so im at a stop sign and this minivan rear ends me, lucky there was a cop sitting on the corner and saw everything. rear bumper is smashed, rear hatch is dented, and the rear section got crushed into the rear door. im wondering does it cost more for an aftermarket bummper compared to the original? anyway he dosn't wnt to go through insurance so i'm waiting for the estimate

Sorry to hear about the rear-ender. Hopefully, you are okay as well. I would NEVER recommend NOT going through the insurance company. :no: This is what you pay premiums for. Use it. Things can get ugly if you don't use the Insurance company to your advantage. What if the bad driver pays out of pocket, then, when the body shop tears down the vehicle, there is more damage and it will cost more to repair? Bad driver may refuse to pay more. If you didn't use insurance, you would want to protect yourself with a foolproof document drafted by you and the bad driver. It is a lot of effort that you shouldn't waste.

Typically, aftermarket parts are cheaper than OEM. However, if the vehicle is relatively new ('04 or '05), I think that, by law (in MA), they have to use OEM.

I would recommend the proper insurance. You could have frame damage and thats a lot more then after market . Pay the premium its not worth the risk. Sounds like the guy didnt have insurance on his Car. :doh: I hope thats not the case.

Tekviper,.......Wow.........I am honored, You put me in your signature.

File the insurance. Screw him and his insurance. Its his fault. Don't worry about his problems. He hit you.

File the insurance. Screw him and his insurance. Its his fault. Don't worry about his problems. He hit you.

Agreed... If there is any underlying damage that is not readily apparent you will be the one ultimatly paying the price. If he wants to save his insurance rates he needs to learn how to drive. What if he were doing 5-10 miles per hour more or what if you had been riding a motorcycle?

He likely doesn't want to go through insurance because of other similar incidents of hitting people in parked/stopped cars. Go through your insurance if he refuses to provide you with their info, and let your insurance company handle him. Besides, you should be able to get his information from a police report and file directly w/ his insurance using a copy of the accident report.

Anyone that says they don't want to use insurance when there's that much damage is afraid of something. I rear-ended a guy in his Tacoma Crew Cab Prerunner with my old Grand Am 3.5 years ago (actually went under his truck). I took responsibility. Cost of repairs to his truck was only $1,500 and it would have been cheaper for me to pay it up front and avoid insurance, but it was a heckuva lot more smooth using the insurance, rather than being a jerk and saying I'd pay for repairs out of pocket. I never had to see him again, and it was covered and I ultimately paid the repair through higher premiums for 3 years.

At the very least report this to your insurance company. it won't make his premiums higher,(unless he doesn't pay) but it's on record to your insurance company. also, your premiums won't go up unless you were at fault and by the sounds of it, it was all him. your premium might go up if you don't tell them though. if that cop filed a report, they're going to know very shortly that you were in an accident. give him time to fix your box properly at a shop, but if he goes past that deadline, call your insurance company and tell them he hasn't paid up. they'll go after him.

It's always a dark xB or a silver one (hard to see for some reason) that gets rear ended.

Am waiting, looking for the first rear end smash on an RS2 or a PW.

Anyone here ever hear of any?

-sorry for that hassle guy- it's sad. Take steps to prevent it happening again?

To the above: NOT TRUE. Any incident you report to ins. co. MAY result in your premium rising.

More particularly, if you shop for new insurance for the next few years you -must- disclose you were involved in an incident. And even though you were not at fault, it WILL probably cause them to rate you at a higher premium.

They don't -care- who caused the accident: they only look at how many involvments you've been in.

ME? not for many years. But YES the last insuror, Progressive, tells me this is how their system works.

Don't report -if- you have really good faith in the guy who smacked you. Always better to keep out of the Ins. slime pool.

They are dry mouthed bastids, all of the flacks buried in those heirarchies.

been through their mills once or twice so trust me... caution. you can lose either way you choose. Investigate more.

No fault accident cannot be held against you (in Oregon anyways). I switched ins co. and I have 2 no faults on my record. I still was able to get my xB fully covered for $72 a month. BTW, im 22!

I would get you xb repaired at the nicest body shop in town......

thnx for all the input, yeah it was his brother in laws car thats why he wnted to pay out of pocket. anyway the cop said i was in a no lose situation cause if he didnt pay all i had to do was pick up the police report and file with the guys insurnance. and the guy seems ok, he even called me today to see if i had gotten an estimate yet and if there was anything he could do to help. i should get the estimate today. thank god my father is a n ASE certified master mechanic and his friend owns a body shop

Go through the insurance company man. Let them take care of it.

A little more than a month ago the same exact thing happened to me. it looked like there would be maybe $2000 worth of damage (that was the estimate from the dealer's body shop).

After they ordered all the parts and took it apart, they realized the rear axel was bent. The repair job ended up costing almost $8000. While i am kind of mad that the insurace company didnt total it (thats another story, grrr.), and was pretty happy that they cut the check for and i didnt really have to worry about anything.

anything other than owing a year old car that has had to have major repairs to the frame... :nope:

and in most states, insurance companies can't raise your rates for a no fault accident.

Insurance is covered through the Owner of the Car not the Driver Unless certain laws apply.

And Sci Fly is correct No Fault Accidents "CAN" raise your insurance prem's.. Not always but they can. The Insurance has every right to do so for any type of accident, Fault or No Fault

Given the Situation I would still try to File with the owner of the vehicle's Insurance.. Never ever let the driver try to buy you off.. That legally leaves you hanging if something in the future would arrise.. I got tons of calls with people asking that the at fault party offered to pay for there damages, and everytime I would say.. Thats personally up to the person but its not wise to not go through insurance.

Report it as a Claim Only To Your Insurance
Then call the owners insruance and file through his insurance..

It's always a dark xB or a silver one (hard to see for some reason) that gets rear ended.

Am waiting, looking for the first rear end smash on an RS2 or a PW.

Anyone here ever hear of any?

actully mine got rearended in january...im rollin PW...

In Alabama, it's the LAW that you *must* report all auto accidents to the police department that has jurisdiction. Both drivers must also file a State form describing the accident within 30 days.

Here, liability insurance is mandatory. :clap:

have ins. deal with that... something similiar happened to me and i trusted the person to fix it and they screwed me... theres nothin u can do about it in the end too!