Insurance advice: High repair cost for my 6-month-old XUV300

The repairs are costing me upwards of Rs 25,000

BHPian surya.roy2010 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I am new to this platform, also a first-timer in both owning a vehicle and claiming insurance. and I come to you to seek a piece of advice on Insurance claims.

Here's my case:

My XUV 300 (W8-Petrol (O) manual variant) is 6-month-old, I have logged approx. 4.5k KMs and have done my first servicing post 1k KM run.

Last weekend I travelled to my native and parked the car outside our farm (as illustrated in the image below), and came back in the morning to discover a broken DRL unit (the DRL seemed to have had an impact and it went inside the holder unit), also there were dents and scratches on the side panel atop the wheel (as illustrated), next to the DRL. The damage is on the left-hand side.

I am not sure, but I suspect maybe a tractor veered off and brushed against my vehicle sidewise. This however resembles more like a parking-related impact if one were to look at it.

After approaching my insurance provider (Bajaj Allianz General Insurance), I was instructed to visit the workshop today so that an assessor could evaluate the damage.

Although we arrived on time and as per directions of the service centre rep, no assessor was present and I was led to the service engineer handling claims. He inspected the vehicle; to my surprise, my brother and I were told that they would have to replace the entire DRL unit and also the panel, and it would cost Rs 25,000 /- upwards. Although I insisted that it be repaired, they said that they'd have to replace it, that's the only way "because" the holder unit was broken. Moreover, they suggested that I leave the vehicle as the repair could take 5-12 days, besides, they didn't have the spare part.

After talking some sense, we decided to take the car back home today and return once they have the spares in stock by next week. I am disappointed totally, and on researching the price of the DRL unit I see that it costs about 5K for both the pair, the DRL is working and the light itself didn't suffer any damage as such, still why would "replacing" the holder unit cost so much?

Also, I have a small dent and scratch on the left-hand side too (Govt bus in a busy road), across the petrol intake inlet. I wanted to get that fixed as well, was advised to raise a single claim and get it all fixed as it was all on the left-hand side. Since I had the impression if I don't claim things that I can live with, I get to utilize the No-Claim-Bonus and get a good deal during insurance renewal. What could be the best course of action to resolve this without any dispute and also get both the damages repaired under a single claim?

Please evaluate my images and provide me with some directions.

Here's what BHPian shancz had to say on the matter:

1. Seems like something more than just a parking brush up. If there's an internal housing which is a part of the unit, has broken they would change the unit. IMO it's better to change the entire unit since I can see some scathing on the lower portion of the headlamp cover. This might be a source of moisture entering the assembly and fogging up the headlamps later on and insurance won't cover it then.
   The insurance is going to pay for it, let them.
2. No claim bonus would mean a bonus for no claims, not partial ones. Although I haven't claimed any insurance in a long time so going by what I recollect and the literal meaning.
3. Just claim everything that you can and be done with it.

Remember for you it's the first time your brand new car got hit for the insurance guys it's a daily job. As long as your work gets done smoothly don't get disheartened by trivial stuff.

It happens, it might happen again, drive safe, keep safe and use the insurance as it was supposed to.

And spares are very expensive these days especially the projector, LED, DRL type of stuff.

Looking forward to a post-repair update from you

Here's what BHPian gkveda had to say on the matter:

I suggest you get a damage assessment done by another dealer without talking about 1st dealer assessment. As a thumb rule, If the total cost is less than 10K, then it's not worth going for an insurance claim. You will end up paying more through a claim bonus.

When you visit the dealer, tell him that you will not go for insurance for repairs. After dealer assessment, you can decide to go with an insurance claim or not.

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