[bravo82in]

Take the lead. Email all the police officers (SP, SSP, DIG, IG etc, Email id available online) giving details of the accident and that man is trying to threaten and extort money from you, despite it not being your father's fault. He may have a local contact in police but once the matter reaches higher up no one is going to hold his hand.

Even if he files a police complaint (no one will register FIR for a scratch, Police officers always want to show that crime is low in their area) he will be on the back foot.

[vinya_jag]

Thanks everyone, for your suggestions. This gave me a lot of ammunition and confidence to go back to him. I had sincere doubts on this kind of a situation as all my previous experiences were ones where our cars had suffered.

Had a couple of conversations with the Creta person. Tried to convince him about taking it to Ignite Automotive Sahakarnagar (Which I am very familiar with, and where we had our Alto painted a year ago) and ask for a second opinion on getting it repainted. I was also planning to go there anyway, as I had to clear off this and a few other bumper bruises.

His idea is to clear the dents and make it as new as earlier, and yet have no claim history on his insurance, so that it doesn't ever surface up (Clean slate). I tried convincing that an expert will know as soon as s/he looks at a repainted panel, that it has been repainted, and there will be no way that it can go unnoticed at the time of sell.

We even discussed the thirdparty proposal of his, that he claims thirdparty from our insurance provider, but I filled the doubt in his mind that he might not get what he expects if we did so. (His revised proposal was 70% of Hyundai full door repainting cost)

For now, I am waiting for his next call after his discussions with his friends. Happy to take him along with me to our preferred place, or any other of his choice. (A few months back, I did actually take our Polo to Ignite, to get the rear bumper repainted, as there was a bad paint chip off, and I also showed off a small pierce mark on the body, which he dismissed saying, who would rapint an original for this small dent). I am mostly sure, a second opinion should deter him from getting the full door repaint done.

Will post updates here.

[vinya_jag]

Was at Ignite today, gave our Polo for bumper repaint. Rear bumper now has a hole in it, from the original repaint, and has a black spot as big as a couple of inches wide. Front one too had some scratches at the bottom, and the recent one had given it a couple of black streaks.
Enquired about the Creta repaint, and he gave a quote of 6K.
So called up the creta person and suggested that he could take this option, but he insisted he wanted to go with Hyundai. So settled on 7.5 (I was only offering 6, but had to settle on 7.5), for the reason that my father had initially agreed to pay up.

He probably feels, he shouldn't pay up even a penny as it was entirely the other person's fault, and I ended my conversation that it cannot be one person's fault.

I still have a lot of doubts on what he is trying to achieve. I hope he gets it done within 15, and it does look a part of the car. But still am curious what happens to it in a few months.

A couple of things I learnt - There is no 1 value where each person is satisfied in such situations.
Each person has a narrative that is not okay to the other

[jkrishnakj]

Pay nothing. Ask him to do what he thinks is appropriate. Police won’t and can’t do nothing. If he wants to remove the small indents, he can claim insurance.

From being in a nasty accident and being friends with the police, I still couldn’t do anything despite the other car not having a valid insurance and fitness. This is just nothing and what ever he says are empty threats. Walk away.

[J2022]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

Was at Ignite today, gave our Polo for bumper repaint. Rear bumper now has a hole in it, from the original repaint, and has a black spot as big as a couple of inches wide. Front one too had some scratches at the bottom, and the recent one had given it a couple of black streaks.
Enquired about the Creta repaint, and he gave a quote of 6K.
So called up the creta person and suggested that he could take this option, but he insisted he wanted to go with Hyundai. So settled on 7.5 (I was only offering 6, but had to settle on 7.5), for the reason that my father had initially agreed to pay up.

He probably feels, he shouldn't pay up even a penny as it was entirely the other person's fault, and I ended my conversation that it cannot be one person's fault.

I still have a lot of doubts on what he is trying to achieve. I hope he gets it done within 15, and it does look a part of the car. But still am curious what happens to it in a few months.

A couple of things I learnt - There is no 1 value where each person is satisfied in such situations.
Each person has a narrative that is not okay to the other

I believe you did the right thing. Your father did give his word (rightly or wrongly) and in my subjective opinion was at fault for being the car at the rear.

It's a tragedy that so many on this forum encourage you to go back on his word (or worse, file a police complaint, etc.).

As someone familiar with Indian roads the fact that this was handled without a stressful round of bickering or blows (or worse) is itself commendable.

[Tifosi2306]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

I just want to do the right thing. Need advice from fellow BHPians on this and similar instances. I even convinced him that I would ask my expert friends on Team BHP and then decide

You can choose to walk away if he insists on you paying the entire amount of 15k. When there's no bodily injuries, once the vehicles have left the scene of accident, Police cannot entertain any complaints (even more so for a minor scratch). If he calls and irritates / threatens just record calls (while staying polite in your responses) and warn him of lodging a harassment complaint with Police. My cousin had a similar incident where my cosuin was at fault. We paid him 10k (the damage to his Ertiga caused by my cousin's Altroz was severe) and asked him to settle his remaining damages with his insurance company. He kept calling with threats, we recorded the calls and shared them with him on WhatsApp stating we will be lodging a complaint. His tone changed from threatening to pleading for settlement befire finally giving up.

