If you read your contract there will almost certainly be a clause about damage and reapairs. The important thing is that the reapair is done by a reputable garage to an acceptable [high] standard.

You are probably obliged to report it to the hire company and you should retain copies of the paperwork until the end of the contract.

At the end of the contract they will inspect the car with a magnifying glass to seek out any dents, dings, scrapes and chips that you will inevitably collect in three years of use. I strongly advise you to take it to an expert, and have any such damage repaired properly before they inspect it. This is invariably the cheaper option.

Your 'brand new car' lost more in immediate depreciation as soon as you took possession, than the potential small lose due to damage repair.

What sort of 'compensation' are you looking for? You want a cash 'reward' for (in your words) the 'small thing' of the car now being 'a repaired car'?

I suggest that you speak with the contract hire company, they will certainly want to know about the current condition of 'their' car.

Long title!

We have recently bought a company car, brand new. It is now 1 month old and the other day someone rear-ended us whilst we were stationary. no real fuss about claiming - they admitted 100% fault and the car is being repaired through their insurance.

What I am worried about is whether having teh vehicle damaged and then repaired will affect it's depreciation value and thus we will be stung with a "penalty" figure when the hire period ends. Does this make sense?! Also, we feel quite put out because we had a brand new car and now it is a "repaired" car... a small thing, but new cars aren't cheap and we feel somewhat cheated that ours has been damaged already - through no fault of our own.

So, any advice? where do we stand? Are the contract hire company likely to take issue with the fact that the car has been in an accident? Do they expect some sort of bumps in the period of hire? Should we seek some sort of compensation from the other insurance co.?

All advice gratefully received! :)

Thanks!
Jey