Hi fellas, I know Insurance in the US is different to within Australia, I'm just hoping to gage what I should do.

This has been the worst month my Euro and I have had in the six months I’ve had it. Four bad things have happened.



(1) Somehow scraped the front left rim (now rear left after rotation) on a low curb taking my mother to have a new cast put on her ankle.

(2) The neighbours feral cat found it’s way into the garage, knocking down an toddlers kids metal trike onto the front left corner of my car. Resultant damage –

(a) A scratch on the headlight clear lens,
(b) a gouge in the upper surface of the bumper
(c) a suff on the lower edge of the bumper
(d) a scrape on the web of the underlip spoiler
(e) a chip on the outer edge of the under lip spoiler



All this I think was done by the exposed tubular metal end of the handlebar judging by the position of the trike when I found it. I haven’t seen that cat since

(3) Now I thought this was bad enough, then I found my mother hadn’t swung her leg with the cast out far enough and gouged my passenger side skirt!. Grrrrrr



It was all made worse by being rear ended today on my way to a flight medical.

(4) a stupid (but attractive) ditzy brunette, in a green Daewoo Leganza bumped into the back of me at a set of lights where we’d been stationary for about 1.5mins!. When the lights changed we rolled through and pulled up. She only got part way out of her car as she claimed “her leg is in a cast” and she “went for the brake and her foot slipped”. The impact would have been less than or almost 5km/h. At the time the area of impact was covered in a weeks road grime and I had to look intently for any damage. All I found at the time was a rusty imprint of the screw head that attached her licence plate which was bent (it looked like she’d done this more than once). She was being very apologetic and as the damage seemed insignificant to me. As a result she successfully played the female gender card on me and I failed to get her details. So stupidly I let her go, however I did get her registration number. After getting home and cleaning the area up I found more damage.

I’m now seriously piffed with myself for not getting her name and address (even if to bargain for a “one night stand” settlement).
The damage is
(f) the Phillips screw head imprint
(g) A crease where the bumper folded in
(h) And an impression in the bumper from her plate

Oh and I've cleaned the photographed areas first with Quick Detailer, buffed the area down with 3M PI III (05933), then used Scratch X followed by Gold Class in the false hope of being able to make the mark less noticable.



So my question is do you think I should go ahead and put in an insurance claim for the rear? Or live with it and hope for a bigger bingle to get it fixed?

I had planned to try to fix the other imperfections using the chip and scratch methods of repairing paint and rims that can be found on bettercarcare.com. If only we could get clear car bra’s installed in Australia. There's only one place I know of and that's in Sydney and I'm 1000km away.

I’m so pissed about it all in general. spend 2-3hrs each weekend washing and detailing my car and shit like this happens!...Grrrrrrr. I’ll take some better pics in natural light this weekend once I’ve washed her.

Comprehensive car insurance is all very new to me as my previous car was an old clapped out 1982 GM product.

So guys’s what are your thoughts?

Thanks…..a venting Matell

 

If it happened in the past, little dings like that will happen in the future too. I'd wait until something more major happens before submitting a claim.

 

All the other dings have happened this month, and I'd got over the initial frustration and upset of them as I couldn't really blame any one individual (well with the exception of the leg cast) and feel I might be able to patch them.

As annoying as it is to see a puckered cats anus on the back of my car I can see the point of waiting. I hope I can stay sane enough to attempt to repair it, and then wait for a nice but light sandwhich in the middle type of accident so I can get both new front and rear bumpers without damaging the underlying structure.

A t least this lady today wasn't blonde...damn I wish I'd got her details. This whole little incident has gone and stuffed my day and my weekend.

 

Don't fret over it. Just remember to get info next time.

 

You should see mine!

 

living in the city, mine is already a lot worse then the ones you posted.