[Cresterk]

It appears there are 2 possibilities:

1. The guy is a gullible idiot and this 'friend' at the service center is taking advantage of it to squeeze 15k out of him for something that might take 500 rs to fix outside.

2. The guy knows what he is doing and is purposefully trying to extort 15k out of you by asking a friend that works at a dealership to make up an inflated bill.


Either way, tell him to pound sand.

[VKumar]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

We just walk away saying that it wasn't our fault.

Bro, you needed to simply tell him "go and do whatever you wish and whatever you can".

First of all, the cops wouldn't have filed a case for this. Secondly, you could have simply said that my father was threatened for physical violence by this man, hence he agreed and now is unwell since the time on incident.

Any sane man knows that FIR means both the vehicles are to be inspected and then entire process has to be followed - which cops won't do at any cost.

It's surprising how some people just go overboard, recently we too had a similar experience - but polar opposite. In our case, we compensated the other party instantly, he claimed insurance, adjusted his NCB and surprised us by refunding our money back!

Have shared it here:https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ml#post5511812 (Unusual / funny / heartwarming experiences on the road)

[apramey]

After seeing the pictures, even if you pay up the whole 15k, chances are that the other party will just pocket it and do nothing. After a polish, like you said the dents will not be noticeable.

The fairest way to settle this is you claim your insurance and get your car fixed, he does his, like some of the members have said. There is nothing he can do here. If he lodges a complaint, the actual way this will get settled will be, the case would goto court, if the court rules in his favour which i think is highly unlikely, the third party coverage of your insurance will pay for his damages, if he finally decides to actually get it repaired. He will not be able to pocket you any money if heddecides to go the legal way and hence in my opinion he won't lodge a complaint.

I have gotten some minor dents/scratches corrected in my old car from independent repair body shops, and let me tell you 5hese kind of defects don't cost more than 1.5-2k to correct.

On a side note- I would refrain from correcting such minor dents/scratches because that usually warrants tinkering/repaint of a significantly larger area, which will in turn make the repainted area look different from surroundings.The darker the colour, wierder the surroundings look after repaint, from my experience.

[SeshSrini]

Not sure if you would have already actioned on this. I had a similar experience
With my Aspire when it was backended by a drunk Etios cab.

What i have learnt is if you approach the police both the owners will have to
Leave their cars behind in the police station for a FIR to be registered
What happens when you leave the cars
Behind is anybody's guess. Run to court all of this will happen
If one of them is ok for this ordeal
then nothing could be done
Sanity is to get the claims invoked
and move on. Every one knows this process unless someone acts smart
and wants to make a quick buck

[ashkamath]

In India we drive on the left lane and there's something called the right of way or ROW. By law, we are mandated that we overtake from the right side of the slower moving car / car in front and never overtake from left side.

So, it's always the duty of every driver/ rider to give way to the vehicle on their right lane/side and not block their way. So while a driver has the liberty to veer left, he doesn't have the same liberty when a vehicle is approaching him from the right. The premise is that everyone overtakes from right side and hence veering to the left is relatively safer option than veering to the to the right. (Ofcourse in India no one follows rules and vehicles overtake both from left & right). I am just speaking of the right of way here from legal perspective.

In your father's incidence, please remember that your father legally has the right of way. The white creta driver, once he sees your father's red car in his rear view mirror should have slowed down and ceased turning right till your father's car has passed him. This is akin to your father is trying to pass creta on it's right side legally and the creta driver blocked the way.

So, technically your father should lodge an FIR or claim compensation instead of the other way. Please remember the Right of Way in India is on the right side and creta was wrong to block your way.

In my opinion no compensation whatsoever needs to be paid. Actually it's the other way. Your father should get enraged and demand compensation from the creta driver. I am speaking the simple legal matter here. So just walk away and tell creta driver to do whatever he wants to. Don't pay a dime. Don't give in. Moreover it's just a small brush up in a very heavy traffic situation. The creta driver should have been courteous and let it go. Now turn the table on him. Legally he was supposed to stop or veer to his left and allowed your father to pass which he didn't do. This won't hold any water in police station or a court of law. So don't pay instead ask him to compensate for your car damages.

[pradeepkc]

That could likely be fixed with PDR (paintings dent removal) and it probably won't cost more than 2k. Worth looking into it.

Regardless, if you are offering to repair, I wouldn't pay more than 3K for that. Tell him it's either that much compensation or getting it fixed at a place you know.

There are a few posts on our forum about PDR https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...ml#post1723218 (Paintless Dent repair)