A lifestyle magazine, which lives in your smartphone!

What Happens When You Crash Your Motability Car?

Motoring

Recently I had to google, “what happens when you crash your Motability car”, and the results weren’t very helpful. So I figured I’d do something about that. I shared earlier last year that we’d got a Peugeot 3008 GT Line. What I didn’t mention at the time was that this was my son’s Motability car.

Last August, I was involved in an accident, and caused significant damage to the passenger side. Thankfully nobody was injured, and it was a straight forward process to report the accident to the insurers. Read on to find out what happens when you crash your Motability car, and the process you should follow.

What Happens When You Crash Your Motability Car?

If you’re unlucky enough to be involved in an accident in your Motability car, the first thing you need to do is make sure nobody is injured. If they are, you should call an ambulance. Additionally, if the other driver leaves the scene without handing over their insurance details, call 101 to report the incident.

How my Accident Happened

I know you’re wondering what I did, so I’ll come clean… I parked in the disabled bay outside the shop and ran in quickly for milk. My son was in the car at the time. When I got back into the car, there was a vehicle parked across the carpark, meaning I couldn’t drive straight out of my bay. Upon checking my mirrors, I saw nothing but the empty bay on the passenger side, so made the call to cut across the empty bay to exit.

Unfortunately for me, there were low level bollards which were below my wing mirror’s line of sight, so I drove right into them. This caused significant damage to both my front and rear door panels and wheel trims. OOPS! This was what lead to me googling, “what happens when you crash your Motability car”.

What Happens When You Crash Your Motability Car? - a checklist

Get The Details Of Any Other Involved Parties

If any other vehicles are involved, make sure you get their details. The same goes for any witnesses, or if (like me) you damage property, make sure you get the owner’s details. Try to take photos of the damage on all of the vehicles. This may be required later on. It’s an important step, when wondering what happens when you crash your Motability car.

Is Your Vehicle Drivable?

If your car is drivable (like mine was), head home and then call RSA Motability to report the accident on 0300 037 3737.

Should your vehicle be undrivable, call the RAC on 0800 73 111 73 or 0333 202 1878 for roadside support. If you’re in the Republic of Ireland, call 1800 535 005. They are available 24/7, so hopefully you’ll be towed as soon as possible.

Contacting RSA Motability After An Accident

When you call, you’ll be asked for your customer number. Don’t panic if you don’t have this to hand. Your policy can be found with your personal details too. They’ll ask lots of questions about the accident and decide whether or not repairs need to be made.

What is the Motability Car Insurance Excess?

The insurance excess on a UK Motability policy is currently £100. So if repairs are required, you have to pay that towards the cost. If your vehicle is still drivable (as mine was), you’re given the option to not have the repairs done.

It is worth remembering the £600 “Good condition bonus,” you get back at the end of your 3 year Motability car lease. If you don’t have the repairs done, chances are, you won’t get the £600. So by paying the £100 excess, you’re saving yourself £500 in the long run. (Assuming you have no more accidents). This is an important factor when considering what happens when you crash your Motability car.

Car Accident Scene Checklist

Arranging The Repairs

After speaking to RSA Motability, they transferred me to the local repair centre. They arranged to bring me a courtesy car the following week, and drive away my damaged car for repair. Be sure to tell them of any adaptations your Motability vehicle has, so they can do their best to provide a suitable vehicle.

I was advised to remove any equipment I had added to our car. (This included my dash cam, my son’s safety harness and my mobile phone charger etc). The £100 payment was taken by them over the phone at this point. (Via my debit card).

Courtest Car

When I was booking the repairs, they asked me did I need any moderations in the vehicle. I explained the car needed to be 5 door and the back seats needed to drop so I could fit my son’s harness, and they said that was fine. The courtesy vehicle I was issued with was a 69 plate Vauxhall Corsa. It was tiny, and fuelling it cost a fortune, but it was far better than having no car for the 5.5 weeks it took to repair our car though.

My vehicle was collected on the agreed day, and 5 and a half weeks later, it was returned to me, looking all shiny and new. I was kept updated via text on the repair status, as covid caused issues sourcing some of the required parts.

So there you have it – a full breakdown of what happens when you crash your Motability car. Fingers crossed you’ll never need this info, though.

PS I am linking this post up with day 6 of #Blogtober. The prompt is “she drives you crazy,” so I think this fits in nicely.

#Blogtober20

 

Comments (7):

  1. Kim Carberry

    06/10/2020 at 12:40 pm

    So sorry to hear about your accident.
    How interesting to read. It sounds like everything was straightforward and easy to deal with. x

    Reply
    • Tina @ GirlsGospel

      06/10/2020 at 1:58 pm

      Thank you. It was definitely easier than I expected it to be xx

      Reply
  2. Samantha Donnelly

    06/10/2020 at 12:41 pm

    Accidents happen the main thing is nobody is hurt, but knowing the right thing to do in an accident is good to know

    Reply
    • Tina @ GirlsGospel

      06/10/2020 at 1:58 pm

      Thank you! Yep – It was a lot less stressful to sort it than I anticipated xx

      Reply
  3. Anne

    06/10/2020 at 9:38 pm

    I love how efficient Motability are after an accident. Sadly, we had three accidents with our last car, in one I was blue lighted to hospital. The car really took a bashing and while it was being fixed someone crashed into the back of our courtesy car. The other time it was hit while stationary outside our home by a van who tried to U turn in our small cul-de-sac.

    Reply
  4. Paul

    17/12/2023 at 12:58 am

    I was in the left lane, two lanes merge into one car on my right moved to close to over take me all cought on dash cam her car at an angle in front clearly see driver at fault but yet I still have to pay excess I only just found out a week ago

    Reply
    • Tina @ GirlsGospel

      19/12/2023 at 4:33 pm

      Sadly, this is the case for any motorist, not just Motability drivers. I hope everyone was ok.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *