I was recently rear-ended in my 2003 A4. In the accident, I was also pushed into a pickup truck in front of me (although the front damage is minimal and seems to be contained to front quarter-panel). The insurance adjuster of the at-fault party came to my house and wrote me an estimate for approximately $2600. He acknowledged that often supplemental repairs are needed and that the body shop may find additional damage once the bumpers and panels are removed. I did plenty of research and took it to a body shop in Atlanta that had plenty of positive reviews on a local website. They seem to be one of the best in Atlanta and are the authorized body shop for a Porsche dealership in North Atlanta.

To make a long story short, I received a call from the body shop today. They informed me that their estimate of the damages was approximately $11,000!!! I was speechless. Has anyone ever encountered anything like this??? I know the body shop will work with the insurance company to negotiate this rate and I simply sit on the sidelines and wait. However, this sparked many questions in my head:

1. If insurance company and body shop agree to a $$ amount, am I risking the car being given a salvage title? I haven't researched my car's value lately, but it can't be more than about 13Gs. (2003 A4 1.8T Quattro, excellent cond.)

2. I'm assuming it would be a no-brainer to show up to court.? (Court date is March 25th) and there's no way my car will be done by then. I just don't want the guilty party saying that I rear ended the truck in front of me, since I was in fact pushed). Anyone had experience in traffic court like this??

Any advise would be helpful. I'm not even sure this was posted in the right section. Thanks in advance.

 

About the who hit whom question. If you hit the truck, then the other driver hit you, the truck would have felt 2 hits. If the other driver hit you and pushed you into the truck the truck driver would have only felt 1 hit.

Body work is expensive, and if it was hit hard enough from the rear the unibody could be bent and that gets very pricey to repair.

They should be able to fax you a write up of the suggested repairs.

 

Ouch! Sorry to hear that! Having been on the giving end of that push once before (coming down an icy mountain doing 25, came around a blind, black iced, corner and pushed an asshat out of stater stopped dead in BOTH downhill lanes into oncoming traffic), the accident will without any doubt be ruled you not at fault.

I don't know about court or why you are going, but again, none of this is YOUR fault as YOU were HIT, so rest easy there (but be prepared with hard facts! Look up motoring laws in your state, and PLEASE don't think I am remotely qualified to give legal advice, lol).

And depending on insurance politics (err, "policy"), they either look at a vehicle as damage > value = totalled or frame damage = totalled, or some mix of both. Again, not an insurance adjuster. I once got $1200 back for repairs on a $900 Nissan Pickup from a progressive adjuster (who said the $500 quote my MECHANIC gave was too low, needless to say I switched to progressive after that).

I sincerely do wish you the best of luck, and don't settle for anything less than what that body shop told you. If you aren't at fault, the insurance company can't grab you by the short ones and milk you dry.

 

Shane brings up a very intelligent point, if who is at fault is in question, just ask how many hits the driver of the truck felt.

 

If you car has been brought into the shop and repairs have been started it is very unlikely, almost impossible, for the insurance company to total your car. Therefor you will not need a salvage title. If they total it, they will have to pay the body shop for the work they have already done, then pay you the total value of the car which would be exceed paying the $11,000 it will take to fix your car correctly. However, going from $2600 to 11k is a huge difference, even for an appraisal that missed the mark. Make sure you go over line by line what the body shop is doing to your car and if you don't understand what is going to be done ask them to explain it. After all this is YOUR car.

Insurance adjusters are required by their companies to underwrite damage, especially when the at fault party is doing the estimate. But they completely missed the boat if they assessed the damage at $2600. This is because many people decide to take the money that is given to them for the accident and never have their car repaired. At my shop about 90% of insurance claims are supplemented for additional money needed to do the repair correctly.

I don't imagine you will have any problems with the court determining you were %100 not at fault in this accident. But technically you are suppose to leave enough room between you and the next car so if you do get rear ended you won't hit it. If they bring up this point you can just say when you were rear ended your foot came off the brake and there was no avoiding the next vehicle. Good luck with everything!

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll update if anything else unusual goes down....