I think the police are only concerned if you actually hit something, not just leave skid marks on some grass or hit a tree. Can't really quantify damage to a tree unless it dies. If he hit another car - yes, call the police. Otherwise don't waste their time.

 

LOL! Actually, I am a dad! I just bought my daughter a Mazda3 (07) and I would want her to exercise proper judgement if something like this happened to her. Noting that improper judgement gets you to this point in the first place though. My daughter will probably never do as many things wrong as I did, in her lifetime, but whatever she does, it is my place to aid and assist, scold and show the right way to go, etc. Not say, "Oh, cuz I did that too, don't worry about it!" LOL!

But you should also note that I said I wouldn't outright bash as others might, but give him some advice on what I felt was the right way to handle it. When I was a kid, I acted as a kid, now that I am an adult...you feel me?

Anyway, good luck young buck and keep your head up! You sound like a good guy. As you said before, you learn from your mistakes...add this one to the list. Pockets might be sagging a little bit after this one though!

 

Thats what you all like to think!

I meant what I said as a joke, glad you took it that way.


I’m interested if anyone else has also been able to find out "if" and how much their premium would go up if they claimed a particular accident.

Anyone?

I have owned a 350 s-10 when I was 16, a built mustang, and had five tickets issued at one time before. However, never have I been in an accident. So am I being completely naive when thinking there is a way to find out about premiums going up from claims?

 

Well, tomorrow at work I am going to play with some new business auto policies I will try to find a policy that is the closest to my criteria and will add an at fault accident with different thresholds to a 21 year old driver and see what it does to the premium. I will do that before I make a call to my agent tomorrow morning

I have been underwriting personal auto new business policies for about 6 months now and usual increase is around $200 per 6 months for at fault accidents.


Studio: if you want, give me a criteria to look for and I will do "what if" quote and see how much the surcharge would be. Please include how much you currently pay per 6 months, how many people on the policy and their ages.

 

Late to the party as usual.

The thing to do was (is) to drive it (if safe) or tow it to a shop. If you know that insurance will be involved, call them immediately and ask them about a shop and/or an appraiser.

My company used to have an office here that did driveup appraisals. When I did my wagon some years ago (snow, spun, bullseyed a Taurus), they looked at it the next day, gave me a list of 3 shops they work with (all good) and I picked the one close to me.

Not to scare you, but that wagon deal was also just the front right corner and cost me $3500. Mainly it was the different parts (bumper, fender, hood) and the supportting structures behind them that were the problem. Your's sounds like suspension damage to say the least, with some other broken parts (abs, tpms) mixed in.

Just let them fix it and learn from the lesson. I did. I don't drive in snow anymore.