car accident
Posted: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:10 pm
Hi,
I've been scanning the archives looking for into. about protocol on car accidents, but my dilemma is this. We got hit earlier today by a taxi driver, blatantly his fault, as he failed to stop at a stop sign and ploughed into us. Actually we were nearly past him already on the main road when he just continued out and slammed into the rear end. He apologized and begged us not to report it, as he said he will get a "demerit" from the taxi company (blue cab), and begged us to use a guy he knows that will do the work for much cheaper than where we wanted to take it (bukit merah, where thanks to the suggestions on this forum, I took it to have a scratch buffed out).
So we followed the guy to upper thompson road, and along the way I notice the car isn't driving the same, quite sluggish and low pick-up. So we get up to the 4th level of some building and sure enough the guy was there, looked at it, and couldn't give an estimate on the spot. He did point out though that the whole back wheel was caved in, which must be causing the labored drive. He also said it would take 3 days to repair, and nobody is quite sure who is going to provide or pay for a rental car for us.
We just bought this car a month ago from KIA, and we are now torn between taking it to the taxi guys guy, or just reporting it to KIA and having the work done there. My husband and I both feel bad for this taxi guy, as he is older and probably just trying to survive driving his taxi. We don't want him to suffer demerits or high premiums on his insurance, but we also don't want to encounter any unanticipated problems with this later on. However, we plan to trade the car back to the dealer in 3 years time, as is apparently the norm here, so maybe it would be in our best interest not to have an accident on the record. Or, if this guy does a crappy job, we could be in a worse situation with Kia later on.
Any thoughts or suggestions much appreciated. We have to decide by tomorrow.
Thanks.
I've been scanning the archives looking for into. about protocol on car accidents, but my dilemma is this. We got hit earlier today by a taxi driver, blatantly his fault, as he failed to stop at a stop sign and ploughed into us. Actually we were nearly past him already on the main road when he just continued out and slammed into the rear end. He apologized and begged us not to report it, as he said he will get a "demerit" from the taxi company (blue cab), and begged us to use a guy he knows that will do the work for much cheaper than where we wanted to take it (bukit merah, where thanks to the suggestions on this forum, I took it to have a scratch buffed out).
So we followed the guy to upper thompson road, and along the way I notice the car isn't driving the same, quite sluggish and low pick-up. So we get up to the 4th level of some building and sure enough the guy was there, looked at it, and couldn't give an estimate on the spot. He did point out though that the whole back wheel was caved in, which must be causing the labored drive. He also said it would take 3 days to repair, and nobody is quite sure who is going to provide or pay for a rental car for us.
We just bought this car a month ago from KIA, and we are now torn between taking it to the taxi guys guy, or just reporting it to KIA and having the work done there. My husband and I both feel bad for this taxi guy, as he is older and probably just trying to survive driving his taxi. We don't want him to suffer demerits or high premiums on his insurance, but we also don't want to encounter any unanticipated problems with this later on. However, we plan to trade the car back to the dealer in 3 years time, as is apparently the norm here, so maybe it would be in our best interest not to have an accident on the record. Or, if this guy does a crappy job, we could be in a worse situation with Kia later on.
Any thoughts or suggestions much appreciated. We have to decide by tomorrow.
Thanks.