On highbury heading south. I'm in the left lane, just passing that school. Some van sitting perpendicular to me waiting to turn right into the right hand lane...well, turn she does. Directly into my car. I got pushed across the lane and almost into oncoming traffic. We stop, I get out ready to lose it on someone, and this insanely hot (I mean model hot) vietnamese girl of about 18 gets out, looking as sweet as can be, and starts apologizing. Anyway, I melt for a brief second. As I look down at my car again, the rage returns. My passenger fender is dented in, and the paint is scratched off the whole thing, my headlight is smashed, and my bumper's paint is messed. So this guy gets out of the passenger side. It's the dad. Turns out she has a G1, and is "just learning to drive". Apparently she needed some more practice. He doesn't want to go through insurance.

Anyway, what a great start to the day.

What a mess! Sorry to hear But, providing the metal is replaced, and the paint done well, it can always be a blessing in disguise.

Just make sure you end up with a phone number when your done...and that she's really over 18

Paul

I would go throught insurance. Did you?
Are they going to pay for the repairs and the cost of a car rental?
You can't trust people now days.
But, if I could pop the daughter's cherry I would call it even

As long as he pays for it, you should be okay. Free new fender and paint job.

As long as you have all her info and they agree to pay for it, and your car is not damaged badly (like $1K+ repair cost), it should be ok to not go through the insurance in my opinion.

did you get a police report done incase they try and bend you over about this whole thing.. if she doesn't agree to pay insurance needs a report otherwise its your fault in their eyes

If he's paying for it make sure you inform him the bumper bent and damaged your turbo

And it must have knocked off your huge FMIC cause you can't find it anymore.

I agree with this. I would go through insurance. You can never be sure that they're actually going to follow through with it and it's so easy for them to change their story after the fact. Even if they pay to have it fixed, what if something goes wrong after you get it fixed (your headlight wiring is now shorted and you start popping fuses randomly). You think he's going to help you out?

Go through insurance. It wasn't your fault, your rates aren't going to increase because of it. Who cares if theirs do.

When thinking of pushing it through insurance, my insurance company quite well remembers EVERY claim I've put through, whether at fault or not, and beats me over the head with it on a regular basis. I was broken into and a set of subs stolen, bumped in a parking lot, and they bring those up every single time I complain of rates "well, you've put these claims though blah blah" And no matter how I complain, they tell me it increases my risk category and I'm charged accordingly (I guess the more you have happen to you, the more likely your going to have something happen in the future).

When I go to check a new company, the question put to me is "Have you made any claims in the past 6 years, and what where they?"

Even not-at fault situations, your best to not tell your insurance company if it can be avoided. My company got wind of a "cash payout" accident in a parking lot a few years back, and generously added it to my file as well. :rolleyes:

I'd happily pay for the stolen subs and my window if I'd had ANY idea what they were going to do with that information in the end.

Paul

Edit:

Besides, anyone have any idea what the cutie's insurance is going to do with an at-fault accident on a G1?! No need to spread around any more pain then absolutely necessary.

I think if you screw up on your G1 it's a 6-month suspension and then you start all over again.

You can't trust insuance companys either. If you claim it through your insurance, they will count it against you. Remember that next time you pay those scum sucking leeches. Best bet is to have them pay for it and if it doesn't work out, then have them do it through thier own insurance.

Well here it is...first off she turned out to be 18 once I did the math...she's a mint girl.

Anyway, so I wasn't too worried about the guy changing the story, because I told him what I do, and after that he seemed very compliant.

He just left my house, and I have an extra $1200 in my pocket. The estimate was $1052, so I think I did alright.

Also, my buddy does some body work, and is going to just buff out the paint (rather than remove the bumper and fender and respray), and a "dent-guy" is going to take out the 1/4" dent in the fender. So basically with $100 work or so, I'm $1200 richer.

Looks like I'm getting my MR-7's in gunmetal finally.

A little bit of Pain and lots of Gain$$
Glad it all worked out.

Later,

Glad it worked out for you. It could have made a shitty day worse. It's nice to see that you can still trust some people.

