I'm unsure if insurance will total my car, since I haven't contacted them. The other driver wants to pay out of pocket, but I doubt she will follow through; my repair estimates are much higher than I think she expects. Police gave me only an event number and couldn't determine fault. Police said accident report not required, report can be converted, contacting insurance is optional, no injuries. I am in an expensive suburb of Chicago, Illinois. If I knew how an insurance company would determine value of the car I could make a better informed decision. What I have seen online the book value is quote low, probably same as the repair estimates.

The estimates I’ve received range from $2,177 to $4,709, with the most “honest” shop quoting $3,263. All but one included replacing the driver’s side door. The damaged door opens and closes fine, cannot tell anything happened as car drives the same. Car was in good condition before the driver’s side was sideswiped in a parking lot, 147km, with no known mechanical problems, still runs great. One of the shops offered alternative of buffing it out for free. But why would they do it for free?

My concern is that if I report the accident to insurance, my car might be considered "totaled" and taken away, even though the damage to my 2009 Honda Fit is only cosmetic. I feel pressured to avoid contacting insurance, even though I am not at fault, just to keep my own car. I cannot afford a car payment. The shops didn’t think they would total it but I’m skeptical. Repair cost appears to be around the same as book value.

Has anyone faced a similar situation recently? Am I missing something? Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Sideswiped in a parking lot, cosmetic damage only.

Close up. Considering only having it buffed out, won't look great, but at least I can keep it.

Passenger side, driver side looked like this before getting sideswiped.
appreciated.

Thanks again to everyone who has offered advice. I can't deal with this, huge maybe. Really, they are not required to let me keep my own vehicle???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Bummer. That's a clean Fit and I have always liked the orange color.

1) Where are you located? That can affect vehicle values and repair costs significantly.

2) Can you confirm that the first and second pictures show the full extent of damage to your car? Do both driver side doors still open/close smoothly?
If you answered "Yes" to both of those questions then I don't think this should be a $2000+ repair, nor do I think it should total the car. But, that's not to say that it wouldn't because insurance is indeed weird some times, and repair estimates are dramatically inflated in some markets.

3) What is your goal with the repair: back to the condition before the incident, cover bare metal to prevent corrosion, or somewhere in between?

Thirty minutes with a DA polisher would likely get you 75% back to good, and a paintless dent removal technician could probably get you to 90%+ in another hour (the hard part would be the body line in the middle of the damage). That would cost you a few hundred dollars. Certainly <$1000. Alternatively, grab some junkyard doors and get them resprayed to match, which would probably cost between $1000-$2000. If you're curious, ask the repair shops to detail what procedures they plan to take so that you can evaluate if their estimates are reasonable. I have no idea what steps a shop would plan to take that gets them to a $4700 estimate to repair this damage.

I have never made an insurance claim so I'm not that familiar with how it all works. Hopefully someone can give you better advice on that end, but my impression is that once you're dealing with cars with relatively low "book" value insurance is sort of a scam in that any real repair (more significant than what you have) is going to total the car, so what's the point in insuring the car against damage when those yearly premiums could be more efficiently used to save for future maintenance or a future vehicle (note: I'm not talking about carrying insurance to protect persons or property you might damage in an accident).

I can understand why the other driver wants to pay out of pocket: they don't want their insurance rates to skyrocket and, for many people who consider a car as nothing more than a tool, this isn't significant damage (assuming the doors still work). They are probably thinking that a couple hundred bucks will fix it.

 

I am not an expert, but I do not know why they would consider that totaled.

If you don't like the insurance settlement, you don't have to accept it. They're not going to take your car unless you take their money.

Forum experts: Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

We don't know what state you're in, but you need to follow the laws specific to your state.

Each state has set property damage limits for mandatory reporting of vehicle collisions. If the damage exceeds your state's limit, you must report.

You don't owe the other party anything here. If they cause a collision, it's on them, and they bear the burden of repair.

It it goes to subrogation, you will be very happy you reported, as the insurance company takes care of everything.

You might be out the cost of your collision deductible to start, but if it's clear the other party is at fault, you should get it back.

 

Thank you for responding to my post. I am in Illinois. I did report, called the Police. They were not on scene so they could not determine fault. No one was hurt, police said accident report not needed but there would be an "event number" which could be converted to a formal accident report and contacting insurance was optional.

The damaged door opens and closes as usual, you cannot tell anything happened as the car drives the same. I am sure the other driver is expecting the estimates to be in the hundreds not thousands. Insurance will go up for both of us, regardless of who was at fault. I'm sure insurance, no matter who's, will lowball the value of my car due to age alone, and claim the repair cost is way above their threshold for repairs and will "total" it for cost reasons. Then there would be a salvage title. I bought it used in 2016 so got my money's worth but had no plans to get another car, especially due to a cosmetic issue. Many items have been replaced due to age/rust, it's been a great car.

