To make the long story short, i was leaving work and some old lady just didnt see me apparently on the road and went through a stop sign and plowed right into my rear drivers side door banging it up pretty damn badly. More than likely, the entire door will have to be replaced, its all off-lined and crocked (sp?). Needless to say im ****ed. I mean, i dunno how this will work as far as rental car coverage and such since im only 18. I guess my insurance and hers will work this out because i know i'll be outta a car for at least 4-5 days.

I also seem to have no luck in December. This month has been bad for me lately...Take a look...

December 21, 2001- Bought my first car, a 1995 Ford Probe GT, loved it!

December 7, 2002- Totalled it

December 19, 2002- Bought my '99 Maxima

December 26, 2003- Old lady plows into my car




Anyways, for all you pictured hoarders out there, heres the only pic i could get to come out from my POS digi that needs to be fixed, as you can see, theres some discoloration on the bottom of the pic...




Thoughts? Suggestions?


Eric

 

ouch that hurt. at least it didn't scrape your rims. ur pretty looking around $2500ish...

 

Did you go off on her ***? I would have. Damn GEEEEZER

 

Yeah, it will be pricey. Unbelievably, the cop estimated the damage at a whopping $1000



At first, ill admit i went off. I got outta my car, slammed the door and started yelling (not really so much to her), but then i realized she was older and i just smartly calmed myself down...





Eric

 

dam that sucks, it could have been worse. Glad your ok.

 

Yeah, it coulda been worse, however, its amazing how this car just crushed, the impact wasnt more than say 10mph. Her car sustained just a cracked corner light and some paint scrapage of the bumper. Granted doors arent made of steel, but its pretty bad from what most would call a fender bender...


Just got off the phone with her and my insurance and someone should be out monday/tuesday from both insurance companies. So hopefully this will be resolved quickly because i dont want this crap to be dragged on...



Eric

 

best of luck buddy...hopefully they'll be good bout it...

 

ouch I know how that feels hope insurance pays for everything.

 

make sure u have her ins replace EVERYTHING thats been damaged, dont let them screw you, raise hell if they try, as much as they like to pretend ins company's are not our friends good luck bro

 

I had the same exact damage as you have on my 99. They had to replace the door skin and repaint most of the left hand side of the car. All work was done at the dealer, and cost $1,331. At least you do not have the ice white paint which is very hard to match properly.

 

Thanks for all the support fellas, it really sucks. Whoever fixes it will have hell raised if its not PERFECTLY done. I want some showroom ****. Theres a few very reputable shops around here that do astonishing work, so hopefully i can go to one of them.

At least its driveable. Woulda sucked if she woulda clocked my rim/tire rear suspension or shattered my rear window, or threw it off alignment even more than it already is.

I did notice the rear drivers side window kinda clunks/wobbles once it reaches its lowest point.

And what about my .org sticker!!!! If they have to replace the door the freakin insurance company better pay 6 bucks for some new ones!!!



Eric

 

Damm man that sucks, but my door is almost as bad, anyone who went to the 12/12 ct meet probubly saw it,expet on a black car it doesnt stand out. Anyways the car is still drivable and your ok .

 

Sorry to hear about the car Eric, glad your ok.



Remember as someone said earlier the insurance company is NOT your friend. After going through a few bad accidents myself(none were my fault) i learned some valuable lesssons.
1. You never give a statment as to what happened, if the other driver is at fault you DO NOT have to give a statment. If the claims adjuster insist, tell them they will be getting an account of the accident from the police report you will be sending them.--they shut up right then
2. No matter what, go to see a doctor for a check up. It makes no difference if you feel hurt or not. You must document that you were seen by a physician, and make sure you have he/she look at your neck and all joint mobility.
3. You take the car to the body shop of your choice and the insurance has to pay for it, even if you wreck your own car.
4. DO NOT let anyone re-skin that door make sure the body shop is putting on a door from a wrecked car of the same color.
5. Make sure the body shop saves all the parts that they replaced for your inspection.(they could say they put a different door on when all they did was re-skin it)
6. Find a 'good' body shop that will work with you to get the most for your claim.
7. do not sign any papers from either insurance company until you fully understand what they are for. You don not want to sign any waivers or release forms until all the work is done and satisfactory on your car, and you are feeling good and have been cleared by the doctor. Until then sign no paperwork, that is not a condition to get your car fixed or to see a doctor.

There's much more but that is the basics. If you need some insight just pm me

 

i fuuckin HATE grandmas and grandpas when they are on the road. STUPID FARTS drive big v8's with 300+ hp and go 50 mph on the freeway and 25 in the city, turn right infront of your a$$ when your going 50+ and always driving slow like a turtle. old people are by far the WORST drivers on the face of this planet. they ALWAYS cause accidents, I think THEY should be the ones payin those high *** insurance rates, not us teens because we damn sure can tell which is the GAS PEDAL and which is the BRAKE.

i give grandma's/grandpa's near heart attacks EVERYTIME they **** me off.

sorry to hear that you got ur car all fuucked up by an old fart who just can tell the difference between the gas pedal and the brake.

yea and from my post u sure can tell that i HATE ALL old drivers on the road.

