Would Insurance Total It? 2009 Fit Sport
Member
Joined: Oct 2023
Posts: 213
From: Minnesota
I did not get insurance info. She appeared to be a senior citizen, probably just not willing to increase her fixed costs more than they're worth for something that to her probably looked it would cost the same as her deductible, say $500. I don't want mine jacked up as well. I would have had to share mine too. Police took our licenses and never asked if we were insured.
They did.
Sometimes it's best to just do your own thing and not rely on what other people might do. That would stink since this wasn't your fault. But adults sometimes get to clean up messes they didn't create. 🙁 Please let us know what you ended up doing.
Member
Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 390
From: Concord, Ca.
It looks like all you need is a door skin replacement- if the door itself still works fine and the gaps around the door are still good. This is what I would do. Sometimes it's more cost effective to replace the door-- but the door key mechanism and the door weatherstrips will both need to be swapped.and the door repainted including the interior edges of it to match your color.
The best source of info needed to repair your car is from a body shop. They can explain the process of dealing with an insurance company, and what the monetary threshold of them totaling your car. .
Remember the insurance company does not own your car and cannot do anything to your car without your approval. The insurance company would only have you surrender your car to them if they total the car because of the expense of repairing your car based on it's book value minus about 30%. If repairs exceed around 70% of it's book value. Even then, they have to give you the option of keeping the car and receiving a settlement amount that reflects the book value of your car minus the value they set for you keeping the car.
I would suggest you contact your insurance company and tell them what happened and make sure and tell them you do not want to start a claim yet- you just want to allow the other driver to have a chance to pay the damages on your car before you turn it into a claim- if that's what you still want to do. If you wait to call your insurance co the other driver may call her insurance and her insurance will inform yours of the accident anyways..
If you and the other driver end up turning the claim into your insurance companies, you can always get a copy of the police report for iher personal info.nfo for your insurance. If that happens, the insurance companies will determine who's at fault, and only that driver's insurance will be affected- not both unless they agree both drivers are partially at fault.
The best source of info needed to repair your car is from a body shop. They can explain the process of dealing with an insurance company, and what the monetary threshold of them totaling your car. .
Remember the insurance company does not own your car and cannot do anything to your car without your approval. The insurance company would only have you surrender your car to them if they total the car because of the expense of repairing your car based on it's book value minus about 30%. If repairs exceed around 70% of it's book value. Even then, they have to give you the option of keeping the car and receiving a settlement amount that reflects the book value of your car minus the value they set for you keeping the car.
I would suggest you contact your insurance company and tell them what happened and make sure and tell them you do not want to start a claim yet- you just want to allow the other driver to have a chance to pay the damages on your car before you turn it into a claim- if that's what you still want to do. If you wait to call your insurance co the other driver may call her insurance and her insurance will inform yours of the accident anyways..
If you and the other driver end up turning the claim into your insurance companies, you can always get a copy of the police report for iher personal info.nfo for your insurance. If that happens, the insurance companies will determine who's at fault, and only that driver's insurance will be affected- not both unless they agree both drivers are partially at fault.
Last edited by 56chevydan; Dec 1, 2025 at 05:58 PM.
Member
Joined: Nov 2025
Posts: 185
Thanks for your reply to my post Steve-o. I have a clean title, not salvage. But if I contact insurance and they total it due to repair cost and I buy it back, which is insane-I own it not them, then I would get a salvage title. This is what I cannot deal with about all this, and not knowing for sure if that would happen. And probably a premium increase on top of that.
The car drives/seems the same. The damage does seem to be only cosmetic. It's dark now so I'll check again later, but no new lights show up on dash, doors open and lock as usual, door is bent inward I guess I would say, though but still seems just cosmetic. I didn't check mirror, will recheck the others you mentioned. Thank you for this list.
I agree, I am very hesitant to contact my insurance even for a hypothetical other than asking how much they are charging me for collision since that is not broken out on my bill for renewal. I could raise suspicions? No, I do not consider the driver who sideswiped my car "stable enough" as I mentioned they thought we were in a different town despite the sign on building had the town name large letters. They said they went "straight", can't be, they went to the right into my driver's side. Police was on scene after the fact so they could not determine fault. Other driver did not admit fault, they just want to avoid insurance. Other car only has a few tiny scratches.
It may not look like thousands of dollars of damage but multiple body shops estimated thousands in repairs. Looked like they added every possible thing for a money grab. 2 of the shops did not think insurance would total it, but that is not definite. One thought the value could be 6-8k, retail maybe, no way to insurance or KBB.
The car drives/seems the same. The damage does seem to be only cosmetic. It's dark now so I'll check again later, but no new lights show up on dash, doors open and lock as usual, door is bent inward I guess I would say, though but still seems just cosmetic. I didn't check mirror, will recheck the others you mentioned. Thank you for this list.
I agree, I am very hesitant to contact my insurance even for a hypothetical other than asking how much they are charging me for collision since that is not broken out on my bill for renewal. I could raise suspicions? No, I do not consider the driver who sideswiped my car "stable enough" as I mentioned they thought we were in a different town despite the sign on building had the town name large letters. They said they went "straight", can't be, they went to the right into my driver's side. Police was on scene after the fact so they could not determine fault. Other driver did not admit fault, they just want to avoid insurance. Other car only has a few tiny scratches.
It may not look like thousands of dollars of damage but multiple body shops estimated thousands in repairs. Looked like they added every possible thing for a money grab. 2 of the shops did not think insurance would total it, but that is not definite. One thought the value could be 6-8k, retail maybe, no way to insurance or KBB.
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