I probably should have named my post "what is the value of this car?" If I knew that, I could make a better decision. I'm thinking best (only) choice is to get it buffed out and leave it.

 

Use KBB.com with your information to get an estimated value.

As someone suggested earlier, if you don't accept the insurance settlement nothing happens.

 

Thank you again Drew21 for your replies. I hope I could just say no to insurance but then I'd probably open a can of worms and my rate would go up, etc.

 

It's probably worth having a hypothetical conversation with your insurance company about your options.

Maybe I'm misinformed about how this works. You informed the police about the accident so you're covered on that front. After that, I assumed that if you own the car (i.e., you're not paying a loan) you can do whatever you want with it, whether that is file an insurance claim or pay for repair out of your own pocket (or with cash from the culprit) or do nothing and drive it as-is if the damage is only cosmetic.

 

Thank you again Drew21! I checked KBB.com again, forgot to post that here, private party range is $3434-4784, private party value is $4109, this is with the damage info, fair-excellent rating without the damage info range is 2838-5668. I do own the car, paid off years ago. So it looks like insurance would "total" it given the repair estimates.

I like what you said about having a hypothetical conversation with my insurance company, was thinking about that. Good timing since my policy is up for renewal in December and I was going to call them anyway about some things before this happened. I haven't had to think about insurance and stuff like this in decades and I read that things changed dramatically in the last three years. So many people have had their cars "totaled" by insurance solely due to repair costs, car goes to junk yard, some buy back and get salvaged title. Good thing is that I confirmed that as of now the Police event report is not on my record. Trouble is I'm not sure it works the way we would expect with insurance these days which is why I came here. This forum is awesome.

 

Like I said, I think you need more information about the repair estimates to assess if they are reasonable or not. I don't think they are as I can't imagine what efforts a shop would be taking for the damage you have shown us that would cost >$3000.

Definitely talk to your insurance about all the options available to you. I still don't think you have to deal with them at all if you don't want to. As an example, let's say you call your local scrapyard and they can sell you second-gen Fit driver-side front and rear doors for $500, and let's say they are the correct color, and that you don't really care about the scuff on the lower plastic trim. So, for $500 cash, which is probably equal or less than your deductible, you have fixed the problem without dealing with insurance. Who complains about that? Not the insurance, because they don't have to pay out any money for a repair (but keep getting your payments to them). Not the scrapyard. Not you.

 

Drew21, thanks again. I agree, I question if the estimates are reasonable. They added everything they could think of to "do it right" not what is reasonable.

All but the lowest quoted replacing the driver's side door with an OEM panel or HSS outer shell on paper but talked about getting a used door from a junkyard, removing rear door panel to blend paint to driver's side door, and repair rocker panel. They must be used to getting away with robbing the rich people around here. I am not one of them. I live in a rental and cannot do this myself. Even if I could, we just had a blizzard and I have no access to a garage. I really feel I'm just SOL and stuck with just getting it buffed out to look a little better and move on. I'm guessing these shops are trying to get the most out of the other party (if they keep their word) and things may change if I tell them I would be responsible. Either way, my trust in any of them is not there and question their tactics and potential end result. Costs for everything have skyrocketed so these estimates may not be unreasonable. It does appear to be a lot of work and they will pad quotes due to the age of the car, and they all already alerted me that the costs will likely increase once they start taking things apart, blah blah blah. They don't think it's worth it but will take the money. Also read that shops around here refuse to deal with customers that bring their own parts.

 

You still haven't really stated what you want:
1) repaired to condition before side-swipe
2) repaired to condition that prevents rusting (I can't quite tell if you have bare metal showing, but you obviously don't want bare metal in the salty Midwest)
3) cosmetic improvement

The costs go down as you move from #1 to #3, and #3 could be completely DIY and very cheap (literally the cost of a bottle of polish and some microfiber towels). Looking at your pictures, is the rear door even dented? It it's just a bit of paint transfer or scuff from the other car's tire, that would probably polish off. Similarly, much of what you see on the front door would likely polish out, leaving only the dent to deal with (or not). The lower rocker trim is plastic, so fixing that all comes down to cosmetics.

You don't have to do anything today, especially with the current poor weather. If the damage didn't go to bare metal, you don't really need to do anything. If it did, wipe the area clean and slap on a thick coat of wax and deal with it when you have more time and better conditions.

You also haven't really talked about the overall condition of the car. The exterior obviously looks very clean for a 2009, but how does it look underneath? If the undercarriage is badly rusted like a typical Midwestern 16-year-old car it doesn't make a lot of sense to put money into an A+ repair.

