Insurance for 2024 S650 Mustang

[Deano1978]

It should be legislated that Aussie companies must have their call centers here, not in some offshore sh1thole.

I guess it comes down to whether you want your bill to go up significantly to do that.

In my industry we offshore CAD and design work to India and SE Asia cause the hrly rate is about a 1/4 of using a local. The quality is shit and needs a local to tidy it up but it helps when competing in a saturated market.

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[bfets]

Hey guys, just wanted to share a bit of a horror story (with a good ending, luckily) about what happened with my son's car recently.

He’s with Budget Direct and had a low-speed front-end smash. We first got the car back about two weeks ago, but the repair quality was honestly a disgrace. Here’s a bit of what we found, and I'll attach some photos of the car AFTER the first round of repairs:

• Overspray on the grille, headlights, and fender liners.
• The engine bay was caked in sanding dust and they left old, broken parts in the boot.
• Bare metal left completely unpainted/unrepaired where the panels had shifted.
• The front lip was missing entirely—they just didn't put it back on!
• The bonnet was misaligned with paint flaking off and a visible crack, sitting high on one side, and the paint on the bumper was full of dust nibs and orange peel.

To top it off, the AC was dead. I sent it straight back a week ago to get it all rectified, but that’s when the real fight started. Instead of just fixing their mess, the assessor called me and tried to shut me down on the AC.

Even though it worked perfectly on the day of the crash, and I had the dealer service paperwork from two months ago proving it was 100%, he told me point-blank they weren't paying. He claimed the crash "didn't cause it" and told me that "making a formal complaint won't make a difference" because the complaint would just end up back on his desk anyway.

I wasn’t having that. I told him fine, if he wouldn't budge, I’d be taking the whole thing to AFCA (the ombudsman).

You wouldn’t believe how fast his tune changed. About an hour later, he calls my son back acting all friendly, claiming he "got confused" and thought we were talking about the engine cooling system, not the AC. Absolute rubbish—he’d specifically mentioned the compressor and gas being full in the first call!

Anyway, once he realized I wasn't going to just go away and that I had the paperwork to back up the car's condition, they suddenly found a way to fix everything. We finally got the car back today with the AC ice cold and the bodywork actually looking like it should.

Just wanted to put this out there for anyone with a Mustang or any car they actually care about. These aren't exactly "budget" and these insurers really try to weasel out of the technical stuff. If you're with them, keep every service receipt you have and don't be afraid to mention the ombudsman if they start giving you the runaround.

 

[Frogdog1]

One thing people had better have is at least a million dollar umbrella liability policy. They aren't expensive but they can be needed in this stupid litigious society we've created by "educating" too many lawyers that aren't needed. However, when a good lawyer is needed, there's no substitute for a good lawyer.

 

[N1T3MRE]

Hey guys, just wanted to share a bit of a horror story (with a good ending, luckily) about what happened with my son's car recently.

He’s with Budget Direct and had a low-speed front-end smash. We first got the car back about two weeks ago, but the repair quality was honestly a disgrace. Here’s a bit of what we found, and I'll attach some photos of the car AFTER the first round of repairs:

• Overspray on the grille, headlights, and fender liners.
• The engine bay was caked in sanding dust and they left old, broken parts in the boot.
• Bare metal left completely unpainted/unrepaired where the panels had shifted.
• The front lip was missing entirely—they just didn't put it back on!
• The bonnet was misaligned with paint flaking off and a visible crack, sitting high on one side, and the paint on the bumper was full of dust nibs and orange peel.

To top it off, the AC was dead. I sent it straight back a week ago to get it all rectified, but that’s when the real fight started. Instead of just fixing their mess, the assessor called me and tried to shut me down on the AC.

Even though it worked perfectly on the day of the crash, and I had the dealer service paperwork from two months ago proving it was 100%, he told me point-blank they weren't paying. He claimed the crash "didn't cause it" and told me that "making a formal complaint won't make a difference" because the complaint would just end up back on his desk anyway.

I wasn’t having that. I told him fine, if he wouldn't budge, I’d be taking the whole thing to AFCA (the ombudsman).

You wouldn’t believe how fast his tune changed. About an hour later, he calls my son back acting all friendly, claiming he "got confused" and thought we were talking about the engine cooling system, not the AC. Absolute rubbish—he’d specifically mentioned the compressor and gas being full in the first call!

Anyway, once he realized I wasn't going to just go away and that I had the paperwork to back up the car's condition, they suddenly found a way to fix everything. We finally got the car back today with the AC ice cold and the bodywork actually looking like it should.

Just wanted to put this out there for anyone with a Mustang or any car they actually care about. These aren't exactly "budget" and these insurers really try to weasel out of the technical stuff. If you're with them, keep every service receipt you have and don't be afraid to mention the ombudsman if they start giving you the runaround.

Good to see there seems to be consistency over the industry when it comes to repairs. Did a decent number on the lease car back in November when I took on an 8ft kangaroo in the rain at 3am in the morning.....patched the car and drove back to SEQ, to their credit, organised and got car into their repairer within 24hrs, and thats where it all fell apart.

