What's the minimum amount I should expect to pay a mechanic with this body damage as the result of being rear ended by another motorist?

I live in Maryland, which has 1 of the highest median household income in the United States. A gallon of gas/petroleum is around $3.30 right now.

https://i.imgur.com/UbzkjWs.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VSXh4Eq.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/YtJJ0XP.jpg

 

That will probably run around $1,500 to $2,000 for a professional repair.

If you got rear-ended, why would you be paying for the repair? Did the other guy scram?

 

Thanks for that. It seems I'll be better off paying the my insurance around $250 then. The motorist didn't have car insurance coverage, and my insurance policy only covers 3rd party claims. I already gave them the motorist info/licence plate #.

 

Is the $250 your deductible?

 

Yeah, I guess you could say that, since Maryland requires the company to offer "uninsured motorist insurance".

I got advice from people at a different forum. And they said, if he didn't have coverage, he probably doesn't have any money to give up if he got sued. The insurance said they'll "try" to get me some of the $250 back, after I paid them, but that isn't guaranteed. It seems he was driving his girlfriends car. He was over 50 years of age, and said he was at fault.

Given my current financial situation, I don't wanna risk hiring a lawyer and wound up with nothing/lowball.

Nonetheless, I'm hoping the car will last another 30k, after owning it for about 30k miles.

 

"Suing" was NOT what I meant.

It's amazing how, over the last century, tort (suing) has morphed from being an expensive, difficult, last-resort solution to being the first thing on people's minds when something goes wrong. Ben Cardozo wasn't a visionary, he was an idiot.

I was under the impression originally that you would be on the hook for the cost of the repair, but it looks like your insurance company will be paying for that, and all you want to do is recover your deductible. And that's what Small Claims Court is for. No lawyer needed; you can represent yourself.

http://www.courts.state.md.us/legalh...allclaims.html
http://www.courts.state.md.us/distri...cct/dca109.pdf
It appears that it could cost you $50-$100 to recover your $250, and I can't tell if the judge may find that you have standing. My advice would be to contact the SCC in your area, and speak to somebody there about your intent and chances of success.

If you have no chance of recovering the $250, you can chalk that up as being one of the unpleasant byproducts of driving in close proximity to other human beings. A hazard of life in general, in other words.

 

would it be wise to contact the rear-ender, and tell him fess up the specific amount ($250) or risk going to a small claims court?
And then notify the insurance, the rear-ender gave me $250?

At the end of day I don't wanna pay $1500+ out of my own pocket.

 

Who said anything about $1500? I said between $50 and $100, which is what MD's court docs seem to indicate. And what kind of moron would pay $1500 to recover $250? You never read the links I posted, did you?

Your insurance deductible is an agreement between you and your insurance company, and is a figure that can usually be adjusted up or down depending on the policy you buy, and can even be zero.

That means that your deductible is your responsibility alone. The defendant cannot be held responsible for the policy you decided to buy from whatever insurance company you decided to deal with.

In short, I think your chances of recovering the $250 are just about nil. But you can (for free) consult with the SCC in your area and see if they can offer any opinions as to whether or not you may have standing (which means "a legally valid reason") to file a claim.

Alternatively, you can call up the defendant and cry poverty (and poor reading skills) and ask for some help with the deductible. Maybe he'll cough up a few Washingtons 'cause he feels sorry for you.

 

Back to the damage...
You need to get under the bumper, with a flash light.

Compare the bumper support on the drivers side to the bumper support on the passenger side. The passenger side will be about 1 1/2" farther out. See if any of the steel is split open. (My spare wheel well was not damaged.)

Mine was split and the Acura Body shop charged the 'at fault ins company" $3200

The at fault company gave me a check for $1,400. I took that check to the Body shop and they collected the rest.

 

I forgot about underlying damage. Your estimate is likely closer to the reality.

 

that's like 400$ worth max ! that piece between the lights and bumper is held on with clips/10mm bolts....and is easily removable.

