A group of teenagers accidentally crashed into my truck while it was parked in the center of town. The entire rear door is dented and there’s actually a hole in it. One of my chrome side steps is dented and a part of the interior door frame is dented.
I’m a fish out of water here as I’ve never been involved in an insurance claim. The police officer confirmed that I was at no fault and that I can pick up the report stating so in 3 days.
Will Ram give me a hard time about this after I return the car? Do you guys recommend getting quotes from Ram to fix or am I better off at a local body shop?
Sorry this has happened to you! You should look at your lease contract and give your leasing company a call to make them aware of the accident. They may have specific guidance. It is likely that repairs need to be made with OEM parts but not necessarily by a Ram dealership. If repairs are made with OEM parts and in alignment with your leasing contract you shouldn’t have any issues during the turn-in process. Walking away from diminished value caused by an accident after lease end is one of the main benefits of leasing, in my opinion.
First - did the police get the other party? Then their insurance will pay for repairs. Just go to approved shop and you won’t have any issues with your lease return as long as the car properly fixed. No need to involve leasing company. Ram will not repair it and will send you to a body shop, anyway
Yes, the police got the kids and thankfully no one is hurt. The kids were trying to avoid a jaywalker and he/she caused the front car to swerve and stop abruptly,… and then their friends car rammed into them from behind thereby pushing the front car into my truck. Its a mess!
I hate the idea of having to drive around a damaged truck for several weeks while I wait for everything to get sorted out. I wish their was less time remaining on my lease as my first thought after making sure everyone was okay was ----> “maybe I can upgrade my truck now?”.
This is a standard insurance claim. You can either get your insurers to fix and claim the money from the other party’s insurers or you can pursue direct with the other party’s insurers. Usually you should get a rental for the duration the truck is in the body shop. Better go with a reputable body shop suggested by the insurer or even the dealership body shop if they have one.
This happened to me with my wife’s Nissan and it was noted at lease end that repair had been done as they tested the body panel and were able to determine that paint color was at a slightly different level than the rest of the car. They did not charge me anything as a result as it was almost undetectable to the naked eye.
True, and he has his own insurance, whose job it is to recover from the other party. At least that’s an option I was given the last time I had an accident.
Also, one thing I learned is to get insurance information from the other party at the scene of an accident, especially the policy #. When I got my police report, the policy # was nowhere to be found. My insurance company had trouble locating the other policy by using name/address searches.
Unfortunately that ship has sailed. I hope the police officer was competent enough to include all the insurance information in the report! Thanks for the advice though Xx.
Your insurance doesn’t even need to get involved, if other insurance does not contest. That’s what I did twice - I notified mine and they were on standby during the process. The shop of my choosing sent the estimate to the other insurance and they paid for everything.
And in at least one instance the officer asked the other party’s insurance, which the lady did not have on her. So we waited for her relative to bring it and the officer issued her an extra ticket for driving without insurance. So police does verify insurance.
I would talk to your own insurance company to make sure you don’t wind up with an accident on your insurance record that will affect your rates, which should be doable. It shouldn’t be counted against you, but you might have to put some effort in to make sure it’s not.
The answer to this, according to three body shop owners I’ve talked to, is that it depends. On whether the other company is particularly stingy and likely to fight you tooth and nail over the right way to repair something vs the cheapest way to do it.
So even in a 100% at-fault clear-cut scenario such as this, the danger isn’t that they will contest it. The risk is in how they treat your claim after having accepted liability.
If that’s the case, going thru your own removes those headaches. They will subrogate the claim and get their own money back plus your deductible.
OP, remember to do independent research and choose the body shop yourself. Don’t go simply on what the insurance company recommends. The reason they usually recommend anyone is because they’re cheap.
By “contest” I meant everything, including the right parts and the right way to repair
But in my experience they never did. Though last time it was a hassle since the “at fault” car was a dealer trade car, so had to go through dealer’s insurance.
Definitely, your insurance is much better equipped to track, negotiate or sue the other insurance if necessary. Paying a deductible is the only negative aspect of this, but most likely it will be recovered later.
I wouldn’t worry. Since the fault is clear, the Op’s Ins co should have no problem subrogating the entire claim and getting everything back including the deductible.
Just to add to it. You can sleep like a baby since the police have the wrongdoers. Congrats! Hit and runs are the worse and I’ve seen my fair share of that sort of injustice.
