Located in Atlanta and my lease ends on 03/19. Over the weekend someone backed into the front end of my 22 Audi E-tron in a parking lot (hit and run). I now have an estimated $9K claim that needs to be repaired. The estimator at the Audi collision center said I should return it as is with the insurance claim and pay the deductible. I was really looking forward into moving on from this vehicle and don’t want to stomach paying an extended lease payment for it to sit in a body shop. Any advice would be great. I am also looking to lease another Audi.
Call lease end support. You can probably ground the car (after inspection). If the Audi cost to fix is lower, just have insurance cut you a check
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@Carbuster1 this is going to be a long story but curious as to your thoughts and others. I filed the claim with my insurance (difficult to find a repair shop for EVs), requested to ground the vehicle with AF and was told no and that I needed to extend the lease and repair the vehicle. The GM at the dealership suggested that I have AIM (inspectors) come and examine and quote the damage with the hopes that it’s less than the $9K I was quoted at the repair shop. The inspectors came out and signed off that I owed $0.00 for damage or repairs. I turned the vehicle in on time and without issue. It’s been three weeks and nothing, I contacted my insurance company to cancel the claim and they refused. I was told once the check is cut and the claim is closed there is no reversing course. Now I have a check in hand and facing higher premiums on something that I never put in play. As you can tell I’m not versed in any of this but curious if you’ve ever heard or experienced anything similar.
Maybe contact the state agency that regulates auto insurance to inquire?
https://oci.georgia.gov/insurance-resources/auto
IANAL, but, even if you hadn’t gotten a payout, I think even a withdrawn claim would still show on your record an result in a premium inc (or, at least, that’s what a former insurance agent told me yrs ago about a potential claim on my home insurance; I assume auto insurance might work the same way).
Once you call your insurance and open a claim, it stays on your CLUE report, irrespective if anything is paid out or not. I understand the sequence of events and can’t say I wouldn’t have opened a claim, but that’s a bell you can’t unring. I’m surprised when you told insurance what happened they wouldn’t accept the check back - the amount of the claim should be adjustable and $0 is better than > $0
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I appreciate the responses, great insight.
Any chance you claim a not at fault incident and that doesn’t impact you as much?
So you turned in a damaged car and they said you owe $0 for repairs?
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If you have $9k of found money, why would you care if your insurance premiums go up? Why did the inspectors say you owe zero?