Friday afternoon was the first day dry and warm enough, in a while, to take the Chevelle out for it's first ride of the year. Take off the cover, back it out of the garage, hit with the car duster while it's warming up in the driveway, put the top down. I'm set, the only thing to do before I hit the backroads for a rural drive, is get gas. Warm sun on the back of my neck and arms, I pull into the station up the hill from the house, put the car in park, shut it off. This is gonna be a great day for a drive! I reach down to open the door to get out... BAAMMMM!!!
This kid in a 2004 Explorer that was at the pump in front of me apparently puts his car in REVERSE, hits the gas, and flattens the front of my Chevelle. I'm sitting there with one foot out of the car, one in, looking out across my newly wrinkled Cowl Induction hood. Mind you this Chevelle just got out of the paint shop in June. Anyway, before I can get out of the car, the kids next me apoligizing profusely, saying all the right things, taking responsibility right off the bat. If he'd have been at all arogant and stupid about it, it could've been real ugly, real fast.
Fortunately he's insured, and I've been contacted by his company already, they're sending an adjuster out this week. Meanwhile, the damage to the Chevelle looks to be the hood, radiator support, bumper, grill, hood release, air conditioner condensor and filter, and there's paint chipped on the leading edges of the doors and the leading edges of the body behind the doors!
Does anyone else have a stupid accident story to share with me to make me feel a little better?

Now see if you lived in the snow belt your car would have been nicely tucked away for the winter :D

At least the kid did and said the right things. Good Luck with the adjuster. Most of them don't know diddly about muscle car value. expect low ball offers. You might start rounding up part prices for your counter offer.

DO NOT accept the adjuster's offer. It is his job to save the company money. Take it to a shop that knows old cars (maybe whoever did the paint?) and get an estimate...

Even better would be to have the car at the paint-shop and have the adjuster go there. Body guys deal with adjusters daily - they will know how to handle them and what tricks they'll try to pull.

I was 16, had my DL a whole week and was driving the families aircraft carrier of a station wagon. (69 Mecury Marquis with a 390 V8). Too much car and too little experience. I was following too close and cliped the guy in front of me when he turned into a drive way. It happens and it is why we have insurance. Most of us have been on boths sides of these situations and I'm glad you and the kid handled it well.
Hope all everything works out

Check for threads posted by me in the past, My vert was wiped out 9/17/2004 by a drunk a block away from a cruise night. Heed the advice given by the previous posters, you should get a new paint job out of this (full car) If you don't get satisfaction from his insurance company, you make your company pay. There is little known clause in all your policies called "subrogation", what this means is you pay your insurance company money to insure your car, it is their responsibility to fix it. They have lawyers to go after the other company for the money they had to pay out. Good luck, sorry to hear about the car; at least your alright. JN

Most of us dont want to talk STUPID things, I was backing my one owner trailer queen out of my garage, Its a SS454 M22 To go to a local cruise. YES, When I felt a bump and it wiggled a bit. I opened the drivers door and saw red plastic on the driveway, YEP This very brilliant motor head just backed into his own 4 wheel drive chevy pick-up-------I did not look at the back of the car, went into the garage turned on the radio and sat down staring at the wall. My wife came out to garage, and said its OK we can get it fixed. That helped a little. I was upset, but now she says with a BIG grin. Do you want me to back your car out of the garage. I look back and laugh,My dad always told me "if you make mistakes,your learning" Bob
SS 454 LS5 M22 org. owner Elky
SS 454 Red Sta. Wgn. ACES 2825

GET OTHER ESTIMATES BEFORE HE COMES!!!...nicole

Yes, a few years back I just bought my buddies dad's 1974 GTO. It had a brand new freshly built 455 HO engine, 670 heads, RA IV Cam,brand new exhaust w/flowmasters, 4 core aluminum radiator, newly rebuilt transmission w/shift kit and not to mention the shaker hood scoop was shaking ever so violently while I was sitting in the car. Anyway, I pull out of a side street, venture about 2/10 of a mile to a friends driveway, I start to turn in the driveway and BAM. I spin 180 degrees and now facing the same direction I just came from, I reach to turn off the car.
This 17 year old snot nosed punk hit's me. He doesn't come to the car to see if my buddy or I are ok. He sits in his 4 door Chevy Blazer and calls his daddy. The cops arrive on the scene and he tells them, "I didn't see him turning." Mind you this is a white car, turning into a driveway on a 2 lane neighborhood street.
I didn't have this thing of beauty more than 30 days and it was a total loss. Makes me sick at my stomach to this day to talk about it...so, go ahead talk amongst yourselves :(

My 19 year old brother had a 92 gmc truck since he was 15 and was saving money for a car. He finally got money this year and wanted a scion Tc. He bought it sometime in december (forgot the day) on a friday. On monday he went back to college and had it parked. He walks out to it monday after noon and the front end is completely smashed and a cadillac is in it! The cops are there and my brother asked what happened and they said an old lady was driving the caddy and the scion pulled out right in front of her! My brother and the cop couldn't help but laugh!!!!! Pretty sad when u see a 3 day old car being towed to a shop! (Pretty crazy though, they just replaced the front clip, i figured it'd be totaled!)

