Need help, had a fender bender

clawhammer · #1 02-02-2005, 11:53 PM

Tonight I was attending a seminar on how to get financial aid for college. I went there with my dad, I was driving my CRX. When it was over, I was walking back to my car with my dad, when I noticed that it was parked crooked. I didn't want to say anything out loud, because my dad would make fun of me for being a bad driver. I knew that there was no way that I parked there so bad. Well, I'm driving home, about 10 miles later I'm making a left hand turn, and notice that my blinker is blinking really fast, as if the light was out. Well, I pull in my garage and as I get out of my car, I notice something at my window. I said something like "What did I get a ticket for?" out loud, then I look at it. It was a note saying "I backed into your car, please call me at ...". I have his number, his name and address. I called him shortly after I got home, he was a really honest guy (he could have left and nobody would have found out). I told him that I'll get a qoute tomorrow from the body shop, and I'll call him again after that. He said that his insurance, State Farm should cover it. Then I thanked him for being honest, and hung up. Now my car is a 1991 CRX Si, KBB private party value in good condition $1965 and in fair condition $1575. There is some damage to the left rear quarter panel, quite a bit of bodywork, though it doesn't look really bad. There is some damage to the bumper. I'm guessing that the damage will be somewhere between $500 and $1000. I just don't want my car to be tottalled. Is it possible to get the insurance money, and put it away for college instead of repairing my car? Is that legal? My car is safe to drive around without it being repaired. What do you guys think?

Oz · #2 02-03-2005, 12:03 AM

Usually they pay the body shop direct. Dunno - see what you can do.

RickwithaTbird · #3 02-03-2005, 12:21 AM

you can have them cut you a check. A bodyshop won't be eager to fill you in on that option though, because they make a lot of money off insurance claims. It is legal to take that money and do anything you want with it. besides something illegal. You can go all around town and find the absolute highest quote possible, and then have them contact state farm and confirm it. Then if you want, you can have state farm give you a check, and take the car to the cheapest repair shop in town if you want to use the money for that, or you could buy yourself a fresh new pair of jordans, some rocawear jeans, and a fubu sweatshirt, then a spinning medallion for your new 36 inch anchor link chain, a fossil watch, and a set of spinning hub caps, and LED windshield washer nozzles to take the focus off your busted up bumper, buy a new flip phone and a hands free set since youre into that, and then purchase a copy of the Nelly CD and bump it on your way to see "Are We There Yet" at the theatre. Or do something stupid like save it for college.

Im just kiddin man... but yeah, its all true. you can do what you want with the money and you can have any shop give an estimate.

taranaki · #4 02-03-2005, 12:59 AM

Get a high quote from the panel shop, then talk to you'r insurers.Tell them that you'd rather do the work yourself. They'll probably settle you an amount for less than the cost of repairs, but be sure that you use some of it to make the car legal again if neccesary.Of course, if you [i]don't[i] fix the car up,and you have another bend, they wont be so keen to pay out for repairs, and the cops tend to look at damaged vehicles far more closely than regular ones.

Robs71Nova · #5 02-03-2005, 01:09 AM

Do you own the car, or is it financed through someone? If the car is financed, or has money against it somewhere, the insurance is going to make the check out to you, and the other party, and you won't be able to cash the check until you can prove the body work has been done. A similar situation happened to me roughly 6 months ago, and thats what happened.

If you own the car Taranaki's route is the best way for you to go. Get a few different quotes from different body shops, then take the highest quote to the insurance company and tell them you are going to fix the car yourself, but this is what it should roughly cost. They won't give you exactly what the quote was for, but they should give you most of it.

Rob

RickwithaTbird · #6 02-03-2005, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taranaki

...the cops tend to look at damaged vehicles far more closely than regular ones.

indeed.

But you don't need to tell them you want to do the work yourself. Even if you do the work yourself, they should pay you to do it. Some people may think that it is wrong to claim insurance money and not use it, but its not. Your car was messed up. Even if you dont fix it, they should pay you the damage amount, for driving a messed up car. You didn't want your car to get messed up did you? Find a high quote. The difference in a couple hundred dollars per quote won't hurt that dude's insurance rate any more than he already hurt it. My friend hit my car in 03' and before I even got an estimate on it, they gave him his new insurance rate. So don't worry about that. It is common procedure to find the highest quote and get it fixed at the cheapest place. Even some insurance adjusters will tell you this. If your priority is college money, save that cash for college.

crayzayjay · #7 02-03-2005, 04:49 AM

Get a high quote, but don't completely shaft the guy if he was honest enough to leave his details...

clawhammer · #8 02-03-2005, 11:56 AM

Well, first body shop I went to turns out that is a body shop that State Farm contracts with, and the qoute they gave me was $1675. I went to state farm, told them what happened, they looked up the other persons insurance, State Farm said that they will contact the other party, and talk with them. I told them that I was interested in a cash settlement, so I would really like to get around $1000.

96Civ · #9 02-03-2005, 01:40 PM

This is interesting... When I was 7 years old, my mother was going around looking to buy a house. She came across this beautiful house for a good deal, but she couldn't afford it. A couple of days later, she got into a minor car accident in a parking lot, and she got $2000 from the other drivers insurance company. She didn't use it for repairing the body damage on the car, she used to buy her first house!

I think his insurance will cover the cost of the damage, but you decide what you want to do with the money.

I.E. You get damage quote from a body shop, they pay you quote, you pay for college.

clawhammer · #10 02-03-2005, 01:46 PM

I'll post pictures after my claim is settled. It doesn't look very bad, but I guess it's hard to fix.

Suislide · #11 02-03-2005, 03:28 PM

always do a perimeter check before leaving somewhere if you notice something is different (like your car parked crooked).

i say this because you are very lucky that the note didn't blow off your car on the way home. then you woulda been screwed!

clawhammer · #12 02-03-2005, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suislide

i say this because you are very lucky that the note didn't blow off your car on the way home. then you woulda been screwed!

Yeah, I would have been really screwed then.

Totalled = the cost to repair is more than what the car is worth, even though some insurance companies pay off the car when the repairs are between 50 and 80 %, because there is rental car involved, plus money they get from selling your car.

kicker1_solo · #13 02-05-2005, 04:30 PM

If your car is worth $1,500 and the damage is $1,000 your car is totalled. When a car starts to get about 65% or higher of the amount of damage to to price of the car's value then they start to think about totalling it.

POST REPLY TO THIS THREAD