And, to reiterate, if you talk to your insurance they can't take your car away from you. You can see where you stand with them, weigh your options with that additional information, and proceed from there.

 

OP, @Drew21 is offering sound advice. Take a deep breath and check a few things off the list:

1. You're sure that the damage is only to the outer skin of the car? No new lights show up on your dash, door-open warning still works properly, window still works properly, mirror can be adjusted, door still locks, both handles work as expected, door pocket isn't bent out of shape, door weatherstripping is intact and not bent out of shape, trim is not coming off the inside of the door.
   
   All good? If not you'll need to figure out if what isn't working is something you care about. If no one else drives your car, does it matter if the mirror doesn't adjust to someone else's preference? On the other hand, a problem with the weatherstripping might lead to leaks and issues later. You decide.
   
2. I would think about even bringing it up as a "hypothetical" with your insurance agent. I don't know how bound an agent is to report damage to an insured vehicle. If the person who sideswiped you appears stable enough to be trustworthy for the repair, follow Drew21's suggestion, figure out what you want the car to be when it's done, figure out with the body shops and comments here what it should cost to get you happy with that level of repair, and then, if we're not talking thousands, get the person who hit you to foot the bill. Even if it's for dentless paint repair, they caused the damage. If they don't want insurance involved, they'll pay up (or at least pay you back for what you spend up front to make it happen).
   
3. I used to own a car that was consistently undervalued by insurance companies because it was lumped in with models that did not have the same equipment or the same market demand. If you go the insurance route, you do not have to accept the first figure they give you. If you think it's not a fair compensation, you can find comparable documented sales of your model with your trim level in your area and bring that to the insurance company to make your point that their offer is inadequate. Personally, I don't think this will get that far; this does not look like thousands of dollars of damage unless there's something you just haven't discovered yet. Note that already having a salvage title is not going to help you in this regard. But you probably knew that when you bought the car.

You're not stuck here. Your car seems to be very driveable. The other driver has admitted it was their fault (though, again, note, without some proof it's their word versus yours and if you end up going the insurance route anyway they may suddenly "forget" some details). You will have some deadlines in this process but you should not feel rushed into anything you don't fully understand. Good luck.

 

If I were you, I'd see if she comes through, even if it's not that much cash, and look for a new door via junkyard in decent shape and have it paint matched and change it out myself.

 

Thanks again Drew21. I kind of did state what I want, or think is my best/only option with the situation by saying to just get it buffed out which of course leaves the dent. Would also make sure rust is prevented as much as possible. Agreed that A+ repair doesn't make a lot of sense. Got 10 good years out of it looking good. It's definitely still "road-worthy". I would make it look better also to not have this questioned as well. Officer on scene had no issue with it, but you never know with others...

But I am also wondering how others here would deal with this. If it was a later model and I was paying on it, I would have to do something about it because the bank note would likely dictate that. If I called insurance maybe they can't take my car away from me but they sure could increase the premium.

No. 3, cosmetic improvement, seems like the best option. One shop at least said the bare metal is not exposed, they were the ones that offered to buff for free, but why free? Rear door is not dented, shops would remove it to match paint to driver's side door, would repair rocker panel (overkill?). Overall, aside from this door issue, the car is in good condition. As for rust and the undercarriage, I recall getting it looked at regarding rust in the wheel wells and was told it's actually okay to pretty good/frame looks okay. And again when the heat shield fell off due to corrosion, the part that's left is okay as is. I could have it reassessed to see where it stands now, but that's another cost. But I have replaced anything over the years that I was advised to do so due to corrosion/age/past life cycle and not advised of any red flags this year anytime vehicle was put on a rack for various maintenance.

Hope this makes sense and thank you for all your excellent questions to help me evaluate my options.

 

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? Police were 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.

 

I think what many of us have been suggesting is that the insurance company can't just look at your car, scream "Totalled!," and then take it from you. You should be able to talk with them and after gathering that information it will still be your decision as to how to proceed, whether that is taking money from them for a repair or dealing with the repair on your own.

I don't want to cast aspersions, but I think the shops you visited are trying to pull a fast one on you. I wouldn't deal with any of them unless they can give you an itemized estimate of the repairs they want to do as well as justification for why they are required. You should also explain your goals for the repair. I imagine if someone says "I want this fixed" the shop is going to do everything they possibly can, which will drive up the cost. For example, I am very doubtful that a body shop would remove the rear door for painting (I'm not even confident they would have to paint it, as they would first try a DA polish to remove the transferred paint or rubber we can see in the picture), but they might tell you they will if they think you'll pay for it.

If you instead say "I want this to look as good as possible on my limited budget of $XXX" you may be presented with different, likely cheaper, options. Or, they might say they can't help you for $XXX and then you can reevaluate.