One evening in 1996, I pulled up to a 4-way stop in my all original 1970 Monte with 55,000 miles on it. The pickup facing me had gotten to the stop sign first and had his signal to make a left turn. He made this turn and I proceeded to go through the intersection after he was out of the way. I saw the Ford Tempo behind him just roll through the stop sign and he appeared to be going straight through (no signal). The Tempo suddenly was in front of me and I hit him. I couldn't figure out at first why his car seemed to jump over in front of mine so quickly. The guy in the pickup gets out and says "can't you see we're towing here?" It turns out that they were using a 15 foot rope to tow the Tempo. They had someone in the tempo steering and when he saw me coming, he tried to keep the car straight so he wouldn't hit me. Evenually, there was no more slack in the rope and the car was jerked in front of me. There was no way to see this rope on the ground in the poorly lit intersection and there was no way to tell that they were towing. I was not too happy that evening.

My wife was the medic at a crash involving a new 'vette in the mid-late 80's. The car had about 1000 miles on it. The driver was fine but his passenger complained of neck and back pain and had the correct symptoms of a severe spinal injury. They removed the passenger door and roof with hydraulic rescue tools. The driver/owner told the cops to have it towed to the local Chevy dealer, where he bought it, because they'll have it fixed in no time. The general rule of thumb is that once a car is touched by rescue tools, it's toast.

My chevelle is orange. I stood right next to my car as some clown in a Suzuki Sidekick backed into the car hard enough to raise the Suzuki's rear wheel off the ground. He then proceeded to try and drive off. I scared the crap out of him by reaching in and turning off his ignition. No damage to the chevelle. He told me he didn't see the car.
Did I mention that the chevelle is orange?

2 or 3 years ago I was at my buddy's house working on his Firebird. The chevelle was parked behind his wife's car for about 4 hours. We went in the house to clean up for lunch and she went to the store. Not 1 minute later she came into the house fussing about having to buy me a new grill and bumper. She had walked past my car, jumped into hers and proceeded to back out of the driveway. My car wasn't more than a foot from her bumper.
Did I mention the car is orange? She said she didn't see the car. I wasn't mad at her but my buddy was pretty upset at her.
I have had so many close calls in which the other driver has said "I didn't see your car." Its 2 tons of orange! :) If you can't see it you shouldn't be driving.

I was driving my '67 3/4-ton camper special... was stopped at a red light. A guy in a late '70s firebird pulled up behind me and stopped. the left turn light changes (ours didn't) and he floored it, thinking he would pass me quickly or something. he put himself right onto my tow ball (dual ball w/one on top, and one below). got himself hooked with the ball through his condenser and radiator. also whacked his fan blade a couple hundred times on my ____s(insert the word here-I can't bring myself to say it ;) ). His passenger was totally not impressed as he watched my "tow" him over to the side. I told him we could call the cops, and he would be at fault, or we could searate the 2 and call it even-I needed a new tow bar setup. He decided to take the hit himself, and got in his car. I had him put it into reverse, and I floored it-took part of his front clip off too.

Pretty sad when u see a 3 day old car being towed to a shop! (Pretty crazy though, they just replaced the front clip, i figured it'd be totaled!)

Back in 1994? I had just put a new paint job on my 1990 camaro. I was driving over to a friends house to pick him up and go show off the custom paint work on my car.

I get about two blocks from his house when all of a sudden a mercury topaz comes flying thru a stopsign and I T-boned it. Thru the sunroof I saw the trunklid of the car fly about 25 feet in the air. The passenger side between the two doors was pushed in to almost the middle of the car.

An off duty officer that was out washing his squad car heard the hit, he said he was about 1/2 mile away at the time. He was first one there. I was injured pretty good and got a free ambulance ride to the hospital. I had injured my neck and back and the broken glass had cut me all over my face and chest.

It turns out it was an 87 year old woman, her name was Lucille Rudolph, mother of the owner of Rudolph Lincoln Mercury. She was on her way home from picking up her new car her son gave her as a gift. The car had been off the dealership lot for about 20 minutes and it was totalled.

I never take for granted anymore that the other car will stop for the stopsign.

