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Hello, I hope someone can help me.
I parked at the beach, got my chair out the back using the hoist and went for a walk. When I returned the rear driver’s side tail light was broken and there are scratches underneath on the bodywork. If someone was driving behind me the tail light damage would not be easily seen.
No cars nearby, no note under the windshield. This is my first motability car, nearly 2 years old and I don’t know what to do.
Do I need to claim on the motability insurance? I can’t remember what my excess is. I’ve never been in an accident so my previous privately held insurance before this car had a no claims bonus for over 25 years.
Hope someone can help me out. Kind Regards, Daisy.
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Without seeing the damage it is difficult to say, however, I believe a broken tail light is broken, it could incur a penalty. The scratch could invalidate any good condition bonus, depending upon the severity. A slightly vague answer, but hopefully of some help.
you can either pay for a replacement yourself or contact the insurance and pay the £100 excess.
Kaiser is correct. The scratches will not invalidate your good condition bonus at the end of the lease but the broken light will. If it’s broken enough to show white light or if it’s stopped working it needs doing right away.
Can you post a close up picture. If the taillight is barley visible you likely won’t need to replace it and the few scratches as long as not down to bare metal wont invalidate the GCB
As others pointed out, you might get away with it as is – it depends. Without seeing the scratch/damage, it’s hard to make a prediction.
Despite what Wigwam says, scratches can and will impact your GCB depending on severity. If the scratch is down to the metal, as a rule of thumb, it needs doing. This is an actual measure from their “end of lease” inspection, they categorize scratches into three categories, and can be seen here.
Of course if the tail light is actually broken and not just scratched, it needs doing anyway for legal reasons – it’s not quite obvious from the way you phrased it. If the function is impacted, you risk being fined if police notices it, and it’ll fail MOT.
As kezo said, if you supply us with a picture, we could make a more accurate description.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.I had a bicycle pedal go down one side of my 1st scheme car, looked pretty bad. Rang RSAM and as was down not down to metal decided it would be left to the end of lease and I got the full gcb, didn’t pay no excess either.
Then on latest car I just give back it had a scratch all the way down the drivers side doors where I think someone keyed it, again it was not down to the metal and also someone reversed into the rear bumper with a tow bar and left a golf ball size indentation right on the edge, again I got my full gcb.
So imo unless it’s down to metal or major damage, ie cracked or broken or big dents it should not be an issue with the body work, regarding the gcb.
However you say the light is broken, this will probally need fixing if any of the bulb is showing or even if it’s just cracked water may get in it and that may cause further issues. One may even get pulled by the police depends how bad it is..
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