Glad to hear that it all worked out in the end. But ..I'd think that if you were NOT at fault in an accident then the other driver's insurance has to pay for damages/injuries, therefore you're insurance rates do not go up.

I think so too. Why was no-fault introduced?

Why does everyone say go through insurance? If I hit someone and they said "screw you, I'm going through insurance", it would really screw me over... cash in hand, no problem.

Why screw someone over for a mistake that they made? I don't like that "who cares, it's her insurance that's going up" attitude.....

Same thing happened to a friend of mine.. she turned a left and didn't have enough time, and this '86 piece of sh!t pontiac 6000 took off her back bumper. No damage to the other car, except a cracked turning signal and a small scratch. She said she'll pay for the damage, he said ok.. Then he got a quote of $1,600 (worth more than the car) and went straight to the insurance company. Apparently they had to take off the bumper, make sure it wasn't pushed in, replace the bumper shock things, repaint the entire fender, and some more bs....

The guy probably had the same attitude as most of you guys here: Who cares, it's her insurance that's going up, and I'll get a new fender!

If I were to get into an accident and it was the other guy's fault the last thing on my mind would be whether or not I was screwing someone over. Come on, let's face it, the bottom line is that you want your car in the same condition it was before the accident.

It all sounds nice letting the other guy pay you in cash but not everyone is as honest as you. I've heard of too many people getting screwed over with cash payouts - it's not always that simple you know.

Let's say your car gets hit and the other guy offers to pay you. The estimate is around 2Gs'. The guy gives you the money and when the shop does the work they find a bunch of underlying damage and the bill shoots up to 4G's. Then what? You go after the guy for more money? Chances are you'll be told to screw off. So you'll have to go through his insurance anyway.

2 years ago I was pulling into my parking lot at work when I got t-boned by a guy cutting through parking spaces. My car was (is) a 2001 Grand Am GT and had only 5000kms on it at the time. The guy begged me to accept cash. I said I was only going to get the car fixed at the dealer that I bought it from - after all the thing was brand new and I wanted it to stay that way. The estimate was close to 6G's. He asked why I couldn't go to a cheaper non GM bodyshop because he couldn't afford that much and said that if I went through his insurance hhis rates would really go up. I'm sorry but I could give a sh!t about his rates. He just wrecked what I work hard for and I'll be damned if I'm going to short change myself just so I know I didn't screw someone over.

Maybe in the end it'll teach the guy to pay more attention but I really don't care.

Paul touched on it earlier. If you keep putting claims in, your fault or not, they will raise your rates. Maybe not the first few, but after a while.

Well, Jon said that his headlight was smashed and his fender was bent.... it's an old car, as was that POS that hit my friend's car...

If we were talking about a brand new car, then yeah, it's a different story.. but a car that already has dings in it, 10 years old, and the extent of the damage is obvious, people still say "go through insurance"..... That's what bugs me.

Why does it bug you?
How are you screwing anybody?
It's up to anyone's discression, I don't see how doing it the right way (through insurance) makes you an asshole?
You caused the damage, therefore you have to pay for it, period.

Yep, you're right..

Last summer I had my Talon's passenger side scratched to hell and busted up by some 19yr old girl who took her Caravan across it while I was parked in a parking lot.
Told me that she would pay for it, and proceeded to give me false ID, false phone, false license, etc. All I had was the plate. Luckily.
$2000 in damage and I had to go through insurance. The van wasn't hers.
My insurance company was going to charge her, last I heard.

I don't know about this one.... My parked car was hit by a un-insured drunk driver last year, the insurance company then started to fix it.
Well... The half assed appraiser missed a lot of items on the car and it required additional repairs. I spent hours on the phone with the insurance company and the only way I could get them to give in and fix the car was to "Come down and talk" in person.
Talk about bastards! Here is the best part, insurance paid out ~ $10k and I paid $1700 ($300 deductable) because "We don't cover blending". Bullshit! Now the Comp. section of my policy has gone up 80%. But it's not because of the claim. :rolleyes:

It seems like you can never win with the insurance route. It is there to protect you but it seems like we get screwed for legit claims.