Jeff

Many adjusters don't know what they're looking at, but don't always expect a lowball estimate. Many of the one's that my cousin has seen just look at the car and say "how could someone do this..." It also helps if you have information like reciepts from your new cowl hood, paint... etc.

I've never hit cars doing stupid things in my youth... I used to like going off road and through trees... :D

One time when I was about 17 I was with my mother, aunt and uncle and we were going to the PX at the philly navy yard. As we were driving 25mph down one of the streets I saw a car coming out of a parking lot. Doing the math I knew we would hit. He had to see the car even at night. It was white and there were tons of lights... He didn't. Hit dead center on the pillar between the two doors at about 15mph... (those are actual speeds... You don't speed on a military base...)

The best part was the insurance company started to balk because the accident was listed as occuring in "international territory"... They didn't know what to make of it. Car was a Chevy Caviler and it lived...

Good luck and sorry to hear about that.

David

I know the feeling. I have been rear-ended by not one by tow teenage girls on cell phones and side swiped once more. Its no fun at all but in the end it gets fixed and all is well thats what the insurance is for. I have a guy who restores cars that has done all my estimates and they are usually a bit higher than any body shop but his credibility is undeniable. Be sure to have your frame checked to make sure its not bent. Although these cars are built tough they are not invincible. Whenever they take a hit there are no 5 mph bumpers or foam to absorb the hit so it all transfers into the frame.

i was happy, this didn't happen to me. i took my first wife to the fiat dealer. they finally got a car right, and she wanted one. a very nice spyder convertable, that was designed by pina farina. little humps in the hood to accomidate the cams, nice little ride. anyway, some guy was in there buying his daughter the top of the line fiat, i think it was a brava, fair size four door, leather etc. she pulls out of the driveway, and hits a tow truck. she literally only got the front wheels off the lot, before it was totaled.

In 1999, I'm leaving our lake house around 8AM in the morning, driving my not quite year old black 98 vette. Our place is on a peninsula in the middle of the lake, narrow 2 lane blacktop, and the last hundred yards before the mainland is a gentle curve with water literally on both sides of the road.

So I'm putting along, looking out the drivers side window at the sunrise over the lake, when I look up and see a mailbox directly in front of me! I twist the wheel to the left, the vette responds like a cat and misses the mailbox but the ass end gets loose on some gravel... After 3 or 4 woopdeedoo's, she shoots off the left side of the road, down into the ditch, and "almost" goes between a large oak tree and the pump box for the municipal sewer system. Another 6" would have done it... After the airbag shock passed... I look around and try to back her out, but she won't budge. Then I look in the rearview mirror and notice a wheel and tire in the ditch 30 feet behind me.

I get out and look around... The car is wedged at the cowl. The sewer pump box is 6" closer to the road than it used to be. One front wheel is still attached, but under the car flat on the road, the other 30 feet behind me. Both sides completely trashed. The ECM is laying in the dirt, hanging by it's cable, and the LS1 is still purring peacefully.

It cost the insurance company $17,000 to put her back together, and took 3 months to do it. I sold the lake house, too distracting, and a few months later sold the vette and bought my current 68 Camaro vert. Also trying to pay attention a lil better!

I agree, don't just settle... I'd probably take it back to the same shop that just did the paint last June (assuming you like their work), and let them know exactly what YOU expect (perfection, no "touch ups", etc), and let them decide what needs to be done deal with the adjuster...

My wife was the medic at a crash involving a new 'vette in the mid-late 80's. The car had about 1000 miles on it. The driver was fine but his passenger complained of neck and back pain and had the correct symptoms of a severe spinal injury. They removed the passenger door and roof with hydraulic rescue tools. The driver/owner told the cops to have it towed to the local Chevy dealer, where he bought it, because they'll have it fixed in no time. The general rule of thumb is that once a car is touched by rescue tools, it's toast.
Yep.your right!

OK, I just brought my 73 El Camino home after buying it, back in 1984 when I was 17. I was so excited I said to my friend hey lets go for a drive! So we went out onto some country road and I proceded to start clowning around and before ya know it here we are flying backwards into the ditch. Messed the front clip and bent the frame pretty good, and took out a sign. I promised the old farmer who pulled me out with his tractor that I would call the sheriff and report the accident. Of course I immediately did that :D

The car never was the same after that :sad:

Update. I got a call from my insurance company ( Hagerty ) @ 8:30 Monday morning, still no call from the adjuster from the other insurance company. Hagerty tells me not worry I'm covered, I can wait to see what the other guys adjuster says, or I can take it to a shop of my choice, get an estimate and e-mail it with pictures of the damage to them and they'll bill the other company when all is done. What do you think I'm going to do? I'm very impressed with Hagerty so far.

Hagerty has stand-up folks. I'd go through them and let them kick the other insurance's behind. Good Luck :)