While we didnt have the lease car, was using the DH to transit back and forth from SEQ to CQ, which turned from 1 swing to 3 swings. (up to 15000km, but enjoyed every second of the trip)

Were informed that the car was ready to pick up, nothing to sign, wife went to pick up car on way to work, when started had malfuction faults (no faults when the car dropped off for repair even with all the damage on the front)....they told her to take to Toyota and they will sort out - had to intervene (was at work) and told them to sort and drop back to our place when fixed as wife had lost half a day trying to sort this already.

Got home 2 weeks later, Christmas and all that, wife and daughters come home after a shopping trip and said it looked like the bonnet wasn't latched and flapping around and one of the girls had shinned herself on the side step when getting out of car......rolled eyes and went for a look and was stunned with the lack of quality of completed repair....the bumper was not even on the car straight and not bolted on, left light had brackets missing, grille inserts sitting in bumper and flapping in breeze, passenger side step only had 1 of 6 bolts holding it in, quarter panel misaligned, and bonnet way out of adjustment and latch about 20mm too high, wherever they could, they used the old parts to place in the new as old parts still covered in bugs from previous trip, and chrome trimmings missing from new bumper........the clincher for me was when I called the insurance company to let them know, I was told that I should not have called them, but given the repairer the right of reply before making any complaint......so car taken back to repairer, their assessor agreed with all the points that were raised, and once again another 2 weeks without a car as they had to order more parts to fix, then realign panels.

Get the phone call saying car ready for pick up again.....get to end of the street, and turn on left indicator and entire electrics in car has a spaz, and Left Headlight comes up as fault....take back and they say it was a blown fuse, but think they may have somehow mixed up the wiring.

For something that is of such a high cost, when it is actually required, it becomes such an arduous ordeal........with insurer preferred repairer, is it a case that they get paid regardless of workmanship as there are no checks and balances from insurance company........something that should have been completed within 2 weeks, took another 7 days to rectify plus extra parts, whats the chance they charged the insurance company for the extra time? Is this another reason why premiums are so high?

 

[prestj1]

Hey guys, just wanted to share a bit of a horror story (with a good ending, luckily) about what happened with my son's car recently.

He’s with Budget Direct and had a low-speed front-end smash. We first got the car back about two weeks ago, but the repair quality was honestly a disgrace. Here’s a bit of what we found, and I'll attach some photos of the car AFTER the first round of repairs:

• Overspray on the grille, headlights, and fender liners.
• The engine bay was caked in sanding dust and they left old, broken parts in the boot.
• Bare metal left completely unpainted/unrepaired where the panels had shifted.
• The front lip was missing entirely—they just didn't put it back on!
• The bonnet was misaligned with paint flaking off and a visible crack, sitting high on one side, and the paint on the bumper was full of dust nibs and orange peel.

To top it off, the AC was dead. I sent it straight back a week ago to get it all rectified, but that’s when the real fight started. Instead of just fixing their mess, the assessor called me and tried to shut me down on the AC.

Even though it worked perfectly on the day of the crash, and I had the dealer service paperwork from two months ago proving it was 100%, he told me point-blank they weren't paying. He claimed the crash "didn't cause it" and told me that "making a formal complaint won't make a difference" because the complaint would just end up back on his desk anyway.

I wasn’t having that. I told him fine, if he wouldn't budge, I’d be taking the whole thing to AFCA (the ombudsman).

You wouldn’t believe how fast his tune changed. About an hour later, he calls my son back acting all friendly, claiming he "got confused" and thought we were talking about the engine cooling system, not the AC. Absolute rubbish—he’d specifically mentioned the compressor and gas being full in the first call!

Anyway, once he realized I wasn't going to just go away and that I had the paperwork to back up the car's condition, they suddenly found a way to fix everything. We finally got the car back today with the AC ice cold and the bodywork actually looking like it should.

Just wanted to put this out there for anyone with a Mustang or any car they actually care about. These aren't exactly "budget" and these insurers really try to weasel out of the technical stuff. If you're with them, keep every service receipt you have and don't be afraid to mention the ombudsman if they start giving you the runaround.

Hey mate you willing to name the repairer as that work was rubbish...make sure I steer clear of them if I ever have an issue.

 

[bfets]

Hey mate you willing to name the repairer as that work was rubbish...make sure I steer clear of them if I ever have an issue.

PM sent

 

[bfets]

Hey guys, just wanted to share a bit of a horror story (with a good ending, luckily) about what happened with my son's car recently.

He’s with Budget Direct and had a low-speed front-end smash. We first got the car back about two weeks ago, but the repair quality was honestly a disgrace. Here’s a bit of what we found, and I'll attach some photos of the car AFTER the first round of repairs:

• Overspray on the grille, headlights, and fender liners.
• The engine bay was caked in sanding dust and they left old, broken parts in the boot.
• Bare metal left completely unpainted/unrepaired where the panels had shifted.
• The front lip was missing entirely—they just didn't put it back on!
• The bonnet was misaligned with paint flaking off and a visible crack, sitting high on one side, and the paint on the bumper was full of dust nibs and orange peel.

....

You cant make this crap up. So, we thought it was all good and then got this in the mail. The fight with incompetence continues....

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