I was stopped to turn left into my driveway when a 18-20 yr old girl hit me and my wife from behind with her Saturn. I saw her coming and tried to speed up, but didn't go more than a few feet before the hit. She told the cops she thought she was going 45-50 mph. I'm amazed at how well the car held up after the collision. My wife went the hospital with a mild concussion and nausea, but she's okay. I seem to be fine, I don't know if seeing it coming helped.

The saturn did not fair well. Air bags deployed, she was bleeding from her face and the first 3 feet of the front of her car is crumpled in. I would expect that her car is totaled.

My exhaust is bent to hell and the rear bumper is a total loss. I don't know yet if the damage to the exhaust extends to the headers or turbos. The left light assembly has pulled away from the quarter panel and the trunk lid catch is bent in so the trunk won't close. The actuators for the rear spoiler may be damaged as well. The aftermarket stereo popped out of the dash and scrapped up the interior a little too as is the rear deck lid.

I've never been involved in an accident before so I don't know what's in store for me next. I did find out that her coverage is through Safeauto so I'll be surprised if she has more than state minimum coverage which is $11,500 bodily injury and $7,500 property damage. I have uninsured motorist coverage so hopefully that'll pick up the difference.

Now I'm thinking about trying to turn lemons into lemonade by getting a TechArt rear bumped and gt2 decklid. If the prices are similar I'm hoping I can do that instead of factory.

I'm also concerned about the decreased value of the car since this will definitely be going into a carfax report down the line. Any idea if that can be prevented or if I can recoup any of those loses now for decreased resale value? My car hadn't been in an accident before this.

Now I know how drivers on the autobahn can walk away from a 100mph crash in their pcars!

 

the dreaded rear ender. It almost seems like these cars are made of stealth material or something because I have people nail the brakes hard when pulling in behind me, apparently forgetting they had to stop. Good luck. I am pretty sure you can get the tech art stuff as your replacement parts from the factory will probably cost as much.

 

I've always been wondering about this so please keep us updated.

 

Sorry to hear about this. I'm glad you and your wife are ok. I was rear ended several years ago which totaled my car. I saw it coming and to this day I still get nervous and begin looking for bailouts when traffic is slowing or stopped in front of me.

Good luck on the improvements to the Turbo!

 

The way this will shake will be that Safeauto will pay the first $7500 in property damage. You will then look to your own carrier for the remainder under collision, not uninsured motorist coverage. UM/UIM covers for injuries/lost wages & pain & suffering not property damage. Be prepared for a hassle with Safeauto I was mildly rearended in my Carrera 4S two weeks after purchased the car by a Safeauto insured. They made me jump through hoops for a stupid $948 claim and I own an insurance agency in Toledo. If you have any questions, contact your own agent & ask them for advice. The other option would be to simply turn it into your own insurer & let them handle it. The downside is that you would be responsible initially for the collision deductible. The deductible would be returned once the claim was subrogated back to Safeauto. Good luck. Glad no one was seriously injured.

 

That has to be one of the worst things to have happen, and nothing you can do about it. I am sorry to hear, but am glad there was no serious injury. Hope it all works out.

 

I was t-boned in the side by a hit and run in the parking lot while I was inside the building. AAA has fixed it but I have to pay the $500 deductible becasue there's no insurance company to go after for the deductible. My hit was really minor to the drivers door and back quarter panel...pushed in the panel about 3 inches...but ended up costing insurance about $5200.

My concern is also about the fact it'll be reported to Carfax and be a factor against the resale of the car in terms of "depreciated value". I'm having the body shop take pictures of the way it looked to begin with and all the way thru the restoration so that I can have something to show a potential buyer that the damage was cosmetic and not structural....but when I read the forums about PPI's and how to check out a car before buying it....and using the paint gauge to check paint thickness....then I wonder about how folks would be scared away from buying the car. Really pisses me off that some hit and run idiot didn't just dent the car and cost me the $500 deductible....but potentially affected it's resale value in the future.

 

Well, I was hit by a 98 tacoma at about 45mph on April 16. I just got it back and the bill was 27k

BUT, they took the engine out to check for intrusion into the engine bay etc. I also upgraded to GT2 spoiler and Fabspeed exhaust etc.

The rear deck lid, lower skin, and front skin (hit me hard enough to knock it loose) was OEM part $$$$ at 11k. Got for 3700 bucks in aftermarket stuff.

Just my .02

 

The car is just a peice of metal, it's a blessing the two of you weren't injured more seriously.
A friend of mine had a high speed rear ender to his C4S & the insurance company decided to fix it. Months!!! later he got his car back & it's never been the same tight car he had. Now he is left with higher premiums, a car with considerablly less re-sale value, & a car that's far from what it was to drive.
He said after all was said & done that he should of argued more with the insurance company to right it off. The loser who crashed into him & the insurance company win because he pays even higher premiums (even though it wasn't his fault) these companies always get their $$.
Push for the thing to be sent to autowrecking!

 

What year is yours? Mine is a 03 and the total threshold was 40k

Tim

 

Thats sucks bro. Glad to hear you and the mrs are alright. Hopfully they can get your car fixed up and lookin good.

 

Mine's an 01.

My indy mechanic stopped by to look at it. Says the exhaust is pushed down because the headers and bent and the turbos may be affected. He says the biggest concern is the unibody damage in pushing in the engine compartment. Says I need to have it flatbedded to Cincinnati to have it fixed right and luckily by ohio law I can have it fixed at the shop of my choosing. I'm a little worried now hearing these two storied about it taking "months" to get fixed right. That would be a long time and a lot of good times at the end of summer missed out on in my pcar.

Oh well, I was actually pleased with my reaction. The girl who hit me got out and was shaking like crazy but I put my arm around her and told her it'd be alright and that she was fine. I always wondered how I'd deal with someone making a stupid mistake like that, and so it was a good test of character if nothing else. My wife on the other hand was ready to hurl curses at her into next week.

I guess it'll be a long process - I'll post photos here as the car is repaired and let you know Safeauto handles it. Thanks for the encouragment.

 

You will probably total if that has intruded like you think.

The kid that hit me was a 19 year old. It was an accident. He was scared to death. I told him it was just a car and we were all ok. So no worries. He came up to me later and thanked me for not freaking out. It's just a car. And in my case, traffic stopped and he didn't. **** happens. But at the end of 4 months wait I was a bit anxious.

 

For those hard rear-end hits...you might want them to put it on a frame jig and have them do the lazer light check of the frame. Porsche has frame specs that have holes in the fram that line up with critical measure points on the frame. A computer program with Porsche specs measures the various frame points and can tell very accurately if the the frame is out of whack even a few millimeters. If the frame is out of whack...you have grounds to go back to the insurance company and demand they total it.

When I bought my factory slant, I had it checked out and then had it put on a frame jig and lazered just to ensure that the body hadn't been bent.

 

Chuck, I am assuming you would have to go to a special body shop for the frame jig, correct?

Thanks,
Alex