The Civic Gets A New Bumper

Well, it would appear that Frankenstein will get a face lift,
compliments of an Excursion with a big hitch on it.

I get the call, "You need to come to the school. A guy just hit me and
it'll need a bumper, headlight, and hood." The story is, someone threw a
tennis ball at the lifted Excursion, and the driver threw the car into
reverse, skidded the tires and rammed the hitch into the bumper. I guess
the itty bitty Civic must've been in that huge blind spot I keep hearing
about.

My neighbor had a good point, there could be some serious frame bending
because of the size of the Excursion and the fact he was smokin' the
tires as he hit the car. Another thing, if the car was in drive and
being pushed back, should we have the tranny checked?

Parts needing replacement:

Impact bumper
bumper stiffeners
Bumper cover
Passenger light (the one I *just* had mounted last week!! Argh!!)
Hood
Fender wells, both sides. (Thankfully they didn't get to the new fender
I *just* had installed. <whew>)
grill and badge ($20. just yesterday... down the drain)The grill mounted
was a '98. Will be replaced with '99.

The silver lining is we will get the right year parts on the car free of
charge as the Excursion owner has accepted full liability. The mother is
an adjuster (homes) for All State. She wants to keep it off the records
and pay for the damages in cash. I'm not real savvy about this stuff, so
anyone with advice on how to protect my rights if I should decide to
keep the insurance companies out of it would be appreciated.

The first estimate I've received is for $3400. I plan to present her
with one more from a AAA approved local body shop. She would like us to
travel to Northridge (those of you in L.A., we live in Santa Clarita) to
a place called Yoshi's. Can anyone tell me if this is a good repair
shop? And, if I *do* respect her wishes by going there, should I be
compensated for the trouble it will be?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

I'd file with the police. That was no accident. It was somebody acting
stupid enough to get somebody killed.

Where the repair money comes from is entirely up to the other person.
It can be insurance or her own money. Have it repaired at the place
that you think will do a proper job.

Keep records, witness contacts, photographs, and logs of everything that
happens. She might try to stall on payment until it becomes very
difficult for you to collect from her insurance. You'd be surprised at
how many people change their stories after they've have some time to
think.

 

would she do the same for you? i doubt it. she works for an insurance
company, but wants to keep it off the books? hm.

worth a shot, but remember- shes paying, so shes going to try to keep the
price down. and once yoshis sees the car is a frankencivic, theyll argue
that you dont need "new" parts for a cobbled- together car.

too late to claim whiplash?

 

Insurance companies have nothing to do with your rights. You have the
right to be made whole; who writes the check to do so is completely
irrelevant. If she decides not to subrogate this to the insurance
company, it in NO WAY changes your rights.

If she fails to make you whole, you send a demand letter and/or sue in
the appropriate court. IN ADDITION, at that point, states with
insurance requirements usually have a mechanism whereby the BMV gets
involved to the point of requiring proof of insurance. She then has to
show that proof. If you complain that she's not making you whole, the
BMV may (this is the case in my state) pull her driver's license.

You can also subrogate this to your insurance, should you have the
appropriate coverage, and have them fix it. You then drive away in your
fixed car and let your insurance company recover the damages from her.
Believe me, THEY know how to recover damages, no matter what. In fact,
at that point, her insurance company *would* come to know about
it--whether she wanted them to or not.

You're under no obligation to do anything *she* wants. Everything's
negotiable; if she wants you there, it's for a reason. So, she should
pay you for that trouble.

My concern is that she's got a reason for wanting you to go there, and
that you may end up screwed. Protect yourself, and go where YOU want to
go. Period.

 

Absolutely 100% correct.

 

You have several years, I believe.

 

In this particular case, your insurance company may balk at making
frankenstein whole. But it may be worth it.

I took that tack without thinking anything of it when my car was hit.
The other insurance company didn't contact me until after I got my car
back. They muttered a lot about "you need three estimates... we won't pay
over our estimate..." I told them I really didn't care, that it was
between them and my insurance company. I think I made a wise choice, but
frankenstein might be different.

I wouldn't even start to weasel on the "other compensation" part.
Keep it simple. Real damages, something you would be able to recover in
small claims court (as a basis for thought, not an eventuality).
I would not go to a shop of her recommendation. I would stay local,
and look for recommendations locally. I would _definitely_ make sure a
report was filed. You say campus security took a report? In California,
if it's over some fairly small amount, even if you don't get the damage
fixed, you are required to report it to the DMV. Uusually a police
officer taking the report takes care of that.

$3400, especially for frankenstein, might cause some second-guessing
on her original plan of easy payoff. It's also too much money for me
to risk. I'd demand payment before getting any work done. If there was
more than a day or two of delay, I would just have my insurance company
take care of it.

The thought that the driver really ought to get nailed for such a bonehead
act also comes into play. But most important is that you not get screwed.

 

I agree, because that's a perfectly reasonable stand to take and defend
*should* it come to a court of law.

 

wrote:

When it happened, I was led to believe there was a report. In the
ensuing hours, I was told no report was made because of it being on
private property. We plan to visit the school today to ask them WHY the
kid wasn't cited for wreckless driving. Wanna hear a classic? When we're
talking about rental car usage while the car is in the shop, she
suggests that perhaps her son will have to help get Jarrett to school
and work. Yeah, right....I'm gonna let my son get in her son's LIFTED TO
THE SKY DEATH MOBILE with Jr. at the wheel. Not gonna happen in my
lifetime!

