Hi Team,
Need an urgent advice. My car got into an accident earlier today. Wife was driving and hit the rear of a parked truck on the street. What are the next steps? Do I go to insurance or call up the dealership and inform them about this? Sorry, guys. this is my first accident and have no clue what needs to be done. What are the implication? 
Any tips is really appreciated.
Mercedes A 220 … San jose…
Full coverage insurance will take care of it. No need to call anyone else. Make sure it’s done by a Mercedes authorized body shop so if you get questioned later you can provide documentation.
Call your insurance. The dealer isn’t involved, so no reason to talk to them.
Agree need repair at authorized body shop
One of the many benefits of leasing, as long as its repaired there’s no extra penalty
Is that particular for Mercedes? Someone posted a similar question in offramp and when I said check certified shops the others didn’t seem to think it was a great idea.
I’ve a $500 deductible on comprehensive coverage…
One other thing is, we panicked since this was our first experience…Didn’t get any insurance or DL details from the truck driver. Though the truck was parked, it was not supposed to be stopping there on a busy street. Did I mess up? f**k… I’m still in that shock.!
he told he wont claim anything. but he asked my insurance details… thoughts team??
I had a leased Ford Edge which got badly damaged on the driver door - not a scratch but it was hit and the door caved in. I called my insurance (Geico) and they sent me to one of their authorized body shops and had them fix it. I was concerned that Geico pays to use AM parts rather than originals and would that be an issue- Long story short, no issue at all. No involvement of the dealer needed. At time of return, the AIVIN inspector didn’t even question the repair even though I was prepared to provide him the repair order from Geico. Can’t say it will hold true for Mercedes and YMMV but just what it’s worth…
He’s going to claim if there is damage done beyond what he can see. If you felt he shouldn’t be parked there then the police should be involved. If the lease is damaged you need to call your insurance, all of this is now going under yours.
+1, if he was parked illegally, get a cop out there
You should still go to the local police station and ask if you need to file a report for the accident. Depends on the jurisdictions- usually if there is property damage in excess of $x,xxx dollars you need a report. If it is just a minor fender bender, then no.
No damage to him whatsoever.
Even if he’s illegally parked you’re still liable. It seems counterintuitive to some.
You may need a police report regardless. Insurance will likely call you for a recorded statement.
If you rear end someone…it’s your fault. If he has damage, he’ll claim on your insurance, and you will claim your damage on your insurance. Get the car fixed properly, pay your deductible, and move along.
Treat it as any normal accident, the only time you get to ‘sweat’ is when the car is totaled. Then you have to deal if you have GAP or not. (most have it)
This would be under your collision coverage. Comprehensive is for incidents where you are not driving, like a tree falling on your parked car or a thief breaking your windows.
CA statute of limitations is 2 (or is it 3?) years to file an insurance claim. Your insurance company can provide more details.
Hope you got plenty of pics and/or videos to help your case. Will be good if you can also provide a diagram of the incident.
It’s not that it wasn’t a great idea…it wasn’t the only idea. There’s no rule that says you have to take your car to an OEM, just like there’s no rule that says you have to have all mechanical repairs done at a dealership vs an independent. Any licensed place can repair your car, provided OEM parts are used. If it were me, and insurance was paying for it, I’d take it to the Mercedes OEM repair facility, as there would be a record of it, and no questions asked when returning. There may be some questions at lease turn in if you don’t use an OEM, although there’s really no way of knowing unless you rip off panels, or there’s glaring imperfections in fit and finish. If I were paying out of pocket, or it was my owned car, I’d take it to the person I trusted most, which may or may not be an OEM.
Now that you added that info, ok I agree.
On the other thread I said there are authorized centers which were then said that ‘any licensed facility can return to OEM spec’, which is incorrect if they don’t have the OEMs specs right?
any good, legitimate body shop will have the OEM specs, regardless of being OEM or not. Just like Joe’s garage has the OEM specs to repair a car. It comes down to the parts used and how good the body shop guy is. OEM vs 3rd party aftermarket parts…sometimes you can’t tell the difference. Sometimes, however, things don’t line up perfectly with aftermarket. A lot of insurance companies will try and squeeze out 3rd party parts due to them being cheaper. It’s up to the insured to ensure OEM parts are being used, and to demand them if required.
Just as one example…I had work done years ago at an OEM repair shop for a lease. Everything looked fine upon return of the car, but within 1 year, the repaint of the panel spider cracked. It was enough that I needed it repainted again, which they did, and I turned the car in not too long after. Couple years later, returned with a deer hit in a different car…same problem. 1 year later it needed reshot due to spider cracking. I’ll never go back at this point at would trust and independent over them.
Sounds like they had a lazy employee when the paint job was done. But true, I was more thinking of the procedures such as GLUE THE ROOF (Hello Tesla) versus bolt down the roof kind of OEM details.
Both work and gluing is faster, but the OEM spec should say ‘bolt the roof’ and the ‘alltrader manual’ might say ‘glue the roof’. And the parts are immaterial, it’s the oem specs that should’ve been followed.