Rear Ended - Now Have Problems With Tiptronic 'box

[Sky Insurance]

Hi,

just after some advice.. it's a bit of a long shot I guess.

A friend of a staff member owns a 2005 Toyota t3-x semi auto(tiptronic) 2000cc Avensis. The car was rear ended and ever since the gearbox has been broken. The third party's insurer are refusing to accept that the gearbox was damaged as a result of the accident and will not consider paying out until they see some evidence of the fact the 'box was damaged in the accident. They are asking for an engineers report.

The info below is all I have:

the Toyota was hit in the rear whilst it was moving and since then the gears are broken. No reverse and the forward gears, keeps slipping out of gear and the engine goes into high revs. then when the revs come down in then slips back into gear again.

But currently it is certainly not road worthy!

Can any of you experts advise?? Has anyone heard of this happening before?

Thanks

Ollie

Sky Insurance

[Haylands]

Hi

I have heard of this happening several times with vehicles rear ended when driving along in gear, it puts undue shock loading on the internals of the gearbox, this will damage a lot of modern "clever" boxes...

Most engineers will be able to explain the reason behind it.... Try the AA or RAC they should have dealt with this before...

As an aside, how can the insurance company deny responsibility, the car had to work before the accident or it wouldn't have been on the road in the first place, now it doesn't.... I thought the onus was on them to prove that damage didn't happen not for the insured to prove it did.... insurance ombudsman I think....

Pete

[Parts-King]

It depends what the original engineers report said. Was it mentioned on his report? Did the car ever go back on the road or has it been stuck in the repairers? If it is still off the road, the engineer can come back and look at it again, if it went back on the road it might be a little more tricky. If all else fails, pay for an independant engineers report and see what it says. The insurance company must have a valid reason for rejecting the claim, otherwise sue them!

Kingo