Someone crashed into my parked car

The thought of a car accident can be daunting, but it can be even more stressful when you have to deal with insurance companies and repairs. In this video, I share my experience getting Christine (my Tesla Model 3) repaired after being hit by an inattentive driver. I walk you through the process from navigating insurance companies to getting a Tesla loaner courtesy car.

The Accident

On a sunny Sunday morning, I packed my Tesla Model 3, Christine, for an all-day dive trip. The dive boat had just returned to the harbour, and I was picking up lunch at a nearby food truck when he heard a loud crunch and saw a Nissan Navara truck plough into the back of my stationary car.

The car's rear bumper and boot lid had been crumpled - the boot lid was dented and cracked and could no longer be closed properly. The bumper sustained some damage, and navigating the insurance mess was the most worrying thing.

Handling Insurance

First things first, I asked the other party to exchange details. The other driver couldn’t (or wouldn’t) give him his name, only giving me his nickname. We are both from a small island community, and generally, nicknames with some context can work  - but he didn't want to give me his address or the name of his insurance company. Well, that wasn’t helpful. Tip 1: If you are at the scene of an accident, always swap details. If anyone is injured, call for an ambulance. An older gentleman who didn’t know his name sounded like he needed assistance, so I dialled 999.

I contacted his insurance company (thanks to the police for passing me his details) and was advised to file a claim. However, I did not want to risk damaging my no-claims discount, which I had accumulated over nine years without any previous accidents. Instead, I contacted a claims management company, Novo Insurance, which specializes in handling Tesla accidents. I emailed them on September 21st and received a call from Novo on September 22nd. Novo wanted to get me into a Tesla loan vehicle while they took care of Christine and said they'd call me back in two hours with details. I was keen to ask for a copy of the contract and agreements to check over.

Thanks to Tesla's Sentry Mode, Novo Insurance was happy to take on the job since it was an apparent "no-fault" accident. There was no dispute over the incident, making it clear-cut who was at fault.

Getting the Car Repaired

Within a few days, I sent over a copy of my driver’s license and a copy of the V5 logbook for Christine and returned their Credit Repair Agreement signed by Adobe Echosign. I also agreed with them that they would come to pick up Christine, and a driver would take her to a Tesla-approved body shop. Now, Tesla, at the time of the incident, only had one body shop in Dartford - on the other side of England. It was much more convenient to drive Christine to one of their closer third-party-approved body shops instead.

The driver arrived off the ferry early in the morning with a white Model 3 Long Range! We swapped keycards, and Diving Developer waved Christine off and drove away in a nearly identical Model 3.

The following week, Diving Developer received an email response from Tesla Dartford regarding costs to parts - £3,777.67 was their estimate, plus the labour fees.

The repairs were completed the following month, at the end of October, and Novo's driver brought Christine to the Sea Terminal. This time it was a different driver who hadn’t been to the Isle of Man before, and as soon as he drove out of the ferry terminal building, he got lost! Thanks to the Tesla App, Diving Developer found him in a car park. He was worried and more than a little surprised that I had magically located him ;)

Lessons Learned

I learned that although it is essential to have good insurance, your insurance is generally less about you and more about the other party. If you claim through your insurance, there’s every likelihood of damaging your no-claims discount and potentially flagging to your insurers that you or your vehicle are a higher risk. You must let them know, but you may not need to file a claim with your insurers. Even if you use a Claims Management Company - you must be patient and persistent - using tools like Notion can help. You don’t have to remember everything once it’s written down!

If you have an accident, collect as much evidence as possible - take video and photos at the time of the accident or before you send your vehicle away and do this again when you collect it. If you have a dashcam, that’s perfect - but regardless, you should collect as much evidence as you can of the incident at the time. As phone calls and emails build up, it’s easy to lose track of where you are in the process, so keep good-quality notes. I entered everything into Notion so that all the information was in one place. It also made researching the YouTube video easier too.

Please leave your own experiences or any tips you have in the comments of the YouTube video so that the Diving Developer community can learn from each other and help others who may find themselves in a similar situation.

Thanks for your time. I hope you found the video interesting and entertaining :-)

 - Mike