Not a bad story dk240z but just one little problem with that. Its insurance froud.(i think)

But hey if they didnt catch it then the heck with em! hope evythang turns out ok for you.

Originally posted by threefittyzee

Her insurance company is actually being fairly cooperative now,

But your sentence implies that they were NOT, and something you said/did has caused them to change their approach. That's the whole reason for being so aggressive.

.. snip ..

...this "accident" occured on private property, making it that much more difficult to establish blame (even though most folks know you are at fault if you back out of a parking space and hit a moving vehicle), so...

... snip ...

b)she(van driver) is a complete redneck idiot that is stating it was somehow MY fault for not seeing her backing out!

I guess my point is, I truly think the insurance company will pay out, so is it worth it to make a huge muss about it?

No, it doesn't make it harder to prove. The difference is that on private property there aren't any traffic laws that may have been violated, nor to be upheld. That's the main reason the police don't get involved in writing police reports on private property accidents. Otherwise you would need a police report for every broken window.

The most interesting thing you mention is that she doesn't deny hitting your car. THAT'S the most important thing. That's what this thing is all about. She hit YOU. That she's trying to blame you is irrelevant. Unless she can prove that you were driving recklessly and/or at excessive speed, she's liable for having backed into you.

Now, that they are being cooperative now is probably a good indication that they will pay out. But don't back off yet. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you appear to be easily mollified, then I can guarantee that afterwards you'll be screaming how you got shafted. Don't back down. It is that aggressive stand that will cause them to paper you with dollars in order to get you to go away.

Ever see a little dog tell a big dog to get the hell out of it's yard? That's what you need to act like.

If you let them think that they've "gotten to you", they'll revert to their initial strategy and just brush you off. There are hundreds of stories of people who tried to conduct their business with the insurance company in a "reasonable" manner, only to be shafted afterwards.

I know you may feel that this is too aggressive, and it is. The whole point of being adamant and belligerent about the damages is so they don't try to "reason" you into accepting less for the damage because: it's an old car, it's not worth the amount you are claiming, the damage isn't as serious, there were no injuries, no one is really "at fault". Do you get my drift?

You CAN act in a reasonable manner. Just let them know that you are a dormant volcano about to blow up, unless they pay proper homage.

Enrique

Thanks again, E.

I'll have to wait until Monday to do anything, but I'll keep ya posted.

I think I need someone like you around for my custody hearing next month!

No problem Marc.

Now just do yourself a huge favor.

IGNORE the itch that's going to creep into you and drive you batty about trying to do any type of repairs.

DO NOT TOUCH THE CAR!

If you do, the insurance company will undoubtedly use that as a reason to reduce the pay out.

As far as your custody hearing:

The same basic principle applies. Know what the rules and regulations are, then make sure you abide by them and / or point out how you conform to their requirements better than your ex. Unfortunately, the child custody laws are strongly weighted towards females, so you need to prove that you're BETTER than she is. There's more to it than just this, but hopefully you've retained a good lawyer who will advise you.

Enrique

$50 dollars my Texas brother! File it, for the value of the car-up to $5000 if you have to. I'm tellin' ya, she'll panic and call her agent. Screw a bunch of insurance fraud billramsey2002, it's the Damn principle! In threefittyzee's case, that piece of excrement was at fault! In my case, I have'nt lost any sleep over State Farms $650 loss. Between the insurance companies and the attorneys, $650 is like putting a quarter in a gumball machine.wizz upon the insurance companies and the attorneys. By the way, my time is worth the $1800 dollars that State Farm forked over. It's the principle!

Don't worry! Everyone will be happy when this is all over. You'll get the money you need and will be happy, her insurance company will pay out the money which will make her happy, her insurance company will raise her rates and will soon recoup much more money than they paid out(Oh! Maybe she won't be too happy in the long run), your insurance company may even be able to get happy happy and raise your rates if it can find out about the accident, whether it was your fault or not. And you can even make some lawyers happy if you get them involved. As for lawyers getting paid whether they win or not: No different than doctors getting paid whether the patient is cured or dies. Neither system is "fair", but then the word "fair" seems to be a word invented and used by the pathologically optimistic and tooth "fair"y believers. Good luck anyway, and whether you win or lose, just go out with some good company and have a beer and some good food and this problem won't seem very large. Priorities.

Well, to anyone who still cares about my little struggle with the insurance company....

Here's the latest chapter:

Today, they came through with a check!

$2500.

My estimate at the body shop came up with that amount originally to repair the damages.

$1300 for parts.

$1200 for everything else (labor/paint)

Here's their price list they gave me:

Bumper (New) $330.93

Front Valance (refurb) $130.00

Right Fender Panel (New) $234.95

Right Fender Extension (refurb) $123.70

Right headlight case (New) $196.87

Signal Lamp (recycled) $150.00

bumper brace (recycled) $25.00

The body shop manager, upon asking if my paint was going to match afterwards says, "No"

Great. I'm gonna have a multi-colored Z.

Does anyone think these prices are too high?

Would anyone suggest I find parts somewhere else (on my own)??

Or should I just swallow my pride and let them fix it and pay $2200 out of pocket afterwards to paint the WHOLE car the same color.???

Take that $2200 and do some performance mods to your car.

You won't mind that the paint is SLIGHTLY off when you have that nice feeling/sound.

The parts prices you stated are IMO quite normal.

As for the paint, I might ask the Body shop guy about the computerized paint matching system that was mentioned by Zs-ondabrain. Or find another bodyshop who will at least make an effort to come close to a match.

They should be able to get it close, but it is a fact of life that it will not exactly match a 30 year old paint job. And the insurance company isn't going to care about that.

When I was in your situation, I just had the shop get as close as possible to the existing shade of paint and let it go at that. If my car was a completely restored car (instead of a well cared for one owner car as it was) when hit, I'd have looked at it much differently. Of course, I'd have been insured differently in that case.

Over the years my 240 has had several patch ups, notably the most major was the RH Front guard, which was hit by another vehicle. It's probably the best paint job I've seen, it's also been sprayed in 2 pac.

This looked great when I picked the car up, however over the years different panels have faded into different shades.

Solution at that time was to spray the cantre of the body black, all the way front he front to back.

The black stripe doesn't allow you to compare the colour and also looks like war paint.

Alas [much crying here], the time has come and to-morrow it heads inot the paint shop for a much awaited birthday.

Now which shade of red will I pick?

MOM

Well, even if the paint is computer-matched to the rest of the car, the clearcoat will make it look drastically different than the rest of the car.

I think that's what he meant when he said it wouldn't match.

So, don't go with a clear coat. It would be unrealistic to expect a clear coated paint to match older (non clear coat) paint.

Decisions, Decisions.

Apples, and Oranges

Your choice...........................