Wife just got in a car accident. (Pretty sure it’s her fault, although no fault was admitted). Bought out the lease last month. Neither one of us have been in the car accident before. Police came, took details down. Called insurance company right away. Any recommendations on how to proceed with car repair etc.? Let insurance pick where to repair, pick myself? Just looking for general advice as we’re not familiar with the situation.
Your insurance agent should help you with all of this.
Back in the day, they would send an adjustor out to take a look and then the adjustor would refer you to a repair shop. Not sure what the process is now as it’s been years (luckily) since we’ve been in an accident.
Sorry to hear about this… good luck.
If You are planning to drive this car for another several years i would suggest to pick the repair shop. Is it OK to drive this car? I would also shop around and get some quotes.
Repair options
- Insurance will give you a list of ‘approved’ shops. This usually means they charge rates the insurance company approves.
- Your Car Maker can give you a list of ‘ceritfied’ shops. This usually means they gave the shop a list of equipment to have and that shop has it. If they are also an insurance compatible shop. you score.
- Go to the nearest shop, it’s convenient for you to go there but you might have some extra charges your insurance company won’t pay.
- Ask your uncle ‘bill’ to recommend you a shop, that’s called family referral.
People Options
- Check in with a Doctor to make sure you aren’t medically hurt. Just because you don’t feel it now doesn’t mean you don’t have some serious injury that will disable you in a few months.
Car Rental options
- Your insurance MAY pay for rental, it’s pretty specific on how many days you get and might not cover the entire repair time.
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Definitely pick yourself.
Don’t let the payee pick for you. What’s their no. 1 goal? To save money. Which shops are they going to recommend? The ones that save them money.
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Insurance said just to leave the car there as it is in residential area and they’re sending an adjuster out. From the pictures, insurance said that it will most likely end up being totalled. We had around $13k equity in it also, so I assume that goes up in smoke now.
As you bought it, you might score on the equity. Leasers lose almost all equity on a total, but owners can get it.
You are entitled to the entirety of the difference between the ins payout and any loan balance you owe, since you bought out the car last month and therefore own it.
The ins payout is also negotiable to some extent. Look at comparable cars for sale, KBB, Edmunds, etc. to make sure you are getting a fair settlement.
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No offense, just curious which car these days has a $13k equity just at the end of the lease after all taxes and fees. If You bought this car in June the equity went down drastically.
If it is totalled you should get retail value plus tax (enough to go out and purchase a similar vehicle) less any payoff and deductible. Pull some used cars on cars.com or auto trader within 100 miles of your zipcode and you will get an idea of what should be offered. Remember you can negotiate this amount if it comes in low - send in what you are finding in the market for consideration.
If it is going to be repaired you can choose the shop it goes to. Warranty on work is the key. The insurance companies will have prefered vendors that should offer a lifetime guarantee on work preformed. If you cannot find the same offer with your prefered shop you may want to use one of theirs. Repairs will typically be faster with an insurance company shop as they usually need to jump through less hoops when additional damage is found.
probably gonna total it to avoid rentals
This means nothing. If the paint match isn’t great to your eye but they say “I don’t see it” you’re SOL.
Quicker turnaround could just as easily mean cutting corners. With a decent insurance company there shouldn’t be any hoops to jump in the first place.
This is usually when we find out it’s Progressive. 
I had 3 cars of mine totaled last year with hurricane Ida. Make sure they’re giving you a fair payoff comparable to what similar vehicles are going for. Geico lowballed the heck out of me so I reached out to an independent appraiser and he negotiated roughly 8k more that what they were offering. PM me if you need the appraisers info, he was phenomenal to work with.
I do have Progressive.
I think my wife over exaggerated, definitely will not be totaled. Don’t see any significant damage, it is driving, no codes popping up on the dashboard. Pros cons of taking the insurance money for the repair and just changing the front bumper & hood myself?
Looks like the hood needs to be replaced or fix too.
A con of doing that is that there is often hidden damage that cannot be seen until the repairs begin. Plus, with price increases/part shortages, it could take much longer to repair and cost much more than initially estimated.
This is not something you want to DIY without prior experience.
You have a lot more needed work here than just a front bumper and hood…
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Well, your front impact bar is slightly bent and possibly damaged internally.
The radiator has a small chance of being bent, I’m assuming this is an Audi? The liquid on the ground could very well be coolant, and that could be something that’d need to be checked out.
You’re going to need a new bumper, hood, paint for both, and some other stuff at the very least.