies can charge an "age excess" for a not at fault accident, some insurers will some wont. This sort of thing really pisses me off and I mean really.

I never said I had a problem with age excesses, I'm all for them and any other excesses that insurers want to put on policies.

If you don't like it then go to another insurance company.

Even if the car is under ONLY a young drivers name they should be 100% exempt from age excess for not at fault claims like this. WHY do they list the age excess seperately if they are just going to hit you with it anyway? If "mum" had it nicked from the shops it's $500, but if sonny boy drove it there it's now $1,100?? WTF?

Because an older person is less likely to put the car into a situation where it could be damaged.

I pay less for my premium and have a non nominated driver excess of $450 and no coverage at all for under 25 drivers. Should I jump about because I choose the policy and it has these conditions?

Insurance companies really really get my goat. It's guilty until proven innocent (or until we find someone else to blame) in all cases. I'll cop that young drivers are more likely to have accidents, but start to drop the premiums earlier, let a 21 year old who has been driving for four years incident free get the same premium as an older driver... and dont get me started on NSW green slips...

No way, drivers under 25 are still at a higher risk. It takes 6 years to get to rating one and you can make it by 23 if you don't drive like an idiot. The system is fair and works fine the way it is, if you don't like it start your own insurance company.

If you act fairly towards the insurance company you will be treated the same in return, but if you lie and commit fraud then expect them to throw everything they have at you. I have no sympathy for those that insure a car in someone else's name in order to defraud the insurance company by paying a lower premium then they are entitled to.

Something like 20-25% of our premium is there because of those that commit fraud, I'm surprised that there are people in here willing to condone defrauding insurance companies given that it costs all the people who are paying insurance so much.

[stephen8512]

wow didnt know this was going to be such a hot issue

anyway, the reason why its under mums name and not mine is because it's not really my car. at the end of the day its still mums car but i do use it a bit more than she does. and im over 21 so its not like i was tryin to get a cheaper premium or anything like that

i called NRMA and they said that it will be covered under the insurance as i am listed on the policy as well. mum's no claim is protected they said.

But one thing that i think is a hassle is that i have to go to a vehicle assessment centre for my car to be "assessed" for damages this wednesday. Fair enough, I thought. I decided to go to the assessment centre first, then the smash repairs. Logical order I thought.

I had a particular smash repair in mind that I wanted to go to because they did such good work with my other car that I decided to go back to them and luckily, they are one of NRMA's approved smash repairers. When I called them up though, they said that I didn't need to go to the assessment centre first and that the "assessment" they do is just take photos of the damage done to my car. I could go to the smash repairers first, THEN go to the assessment centre. If your car is damaged, shouldnt the actual smash repairer ASSESS the damage so that they can see how long/how much the work is going to be?

Can someone please shed some light as to what the point of having an assessment centre is if all theyre going to do is take photos of the damage? seems pretty stupid to me

[peedman]

The nrma assessment centre is where they take pictures of ur car and then approved nrma repair centres then sorta bid/decide to repair ur car after looking at those pictures. It was in the news when it first started as ppl didnt like the idea.

[Maverick]

The nrma assessment centre is where they take pictures of ur car and then approved nrma repair centres then sorta bid/decide to repair ur car after looking at those pictures. It was in the news when it first started as ppl didnt like the idea.

I thought that they canned that idea?

Anyway it's basically the same as the AAMI system and you end up a poorly performed job done at bottom dollar. If there is a way to avoid having your car fixed this way I would take it.

Fortunately in this case the work is reasonably straight forward (bonnet and wiper arms) but there may be damage to the wiper mechanism which won't be known until they fit new arms (or the op removes the arms and turns them on).

[Breno]

wow didnt know this was going to be such a hot issue

anyway, the reason why its under mums name and not mine is because it's not really my car. at the end of the day its still mums car but i do use it a bit more than she does. and im over 21 so its not like i was tryin to get a cheaper premium or anything like that

i called NRMA and they said that it will be covered under the insurance as i am listed on the policy as well. mum's no claim is protected they said.

Sounds reasonable mate, well done for being listed on the policy. Seems Maverick has no sense of decorum, you should look it up in the dictionary Mav, might do you a world of good.

[Greg Roles]

I thought that they canned that idea?

Anyway it's basically the same as the AAMI system and you end up a poorly performed job done at bottom dollar. If there is a way to avoid having your car fixed this way I would take it.

Fortunately in this case the work is reasonably straight forward (bonnet and wiper arms) but there may be damage to the wiper mechanism which won't be known until they fit new arms (or the op removes the arms and turns them on).

I can't rate my last AAMI experience, with the initial assessment centre then panelbeater highly enough.

I pranged my FPV GT. Rear ended an old guy who stalled through an intersection. Anyhoo, the assessor guy was awesome, told me who the best panelbeater they had on their books was, and even promised to oversee the work personally as he was a fan of the car. I spent a year as a panelbeaters lackey after grade 10 before going back to school, and I had a really really good look over the repair job, and it was better than new. Better panel alignment, perfect paint, and full genuine parts used throughout. No way you could find a flaw, and I was looking where panelbeaters hope you won't!

The car was delivered back to me with only a bare few km's on it, and it hadn't been joy ridden, which is something even ford themselves couldn't offer me each service.

Perhaps I was just lucky, perhaps not.

[Maverick]

I can't rate my last AAMI experience, with the initial assessment centre then panelbeater highly enough.

....

Perhaps I was just lucky, perhaps not.

I've had quite a few experiences with AAMI over ~8-9 years and not one repair was satisfactory (both on the gold coast and brisbane)

Each claim had the car back multiple times, the last one had me arguing with the manager at the assessment center with him trying to tell me that Subaru must have installed the rear glass in the wagon on the passenger side 10mm out from the hatch and how could I prove that it wasn't like that from new

The fourth refit of the glass they scratched the tint but finally fitted it back in properly. Funny what happens when you remove the buildup of urethane.

Problem is that the work is done to the lowest price and the repairers have no time to go over the work, and most of the time they don't have to as AAMI have the customers pick the cars up from the repairers and most wouldn't know or care if the work was done properly.

So I'd say you were lucky to get someone who took an interest!

[Maverick]

{deleted text}

I ended up changing over to CGU insurance, 3 year new for old replacement if written off or stolen, choice of repairer and they seem to have a good reputation.

There's no other explanation except the repairers work on the basis that the owners will pick up the car and 9 times out 10 don't care as long as it looks ok. Even the bumper on my outback wasn't fitted correctly when I went to pick it up and it took the 2 hours to get it to fit along with heaps of cutting of the brackets on the bumper

Run away as fast as you can from AAMI if you value the repair being done correctly and try another company that lets you pick the repairers. I'm going to shipstone to get my car fixed next time by a company that put quality before quantity. No way I'm going through what I did with my Subaru with my GTI.

[Big Yellow]

Just FYI, my first two cars I drove on my P's, I was listed as an additional driver under my dad's name with RACV.

I'm 23 now, and when I insured my R32 with RACV, I was given rating 1, and will have Rating 1 for life if I make no claims for this year's policy.