owned car 2 weeks & rear-ended...sucks

[woody's bullitt]

i've had my 1 owner 91 lx vert since memorial day. 66k, great condition, all original, all records. i've driven it twice and haven't even used a tank of gas. i'm coming back from inspection friday afternoon, while stopped at a red light, college age girl behind me sees green light and drives into the back of me on the passenger side of the rear bumper. initially, the damage appears superficial. then, as i begin to look at the car, the frame is clearly bent. every seam in the car is altered. the quarter window and driver window are two inches apart, closed! on the other side they are overlapping.

got a claim number through state farm and dropped the car off to a reputable insurance recommened facility this morning. i'm almost sure it's going to be totalled given the obvious frame damage up and down the car. here is what REALLY SUCKS. the highest book value i can find is $5500 (NADA). i paid $7k, which i thought was very fair considering mileage, condition, records (every repair ever done to the car). it took me 6 months to find the car. now i'm probably going to have to sue this kid to get the difference in the money because i'm sure the insurance co. is not going to pay over book value. i was even in the process of getting collectible insurance for $8k on the car, but the policy was not approved as of the time of the accident.

morever, i just spent a boatload of dough on an h-pipe, catback, subframes, cover, strut tower, intake, sparks, wires, distributor cap/rotor that i haven't even installed yet.

i'm deeply depressed. i cannot even believe this has happened. thanks for listening to my sad senario.

 

[Aaron]

Wow - that sucks. I hate the "book value" of our cars. It's not even close to accurate!

You're accident is my biggest fear. If my car was in an accident, it would probably get totalled, yet it's got under 60K on it, a brand new paint job and an immaculate interior. Plus it's a T-Top car so I probably would never find one just like what I have now.

Well you gotta do what you gotta do. Get your money back somehow if it does end up getting totalled.

 

[iwashmycar]

wow..im sorry to hear that...just keep fighting for a fair price...show em what you paid, or maybe what other similar cars are going for...and just save the parts for a new one!

-adam

 

[stang8urimport]

Actually... if they want to total the car out for say, 5500 (which is pretty high anyway for an insurance company), you tell them to find you another car the same condition, same miles... for that money. If they can do it then sweet... but if not, it's not fair price. And refuse to take less then was is fair market value for it. Good luck, bro.

Nick

 

[grey5.0beast]

agreed, They tried to total my car when all it needed was a fender and a bumper, I said **** that, try to find one with perfect interior and good overall condiion for 4000 and i won't screw your wife, j/k, and they couldn't so they paid the 2000 dollars in damages, i paid some more cash and i ended up with a brand new paint job!

 

[ryan218]

that really sucks. sue the girl for the difference

 

[ej95cobra]

How's your back feeling!?! There's more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[grey5.0beast]

haha hell yeah

 

[woody's bullitt]

thought about that, but i don't want to get slimy about it. you've got to go through a lot of beaurocracy to validate an injury. our collision was low speed, and i'm in good health. i just need to find a way to come out of this thing even steven. the idea of searching for another car makes me a little sick to my stomach after just finding this car after so many months.

 

[iwashmycar]

do you have any pics??....i'd like to see it, even if its a before accident one

 

[grey5.0beast]

i know how it is, my car was and still is a one owner. I am sorry for anyone who has to go through this. Fight it till the end though.

 

[Blakthorn]

first thing you should have done is sit in the car and not move and rage and complain about your neck hurting when police / ambulance got there

isnt the person who hits you from behind 99% at fault??

if this was an everyday car i would say just let insurance handle it, but since this is a special case and a rare car

take her for all shes worth, it wasnt even like she attempted to stop, she must be stupid if you are stopped at red and she "saw" green - what the f#$%^@%&

 

[carbed87]

man, i hear ya.

when i was 16, i had my licence for a week before i picked up a 91 gt. not in the best condidion, but it was my first car ya know, so thought it was badass.

lol, well TWO days after i got it, i was a dumbass and didn't yield while turning left, and totaled the mofo.

yep, definetly wasn't too happy with my self afterwards lol.

 

[carbed87]

double post... i suck at teh interweb

 

[grey5.0beast]

Crazy story: The other day my friend was washing one of our girl friend's cars and we went and picked it up then i drove his 94 Supra back to his house, H erealized that he was out of dish washing soap So i took his car to kroger to pick some up, on the way home there was a guy really on my ass so i sped up brakechecked him, basicallly everything that you can do to get a guy off your butt, plus it was a 4 lane road so he could have easily passed me. I pull into the left turn lane to go towards his house and the light was yellow just about red so i stopped. I hear screeching tires and all of the sudden the guy was next to me in the cross hatched area. He was in a POS buick, I was in an immaculate 94 Supra with the ttops off so I stood up and was like WTF if you had hit me i'd a beat ur ass. he shrugged and reversed. If you want to see my friends car click in my sig and look at my friends list on cardomain his name is NORTH27. It was messed up.

 

[WhiteHeat306]

Hey man what part of the burbs are you from?

 

[Darkwriter77]

Having documents/records/receipts for everything definitely works in your favor. In some cases, you could get them to pay for at least a percentage of the amount of add-on parts you've invested into the car, though you'll surely never get anywhere near what you really put into it. It's just a sad reality when it comes to owning/upgrading an older car and using it for a daily driver; inevitably, you're gonna get nailed by some careless retard, and the insurance companies will bend you over and dry-hump you to death on one manner or another.

Only way to lessen the odds for an accident or soften the financial blow when it does happen is to minimize the amount of road time your car gets (weekend warrior) and/or keep the amount of money you put into it to a minimum. For example, don't go blowing $3,000 on a supercharger kit, another $3,000 for a beefy six-speed tranny, and $5,000 on a killer paintjob ... and ever expect to see more than $5,000 paid out for the whole car by any insurance company.

Of course, you could always settle for picking up an '06 Mustang GT and have full coverage and a factory warranty to comfort you...

 

[woody's bullitt]

i'm from downingtown.

the car wasn't going to be a daily driver. it was only going to be for sunny weekends. the only two times i drove it, other than home, was for the title and inspection. i was coming home from inspection. i haven't even put gas in it yet! WTF....

in another few days the collectible insurance would have gone through and this would have been much less of an issue. it's absolutely the worst thing that could have happened short of me getting hurt, which gratefully i am not.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Man that's terrible....i'm afraid of getting hit in my car because i know i'm going to seriously lose my temper and hurt someone.

 

[Darkwriter77]

In that case, you should have just stomped her face in. Only thing that would've made it worse was if she hadn't been carrying insurance - that would qualify as justifiable homicide.

Moral of the story: Other people suck.