DOH! just had to get it off my chest... I was driving my brand new 04 TL down the street when suddenly elderly woman made a left turn across and BAM!!! I hit her. Did $12k damage to front end of car... really sad. Has anyone ever looked into Diminished Vehicle Value Compensation. I was hoping the car was totaled but no luck. Any help would be welcome. Just like to say I go to this site almost everyday - don't have the rattling key problem - maybe check the dealer

 

Sorry to hear this.

Do you have pics aside? Maybe someone could give you more appropriate opinions if there is the reference with pics.

 

:o

 

Sorry to hear that. Hope you get a good value or a proper fixing.

You can upload images to www.photobucket.com and then use [img]...[/img] tag to refer in your post.

 

At least the nav system works!

 

 

 

Wow, your hood held up really well for having the airbag come out. I've seen some really gnarly TL crashes.

 

 

It seems impossible to get totaled. Anything was damaged inside your engine bay?

 

It does not look that bad to fix for $12K. Who gave you that estimate?

 

score another one for team anthracite

 

was the elderly lady the one that made the mistake? i dun like the fact that elderly people are allowed to drive. they kill/hurt so many people each year because they are no longer capable of operating a vehicle.

 

the same thing could be said about a lot of women drivers also not just the elderly.


lol j/k didn't mean it just for fun.

 

Wow, at least you are ok though right?
$12K in damage???
Doesn't look like that much to me. Guess the parts are super expensive then. I know they are on my NSX. :'(

 

How did the airbag feel? Did you get the burns on the wrist from it?

 

No serious injuries although my back gets stiff if I sit down too long - should go to Dr to check out. As far as the air bag, I sit so far back that I didn't even hit the airbag. Also, didn't get any burns, not even scratches on my arms from it. It seemed like they inflated in slow motion (ohhhhhh sssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iii***************) However, the smell and dust from the chemicals stayed with me for a couple of days. Smelled like burning dog hair. I'll post up the estimate and parts ordered in a couple of days.

 

makes me very sad

 

Glad to hear you're OK. That's the most important thing. Sorry about the car, tho.

That airbag smell sticks with you, doesn't it. But it's the screechy tire noise that still gets to me. (shudder)

 

that really sucks man, glade ur ok

 

When I crashed my Tl, we did around $9k worth of damage, it wasnt totalled either, however my front end looked about the same as yours. If I can recommend a great body shop, in the southern cali area, Philip Thearle's Autowerks, fixed my entire car, and it is amazing, I honestly cannot tell that my TL was in a crash, however since these cars are so new, and getting replacement parts is near impossible, took around 2 months to fix. If you have any questions, please feel free. I have photos if your interested of before and after, and I have add alot of issues with my TL, I recieved it back in December, so its an early Vin #, and it has all those wonderful problems :'( But it's a great car, and depending on your insurance, you can get it fixed to where it looks brand new, I must insist stay away from Acura dealerships body shops, they are not qualified in my opinion to work on the cars, and personally they do shitty work, Philip Thearle works on Mercedes, Jaguars, Porsches, Volvos, Rollys Royces, BMWs, Lexus and Acuras, and the work is top notch, They are located in Santee, CA. Best of luck with the vehicle.

 

WOW.. SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR CAR. AND LIKE SOMEONE SAID ALREADY. ITS GOOD THAT YYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUU ARE OK. CAR IS A CAR, AND LUCKY, THATS WHY WE HAVE INSURANCE. bUT STILL IS MONEY AND TIME.

 

BUT HOW DO U KNOW HOW BURNING DOG HAIR SMELLS LIKE?

 

When I was involved in an accident 2 weeks ago in my NBP, (sorry no pics!) my estimate was just over $4K. This was a front end accident similar to yours, but on mine the entire grill was smashed in, hood crumpled back about a foot, driver's headlight smashed and quarter panel smashed. In fact, everything was smashed up from the driver quarter panel all the way over to the outside half of the passenger headlight. The entire bumper except for passenger outside was hanging on the ground. My coolant and antifreeze spilled out immediately, and I could barely open my door because the quarter panel was jammed against it. Surprisingly, the airbag didn't go off! Although it wasn't necessary as I was only going about 5-10 mph. Still, mine from the exterior looked a lot worse than yours, yet only $4000.....

Well at least Acura makes safe cars so we are both here to tell our stories

 

I guess the 2 stage air bag system works if you said it seemed to come out slow. One good thing about leather and air bag dust it is easly cleaned. You will find it though for many car washes after you get her back. Usually to total a car it has to cost the issurance company more money to fix your car than the car is worth. So with a 35k car. You have to smack it pretty hard.

