My car got hit...

and I just feel like venting....

My pearl white G20 was parked in front of the building I work at when it was hit. Thankfully, I wasnt inside it, I was at my desk working away like a good little worker bee. The pics below are what I saw about 20 minutes after the wreck ocurred when I was informed about what had happened.

So, most of us park along the street here, as the offstreet parking is a long walk away, behind the building which has offices attached to a couple dozen thousand square foot warehouse/factory space. This is a legal, marked parking area, on a 25 mph street. I typically feel pretty safe parking there as the only people who drive down this street are there for business. Otherwise it gets very little thru traffic.

A new tenant has recently leased half of our building that was vacant for a few years. They operate a delivery service that uses box-vans to load and unload at docks. The drivers often miss our driveway since its kinda hidden until youre right up on it.

On this particular day, this driver misses the driveway. Today, rather than proceeding a block further south,and turning around in the cul-de-sac like they usually do, he just throws the van into reverse on the roadway, and attempts to back up into the driveway. He proceeds to back up and onto a Hyundai he doesnt see behind him. The cops arrive to write up the accident. This all occurs in the southbound lane of the road, almost right in front of where my car is parked on the northbound side.

While the cops are already there for the van-on-compact violence, the guy in the Galant who is parked behind me goes to leave for his lunch break. I assume he was busy gawking at the accident, and fails to notice the oncoming F-150 coming up behind him on the northbound side. The F150 smacks him in his drivers front fender while the Galant is about 45° to the curb pulling out from behind me. This forces his passenger front fender into my drivers rear fender, pushing my G20 up against the curb.

The F-150 bounces off the Galant, into the Van already there, then ricochets off the van into a Kia parked in front of me, hard enough to push it up onto the sidewalk, pretty much totaling the Kia (how he manages to do that on a 25 mph street is a whole other mystery unto itself...my guess is he claims unintended acceleration...ZOMFGFORDTRUCKSGONNAKILLUS).

So this leaves my car with a nasty bruise to the fender-al region, a bumper offset a good 6 inches to the right, broken exhaust due to the shift, a CEL from the exhaust not functioning properly, a scuffed drivers rear wheel from some wheel on wheel lovin, a scuffed passengers rear wheel from the curbage, and a speed-relative sound coming from the rear axle (im thinking one/both hubs need replaced due to the impact with the curb) ...

This is a 1999 car with 166k on the clock. She has her share of scars and age marks. But I own her outright. I know the complete history of the car. My MIL was the first owner, I am the second. Its only ever gone to one shop for repairs that I myself didnt do. She runs like a friggin champ...leather, sunroof, Bose sound, Cold air, ABS...A great all around DD. Blue book on an excellent example is south of $4k, and this one isnt excellent. Bubbling in both rear arches, typical rock damages to the finish on the front end, a softball sized ding in the passenger fender...aesthetically theres some room for improvement, but shes still in great shape where it counts.

I got a few estimates from local body shops the other day - between $2k and $2500, and thats in the finish alone, not taking into consideration the mechanicals (exhaust, hub, frame etc). Mechanical damage will be suppliments to the original claim.

Today, the insurance estimator came and gave me a lowball at $1900. He actually seemed pretty cool. I talked with him a bit, told him about the things I new about the damage, and told him I really like this car. He was honest, and told me that if he was able to accurately estimate the damage to the axle or exhaust or frame that he couldnt see, the total for repairs would easily total the car. But he told me I was in luck because leaving that stuff out because he cannot see them to make an accurate estimate, the bodywork was only $1900 (close enough to the estimates I got to make me happy), which doesnt total the car in their eyes. The check will be enough to get the work started. Once the work us underway, the repair shop will sub out the mechanical stuff, and they will then go back to the ins company with supplemental claims to cover the mechanical stuff.

Its not going to be a perfect match...Nissan paint code QT1 is notoriously difficult to match. Luckily, both body shops I talked to said that with the lines of the car, its likely they can fool the eye enough to keep it from looking too far off.

