Hit while parked, hidden damage to look for?

jbooth · #1 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 03:18 AM

Our 10-day old Fit just got hit today by an idiot who backed out of his driveway and didn't even look. My wife's parking job wasn't great, but come on at least glance out the back window it isn't like the orange revolution metallic is going to blend into ANY Illinois road.

Anyway, he dented the hatch and scraped the hell (punctured too!) the rear plastic bumper. My wife thinks he shoved our Fit about a foot sideways away from the curb when he did it too but we don't have proof of that.

Car still seems to drive and brake okay, we'll be calling insurance and taking it in for an estimate tomorrow. Police report already filled out at the time. Anything else we should ask them to check in particular? I'm already going to ask about the rear wheels that got shoved horizontally when they aren't meant to.

Any experiences with warranty problems from Honda having a body shop fix it? Do we need to go straight to Honda and let them fix any possible mechanical problems, followed by the body shop fixing the exterior?

secondspassed · #2 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 03:24 AM

He didn't damage the rear fender (quarter panel)? That is one piece I would be worried about since it's huge and goes all the way to the front of the car. Also, make sure he didn't eff up your rear torsion beam so it's out of alignment because it can't be adjusted without buying a camber kit (which your dealer will not do for you, they'll tell you buy a new one). Make sure the frame isn't bent and you should be golden.

Neebs · #3 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 07:14 AM

For a 10 day old Fit, I would at least try to confront him and see if he can pay for it out of his pocket (highly doubt it). Thats a claim that will be on your Fit as an accident.

blyndgesser · #4 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neebs

For a 10 day old Fit, I would at least try to confront him and see if he can pay for it out of his pocket (highly doubt it). Thats a claim that will be on your Fit as an accident.

I get the impression this was a hit-and-run. Any chance of identifying the idiot?

Don't accept payment out of pocket--that sort of thing almost always leads to unseen damage being left out of the equation till it's too late. Whether or not you are penalized on your insurance will depend on what state you live in. You probably won't, unless your company winds up paying the claim. But even if you are, it's better to be sure the car is properly repaired than to cheap out on a repair. This sort of incident is the reason you buy insurance in the first place.

EggHead · #5 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 09:29 AM

This same thing happened to me it sucks.... i just took my car to a local body shop and got everything fixed for 260$... It might be little more depending on the damage... don't take it to the dealership they will rape you...!!!! They were going to charge me 750$ just to repaint the bumper....

jbooth · #6 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 10:02 AM

My wife watched it happen, and the guy wasn't going to hit-and-run anyway, it'd be really obvious who did it if he tried. He didn't hit it on the other side or the road, he clipped it exiting his driveway.

They reported to police, so it'll already be on the car's record. I'm going to ask my insurance if they'll try to press his insurance that the right way to fix it is actually to just buy us a brand-new car rather than try to fix all that is wrong with this one. If they won't, I'm going to ask they fix the bodywork (collision center), then fix any problems with the rear end (or front end, e-power steering, transmission?) at the dealer. Then I'm going to ask them to compensate us directly, financially, because the car is now worth a lot less at resale and we'd been talking about trading up for a hybrid fit when they come out.

I suspect the other company will tell me to sod off, but it doesn't hurt to shoot the moon. I mean, their dude hit a parked bright orange car on a perfectly fine sunny day.

The car's giant metal exterior looked fine. He caught the rear bumper at about an 85 degree angle to us, then shoved us across the road about a foot. I didn't notice any tail-light damage. We haven't tried opening the hatch yet (figured we'd do it at the body shop so if it won't open or won't close we can ask them to try to seal it up) From the little I did drive last night (to a friend's close by to dinner) to MPG results are below what I expect, so I'm thinking there is more than cosmetic damage.

jbooth · #7 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 11:46 AM

Bonus: our local Honda has a body shop! Penalty: one of their guys is out for surgery. They're booked through September.

Waiting on adjuster and Honda. Can get estimates there tomorrow, so planning on that.

