Advice Needed After Accident Repair.

[leighbee1]

Hi Folks,
On the 13th December I had a Landrover discovery come out of a side road and hit my car (bought new in March 2013) in the side.
My insurance company said it was partly my fault Admiral) but to cut a long story short, the lady that hit me admitted liability and her insurance (direct line) started to handle the claim.
They (UK Assistance) collected my car and gave me a new BMW X5 for a courtesy car.
I had put LED daytime running lights into the Audi as I am not keen on the halogen ones that come with it and one was damaged.
UK assistance phoned me and told me it needed a new door, wing, bumper, headlamp, wheel, tyre & suspension parts and the bonnet re spraying.
Despite them saying my car would be delivered back to me on the 7th Jan, they delivered it back to me at 2100 on the 9th.
Having inspected the car today in the day light, despite them telling me that the LED lamp has been repaired, it does not work properly, only lighting the tip.
The wing also does not fit properly, fitting tight up against the windscreen pillar compared with the other side and where the bumper to the right of the grill, there is a wider gap where it meets the bonnet compared to the left hand side of the grill.
The steering wheel is not quite straight when driving in a straight line either.
I am going to phone Direct Line on Monday and kick up stink, I am considering getting an independent engineers report on the repairs.
The car is 8 months old and cost me £33000 so I don't think I should accept shoddy repairs.
I am even thinking they used pattern parts.
Any advice would be appreciated.

[dmbhunt]

You are entitled to have the car back as good as before the accident, more especially a premium car such as yours. Tell Direct Line that if they do not reinspect and rectify to your satisfaction you will issue small claims court proceedings in 14 days time - you can easily do this yourself through your local court. If things get this far remember to claim for replacement vehicle, your time as well as reports and repairs. You also need to take lots of photos of the repairs and send copies to Direct Line pointing out what the issues are. they will need to take the standard of repairs up with their preferred repairer. Frankly with such a high value car I would have insisted on using the dealership. Good Luck