Originally Posted by Howitzer' post='876153' date='May 12 2009, 04:41 PM

You guys get parent and baby spots? WTF.

Originally Posted by neiltrowbridge' post='876045' date='May 12 2009, 09:44 AM

Hi all. My first post here on these forums. I've been lurking and reading the forum posts for some time now and found all the info I need, so thanks for that.

On Mothers Day back in March, I parked my car in a supermarket car park, in a parent and baby space (much wider than a normal space). We returned to the car 2 hours later to find that an 82 year old woman in a 1988 Renault 5 had driven into the rear quarter of the car and pushed it a metre out of the space. Good job we had parked in parent and baby, otherwise my car would have hit another car in the space next to it. I feel quite fortunate that we were not getting in or out of the car at the time as we often have our 2 year old daughter beside the car, and she would certainly have been squashed.

Anyway, the supermarket manager took the old dear's insurance details and looked after her until we came back. I took some pictures, then drove the car home with some rubbing of the wheel on the wheel arch.
I arranged for my local BMW dealer to carry out the repair and the insurance company arranged a courtesy car (E220 diesel Merc - uurgh) during the repair.
The repair took a few weeks, but I now have the car back and I am happy with the repair work, HOWEVER.... (and this is where I would appreciate comments)... the car is not driving as it should. These is a distinct lack of power, not even a slight loss, but quite a lot - I'm having to move over for Citroen Picasso's to pass me The BMW dealer had the car in on 1st May and had didn't do much other than to clear the logs. They told me to drive it over the bank holiday weekend and bring it back on the Tuesday. So, last Tuesday (5th May) I took it back. They re-read the logs, and identified the Diesel Particle Filter to be the problem. OK, this makes sense to me as the symptoms are similar to what other people on these forums have had.
Now, as this has only happened since the accident, I believe that it should be done under the old dear's insurance, but the insurance company are saying that it cannot be proved that it wasn't doing it before and therefore don't want to pay for it. They said that as a gesture of good will, they would pay for the labour (less than an hour which works out to be ?102.49). The whole repair would cost ?1427.77. I am arguing the case with them at the moment as the iDrive shows 47000 miles until the DPF needs replacing. I have also stated that I have a BMW 330d, so if the 535d was faulty on the day of the accident, surely I would have taken the 330d....

I would be interested of peoples comments and the outcome if anyone has had a similar situation.

Many thanks,

Originally Posted by Phantom Mark' post='876279' date='May 12 2009, 12:19 PM

Thats because here in blighty our regular parking spaces are so narrow its impossible to try and juggle a child and prevent striking your door against another car, hence we have wider bays for parents.

Thats the price you pay for living on a small island when compared to the vast openess of the USA where everything is super sized, well nearly everything eh