JGW · #8 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 09:35 PM

The other dude's insurance should pay for it all. I had someone rear end me in my van a few years ago. Called my insurance (Progressive, at the time) and they offered to fix it, but I told them I wanted the other guy to pay. The took care of contacting the dude's insurance and I specified the body shop I wanted to take it too. No problems whatsoever.

jbooth · #9 (**permalink**) 08-11-2009, 07:49 PM

$1,400 worth of body damage, car now with the Honda dealer with them doing an estimate on the mechanics (struts, shocks, alignment, engine, transmission) tomorrow.

During my longer drive to get to the body shop and dealer today I'm never getting more than 1-2 bars on the MPG gauge during 0->30 acceleration no matter if I baby it or really push it and the engine is making a lot more noise trying to accelerate at any speed than pre-collision. Also getting lower MPG bar readouts cruising down the interstate (for about 5 miles) at 65 with the cruise on. And the car picked up a shake that's really noticeable in the steering wheel at stoplights/signs.

Blah. Amazing how much damage you can do from a low speed collision when you push/drag the car a few inches.

Someone correct me if I'm remembering wrong on the bars of MPG during 0->30 acceleration, but I'm pretty sure I used to get ~20 mpg showing.

Added fun: he wouldn't have been willing to pay out of pocket anyway. It is a company car leased from a fleet with business-to-business insurance on it. Irrelevant anyway since damage is sure to go >$1,500 so a police report is required.

raspar · #10 (**permalink**) 08-12-2009, 12:12 AM

You can always try to claim diminished value. Some states allow for diminished value to be claimed on your vehicle if it was involved in an accident under the premise that the actual value of the vehicle will never be the same as it was prior to the accident.

jbooth · #11 (**permalink**) 08-12-2009, 06:33 PM

Got the car back. They couldn't find anything, didn't charge me anything. I don't feel the steering shake at idle like I did yesterday either. Maybe it's that I got the car good and warmed up driving all over town to bodyshops? Got errands to do tonight so I guess I'll get more time in and see.

In any case, being a scientifically minded guy, I'm going to fill up the tank and double-check the MPG gauge. If I can't show a difference between MPG on tanks before the hit and tanks after, then I'll have to take that at face value.

kenchan · #12 (**permalink**) 08-12-2009, 06:59 PM

sorry to hear.

mechanically other than the body damage he could have bent the rear torsion beam out of alignment but i doubt it. i doubt it because im guessing there was no heavy cargo in your car and your tires are relatively new so does not grip all that well...it's possible that the car did slide sideways a little to relieve some of that force.

did your dealer check the alignment?

your mpg will be affected by the overall ambient temperature & humidity, how much a/c you're using, tire pressure too. and while the car is brand new it can take a full tank before it really learns the working environment including your driving habits...so give the ECU some time to adapt.

jbooth · #13 (**permalink**) 08-12-2009, 08:52 PM

Dealer did check alignment said it looks fine. Atmospheric isn't much different than the pre-crash first week we had it, though we have only just gone through the first tank of gas. In any case, doing the computation by hand can tell me how it changed. It'll just take a while for us to drive that much to get a decent reading...

kenchan · #14 (**permalink**) 08-12-2009, 10:33 PM

Yah, I went through probably 3 tanks before I did the mpg challenge.

jbooth · #15 (**permalink**) 08-14-2009, 12:50 AM

Got a real rough estimate on diminished value -- not a lot. Going to call their insurance tomorrow and ask them where they'll pay to fix it and if they're willing to give us a modest diminished value claim. If the answers are good we'll conclude our business then. If not I'll probably just let USAA fix it -- not worth paying for appraisals and small claims court, etc, over such a small diminished value. Still think they should give us something for it though.

jbooth · #16 (**permalink**) 08-28-2009, 01:02 AM

Saga's end so far: his insurance paid to fix it at the best body place in town. No hidden or mechanical damage. Still not 100% about the latter, but we haven't put enough miles on it to get a decent MPG readout. Don't know if I'll get them to go for diminished value or not. Likely won't get much, but may as well try.

hex · #17 (**permalink**) 08-28-2009, 01:21 AM

One thing I learned as a Co-Op student at a body shop: never under estimate collisions. I've seen a car come in, looking like the front bumper was just scraped a bit, but once we removed the bumper, everything was crushed in the front. It was also a Honda, from what I can remember, it was an Element.