 

Sorry to hear about the problems with your car...if it was me...i would get rid of it,
because i went through some experienced in the past. In 1986 i bought a Pontiac
Trans Am brand new...it looked like Knight rider in the show with David Hassohoff,
but any way i bought the car on the 13th...and as time passed by i'm keep getting
bad luck with the car...like some one keyed my car from the driver side, old lady
backed into it while my car was parked, my car got some paint from the people
that painted the airplane hangar and it drifted on my car...etc, and the best kicker
of this was on the way home late night i drove the car in the country road with my
friend and i ran over some thing on the road i stopped to see what it is...but
couldnt find it. Then i switched driver, my friend drove the car and i sit in the
passenger side with my seat belt on, and tilt the seat back and trying to get some
sleep. Just as he drove down the road like 5 minutes in a straight away country road and seems like
no one on the road at all, but suddenly on the side road some car just jump across
and at this time my car couldnt not stopped it but T-boned his car! I had fractured
collar bones and ribs due to the seat belt(thank God) a chipped front tooth, cuts
on my left hand. My driver suffered a fractured hip. The other car we hit...both
drivers were drunk and had broken femurs on all their legs. All of us had to be
transport to the hospital. My friend and I was in the hospital for almost a week.
Guess what!! The accident was on a year later on the 13th! I am not lying to you
So my point is that if you got some thing un lucky with your car day in and day out
Then get rid of it soon before it get rid of you...i mean that was just me...good luck

 

In the event you decide to get new headlamps, I'll take your old scratched up ones.

 

RE: headlamp damage. The guy that did the fixup for some deep scratches I had on my hood said that the Lexan lenses on the headlamp covers are really easy to fix when they get scratched. Said they polish up really well. He specifically recommended against putting any 3M film on them - his reasoning was that 1) They are pretty much indestructible even though they scratch easily, 2) What scratches you do get are simple to fix and 3) Money is better spent putting film on the bumper cover which is not easy or cheap to fix if it gets damaged. Sounds plausible to me.

Anyway, I know all those little damages may be annoying, but once you've done your best to repair or touch them up, I think you just need to live with them. Basically, it's those kinds of things that differentiate a used car from a new one.

 

Sorry to see all those little dings... I've got tons on mine as well. You'll get more after you touch them up. So I wouldn't worry too much about it. As for headlights go, you might want to get some clear bra material on them. I've got some on mine and no dings on my headlamps anymore

 

Thanks for the input guy's.

danslvpt the thought of getting rid of it crossed my mind for brief period of time, but it's impractical at this stage as I'd planned on keeping her for another 4yrs or so. If I was made of money it'd be a no brainer!!!!.....upgrade to C55AMG!! Now I would seriously fret over every little thing on one of those babies!. But seriously I will be able to live with it. I just had to vent my initial frustration, and the calming words from you guy's with experience has helped greatly.

I know about this time last year or maybe even earlier this year there was a large thread where you TSX drivers were having a shocking time of it. Little dings and incidents like this aplenty!.

I am looking forward to seeing how these little areas of damage take to being repaired. If it's at all successful, I'll be sure to post some more pics. I won't have the chance to give it a go for another two weeks however. So I just need to remember to be careful, take my time and not expect any great miracles.

I noticed that using a CD scratch repair kit reduced the mark on the headlight a little, given more time and elbow grease it might polish away. I'll have to look around for some transparent plastic polish.

Time to remind myself she's a daily driver that does 180km a day Not some gorgeous show car or trailer tramp

Cheers all!

 

That's almost up there with sauceman type numbers.

 

Yeah, I wish I didn't have a round trip that long for work, but alas I do and there's no way I'm moving closer!. So in 4.5 years time once I've finished the salary sacrifice for it, she'll be one very high mileage car (unless I again change work locations) with what I image will be a shocking resale value.

Provided things are still good with it I'll pay out the balloon and keep it I guess. I've just got a job ahead of me keeping it in as good condition as possible. I'm a silly boy.....should've gone for the 4yr option instead!

Ahh well.....I'll be keeping that in mind for my Euro/TSX replacement.

 

I suspect it depends on the insurance situation, but here are a few thoughts:

Everyplace I've lived, including two non-US locations, the insurance deductible was PER INCIDENT. What this means is that (in my case for example) I have to pay the first $500 of damage for each incident I submit a claim for. If I would be in a situation like like yours:

a) The insurance company would pay nothing towards the new rim (replacing it outright would be less than the deductible)
b) Also nothing towards the side-skirt (total repaint probably less than the deductible)
c) Most likely nothing towards the front damage (again, touch up probably runs somewhere under $500, unless you got a really cool adjuster who agreed to replace the entire headlamp lens)
d) At most a couple of hundred bucks towards the rear bumper cover, which -- in my experience on other vehicles -- is about a $600-700 job.

