Murgatroy

The only time I have dealt with insurance is when my wife's Buick was totaled a few years ago. That was pretty simple for the most part. Their adjuster came and looked at the car, declared it totaled and cut me a check for it minus buy-back because I kept it.

This is different. I was sitting at a red light, some kid 'had a brake failure' and slammed into the back of Harmony. She will need a new rear fascia, the rear pan was ripped a good six inches. I honestly don't know how to proceed. I called the police, had them file a report, the kid had insurance, so I can pick up the report on Monday. But as I have never had to have a car repaired at a shop on someone else's dime, I don't know how to proceed.

The other thing I am concerned about is diminished value. Now that Carfax will have record of the accident, she is worth several grand less, right? How do I go about claiming that against the other insurance?

Honestly, if it hadn't knocked the reflector out and ripped the fascia pretty badly, and she wasn't a new car, I would have just rolled with it. But it did, and she is new, so I am being a dick about the whole thing.

Advice and opinions?

cruisin5268d

Why do you feel the need to be a dick about it? I had a great response for you to offer my input and advice for the situation, but if you're just going to be a malicious dick to some kid that made a mistake then I think I'll keep my positive and helpful comment to myself or until you have a change of heart.

We've all been young drivers and we have all had to start somewhere. One time when I was 17 I was on my way to my girlfriends house. We had only been together for a few months and were in that crazy passionate and hormonal state where we couldn't keep our clothes on. There was a small window of time before her parents came home so I was fighting traffic to get there. Quite simply, I wasn't paying attention and rear ended a 60ish man in is fairly new Cadillac. Scratches to my truck's bumper and some paint damage to his rear. I apologized profusely and admitted I was distracted by thoughts of my girlfriend....

He smiled and said, "It's just paint. Be careful and have fun." This was 14/15 years ago and I still remember it clearly. There's seldom a reason to be a dick to a stranger. You don't know what they are dealing with - good or bad.

Murgatroy

Obviously your idea of being a dick and mine are night and day difference. My idea of being a dick was filing a police report. Not being a dick would have been telling the kid to have a good night and watch out for the car in front of him. I didn't yell, belittle or call him names. I even offered to buy him a cup of coffee while we waited for the cop to show up in the freezing cold.

My point is that I drove my car off the lot with less than five miles on the odometer and I am going to be a dick and get it fixed back to the way it was before he hit me. That is why he has insurance. I know that is why I have it.

cruisin5268d

What you describe is not being a dick. You have every right to file an accident report if this occurred on public roadways. And you have every right to expect your car to be restored to the way it was before this incident. The sad thing is that insurance policies do not pay for the loss of value and I find that to be ridiculous.

Murgatroy

I have read a few places that state I can be reimbursed for that, but that the fight is so long and arduous that most folks give up or don't bother.

The big one is getting my car repaired. It makes me sick just thinking about it, and I am sure it will be worse when I see it in the daylight.

Then the is the other part of me that looks at my project car and goes "really, you are going to get upset over that when Chaos is seven different colors and none of the panels line up right?"

The big difference is that before this evening, Harmony didn't have any damage and now she does.

yourmom6990

You are not being a dick, at all. Filing a police report isn't being a dick. If you hopped out of the car and started swearing and telling the kid he's an idiot.. then that would be a dick move. You're not wrong for what you're doing.

As for having the car repaired and an accident on your record.. it's not going to drop the value of the vehicle. If it was totaled and had a rebuilt title, then it would affect the value. But a little fender bender is not going to hurt the value at all. At least not in my opinion when purchasing a car. Accidents happen. I wouldn't trip about it. Just get her bandaged up and move on.

You can always get a new bumper and install yourself. Might be cheaper than paying your co-pay depending on what your setup is. Luckily they didn't break the taillight. $900 for a new light. HA!

potman

The last time I was rear ended the other guys insurance contacted me, asked me where I wanted to get it fixed, and made arrangements directly with that repair shop. I took it in, they fixed it and I didn't need to do a thing. The only thing I did different was we did not file a police report as it was understood between the two of us what happened and who was a fault.

I would present their insurance company with a appraisal of the car after repair and that of an undamaged car and request the difference as damages. Loss of value is considered a damage. In my case it was a simple replacement of the bumper on the Tahoe.

I also don't think you're being a dick. Just because he's a kid doesn't mean he shouldn't be held responsible. Sounds like you were pretty nice about it in fact.

SkyWitit23

Hey OP I've been thro this before with my stang 2 years ago when I got rear ended just like you very slightly on the outside. After it was finished it turned out to be a 2500 fix my exhaust got bent along with some other stuff...Anyway this accident will 150% make your value of you car drop, been there done that.. After my acceident once the dealer seen it on the car fax they tried to low ball me, it's common sense in my opinion if you buy a car that's been involved in a wreck you want to pay less right? Plus not knowing if the work was done 100% correct? There's alot of things that would roll thro my head if I knew... Anywho what you want to do is call his insurance company and file a "diminished claim value on your car" what will happen is after the car is repaired the adjuster will go over the car to make sure its fixed to OEM spects and then they will make you a offer. I settled for 900$ After they initially offered 350$ which was a joke, I threatened to take them To court if they didn't pony up more. So FYI don't accept there first number, negotiate with them.

Make sure you bring the car to a good body shop because the claim will depend on how good your car gets fixed, like I said it has to be fixed like OEM standards, basically meaning like it came off the assembly line so you want a good body shop. I hoped this help if you got any questions PM me..

BlackShelbyGt500

we all been to this kinda of situation. now don't tell me that you have to pay the deductible.

my wife's car was hit in the parking lot by some old lady, one of the parking attendant saw it happen and told my wife that if she need's a witness he was willing to cooperate.
but anyways the old lady has insurance and was cooperating and admitting that it was her fault. when everything was said and done i found out later when my wife had the car fix that she had to pay for the deductible.i was not aware of this happening and she didn't mention anything to me until after the car was fix, she thought that the deductible was mandatory. i told her it's only mandatory if you don't know who hit you or if it was your fault, but if another party was at fault their should be the one to pay for the whole thing, you didn't go to the store and plan to have an accident.

so make sure no money is coming out of your pocket.

Art161

There are many ways to go. I was parked in my assigned stall at my apartment house garage. Where I park, there is a double row, and the guy opposite me and I would park with our vehicles facing each other. I was parked about a foot and a half behind the dividing line. I came out one evening to find the bumper of his Lexus SUV resting on top of my bumper. There was no note on my car, and the apartment management wouldn't disclose which apartment the guy occupied. There are 440 units in my building.

I telephoned my insurance company and also the police. I wasn't about to try to deal with a guy who didn't leave a note on my car. The police didn't make a formal report, but they got the guy's information so I could pass it along to my insurance company.

My insurance company took care of everything. They sent out an adjuster and gave me some recommendations for body shops. I could use any shop I wanted, but if I used one they recommended, then my insurance company would provide a lifetime guarantee on the work.

I used the recommended shop closest to me, and they did a great job of removing the dents and repainting the bumper.

I received a check from my insurance company, less the deductible, very promptly. Sometime later, my insurance company collected the full amount of damage from the other guy's insurance company and sent me the deductible.

And don't feel too sorry for the other guy. He's a multimillionaire who sold the Dove ice cream bar to Mars some years ago. Also, the apartment he leases is just for when he is in the city. His principal residence is in the country.