 

$400? lol
https://i.imgur.com/yjw7dcr.jpg

And by the way, my tinted bulbs work wonders. Although a bit dimmer, never know when you might need to make a stealthier "getaway".

https://honda-tech.com/forums/acura-integra-6/these-bulbs-sufficient-non-braking-lights-3176955/

I agree though, LEDs should be avoided for LAMPS, except modern ones, like those on Audi.

 

you can grab a new bumper cover for $200 + shipping.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,ca...,parttype,1344

 

Thanks for that, tamboo!

 

I agree, fix it yourself, a rear clip, [bumper cover] at PicknPull is $44.99 + $4.99 core, the "molding" is $4.99 a foot, as long as there is no other damage, I see about $50 in damage/parts and about 2-3 hours of work.

Although finding undamaged front end parts at bone yards is hard, the back ends are almost always there, of the 6 G3s at our PicknPull, 5 have the back ends intact and all 6 G2s have back ends still intact.

A little looking and you may be able to find what you need in "silver". 94

 

that's at least 500 in paint/prep. 200 for the rear bumper and around 150 for the trim inbetween hatch and bumper,

so around 1500 at a really cheap shop, given there is no other damage present, just pay the deductable

 

yeah if you can verify there is no other damgage that isn't visible, online searching for a few weeks to find a color matched bumper and trim piece is definitely your best option

but only if its less than 250, which is a hard price to beat

 

If it didn't cause any structural damage you could replace those parts super easy. Search your local craigslist and if you have to get one a color that doesn't match just paint it.

 

easy peasey assuming you dont have other issues.

http://s22.postimg.org/5lua9dgzj/page1010.jpg

http://s21.postimg.org/l8nubk2ad/page1011.jpg

http://s9.postimg.org/l7b73fsq5/page1012.jpg

 

Why are you guys trying to get this guy to do work that his insurance company is paying for anyway? This repair will cost him just $250 and he doesn't even have to lift a finger.

 

imho it's best to at least source your own parts if possible ymmv.
will be interested to see if his insurance payments go up.
(i just switched to progressive, much cheaper than the rest but geico was close).
btw you can search salvage yards here to maybe find a nice silver one:

http://www.car-part.com/

 

Thanks for re-iterating this.

Also, the insurance is willing to pay for my rental car.
The main concern about this is if, they'll stick to using OEM parts without asking more money from me.
They also claimed they'll "try" to get the money back for me, but there was no guarantee I may see any of it.

The other driver didn't have coverage at the time of the accident.

Also there's a huger dent below the back left lamp.

 

some honda parts/prices just to give you an idea, you'll have to look up your specific make:

http://estore.honda.com/acura/parts/...n=&b=B++46&dl=

http://www.oemacuraparts.com/parts-c...umper/bumper-1

 

Collision normally includes replacement-car coverage.

If a car is more than two or three years old, they will use parts of "like kind and quality". For your car, that means used OEM if available, or aftermarket if used OEM is not available.

Typically, the insurance company will give the body shop the dollar amount that the damage-appraiser estimates will be needed to repair the vehicle, then the shop has to fit the repair into that dollar amount. If the shop discovers more damage than the appraiser guessed at, the insurance company will usually cover the additional expense.

You can work to help the body shop yourself. Ask the shop if there's some way you can help get the car fixed better for the same money.

For instance, you could do any of these things:
1) offer to help the shop locate used OEM parts (by doing your own junkyard crawling), and even deliver the parts to them yourself,
2) offer top-up cash to allow the shop to buy new OEM if all the shop can find is aftermarket,
3) settle for aftermarket if if you have no cash and used OEM is not available.

Your deductible is none of the other guy's business, so I don't think you'll see a dime of it.

You had uninsured motorist coverage, so what the other guy has is meaningless.

Also, if he was at-fault, then you're off the hook for everything but your deductible. If you were NOT at fault, then your rates will NOT go up.

 

The question was, "The least I should expect to pay on this body work?"

So assuming no other damage and he does the work himself, it can be done for under $250, [about $100] that is the least by any standards, yes it assumes he does some footwork, but $100 is still less then $250 eventhough he does have to lift a finger, or two. 94