I guess thats enough of a novel. Im just pissed this happened. In the long run, no one was injured (a testament to modern safety), so thats great. ANd the fact that while my car was smack in the middle of all the carnage, it was the least affected (I think both the Galant and the Kia are totals, if not the F150). But the inconvenience is going to be a pain. Who knows how long the repairs will take. And the ins company stated they only allow for economy rentals during damage repairs...though I think theres a statute in Ohio that a rental must be of a similar type to the original...meaning my "luxury sedan" (term used loosely ) should be temporarily replaced in like fashion....I may be mistaken on this. I did some interwebbing, and the results are mixed.

Either way, just wanted to vent, and maybe get advice/opinions from the peanut gallery. If youre still with me at this point, thanks for reading...

That sucks! You should just put an LS1 in it. You'll feel better.

If you're getting $2000-$2500 estimates on bodywork alone, i'd push back on that $1900 offer.

sorry to hear about your car. What a way to ruin your day. On the good news front, at least you were not in the car when it happen.

As an aside, I see -more- accidents around police action than I do on busy streets. people just start acting like idiots when there are flashing lights and badges around

Swank Force One wrote: If you're getting $2000-$2500 estimates on bodywork alone, i'd push back on that $1900 offer.

I dunno...The higher of the estimates I got was based on OEM replacements. The body guy told me he did that to give me a "worst case scenario". I am fine with using salvage parts from a recycler to get costs down. Id bet that if I took that $1900 to either shop, theyd be happy to start the work and go back to the well when the costs head north. The ins company will pay the supplimental claims...they will already be into the repairs for the lions share of the cost. Theyre not gonna issue another check to me for another couple grand, buying a wrecked car theyve already paid on.

...at least thats the logic Im operating under.

I work in the remarketing field for a bank that is a wholly owned subsidiary of a large insurance company. Assuming that your insurance company uses the same or similar valuation techniques as we do, we would expect that car to bring $1,400 to $2,300 at auction in its current condition. Probably closer to the $1,400 figure. So the $1,900 number isn't a huge lowball.

Sorry to hear about the accident. I wouldn't say "never", but it's very unlikely to work out where the body work will start and then they later submit a supplement for the mechanical/suspension and the insurance company pays that too. Yes, the appraiser, by the letter of most appraiser acts that I'm aware of, can only write damage he can see. He was probably trying to do you a favor by not crawling under the car for a look, and was trying to help "save" the car. However, if the adjuster handling the claim suspects that there would be a supplement, then they are unlikely to agree to pay to fix the car. They'll total it. You have options to keep it anyway, but they wouldn't pay for full repairs. They'll only pay for the cash value of it, minus anything they would have gotten if they had taken it and sold it for salvage.

Sorry, not trying to put a downer on the situation, but this is what I do every day. Depending on how willing to cut you a break the shop is (and how far the insurance company is willing to go before saying it's a total), you may be able to get it repaired the way you describe. However, don't expect it.

In reply to Klayfish:

So, without getting too terribly specific, what would you say should be my next step?

The way the Ins. Co. estimator put it, the $1900 check is just for the initial, visible damages. The estimate even leaves a line with no cash amount for "FRAME/RACK Setup", andfor "UNIBODY Pull". My guess is this is because the back end is visibly damaged, but the extent is unknown, and the repair cost will have to be submitted as a supplement. He did say that when more damages are found, the body shop/mechanic will submit those additional charges to the ins. co. and they will then pay the shop directly, rather than cut me a check.

The last time I was in a situation where I was not at fault and the other guys ins company wrote me a check, there was a disclaimer with it that stated the act of cashing the check essentially closed the claim and waived any further responsibility in the matter for the company or their client. Im hoping I dont see the same thing in this case...

Sucks. Nice G20's are getting too hard to find, pretty much the reason I ended up in my Accord instead of a clean P10.

Hope it all works out and the car is back to normal.