There are times when you can get away with getting damage from several incidents repaired all at once. When I was rear-ended and the bill was close to $2000, the insurance company didn't quibble over the fact that there were already lots of pre-existing scuffs and scratches to the rear bumper on my old A4.

In your case, four seperate incidents, four seperate sections of the car, no way you're going to be able to easily consolidate them into a single claim.

Also, in the US, insurers tend to shy away from people who have a history of submitting lots of little claims for every minor scratch. Legally the law is on their side. Even in California where our insurance commission has a lot of willingness to go after insurers for just about anything, they've pretty much agreed that the insurer doesn't have any responsibility for helping you keep the car in "show" condition, and that minor cosmetic problems pretty much fall into the category of "normal wear and tear."

I'd have to ask my brother but I recall the test case involved a guy with a Ferrari who insisted on painting entire panels to factory specs after every chip, and who was pretty much unable to buy anything other than liability and very high deductible comprehensive after a couple of years of that.

 

Insurance provides coverage on a per accident basis.

What this means is, if you get a dent on the left side of your bumper today, then 2 weeks later, you get a dent on the right side of your bumper, the insurance company will not just handle all the damage as 1 single claim even though it involves replacing or repainting the same bumper.

They may apply 2 deductibles to the repairs. Or, typically, what happens when you turn in a claim for heavier damage after your car has sustained minor damage to the same part is, the insurance company will take depreciation or "betterment" on a repair for the prior damage to your vehicle.

For example, lets say you have collision coverage with a $250 deductible. You get into an accident resulting in a small gouge in your bumper that will cost $200 to repair. Then, a year later, someone smashes into the same rear bumper, which ends up costing $3,000 to repair. The insurance company would pay you: $3,000 - $250 deductible - $200 betterment = $2,550.

In Matell's case, it would be best to get an estimate for the damage done by the cat and a separate estimate for the damage caused by the rear-end accident. Have the responsible parties pay you the cost of repairs for both. The cost of rental for the time your car will be in the shop should also be added.

Once you get the money, you can either choose to wait for potentially more damage to your car, or you can just take it in now and get it repaired. In either case, at least you have the money in hand first and your options remain open.

 

In practice, in many cases, they can't easily distinguish the earlier (minor) damage from the damage that happened in a later more major crash, so they'll just pay for the full cost, unless you're dumb enough to point out things like pre-existing scuffmarks.

There are some cases where it's obvious that the latest accident didn't cause all the damage. Both types of situations have happened to me. Had to (at different times) replace both front and rear bumpers on my old A4. The rear-end accident hit in the middle of the bumper, the same place where multiple cars had already left various marks, scuffs and gougest from their license plate screws. Since the final accident was serious enough to pretty much obliterate earlier damage, they replaced the whole thing with no "betterment" chargest.

The front bumper was the opposite case. I got hit on the right front, necessitating the replacement of the entire bumper cover (among other things). The adjuster correctly noted that the left front had a major scuff on it from an unrelated incident that I never claimed. He dinged me $100 for the repair of that piece.

Minor damage accumulated over the years like dings and scratches is pretty much never claimable.

 

Yup. I've now no intention of putting in a claim for any of the damage as it's all very minor.

The only mark I was considering seeking a claim for when I made the original post was the rear ender, and that was only while I was a little incensed over being bumped at the traffic lights. I am going to live with, and touch up the marks as best I can, which now also applies to the marks from this incident.

As I plan on driving this car a considerable distance five days a week, for the next 53 months it's almost inevitable that something that will require an insurance claim will happen. If not, that’s even better and once the level of scaring on the body work gets to a reasonable level I will then get the components in question repaired and re-sprayed.

However it is an interesting exercise to talk these minor scenarios through. Thanks guys.

 

One thing I have done in the past, is that when I finally have that "claimable" big incident, I ask the body shop to do all the other "little" repairs at my expense at the same time. Many of the costs (matching paint, prepping, final buff, etc.) will apply to the entire job, not just a single piece of it. You can save quite a bit of money by "piggybacking" on the basic body shop charges that the insurance company is already taking care of.