I drove into the University Health Center for a flue shot. It was raining, early afternoon and a very grey day. The new Health Center has two rows of spaces for parking cars, along either side.

There was a large bang, a shake up and I pushed on the brakes and skidded forward. I stopped the car and got out and walked around the back.

A young (very young) man got out of his car.

"I'm so sorry. It was completely my fault," he said.

"No problem. Nobody was hurt, let's look at the damage," I said.

His bumper was about three inches from my car. My car was skewed, it was raining, it was very grey and dark. I looked at my car, white paint scrapes as far as I could see. I rubbed them.

"Comes right off," I said.

"I've been driving three years and nothing like this ever happened before. I've never done this," he said. "I'll pay for any damages."

"It looks OK, but we'd better exchange phone numbers and names just in case. The tire might be damaged," I said. I pulled a steno pad and pen that worked out of my purse and we exchanged names and phone numbers.

He drove off. I parked and signed in at the clinic desk. My car alarm went off. Stupid thing, I thought, and went out to press the buttons and make it shut up. As I walked forward, I saw the passenger side of the car. A very large dent in the front passenger door, assorted scrapes and paint along the whole side.

"Oh, Shit," I thought.

I shut the car up and went inside and got my shot. Then drove home in the rain and called the boy. He answered, first ring. I explained the problem.

He said, "I'd like to pay for this myself and save my no claims bonus," he said.

I said I'd get my insurance broker to recommend a body shop and get an estimate. So we hung up.

We've used the same insurance broker since we first got a car in the UK. That's almost 25 years. I suppose I could go online and use of the insurance comparison sites and save £10. a year. Maybe. But they get good prices, they're nice people, if they remind me every year before the insurance runs out, they answer questions similar to this one on the phone. I like them. I know them. That's worth more than a hypothetical £10. a year.

I explained the accident to my broker.

"He says it's his fault now. Wait until somebody that knows something gets hold of him. Did you get his license plate number? They can lie about names and addresses, but not license plates."

"No, just the name and phone number. I'll remember that for next time."

"There won't be a next time," she said cheerfully. She advised me to call my mechanic and get him to recommend a body shop.

So I called Mays. He's a very good mechanic, good prices, a nice man. He belongs to some obscure sect that refuses to work on Saturday and insists on business honesty. He advises when repairs aren’t cost effective and the car should be junked. Then he finds good quality used cars when we need them. In short, a many splendored resource.

He suggested X.

"They're thieves," I said. "I bought my car from them and got a year's warranty. I took it in three times about problems with the transmission and they said there was no problem. Two days after the warranty expired, the transmission went. Then they wanted thousands of pounds. I'm sure it was on purpose."

"That doesn't sound like X. It's on the industrial estate, where Michael bought the Volvo."

"This is another X. Mine is in Faversham."

"They've got nothing to do with any Faversham group. They're reliable."

I called the Wincheap X's and they said bring the car round. I did.

Rain, rain, pouring rain. I pulled into the garage and they gave an estimate. They had to replace the door, £495. and the cost all-in, paint job, labour and vat, was a few pounds less than £1200.

I called the boy. He, too, was depressed. He'd got an estimate from  a garage for a £695. It turned out we used the same garage for the estimate. We agreed this was an insurance job and he said he'd call his insurance company.

I called Friend Marie.

"He admitted liability? His insurance company will be furious. He may have admitted liability now, but wait until someone gets at him. Of course, he also offered to pay the costs so that's an admission of liability in itself."

"He won't do that. He's a sweet boy."

"He is not a sweet boy. He's a twit that rammed into your car and he has to pay. Did you get his license number?"

"No."

"You should have."

Then I called Michael. The conversation was an exercise in deja vu.

"He admits liability now, but wait until someone talks to him... Should have gotten his license number...  Should have exchanged insurance details..."

The next morning at 8:02 AM I get a call from his insurance company. The cheery voice on the phone told me their client admitted complete responsibility for the accident. They would arrange for a garage to pick up the car  and I would have the use of a rental car.

His insurance company was Tesco's. I don't use Tesco's, ever. They contribute to the Conservative Party. I was suspicious.

"Can I use my own garage?"

"You can. We'll send an engineer out to assess the damage. You have a Mercedes, we'll use the Mercedes approved garage and parts. If you use your own garage, we can't give a guarantee."

I said, "Let me call you back."

I took down phone number and case number.

I called my trusty agent.

"Standard procedure," she said. "All insurance companies have approved garages and if you don't use their garage they won't give a guarantee."

"So they won't do it on the cheap?"

"They're not allowed to. Insurance companies have standards."

So I called back and said their garage was fine. Their garage called ten minutes later and arranged to pick up the car at 11 AM. Ten minutes after the garage hung up, the car rental place called. I could pick up the rental car anytime and arranged to go in at 12:30.

So I'm going with the flow and assuming all will be well.

However, I have never in my life cheated an insurance company. I have no intention of doing so. Equally, if I am at fault in an accident, I will say so. There are occasions I will lie, but saving a no claims bonus is not one of them. I imagine the young man being yelled at by his insurance company and his father. (He was as worried about his father as the no claims bonus.)

He's a properly brought up young man, honest and straightforward. I hope his father doesn't yell at him too much. (Michael, with experience in such matters as a youth, says his father didn't yell; he only said thank God no one's hurt. "That's what most fathers would say." Remembering back, in a similar situation, my father didn’t yell either. “Thank God no one was hurt.”)

Insurance companies, in the long run, benefit from honest people that take responsibility for their actions. I imagine the insurance companies would say that liability was a funny, legal concept. Just tell the truth about what happened and do not assume or assign blame. I still think when something is obviously your fault you say so. And, actually, remembering half a dozen accidents through the years that assorted friends and relatives have been involved in, most of the time when it's clearly their fault or clearly the other persons, they've said so. People are more honest than insurance companies expect.

The young man, the last time I talked to him, was rather gloomy. It's an expensive affair for him. He said, "It's only money and twisted metal. Nobody was hurt, and that's what's important."

He’s going to be a great father and improve as a driver.