Cashing the check would in no way release the carrier from any supplemental damages found on the car. They owe you for either the repair of the vehicle, or the cash value, whichever is less. So don't sweat that part of it. The check cashing thing usually only comes up in something like a "contract repair", which is a whole different thing (and not done often, so I won't go into it here).

From the few photos I see, I don't think the car would need much in the way of rack set up and pull on the unibody, maybe just a minimal pull. It would be something like 2 hours labor to set it up and 2 hours to pull. My bigger concern would be the suspension and any pending body damage. If they have to cut that quarter panel off, that's expensive.

My suggestion at this point would be to make sure the shop exposes any damages that weren't on the initial estimate. They then contact the appraiser right away so he can come back and look at the car and see it. At that point, they can make a solid decision on whether the car is repairable or not. The shop should know to do this anyway, but that's what I'd suggest. It works out best that way. If the shop just starts work and never calls the appraiser about additional damage until much later, it's a more difficult situation for all parties involved.

So, what happened to the truck driver anyway? I assume the delivery driver got cited for the initial accident. What about the subsequent one that damaged your car?

The accident my car was in was the fault of the guy pulling out behind me. The Galant merged into the lane occupied by the F150. The F150 had established right-of-way simply by being there - merging parties almost always have to yield to established ones.

I dont know about the Van/Hyundai accident, technically, its a separate incident, nothing about it was in the police report. My guess is the van operator got cited for...well...being a dumbass and going the wrong way on a public street lol.

Follow Klayfish's advice.

The best part of the whole deal is there will probably be one less Mitsubishi on the road.

This doesn't help anything but that Mitsubishi has the cloudiest front lens covers I have ever seen. Probably can't even see out of those things at night.

at least it was not a VR4 Galant.

And I have seen some cloudy ford lenses, but I agree with you

I went through a similar insurance issue a few months ago. My car got hit, and the other driver's insurance company sent out an adjuster who was only able to assess the body damage. He cut me a check for that, and then I had to bring the car to my repair shop where they were able to put it up on a lift to determine damage to the suspension. Ultimately it ended up being totaled, and the insurance company cut a second check for the remainder of the value. Interestingly, the final settlement ended up being more than I was hoping for - it took a little negotiation but they were very fair to me. That was Farmer's Insurance, by the way. Good luck.

Well, I discussed all this with SWMBO last night. I think the plan will be to get as much as we can from the Ins co up front, i.e. totaling the car, and then buy it back. Then, use whatever money I got to fix the exhaust and hubs. I also have torn boots on both front axles, and my control arm bushings and struts are all well past due for service. I think I could likely get all that done for $2k (what Im assuming I will have left after buyback). Im going to take the car to a shop, and have them submit for the supplemental claims, and see what I get at the end of the day. Hopefully its in the neighborhood of $2500.

I was leery of the dreaded salvage title because eventually, my plan was that this car would get traded in on a new Cruze eco (Whats this? Turbo and 6 speed? 42 MPGs? TAKE MY MONEY!). I was worried that I wouldnt get much trade in on a salvaged car...turns out, I wouldnt get much with a clean title either, so no big loss in the end.

But with the repairs mentioned, I likely will be able to get several more years out of the car, which is in my best interests in the long run. Plus, I got the green light from the missus to try my hand at body work to correct the crunched fender...read: 4cf is going to try to convince her that he needs a 110v welder

On a side note, the amount of damage that F150 was able to do seems friggin unbelievable. I have a hunch he saw an opportunity for a new truck, and took his best shot...seeing someone pull out in front of him, he floors it, ramming the crap outta the Mitsu, ramming the crap outta the van, and finally somehow t-boning a Kia hard enough to total it. His truck is done. Its older than my Infiniti, and the front of the thing was ripped apart, bad. Im sure hes going to get a new-to-him truck in the long run...dick

Anyway, I want to say thanks to the forum for your insights and advice. I love this place. You guys are always a huge help. Long live the GRM braintrust!!!

Round here, I'm the one who writes those reports. Thankfully, thats rare.