SOMEONE CREAMED MY CAR! MY GOD THINGS COULDN'T GET WORSE!

[Melissa]

I'm far from the type of person who would actually act on whooping someone's ass. I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and it taught self defense and discipline, not how to go out and come at someone. I was very upset when the incident happened and I had a few choice words with the kid, which I had every right to do bc he was young and driving like a fool. I didn't do any name calling bc that's childish. I just kept yelling at him asking him how dumb could u be to just whip out and not even look? And said look at my car my insurance isn't gonna fix this bc it's too much damage you watch. It's being fixed w the money the insurance is paying for it to be totaled, so now I'm gonna be paying on a loan for the car still. I guess that's what I get for loving her so much. I just had to vent because it was my first accident and it was such a dumb one and the kid acted like it was an every day occurrence which got to me bad. But anyways, hoping to have her back by the end of this week at-least! I'll be perfectly content then.

[BonneMe]

The last two do have a point, No frame damage? It's a fender bender, it wasn't "creamed."

It sucks, but it's nothing that isn't repairable fairly easy, it's not totalled, and everyone's ok. You'll have a fresh front end though when it's all said and done, and as long as the work is good, probably be happier with the car!

Other driver's suck

[Melissa]

It IS totaled. The insurance company is paying us out for it. We're using the money to repair it therefor I'll still have to finish off paying the loan. And like I said, I was only venting... so anyways. Called today, won't have it for 2 more weeks which makes it a total of 3 weeks w/o her.

[harofreak00]

Huh? Its totalled? The insurance company is paying you for the cost of the entire car? And you are buying it back from them? If its totalled, it is now a salvage title.

[sandrock]

...and if it's branded with a salvage title, the bank won't be liking that one bit.

Now then, you can go after the other driver and sue for "diminished value" of the car, since the car is "totalled" and you can no longer sell the vehicle at fair market value should you have to sell.

[J Wikoff]

When i rear-ended another car several years ago, the insurance told me they wanted to total the car, but since it was 9 years old (or more) they could give me the full value of the car, minus 9% I think it was, and let me keep it without giving it a salvage title.

I handled major part aquisition myself (hood, bumper cover, headlights, grill, fog lights), and came out with $1000 left and a fresh front end.

[Gumball]

what you guys need to remember is the car had hail damage prior to the accident.
that alone can total a car.

it was going to be fixed, but with this new damage, my guess is the insurance company decided to total it.

[Melissa]

Nope nope! They're going with the accident damage only and I DO plan on going after this kid suing him. I believe he needs to pay for his careless driving and screwing me over. I don't think I deserved this one bit ya know. It'll suck to be him but I suppose that's what you get for being reckless! I'm getting a hold of a friend of mine who's the top attorney in MN and asking him exactly what I should do because I want this kid to pay the maximum possible. I'm pretty upset over my car. Just glad I'll be getting her back with a new face =*) Can't wait! I'll be the happiest camper EVER!

[harofreak00]

Can you explain the totalled situation?

[ChilinMichael]

Also are you injured? If not, you probably have absolutely nothing to sue for, or nothing that will ever stick. You are coming off highly vindictive here, I hate to say it, maybe it would be time to step back and take a deep breath, I care about my car highly too, but there's no reason to go Chuck Norris on the kid.

Accident

Definition

In general, an unplanned, unexpected, and undesigned (not purposefully caused) event which occurs suddenly and causes (1) injury or loss, (2) a decrease in value of the resources, or (3) an increase in liabilities. As a technical term 'accident' does not have a clearly defined legal meaning. In insurance terminology, an accident is the events which is not deliberately caused, and which is not inevitable.

[BonneMe]

what you guys need to remember is the car had hail damage prior to the accident.
that alone can total a car.

it was going to be fixed, but with this new damage, my guess is the insurance company decided to total it.

It was not part of the accident, it would have to be two separate claims if it was after she started coverage, anything more than the damage in the accident is insurance fraud by definition. If it was a pre-existing condition when she purchased the car, or it doesn't have comprehensive on it, then insurance will not cover the hail..

If it didn't damage the frame/subframe of the car (which by all the pix is what happened) then it shouldn't be more than $1500 to fix after what I went through with my front end damage.

[GonneVille]

Actually, if a claim isn't closed and repairs made before the vehicle is involved in another accident that is covered by the same policy, they CAN consider the costs together and total the car.
The reasoning there is that if they couldn't do that, they would be forced to pay for repairs for the original accident, on top of paying to total the car.


As well, if repairs to a particular panel are never made on the first claim, they can refuse to pay for any further damage to that panel, even if the later damage is more extensive.