 

Ohhh shyt that looks like it hurt...
I'm gald you're alright. I hate to say it but I really think that people of experience(old people) need to take a driving test again at about the age of 60. They need to take this test again to insure that other drivers are safe around them. People like this shouldn't be driving just for this example not to happen again. I'm afraid when I drive around old people, they are so unpredictable. I don't know if granny saw me or just isn't paying attention. I'm really sorry this happened. And I hope that you can get through this without being too much of a pain.

 

Im definately an avid believer that older people (60+) should take the entire driving course again to ensure their own and everyone elses safety. I mean there comes a point where enoughs enough. The lady who hit me was 71. She said she heard my horn, but couldnt tell that it was coming from right in front of her damn car!

Oh, and thanks for the advice John...

I'll be updating you guys as to what the adjusters say when they come to see my car. Only thing that sucks is that im gonna have to remove my nitrous when the car goes to the shop, because i sure as hell aint leaving that in there with retards who work there nowadays. Stock air box= quietness


Eric

 

Um, your mistake is living in Spring Hill. I'm from Hudson. All we got in Pasco and Hernando is old farts and rednecks. You were probably on or near 19 by Timber Pines I bet. That hurts me doubly because I have a 99 Pebble Beige SE-L... and that's painful to look at!

 

hahaha i love the timeline of your life!

 

my rear passenger door was worse then that. the estimates were 900-1500. Also that was to replace hte door skin.

 

if a young kid plows into an older person then they are called delinquents.. whose to say.. i have seen older men that drive like 18 year olds.. respect your elders. glad you're fine sorry about your car man.. it will get fixed.

 

that house is ur sig is the **** man

sorry to hear about your max..a while ago I was the lucky one to get plowed into from behind while I was at a stop light....then again when I was literally in a parking spot

 

Definately cant help that i live in Spring Hill, i actually like it here. Oh, and i was on Forest Oaks by the post office, near deltona blvd, about 4 minutes from 19. The lady lives near Elgin and it was her first accident ever (so she says). Oh, BTW, your car is Sunlit Sand, not pebble beige

95-98 pebble beige
99-03 sunlit sand


Aint that some ****?!?!


Now, all they did was replace the door skin?? Why not the whole door?? The thing with my door is thats its completely outta whack, all mis-aligned and such. My friend had his mustang hit similarly (sp?) and they replaced the entire door and painted the drivers side of the car, and it ran 1800 bucks and it came back in showroom condition. I'll probably take it there...

Also, my drivers side door is slightly bent in where the molding is. Very hard to see in the crappy pic i put up...


Eric

 

haha..yeah--something needs to be done--I remember reading about an old 80 yr old man running down people in california because he could not distinguish the accelerator from the brake--i think he killed 6 or 7 people and injured many more

...but remember we will all be old one day, so be careful what you wish for....

 

oh well i did not knwo the shell was bent. Then it will cost upwards of 2K. I hope the shop does a good job.

 

Slight Update:

I got a few estimates today and it will run about 1500 bucks. Right now all they will do is replace the door skin, but if the intrusion beams are bent, then the entire door will then be replaced. Also, i felt a slight vibration from the rear, so they will check out the rear suspension and such. If anything is wrong there, delays will occur. but the good thing is, ALL repairs are guaranteed for LIFE. very good stuff.

Also, i found out that i will be able to drive the rental car (since im only 18). The insurance company will pick up the extra tab of 12 bucks a day for having someone under 21 drive the rental. I just hope i dont get a crappy rental. The rental car will come from Enterprise. Im hoping they will put me into something in the standard (Pontiac Grand Am, Dodge Stratus or similar) or full size (Pontiac Grand Prix, Ford Taurus or similar) since i dont wanna be driving a **** econobox...



Eric

 

yet another example of why old people can't drive for ****

 

you have few cuts and bruises on front door and on back fender. Biggest issue is back door. replace that, get paint job on other door and back fender, i dont think thats gonna cost up to 2500 will it? i was thinking more like 2450

sorry u became a statistic to W.O.W. (women on wheels).

 

Eric, don't let the insurance company tell what you can do. The shop will do whatever you want them to and believe me 'you want/must' have a different door regardless of beam intrusion. And usually you get the ****box unless you have a cool clerk at the counter that you get along with and they give you a decent car.
Please hear me, GET A WHOLE DIFFERENT DOOR! If the insurance company bickers about this just let them know that you will be happy to have them pay for the rental as long as needed until they come to terms with putting a different door on.
Your saftey is at stake in the future here and the only thing that adjuster is trying to do is make their bonus by saving the insurance company the full payout. They would only drive a perfectly repaired car if they were to be in an accident, so you should not be expected to get less than the correct repair job. The future saftey of your passengers depends on it.

