Impacted in same area as previous damage!

by DARCY

On 12 April 2012 a woman made a U-turn within a neighborhood street and gashed the passenger side front panel and door, and continued to scrape the back door and panel on my daughter's 1985 Toyota Corrola. Now, there were a couple of dents on the front panel from the previous owner of this car, but was minor and never fixed, but the previous owner did keep the money from the persons ins. co.

Now, my daughter has only had this car for 8 months, it has great mileage for such an old car & still runs very well & gets her to & from school. The previous dents are rusted & is significantly outstanding from the current damage done by this woman that impacted my daughter. Upon impact the front end of the car was lifted off the ground! Her ins. co. (Allstate) has accepted liability & has informed us that it is not a total loss & that the damages are repairable.

The adjuster did his thing & told us he would call with his numbers & let us know what could be done. He calls back the next day leaving a message on my phone, "the car is repairable & this leaves me with different choices to make. I call him back & he says that they are not going to pay for the front panel because of the previous damage (which by the way was not interfering with her driving) but would only fix from the door to the back panel & have sent us a check for $1,895.05 today(which choices are we left with?) then he goes on to tell us that he would not get the door fixed until we replace the panel (which is not available due to the car being so old)because it would not make sense to paint just from the door to the back (which totally contradicts himself cause he has already sent the check!)

I even offered to meet him half way, to maybe pay for half of what it would cost because of the previous damage! He totally refused my offer! He tells me more than once that "I have been doing this business for more than 30 years & can tell you now that you are not going to be able to get the ins. co. to cover previously damaged areas." This only frustrated me more, because it makes me think that "yeah, you've been doing this for so long, you know how to run people over & get things done in the cheapest way possible!" I asked to speak with his supervisor & she was unavailable at the time, but will be calling me back today sometime.

The damage that this woman did to my daughter's car is FAR WORSE THAN WHAT WAS THERE & IS INTERFERING WITH HER DRIVING BECAUSE THE PANEL IS STILL SCRAPING THE BRAND NEW TIRES THAT I HAVE PURCHASED! The ins. adjuster actually pulled & yanked on the panel because the gash is rubbing on tire & so he is all "This is just an aluminum can & can be yanked out!" Which is what he did! (It's Crazy!) Then he goes on to tell us that it is only cosmetic damage! How can you say that when you haven't even driven it?! I am in the process of consulting with the dealership to see how much it would cost to get a thorough examination of the alignment (which was just recently done) and steering column (which was just replaced)

Do you have any suggestions for me for when the supervisor calls me back? PLEASE! We just want to resolve this & make sure that the damage that the woman caused is fixed not total the car & see how we can get for it!

This is my daughter's first car & she really loves it & we have no ill feelings for the woman who impacted her, but the ins. adjustor is being unreasonable & condescending & I do not appreciate being taken for granted. PLEASE TELL ME WHAT ELSE WE CAN DO?! WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT!



Answer to Impacted in same area as previous damage!


Hello Darcy,

Well, if there is prior damage, and that damage was made worse, then they owe the difference. The problem is if you have a broken piece, and it get broken again, all they owe you is for a broken piece, which may not have much value in it. If your claim is that new pieces were broken, and can show that (more than simply stating this was a big hard impact), then you do want to claim that.

If the value to fix the car gets too much higher, they may declare a total loss, which may not be the best thing for you or your daughter, maybe it is.

You can dispute this and have an independent mechanic look over and tell you what new damages exist. Rust tells what is old. Absence of rust would show the new damage.

If you do not get anywhere, consider talking to an attorney or talk to the department of insurance.

Good luck
Personal Injury Settlements