advice? friend wrecked my 240 :(

[cheez80]

well, my friend wrecked my 240sx on thursday.

he claims he was doing "35" on a small residential road, in a blind corner. the skid marks and damage suggest otherwise.

anyway, body shop estimates are in the $4000 range, for replacement of the fender, door panel, mirror, and 1/4-panel. that bastard isn't willing to pay. i have no money of my own. the car was going to be insured that weekend!

what do you guys think i should do?

oh, here are some pics

http://64.227.14.164/images/car/crash/

thanks

[chmercer]

uhh, if he dosent want to pay you back, sue him. i have very few friends that are worth 4000$ to me :P

[Fawaz]

ya really a friend that wont take responobilty for his actions isn't worth 4k. But chances are that if we are talking about a young high school kid or something he dosn't have 4k to give you and you are just gonna be blowing more money on court costs.

It is kinda your fault tho for not having the car insured and letting your friend drive it. I'm not even sure if a judge will think its your fiends fault because all he has to say was that he didn't know that the car was uninsured or else he wouldn't have taken it out. At the end of the day its your fault for letting your friend drive the car and you could get into some serious trouble for admiting in court that you were knowingly operating a vehicle without insurace. I'm not sure what the laws are in California but for us its an automatic 5k fine, and in some cases jail time. The only way that this could have worked out for you was if your friend stole your car off of your driveway and wrecked it, but since that probably isn't the case you can't use that. you most likely gave your frined permission to take your car knowing that there was no insurance on it, and now you learned a very expensive lesson.

[JDM]

DEFINATLY MAKE HIM PAY. Dang, thats alot of damage. If he won't pay you for being a dumbass, hes not a good friend, sue him!

[SWIFT_DRIFT]

First off you shouldn't be driving a car that is not insured. Secondly you should never let your friends drive your car, ESPECIALLY when it's not insured. With that aside I would definitely take the **** to court! He obviously isn't really your friend if he can not respect your property and you need to make it clear to him that he needs to accept the consequences of his actions. Definitely sue his ***!

[Rockenreno]

1) Always have your car insured. It's the law.2) Don't let friends drive, especially with you not in the car unless you trust them and know they'll pay for any damage they do.3) Your friend wrecked your car. If he is really your friend he'll pay to fix it. You should not have let him drive it without insurance, but he still needs to be responsible for the damage he does.4) You can get anoth s13 for well under $4000. It's probably not worth repairing.

[Rockenreno]

lol @ SWIFT, we posted almost the exact same thing but you beat me to it

[C-Kwik]

I don't know of any state that requires that you have collision coverage, which would be the coverage you would need to cover this loss. Does your friend have a car? If so, does he have collision coverage on it. It's possible, his policy may provide coverage on an excess basis if he does. As far as suing him, I've never seen a ruling in court on this. But keep in mind you assume a risk everytime you let someone borrow your car. Not sure if a judge would weigh a decision on that heavily.

And I think he's heard enough about letting friends drive his car. I'm sure many of us have let others drive our cars and vice versa. Hindsight is always 20/20. No need to keep bashing him about it.

[Fawaz]

I wasn't bashing the guy just to clear things up, I have made far worse mistakes myself. Just letting him know that he might be getting himself into some bigger trouble by going to court and letting the judge know that he was driving and loaning out an uninsured car.

[89240sx]

definately sue him ... he isnt your friend if he wont pay for the damages he cost you.

that does NOT look like a 35mph wreck... any idea what he hit??

[Wuss]

why don't you ask if you can borrow his car

[InstantRice]

Im still not back in school so i dont really remember the law that well but i believe even if its uninsured he still assumes responsibility when you let him borrow the car. now the amount he would have to pay you wouldn't be set in stone because he will claim he didnt know it was uninsured.

[bbandit]

MAKE HIM PAY!he is not your friend

[89240sx]

ya but it probably doesnt matter if he says he didnt know it was insured... You should always ask before driving a vehicle if it is insured and get the proof... another question.. .will his insurance be liable? you could contact his insurance company and make them aware of the issue. just a suggestion

[cheez80]

he's claimed insurance twice already this year.

he hit an oak tree.

he knows i don't have insurance.

sigh.

i don't think his parents will pay, either.

[cheez80]

oh, yeah, and buying a new chassis is too much hassle too; i've a sr20det in there

[krazy skwerel]

most of that can be had from a junkyard the only real prob. is paint and the rear quarter. I'm sure for a lot less than 4k it can be fixed. Maybe see if he will pay for half or something.

[ace135cc]

pay for half? he should pay for it all. theres no reason why he shouldnt take responsibility, i personally would sue them until they bleed to death. not really sure what you could hit doing 35 and do that much damage unless he drifted into a car, but at 35mph...

[krazy skwerel]

Good grief the damage is not that bad. 35 mph is pretty damn fast when your scrapping up against something. Which reminds me what did he hit? How sharp is the corner? I know of a corner around here that if you took it at 35 you'd slide and tear up the side of a car like that. I agree that him not taking responsibility is crappy. I was trying to suggest an alternative to the court route. :batman

[fiznat]

couple things:

1. if he hit an oak tree, was this a big accident that had a police report/fire/EMS come to it and all that, or did he just hit the tree and limp it home? If it's the latter, you can get your insurance now and just claim it was insured when he did it... hell, what does he have to say it wasnt? (btw this prob wont work but hey)

2. If #1 fails, seriously just call his parents and make it work. Sometimes threatening to sue, or having your lawyer send the family a letter outlining the case and how much they're about to get screwed will help. I honestly dont see what grounds they can claim that they dont owe you to fix that car. How old are you and your friend?

Dont just let this slide. MAKE HIM FIX IT, one way or another. That's total BS if he just crashes your car and gets away scott free. Beat his friggin a$$ if you have to.

[SigmaNIN]

hey bro u should buy a parts car and use what u can

im fron michagan and can prob get that dont for like 2k-2.5k

[TrueSlide]

Beat his ***.

[WingsNThangs]

So let me get this straight. You have an SR-powered car that is uninsured, and you trusted your "friend", who has already made 2 insurance claims, with your keys? And you were not in the car to supervise him?

Wowsers high school kids don't get much stupider than that if alcohol isn't involved. Going to court might get you screwed. I'd suggest try cutting him a deal, like 50% fault, because you'd be lucky if you could even get that. After it's all taken care of, don't hang out with him anymore. You can decide whether you wanna "deal" with him later or not.