I was driving down one of the more busy roads where I live Friday night(two lanes each way), me in the left-most southbound lane, another car in the right lane, but about 10 feet ahead of me. I had no stop sign or traffic light. A guy pulls out from a stop sign on the right side of the road, trying to turn left (northbound). I don't know why he pulled out because there were cars behind me, too. So, the car to my right slams on his brakes, but in doing so, shields my vision of this idiot. I see him as I hit him. Luckily, I was only going 35-40, and he about 10 mph. My damage was to the front of my car, especially driver's side. His was to his front driver's side wheel/door area. He was driving a '01 Cadillac Seville. Me, a '09 Suzuki SX4 Crossover with 12,000 miles on it. Say what you want about Suzukis, I love that car. Talked to a guy that works at a repair shop, and he says that judging from one fuzzy picture, it looks to be about 8,000 bucks damage (how you can tell, I don't know). I owe about 16,000 on the car (just bought it). Anyone know any way of pushing the insurance company into totaling it (especially if the damage is at least 10-12K)? The claims guy looks at it tomorrow. The impact threw my glasses off, so I had no idea what was going on. The fire fighters found them for me. I believe I was leaking coolant and anti-freeze heavily. Two people stopped to check on us, and called the cops, but no witnesses stayed. The guy that hit me has admitted full fault, and his company is taking care of everything. I am a little sore, and got my neck checked out at an emergent-care clinic, everything's fine luckily. In what could be a cool twist of fate, though, I talked to a guy who works doing the same thing I do (x-ray tech) at a hospital I just applied to (he did my x-rays that night), and he sounds like he may put in a good word for me (he quizzed me all the while I was having pictures done, and said I passed...he seems to have a little merit there, too). Hopefully this whole mess is a blessing-in-disguise. So far, the only problem I've had is getting a rental car over the weekend. I finally got one, though. Any tips or tricks for me, since this is the first accident I've had, and I don't really know what I'm doing?
Did your airbags deploy? When I got into an accident with my Honda Fit, they totaled it because I had 3 airbags deploy (all the passenger side bags). Apparently, those are really expensive to replace. So for an inexpensive car, you may get lucky like I did and have it totaled out.
I have 6 airbags in the car, and none deployed. Someone actually encouraged me to look into this. Since I wasn't hurt, I don't think it matters, but they should have deployed, seeing how it was a hard, frontal impact.
You should not be posting here about it in the first place. PS: Start to believe your had a head injury.
Why should I not? People give good advice all the time here? (As well as bad advice and jokes). Do I really need to contact a lawyer, I have a feeling they would just be out for MY money.
which insurance company does the guy have? depending on which insurance company, you're going to have many options as to the repair of your car. Some good, some very bad.
#1. Don't trust that everything is going to be ok just because the guy admitted fault. His insurance company will look for every reason for it to be at least partially your fault. #2. Tell your insurance company. If your car isn't declared a total loss and his ins. company doesn't cover all of the repairs, your's will...and they will take on the fight with his ins. to get the costs recovered. #3. Fraud is fraud. There's no reason not to get checked out by a doctor, but don't be stupid about it. If he has good insurance, they'll likely give you an extra amount to just sign off on the whole thing if you tell them you're going to the doctor. When my truck was totaled back in 2001, State Farm gave me an additional $500 just because I said I was going to get checked out. It had to sign off saying I wouldn't file any more claims which I was fine with since I knew I was ok. #4. You don't need a lawyer unless the other company does not admit fault and refuses to pay AND your insurance company does not get involved.
So, I'm having it taken to an auto body shop here in town, and the guy there seems to be willing to treat me pretty well. He said he'll do what he can to total the car. I gave him a number as to what I'm shooting for, and he said he'd do everything he could, including possibly selling the car for scraps in order to meet the last little bit, if need be. Otherwise, I feel comfortable with them handling the repair work. It's gonna be close though. Basically the guy that was storing it said that, from his judgement, it'll be close, but if the airbag had deployed, it would be totaled. I guess it's 4 grand to replace an airbag. Also, this guy said he'd get me out of the Yaris that I'm driving (rental car), and into an AWD, which is huge, because I drive 100 miles a day round-trip for work, and it's supposed to be snowing pretty decent here in the next few days. The Yaris drives like a piece of crap in that stuff. So, now the waiting game begins...
So the guy calls me back claiming they're probably gonna total the car. I owe 15,500 on it. He says that he estimates the value to be around 11,500. I laughed in his face. I told him what I owed (don't know if that was a mistake), and said I want it to be around there, PLUS I'm entitled to my down payment and tax money back. He kind of was taken aback and says that he's going to call around and see what dealers quote him at, but he tried to say that I could get a new one for 15 grand right now. This is absolutely not true. He tries to tell me what options mine doesn't have, including a sunroof. I laughed in his face and told him there was no sunroof available. I priced some out on Autotrader, and it seems like across the country, a car that is very comparable in miles, but one package up (the highest available package....which adds cruise, leather wrapped steering wheel, steering controls, and fog lights) are selling for 17,999, including two cars 83 miles from here. I think decreasing that value by 1,000 is pretty fair for me to ask. There are only two dealers in my area that sell the car, and they're all sold out, so they can't quote on prices. The one dealer did tell me that they'll go ahead and say his offer is low. Lol. I'm just going to keep the back and forth going, because as long as I do, they're paying for a rental, and that cost is adding up, too. Any advice on how to make him increase his value?
It's great that you went to the hospital. Now if you want, call a lawyer, get some physical treatment, that will make up for the money you lose on your car.
Cool story, bro. If the estimate to fix your car is $8k, there isn't any way the insurance company is going to total it. I've gotten in a similar accident (person thought it was a 4-way stop and pulled out in front of me, even though I had no stop sign and I was going ~30 mph) and his insurance company took car of it and got the car fixed just fine. Sometimes insurance companies can be smooth. Sounds like you hit a decent, insured human being. Be thankful for that, not greedy.