I would bet a dollar that your doors are (structurally) fine. There is a heavy crash protection bar inside the door. If you get hit hard enough to damage it (unlikely with the light scrape you experienced) it's pretty obvious because the lightweight outer skin of the door will be deformed around the crash bar or even punctured/torn.

If you want to pursue getting money from the person who hit your car (or their insurance, if they have any), you have two options.
1) Figure out the dollar amount you would like to receive and ask for it directly or
2) Speak with the police and your insurance about how to proceed in an official capacity. That could mean filing a police report where you give a sworn statement as to what happened and then they can confirm with the other person. Unfortunately, the fact that you didn't push this in the immediate aftermath may work against you, but that can't be helped now.

 

Thank you again Drew21!!! Your first comment that the insurance company can't just look at my car, scream "totaled" and take it from me is a huge relief! I'm so glad I came here after reading/watching stories online. That doesn't mean they won't jack up my premium though.

I absolutely agree that the shops are trying to pull a fast one. This is very helpful, I thought the quotes were high, but not sure. The estimates are "itemized" but I'm not familiar with body work. They claimed to be quoting it to "do it right" so yeah assuming I could get a ridiculous amount from the other driver. If I go back and ask for a "budget compromise" as you suggest, I have no doubt they'll want to turn me away and no guarantee they would really do what they quoted in the original estimates anyway. Another option would be to tell them the other driver said they won't pay, regardless of the truth, and tell them I have to pay out of pocket and see what they say. I think the other party would say they were pulling a fast one as you did and say no way.

Thank you for all of your excellent advice. I agree, to pursue from the other person, I should get new estimates as though I expect to pay, and stress that the other party is a big maybe, which is really the case. I already spoke to the Police, they said the event report can be converted to an official accident report. They did take info from us on the scene but were very wishy washy as to whether to go further which is why I am hesitant and came here. My gut tells me the Police wouldn't if they were me/us, but not allowed to say so. Then they actually had to leave for an emergency. Hopefully, any new estimates would be more reasonable to discuss with the other party and/or insurance.

 

Thanks. I stand corrected on that. I think you should be able to keep that clean title, though, based on the damage you're reporting.
I had one of my previous cars, bought brand new, all of four days before a guy ran a stop sign, hit my car, and kept going. Not a lot of damage, maybe a little more than yours, on a four day old car. Luckily, witnesses gave me his license plate number, The police found the the guy. He didn't even know he'd hit someone. He had balance issues and was supposed to be wearing corrective equipment but wasn't when he hit my car. His insurance company tried to make it a no-fault claim but I basically told their adjuster that if they were smart, they'd pay me 100% and they'd dump him as a customer ASAP because eventually he would cost them a lot more money later.

Here's a question: the driver didn't want to get insurance involved. Do you know if he even has insurance (did you get his policy number, etc.)?

If this person is suddenly "forgetful" you should get some real estimates (see Drew21's post and the next paragraphs) and then decide to claim on your insurance, unless you find repairs you're okay with cost little enough that you can self-fund, even if it takes a few months on a credit card. I wouldn't talk with anyone at your insurance until you have an estimate in which you have confidence.

I suspect the auto body shops you've dealt with so far are looking at new OEM-quality replacement parts, as many as they think could be involved (for example, it looks like there is the same white color in a line on the driver's door handle so they'll quote a door handle, painting, and labor for it). They may be doing this knowing any insurance company will challenge them on the estimate and the final cost will be substantially less. As Drew21 wrote, being specific with a body shop about what you want fixed and the level of parts used should bring these estimates down by a big percentage.

Just as a lark, I went on ebay and used painted door handles for your model Fit run about $40 shipped. Brand new Honda door handles are no longer available (at least through them; it's possible someone has NOS stock somewhere). The ebay handle doesn't look brand new but maybe it could with some polishing compound. Or maybe you're okay with yet another ding on a 15 year old car if the price is right. Or the handle works fine and you'll deal with a thin white line. You really should get down to a real bottom line with the body shop you trust most and get some numbers.

 

Thank you Steve-o. I would be very surprised if she did not have insurance. 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. I do have everything else though.

Did they pay you 100% for your car?

I agree, the shops were covering themselves in case it went to insurance and they did quote OEM parts. Due to the age of the car, I believe they hoped I would just go away regardless. I'll try calling them, not sure what to say, but going somewhere else might make more sense with Drew21's suggestion and see what happens. Wish I knew of a place I could trust. What's it worth after 15-16 years for this car? I've had it for 10.

I'll follow up but I'm thinking I'm SOL and just self fund buffing it out and thereabouts, anything more and something will happen again soon. Thanks for your help and everyone on this forum. It means a lot to me.