01/09/23 Cars, not myeloma

Yet again, there's just nothing new to say about my myeloma or my hip or anything else of medical note, except a bit of an Upper Respiratory Tract infection that hit just after the Writtle Jazz Festival. As usual with these things, the cough is still hanging on...

We had a (very) minor collision while my car was parked – fully inside the marked space – in a motorway service station car park. While we having a coffee inside a Citroen Berlingo drove into the space behind and didn’t stop in time. When we came back the Berlingo was right up against the back of my car, and the driver was in the back. She reversed away, the plastic panel below the boot lid popped back out, but the middle of the bumper below was left sticking out by just a millimetre or so. I tried to push it back but being reluctant to push too hard and risk more damage, failed.

Took the car to the Chelmsford dealer (a large national chain) for another job and asked them to quote for the bumper. They said the centre bracket was bent and needed replacing with a new one, and that meant removing and re-fitting the entire bumper. £30 for a new bracket, £163 for labour, and £18 for a box of rivets. Total including VAT £253.

Looking for a second quote, went to a well-known accident repair place in Chelmsford, which we’ve been happy with for a couple of small jobs in the past. Man got on the ground, had a look up, took some photos on an iPad, and said there’s no centre bracket there, what you need is a new bumper. We’ll email you a quote.

Quote didn’t arrive, receptionist on phone said we have to wait for the estimator to have a look.
Quote arrived. No mention of bumper replacement. Materials £30 – exactly the price of a new bumper bracket, and surely way too low for a complete new bumper. Total £262, and obviously the Estimator, who had at least half a dozen photos to look at, disagreed with the first man…

Did what I probably should have done in the first place and went to the small garage in the village where we used to live. He took a look, agreed that there is no centre bracket, and used his long experience to deliver a couple of well-judged thumps. The bumper is now perfectly back in place, at cost of precisely £0 – although I did give him another small job to make it worth his time.

So who can you trust? Very obviously it’s the main dealer that comes out of it worst. Draw your own conclusions…