 

Sorry about your car guy. Mabe you could sue for the back pain and at least recover something for your hassle. I would think that with that much (12K) damage to the car, you could claim that the car is not worth as much due to the damage, and try and recover the difference. In any case, it's sad when something like this happens. It's your new car, and they never seem the same after an accident like this. I'd try to work with my insurance company to get a new car, and sue for the cost of purchasing the new car. If the car were a year or two old, that would be different, but with a new car, you should be able to claim that you want the car to be "like new", and that would mean not damaged and repaired. Check with a lawyer, and your insurance company. Good Luck Dude!!

 

And the reason they don't get their licenses taken away in places like Florida is purely political, the voting potential of their sheer numbers.

 

Just curious, Did you say the old lady cut you off? Since your car had to be towed did the police come? Did they say it was your fault. Im just curious cause of the above post. Thats why america is all F%*ked up we want to sue everybody even if its our fault. I wish you the best of luck though after you get your car back.

 

Sorry to hear about your car... glad you are OK.

Not to get too far O/T, but be sure and see an actual doctor (MD) about your back, not a chiropractor (DC). Those clowns don't even go to medical school. I don't know about you, but I don't want someone with that little education working on my back or neck.

 

Hey all, thanks for the support. I will be going to a real Dr soon. I don't think he will be able to do much. I will be looking into the depreciation stuff. Just a note, the same thing also happend to me not too far from the original accident site this morning. I was driving my old '97 Integra to work and a old woman was about to make a left turn in front of me but luckily she saw me at the last minute!

About the burning dog hair line, it's something I picked up from Ghostbusters - Bill Murray said, I believe, "smells like barbacued dog hair" - thought it was hilarious.

They said my car was going to take 22 days to fix, I told them I'm in no hurry so if they need to take more time to make it perfect so be it. I still have my good ol' '97 Integra LS with 140K miles on it, although it needs a serious washing!

Thanks guys, will post all estimates, issues, insurance, problem up here and hope I can help other people who are in the same positon

Happy 4th!

 

The dog we used to look after sometimes felt the cold in her back legs (she was a working gun-dog). So she'd get as close to our gas fire as possible. She would wag her tail too close and singe the hair - but she didn't feel anything. Just stood there wagging

 

sorry to hear what happened to your car. someone backed into mine at 6 weeks old. though not as bad as yours, the pain is similar. i took mine to Caliber Collisions in Chino Hills. took about 10 days to fix and $1100 (fender replacement, paint and reallignment of the hood). also if you're going through the other person's insurance company, make sure they're good. you can normally ask how good they are through the body shop. unfortunately for me the other guy's insurance company sucks so i paid my deductible and had my insurance take care of it (much less hassle). the reimburse took about 6 weeks. good luck with your car and keep us posted

oh and where in l.a. is this? so i'll try to stay away or if i'm in the area, look out for the elderly

 

I had a 1998 Dodge Ram Quad Cab that I parked on the street in front of a friends house while helping him with some stone work on his patio. The truck had just under 30-K miles on it and I am not in that line of work. (Not a construction truck). A woman rear ended my truck with a Kia Sophia. Told the cops a spider dropped from her steering column and frightened her. We were in my friends back yard when I heard the noise and right away I knew it was my truck. Even with the parking brake set and the truck in park, she moved it about 50 feet and 5 feet to the right. She swore she wasn't speeding to get to work as a nurse at Reston Hospital where she put people into those full body x-ray machines after they had been in accidents. (IRONIC??). Anyway her car wedged under my truck and flipped over on the street. I had about $11,000 in damage and at $14,000 the truck would have been totaled. Real close. I traded the truck, wrecked on a 2002 Avalanche and got $13,500 for it. I told her insurance company that I wanted compensated for diminished value which the Chevy dealer estimated to be about $1,200 compared to the truck never even having a scratch. Her insurance company gave me an additional $1,000 making my check from them $12,000. You may want to consider trading it back to an Acura dealer on a new one. They may help you with your diminished value claim. One thing I can tell you is when you trade the car in, any dealer will know it was wrecked and will not give yu as much for it. Car Max won't touch it which puts you in a worse bargaining position going forward as well. Either way, good luck and glad you weren't hurt.

 

Actually, insurance companies usually total the car if the cost to repair exceeds 75 - 80% of the present day value of the car. The percentage varies sometimes but it is around that number.

 

If, in fact, your repair costs is 12k, then you have a pretty good diminished value argument. Not sure about CA, but in Florida, you are entitled to make a diminished value claim against the driver causing the collision. There are estimators who do nothing but give estimates on a car's diminished value following a collision and repair. My best guess is if you got a diminished value estimate, it would be in the range of 3k to 4k. I personally have recovered diminished value and have had clients also receive compensation for diminished value, but my only experience is in Florida.

 

Umm, wow, that's...umm kinda specific. 'Burning dog hair'; let us hope that you have not had any experience burning any canine's hair!

 

Ok all, it's been 2 months and I still don't have my TL back from the accident BUT I have pictures of it without the front end. Total damage so far is about $15k, hopefully will get it back this week. Pix to follow

 

what the hell? why still so long? thats just wrong!

 

Front End

 

Sad