Another 1 rear ended

[Little1er]

Someone in a F150 decided to rear end me when I was stopped at a crosswalk to let peds cross. He was doing 40 and never applied the brakes before colliding with me. His car had to be towed away and looked really bad. My 1 has small amount of visual damage, but 2 shops tell me there is frame damage. Just wondering if frame damage = totaled? What do you guys think?

[GO135i007]

If he was going 40 and did not break there is definitely a lot of damage you cannot see. It very well could be totalled.

[bluejaypanther]

Looks very similar to what happened to my car 6 months ago when a land rover slammed a ford explorer into my rear end (not a euphenism). I had frame damage as well, but don't worry, you are still far from totaled. My car was repaired for $4400 on the Land Rover's insurance, looks and drives like new. The hardest part is driving a rental for 3 weeks. Yours will be a bit more because it looks like one additional panel was involved, but I cant imagine it will break 8-9K even with that and possibly worse frame damage.

Frame damage does mean you will lose some residual value when you sell the car (in some states insurance pays for this as well, but not PA). Just make sure it gets fixed right. Sorry you got hit.

[escobar929]

w/ todays uni-body construction, frame damage is pretty easy to fix. they just throw it on a machine and fine tune it till its w/ in spec, so no worries there.

His insurance company should def compensate you for the drop in value of the car, sux you got hit man, like bluejay said, the worse part is gonna be driving a POS rental for 2-3 weeks

[Little1er]

Thanks for the advice guys. I did take it to a good trustworthy shop, so if they are going to fix it, it will be fixed right. As of now, I am driving a POS rental Dodge Caliper. I don't know if body shops have cheaper places to get parts, but just the body panels and exhaust (DP back of the exhaust needs replacing) worked out to be $8,000 from realoem. I don't know how much it will be to straiten the frame, small additional parts, paint and 3 weeks labor, but it has to be getting up there!

[doublevanosrc]

Ouch, not another one.

BTW see if they can replace it with the carbon fiber diffuser from BMW Performance.

[1SerieStud]

The damage seen on the picture does not speak for "totaled"...however, typically when bad frame damage occurs, the car gets totaled. If it's minor, equipment exists today to correct it and you won't ever notice.

[MikeinAlexandria]

Sorry about that. Did the other driver get a failure to maintain control ticket? You should always file a police report! If the other driver gets a ticket for being at fault, you will almost always get your car fully repaired by their insurance with no issues.

Investigate the body shops in your area. You want the one that can repair Lotus, Lamborghini and Porsche, typically the one insurance companies don't like because it is expensive. But in my experience with body shops, the expensive repairs last the life of the vehicle, others do not and trust me, you don't want to walk past your car every day only to be reminded of the past.

Good luck. Also, be sure and take the free x-rays and doctor visit owed you. A collision that hard can affect your body as well, without you knowing it for a few weeks.

[MikesBMW]

did the damage push in your exhaust at all?

[Rawhide]

Originally Posted by MikeinAlexandria

Good luck. Also, be sure and take the free x-rays and doctor visit owed you. A collision that hard can affect your body as well, without you knowing it for a few weeks.

+1

[Lester]

The moron didn't brake? He must have been texting while driving.

[Little1er]

Originally Posted by MikeinAlexandria

Sorry about that. Did the other driver get a failure to maintain control ticket? You should always file a police report! If the other driver gets a ticket for being at fault, you will almost always get your car fully repaired by their insurance with no issues.

Investigate the body shops in your area. You want the one that can repair Lotus, Lamborghini and Porsche, typically the one insurance companies don't like because it is expensive. But in my experience with body shops, the expensive repairs last the life of the vehicle, others do not and trust me, you don't want to walk past your car every day only to be reminded of the past.

Good luck. Also, be sure and take the free x-rays and doctor visit owed you. A collision that hard can affect your body as well, without you knowing it for a few weeks.

Thanks for the advice. I have already taken it to the best shop I know because if they are going to fix it, I want it done right! iT JUST HAPPENS They are A Lamborghini/Ferrari/Lotus/Spyker/Bentley/Roles Royce/BMW Approved shop.

I am suffering injuries to my neck and back, and have already seen my doc. Don't want to reveal too many details about that. He admitted full fault to the police and to his insurance, so his insurance is taking care of my car.

[Little1er]

Originally Posted by MB135i

did the damage push in your exhaust at all?

Yes, my exhaust, from Dp back will need replacing.

[fwmcb]

A buddy of mine had similar damage and was able to get Performance exhaust for just a couple dollars more.

[Little1er]

One thing I would appreciate anyones advice on is how to approach his insurance company about reduced value compensation. It sounds like they are going to fix it, so maybe I can add some after market goodies -- I'm open to opinions on what to do (Def exhaust, thinking BMW Performance or Dinan)

[Angry3]

Originally Posted by Little1er

One thing I would appreciate anyones advice on is how to approach his insurance company about reduced value compensation. It sounds like they are going to fix it, so maybe I can add some after market goodies -- I'm open to opinions on what to do (Def exhaust, thinking BMW Performance or Dinan)

From experience I can tell you regardless of how you approach the issue with the carrier their response to the question of whether they will pay you accident-related diminished value compensation will be a resounding "no." The exception would be if you live in one of the rare states like GA that has established a clear right to DV and a formula for determining it.

If you're serious about pursuing it you need to either talk with a local attorney seasoned in these cases or with a company that does DV assessments. Either will cost you a few hundo to start. The bottom line is these negotiations are all about leverage, you have to have a significant, provable loss and either the willingness and ability to take the carrier to court or enough negotiating savvy to make it think that you will if it doesn't write you a check.

Hope that gets you started.

[Wakka]

Your wheels are filthy! :P


Just kidding it doesn't look like he hit you at 40 mph though. Good luck with the repair and get ready to have a rental for at least a month.