We've been advised legally that if this detail crops up, claim stupidity
and then comply. "You mean the officer at the scene didn't report it??"

She knows the bumper cover was the wrong year, but I informed her the
price was not a huge difference, if any at all.

That's what we're doing. We got three estimates, one was for $4700.,
from a AAA body shop. $3400. is sounding pretty good. Another estimate
came in at $2600., but there were too many things missing from this one
that the other two had on them. Amazing how the prices for the parts are
all exact. The more expensive place wanted to replace the fenders, which
seemed to ride out the accident ok. The midrange place wanted to repair
them.

We're telling her that the $3400. place is the one we want to use, she
needs to make arrangements with them to be the party "liable" for the
repair (she didn't like the word "responsible" when I used it.)
and that needs to be taken care of on Friday. Otherwise, we're
contacting insurance and hers will be contacted too. I can only imagine
what a boneheaded move like her son pulled will do to rates, even in
light of her working for the company!

Thanks for the advice. It's all helped me tremendously throughout this
ordeal.

Yeah, Mr. Campus Cop is going to hear about it, too.

Ain't that the truth!

 

You are being very unreasonable. If I were her, I'd refuse to pay for it and
fight you in court.



U.S.A. "Go West Young Men..."

Mexico "El Norte Hombre..."

 

Since he's in high school you could even opt for "kid stylin'" Carbon
fibre hood, projector headlights and even a Honda Civic Hybrid bumper
cover (stock JDM I've heard). Really surprised he hasn't hit you up for
these instead of OEM parts.

Good Luck,
AL

 

You still wanna go to court and try to defend your 16 year old idiot son

Don't waste your time, the guy is the local asshole.
Just browse through the NG and you'll see that he is the first one to reply
to most of the post with some stupid comment.

 

They all use the same computer program, loaded with the same parts data,
and the same flat labor rates. The only real difference seems to be which
parts different shops think need to be done.

One shop wanted to paint the full doors, which required replacing some
decals and pinstriping. Another wanted to paint a section of the doors,
stopping at a clean edge, and avoiding both the pinstriping and the decal
replacement. The costs were all identical for the parts they agreed on.

 

('03OBSMHybrid) wrote:

A webtv'er who knows how to cut and paste!! We're few and far between!

Oh, he's tried. He'd LOVE a body kit style Civic, but we hate
them. And since we paid for the car, he listens to us. I fear those
things are like a red sports car...they scream "Pull me over!! Pull me
over!!"

Thanks. We're meeting the 'liable' party at the body shop today. They
want to go over all the charges the shop saw fit to repair the vehicle.
Should get interesting.

 

Oh, he's tried. He'd LOVE a body kit style Civic, but we hate

It must be hell for him, living with an overbearing witch.




U.S.A. "Go West Young Men..."

Mexico "El Norte Hombre..."

 

At least he tried. I was thinking he might not be normal if he didn't.
You're right, they do scream that. I work with a few kids with the
kits and it seems they get pulled over at least once a week. Sometimes
they even get approached by the police when they are parked, had one guy
last week get harassed at a closed dealership on the weekend.

Hope it all goes well,
AL

 

Welp, things changed yesterday. Daddy got home, decided it was too much
money to put out, and they have decided to claim the damages through
their insurance, All State. I've heard stories about All State being
notorious for undercutting jobs. Can they do that to us? Because they
are accepting 100% liability, there is no need to inform our insurance
company, correct?

 

I would use my insurance company. That way you don't care about the other
company's practices, if they are inferior to your company. I posted a
note about my experience earlier in this thread. AAA is very "clean"
when it comes to claims. Sometimes you can just take the car to the shop
of your choice, get a computerized estimate, take that to AAA, and get a
check made out to the body shop. Then they collect from the other party.
If the other party admits responsibility in a phone call from your agent,
you don't even pay deductible. If they don't admit responsibility,
you pay deductible, which is reimbursed when the claim is settled with
the other company, assuming they eventually admit fault.

That did not show up as a claim on my record, although one minor crash
that I never got fixed did show up (?).

 

wrote:

You've been very helpful! I went back and reread your advice and will
take it, if on examination of the car, they try to backpeddle the work
that TWO shops have said the car needs.

agent, you don't even pay deductible. If

Even though the 'at fault' party has accepted liability, All State wants
to investigate. The person we talked to said some people think they're
at fault when they really aren't. "But I'm not saying that's what
happened here, I'm just saying we need an investigation." Yeah right.

We'll play 'good cop' and see how easy they make it for us. Any hassles,
and we'll call our insurance.

Thanks again, Clarence, for all your helpful advice.

 

That's what I meant to say. You didn't mention who your insurer was. If
you think the other company is not doing the right thing for you, that's
part of what you pay your insurance company for.
In my case, I didn't really think about it at all. I called my insurance
company to tell them I'd been in an accident that wasn't my fault.
The lady that hit my car admitted that she couldn't see the front end
of my RX7 at all from her Lincoln Continental and clipped the left front
edge of my car. And, as I mentioned, my car was fixed and home before the
other company even called.