Fender Bender Thread Part 2

[Mike]

Please, lets not turn this thread into a fail boat and derail it like last time

Again, Im not here to argue over honesty and such, just looking to find the most cost effective solution here.


Recap:

I had a minor fender bender the other day, I was at fault, I bumped into a honda civic doing about .5 MPH, scratched her rear bumper.

Here is the pic. You can see all the damage, its centered right above the tailpipe... There is that long black mark , which Im assuming is my cars dark green paint rubbed up on it, and then there are two nicks left and right of the tailpipe that puncture the bumper about .25" deep.



She had given me the option to just handle this out of insurance so my rates dont go up and so she doesnt have to pay a deductible.

Well she went and got me a quote from her auto body place, and they quoted me at $540.06 to get it fixed. And the guy said that doesnt include any possible "frame damage" that "most likely occurred " during our .5mph bump. ( yeah right )

So, what should I do here, honestly , I dont want to shell out 540 bucks for it. How much do you think rates would go up if I just said fuck it and went through insurance.... Over the long run, would it be more than 540 bucks ? If my insurance is gonna go up 10 bucks a month for 2 years I could give a flying fuck. If its gonna go up 40 a month then id probably be better off just paying the place to fix the bumper.

On the other hand, say the lady has like a 500 dollar deductible.... So what If i tell her that she can either go in on the repairs with me and we both save money, or I just go through insurance and she ends up paying the full deductible, is this a route I should go?


Thanks for the opinions and advice...

[Customjob]

Id say try to buff your paint mark off of there. If it comes off it would look pretty good.
If she wants any more than that tell her you want to go through insurance, if her deductible is 500 she probably will just not even bother for those little nicks.

[customcreationsllc]

I'm pretty sure by law bumpers are required to absorb 5mph bump with no structural damage.

Was there a police report?

I had this happen to me on the other end once I wasn't even there a guy hit my car parked in front of my house and my friends let him go, they got his number at least.
I kept calling when I would catch him using a different phone number he would tell me he had no money. I tried going to the police but they said since I had a verbal agreement that they couldn't do anything, so I was screwed.

After that I will always get a police report and go through the insurance unless I know the person.

Do you know your insurance agent? can you ask them if it would go up they are not going to raise your insurance for inquiring about it.

If I was you I would be nice pay the $540 but nothing more get it in writing a check or something traceable. Anything more go through insurance.
Ask for a second estimate at a place you choose.

[grundlepunch]

that place is trying to rip you off. tell her insurance or nothing, remind her of her deductible.

[Ktmracer419]

i did a .05 mph bump into a chrysler sebring

$790 out of my pocket

less damage than what you did to that honda.

i scratched a .75x.125" section of clearcoat off. and they said they wanted to remove the bumper and replace the foam shit in there and check for frame damage

[customcreationsllc]

http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/problems/s...per/Index.html

[Riot]

oh man.

Does she know you're going to steal her car now?

[grundlepunch]

oh man.

Does she know you're going to steal her car now?

he wasn't driving a red suv loaded w/ peeps duh

[Riot]

still, you know it's no good when someone takes a pic of the back end of a civic.

[bucketokarma]

you can either screw them by telling them you want to go through insurance, since there is no police report, insurance will say it never happened, and you have plausible deniability.
You can just pay the money to fix it.
You can offer to fix it yourself, explaining to them that it's that or nothing since you know insurance won't do it without a police report, and you helping is better than nothing.
You can try to work with the insurance and tell them everything, they most likely will deny the claim since there is no paperwork proving you were at fault, or even involved at all, but raise your rates anyway.

My suggestion, while it might cost more; is to pony-up and pay the shop to fix it and be done with the whole thing.

[Riot]

If you're going to just pay, try to find a cheaper shop.
Though without an accident report...it never happened.

[bucketokarma]

Integrity..... Mike has it.

[04WranglerX]

oh man.

Does she know you're going to steal her car now?

Hahahahahahahaha

[Hydra]

Integrity..... Mike has it.

His own personal options listed state either pay out o pocket (which after failing to file with the police would be the right thing to do) or to go through insurance (which because of above parenthesis is practically impossible)

this leaves him one choice if the "integrity" card is being played.

You hit the car, your fault, you gotta step up and shell out

[Riot]

Hardly any damage at all. Walk away, they should have taken insurance information down.

One bad decision on their part is going to equal -500$ on yours?
FUCK THAT.