P.S.--Please tell me you are not letting one of their preffered shops do the work. These ins. co. send people tho their preferred for repairs so they can cut the cost of repairs. They do this by farming large amounts of work to a shop so they can end up influencing how much actual repair work is done on a car. Case and point, the ins. co. will want you to have the door skin replaced instead of the whole door, so you get this story from the body shop about only needing the skin. You think that the shop that is getting more business than it can handle without even advertising is going to shoot off the hand that feeds them?<--INSURANCE CO.

 

You make some pretty valid statements, but heres the deal:

If i go to one of their preferred shops, my car and its repairs are covered for life. A bonus in my book. Also, if there are any rediculous delays due to the repair, the insurance company covers the rental in full and such. What her insurance company told me is that if i take it to a shop of my choice, the repairs will not be covered for the life of my vehicle. Also, if that shop runs into any massive delays and cannot get my car out in resonable time, they will stop paying for my rental. Now, i dont know if he was feeding me bullsh!t or not. I dont even know if they can legally do that??

I also went and got another estimate from a random shop (not on their list, but a good one) and they told me the same thing, only a door skin. Once they take everything apart, if an entire new door is needed, then so be it. His estimate was 200 bucks higher than the preferred place (which was from Goodwrench Body Shop in Ed Morse Buick, mazda, oldmosbile, suzuki in Port Richey). Now that they already have an estimate and such, can i still demand they re-do it with NEW parts and such? I still havent even spoken to her insurance companies adjuster (spoken to various others) nor has anyone came out to see my car.

What really caught my eye as well was the amount of effort and time the man from Goodwrench took for the estimate. Even speculating possible rear suspension/rim/bearings damage and such.


If you cant tell, im all confused, i just want my damn car fixed...



Eric

 

Of course its confusing, insurance companies would be in a world of hurt if more people knew their rights, so to speak.

No you can not demand new parts for a car that old. You only have a case for new parts on a car that is to new to have aftermarket support for it. Meaning salvage yards all the way to OEM manufacturers. It is perfectly acceptable to have used parts.

You will probably be running into alignment problems of the door is tweaked right now and the only way to know for sure is to take off the door and put it in a jig--to the best of my knowledge only the manufacturer of the door has that. This is one of the reasons for getting an undamaged door of the same color to replace yours. Another reason is that when you go to sell it, one will be able to notice the body work of the door skin this is found right along the seam of the door. Not that you will be trying to hid the fact that the car has been repaired but just put yourself in the shoes of the potential buyer. I have stated before that you should have a new door, so this is all i will say about it. You can do as you wish.





BTW....do you think a year from now if the repair has a problem such as the skin wasn't put on very well or someother shody level in the repair work that they will say sure lets do this all over again and while we're at it take a rental on us. Eric my friend, this will 'not' be the case. They will try everything they know to suggest it was everything but their workmanship, or lack thereof, that lead to your problem now. I know of two people now that or argueing with the ins. and body companies to get crappy work done right. It looks as though they may be going to court for this. These were prefered shops they used.

If you want to talk about this to get some clarity then pm me your # and i'll tell you what i know and don't know. Then you can make your own decision after youcan think clearly about it.

Good Day

 

Good advice, I had almost exactly the same damage to my Max 6 months after I bought it when some uninsured woman in a 2001 Previa van did not understand that her inside lane MUST turn left . Anyway, the bodyshop which was one of MY choosing replaced the entire door because they were concerned about the structural integrity of the intrusion beam. Also, I had a small nick on the driver door and a little damage in front of the rear wheel...those two areas cost almost as much as the door.

 

when me and my first max got into an accident it was very similar to this...some lady decided to run a red light at about 40 while i was making a left turn and slammed into my rear passenger side door. the door looked worse than that to say the least and she also hit me so hard she bent my frame....the good things were that no one was seriously hurt (she was shaken up because her airbags went off) and i got more money back than i paid for the car. but its definately better to go without a car for a while than for someone to have ended up in the hospital.

 

wow... looks just like the accident my car got into the day before my 21 bday.....

A jack *** hit my car when it was parked. it was 6 hours before my 21 bday. i was at a yankee game to relax and njoy my 3 days off from work. and i get a call that my car was backed into by the person who lives across the street from my aunts. its not bad but i still have to drive around on my bday with a dented car. and to top it all off the yanks lost!! i got all info, but they goin away for the week, so at least 2 weeks will pass b4 anything is done.




only difference.. urs a bit worse...
FYI: mine cost 1100.oo to repair. that included new door and blending the rest of the car into the door. overal it looks fine now but i can se the slight diff in the finish... good luck

blake