Need a little insurance advice....

[yourbullit]

On Friday,

I was visiting a friend in Arlington and parked on the street. we only left the house (in his car) once. returned and I left later that night. When i go to get in the car the next day i see this....

(and no i didn't notice it that night)

it's garage kept so i know it wasn't hit anytime in the middle of the night. i live about an hour away, so i call my friends and ask them if any of their neighbors have white cars with red paint on them. of course its a big no on that.

since they are friendly with the neighbors across the street they asked them if they saw anything. and to my amazement it turns out that the person that hit my car was someone that was leaving her house (she runs a little day care or something)

and she left her name and number but no insurance info.

to save time.......Today... and i finally got in contact with her and she said that she would call me back later with the insurance info. (she seemed honest over the phone)

so before i got in contact with her i was driving around getting estimates. and they range from $1000-$1400 (i went to three places)

so i guess my very broad question is- how do insurance companies work? is there a way for me to get screwed here? - like them trying to total me out....

thanks


Modified by yourbullit at 5:24 PM 3/29/2010

[cmkelly]

First, sorry for your ding, it looks bad but not devistating. Second, I don't think the insurance co. will try and total your car for that low a price - they will fight with you over the cost of the repair however.

They may ask you to take it to "their" place which as long as they use good parts is not a bad thing. It's good you have her information but get as much as you can as soon as possible - phone number, insurance info, anything you can.

Lastly, you may be able to find someone to do it for considerably less if pushed. I'm not a body man but it looks like it can be pulled out and painted. Otherwise it looks like they may have to replace the whole driver's side rear which is a lot more work.

Gook luck, keep us posted on how it goes.

[centralflZ]

When I got rear ended in my hatch, i got a dime size dent, and the girl that hit me had allstate. I took my car to a body shop, they looked at the damage printed out the cost of repairs $650 and i didn't have them fix it, and i just cashed the check that the insurance company sent me to repair the damage.

[yourbullit]

thanks cmkelly

i just got her insurance info, its with USAA casualty insurance company. i'll be calling them tomorrow.

i was also thinking it could be just pulled out, and that might fix most of it but the metal is a bit crumpled at the bottom (i'm not a body man either) i would think that crumpled bit would be a little trickier to fix.

@centralflz- that might be an option if i thought i could live with that size dent or repair it myself. i was half tempted to do the hair dryer and can of compressed air trick

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/...uster/

[-RJ-]

ive tried that trick and it never worked for me =/

[biggie]

My old '92 coupe got hit in that same spot (maybe a little worse) in '00 or so, and was $1600 to be repaired, so the estimates are about right.

They definitely shouldn't try to total it.

[yourbullit]

A Little Update:

Called her insurance and made a claim. since she didn't tell them first i had to wait a couple days for them to verify with her.

so the adjuster called me today and gave me a few options:

1) take it to Caliber Collison Center, where they will write an estimate and have the insurance pay them directly. i get a rental car and they have sort of limited lifetime warranty for as long as i own the car. which sounds like a decent deal, they have pretty good reviews online.

2) have one of their estimators have a look at it (in about 4 days) and take it wherever i want and have the check come to me. (i have a feeling this one would take longer)



i'm leaning towards numero 1, but getting a little something for my inconvenience wouldn't be too much to ask, would it?

also i have this weird feeling that this repair and paint is going to leave that one spot looking way better than the rest of the car, since my hood and truck are pretty faded. would i be able to get them to at least maybe buff the rest of the car, if i asked.

i told them i'd get back to them on monday

[cmkelly]

I'd still look at both options - at least get one other shop to give you an estimate so you have some idea on how much this is costing.

As for getting something for your troubles....well, not likely unless you get a high estimate somewhere, have the insurance company cut you a check and then you find someplace cheaper to do the repar. We've all done it however there is something nice about getting it done with minimal hassle to you.

Have Caliber Collison Center give you a written estimate of exactly what they're going to do - how much they're going to paint. Then ask them how much to do the entire car. It may be you only have to come up with a few hundred extra to get the whole car done.

Keep us posted.

[yourbullit]

dropped it off on Monday, should have it back by Friday. their estimate was about the same as everyone else. i'm going the less hassle way, and i'm going to try and keep it off the streets from now on.

also asked about how much to paint some of the bad areas (hood, trunk, bumpers) just to even it out and i would have gone for it if i had an extra $800(estimate). Why is it that the flip up lids aren't as faded as the hood?

he said that the bumpers were so gone that he would have to use filler to build them back up. (i call BS on that one) i dont think they are that bad.

i think it would be easier to find some other bumpers in a little better condition. though i always told myself i would get the car repainted once i installed a silvia front. so once i get situated job-wise i'll start putting aside for it.

[yourbullit]

ok, they just called me and told me my car was ready.

And... that apparently Nissan no longer makes the "Limited Edition" accent stripe behind the door. and that Nissan sent them a solid stripe.

So now i only have Limited Edition only on the passenger side.

EDIT: I searched and i guess i'll have to make my own. good thing is that he said if i can have a vinyl guy make the limited edition part. he can have it billed to the insurance....which is good

But now the bad..... i didn't notice it when i picked it up (i think it happened when i closed the door and left)

So i get home and my door panel is Jacked (not really sure why they would need to remove it) the window seal isn't even attached to the door panel anymore. I called them and they said to bring it by and they'll take a look at it. I left just before they closed and now i have to wait til next week.........LAME




Modified by yourbullit at 4:25 PM 4/9/2010

[cmkelly]

The paint looks great. Yeah, make sure they take care of that for you!

[yourbullit]

thanks kelly,

they did a great job with the paint and body work. he said little filler was used. which is good in my book.

i just need to find someone that makes the vinyl "Limited Edition"

onosqv had these, i can't seem to find a way to PM/IMhttp://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=406726

i'm looking for them in metallic red, but i could live with red. these will be billed to the insurance so ur welcome to charge what you want (within reason)

reply to this with your email

[yourbullit]

Well i finally had a chance to take the car back to caliber and spoke with the manager of the place. i showed him the door panel and he takes my keys and drives it around back where i guess his bodywork guys are. 5min later he drives it back up front and basically tells me there is nothing they can do since my door panels were already so bad. (i'll admit they were a little warped, as all are. but they weren't that bad. when i took it in at least the window seal was attached to the door. and i know for a fact the estimator has pics of it.)

thru his description of how bad my panels were, there was a tone of "sorry you're screwed, it wasn't our fault your car is old" and told me that the insurance wouldn't pay for it and used this analogy "if your windshield was cracked a little and you were in an accident and that made it crack even more, the insurance wouldn't cover that"

this is what i heard
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83/yo ... extlol.jpg
(couldn't add image "not possible to determine the dimensions of the image)

so i used the "this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't have brought it here, and i wouldn't have needed to bring it here if it wasn't for some lady i've never seen hitting me" defense. then he brings up maybe the insurance can offer some sort of monetary compensation. now he needs to talk to the insurance rep to "see what they can do"

so now im waiting on that call back. this has become a PITA.

any advice???? :?: