I hit a parked 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe the other day. Here is the extent of the damage: http://imgur.com/9SdIpUX
Since the damage seemed so minor, I thought it would be best to handle the situation outside of insurance. My driving record is accident free, and I'd like to keep it that way. My deductible is $500, which I thought was more than generous enough to cover the damage, so I didn't see the point in going through insurance.
The lady I hit got two estimates for the damage. They both came out to around $1,500, which I thought was ludicrous. I asked for some paperwork, and she gave me these: http://imgur.com/V3guMH5 http://imgur.com/pZAjucJ
You can clearly see that the estimate includes repairs for pretty much the entire car. Her car was pretty scratched up already. I plan to get my own estimate, and to follow-up with the places she got her estimates at to see what the fuck she actually asked for.
My ideal course is to pay her for the damages and have this ordeal done and over with. I have no interest in dragging this out any longer than it should be.
Here are my questions: 1. Could I be misinterpreting the information or are people actually careless enough to do shit like this? 2. What are my options from here? 3. Is her claim considered extortion, and are there legal measures I can take against her?
the old high school gang i used to run with is basically a bunch of criminals. only 2 of us actually made it through high school. Anyhoo.. i don't run with the old gang much any more.. but i do keep in touch with them.
1 guy faked Schizophrenia and has fake diet problems. This gets him the most possible cash from the provincial government for permanent disability. I think he gets $1500/month.
the guy works with a partner and they take turns throwing themselves in front of cars at specific intersections where drivers consistently disobey the letter of the law. 1 guy is the victim and 1 guy is the witness. They've been at it for 4 years and have 5 settlements to their credit so far.
he has tendonitis in his shoulder and elbow from 20 years of playing baseball. After he gets 'injured' by one of these cars he goes out and starts whipping a ball around. The DRs can only tell it is inflammed. They can't tell what its from. He claims its from being hit by the car. The Lawyer he sees has a specific Physiotherapist and DR that he sends him to every time. Jackie Chiles move over.
It's hard to judge the extent of the damage from your photo...
From my experience talking to mechanics in my area, each panel you want to replace probably costs around 300-400 dollars? I see damage in two panels in the photo. The one quote mentions rear door, but your photo is pitch black back there, so hard to judge.
If you only hit this part of the car, its ridiculous for her to expect you to cover repairs to the roof, rear bumper + lamps, etc. From the broken-down quote, offer to pay for the parts you damaged.
1. We don't have enough information 2. We shouldn't be giving you legal advice 3. Some people will use a fender bender as an inappropriate opportunity to extort additional money for repairs of problems not caused by the accident 4. Get your own estimates and seek counsel from experts Good luck!
Get your estimate, give it to her "i am willing to pay this much" if she says no. You go via your insurance simple as that, as your insurance will not pay for the excess damage. It might bump your premium up for a couple of years but it is either that or pay alot more upfront now. I had a similar issue with a neighbour once, he tried to get me to pay over the odds for something as he was a stupid fool who thought the idea was good to send it back to Suzuki instead of letting me (who was in the car industry) get someone to do the job for half the price (as owed favours). In the end i gave him less money and he still took it suzuki...then 6 months later he sells the car anyway TT
But morale of that story is the same, u offer them a quote, if she refuses u say ok what is your insurance details and you go that way.
this is why you always take to your mechanic if you're offering to go no insurance, and let them pick over the thing. don't trust a stranger to not fuck you over. And for that matter, really consider if it's worth it to not go through insurance. It would be pretty hard for them to fuck you after paying it since they wouldn't have a police report of the accident and cops wouldn't give one retroactively.
that being said, as stated above, that looks like work on two panels. This person is obviously a shithead trying to pull one over on you, so I wouldn't exactly feel bad about telling them to fuck off if I were you, but that's easily gonna be $500+ no matter what the car and if you're going replacement or restoring.
On January 30 2016 02:06 QuanticHawk wrote: this is why you always take to your mechanic if you're offering to go no insurance, and let them pick over the thing. don't trust a stranger to not fuck you over. And for that matter, really consider if it's worth it to not go through insurance. It would be pretty hard for them to fuck you after paying it since they wouldn't have a police report of the accident and cops wouldn't give one retroactively.
that being said, as stated above, that looks like work on two panels. This person is obviously a shithead trying to pull one over on you, so I wouldn't exactly feel bad about telling them to fuck off if I were you, but that's easily gonna be $500+ no matter what the car and if you're going replacement or restoring.
Bet you that could be fixed with a suction device like a go pro mount, unless she's going to have both panels taken off the dent hammered out carefully to avoid paintwork damage (which she doesn't care about if her car is as scratch up as it says)
The problem with those suction devices is that the metal is actually still damaged, even if it looks okay. The car will eventually start to rust around the spots where it was bent back and forth.
EPT
