Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

[852VR6]

Im posting this situation for my friend and I would appreciate you guys opinion on this. Heres the story.

About a month and half ago, he was in the Wal Mart Parking lot in Royal Oak. As he was backing out from his stall, he didnt quite see a car behind him. Therefore there was a light "bom" sound.

He drives a Jeep Grand Cherokee and the other car involved was a 4 door cobalt. The area that was hit on the jeep was rear right bumper (absolutely no visible damage). The area that was it on the Cobalt was about middle height of the rear right passenger door (no dent, no paint chip, absolutely nothing).

The both exchanged info right there and then and took pictures. To repeat, there was ABSOLUTELY NO VISIBLE DAMAGE on either cars. The impact was prob less than 5km/h.

So, no visible damage, no injury and exchanged info good to go right? Thats what my friend thought up until yesterday.

Yesterday, he got a from call from the woman (Colbalt driver) telling him that now the car is "shakey" and took it to her "dealer" and said it would cost $1000 to repair. The obvious question my friend asked was "$1000 to repair what"? She answered "Oh, I had contacted my insurance company about this and they told me not to disclose any details to you". My friend "well I need details to understand what the damage is if you are asking me for $1000". Although it is my friends "fault" of the collision, but if there are no visible sign of damage then is it still classified as an accident?

My friend does not want to go through insurance as his family did not get off to a good start for 2011. His dad passed away last month and their financials arent doing all that great as his mom just got laid off. Since his insurance is under his mom's name, he does not want to add any other more troubles / burden on her as what has happened.

I personally was not there when it happened, so I maybe have missed something but thats the overall picture

Sorry for bombarding you guys early in the morning with so much reading, but just wanted gather you guy's opinion on this

Thanks in advance!

[longsock]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

Well the way I see it is that it's your friend's fault. 100%
Her insurance has to contact his insurance. He just has to pay his deductible...now correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are involved in an accident, don't you have 48hr to report it or a week tops? I don't believe she actually phoned her insurance company, otherwise she's be phoning him alot sooner then a month and half later...
She probably talked to a few people and her family and they all advised her to ask for $1000 and call it even.
The damage may be minimal but it's her car, I'm sure she wants to get it fixed and nowadays body work is so expensive for the smallest ding/dent. BUT I wouldn't give her $1000 I'd offer her half of that and see her reaction.

[R_Ethug]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

this is deja vu..

same **** happened to me in a superstore lot 3 years ago in my S4.. hit some 90 buick that wasn't even worth $2000 bucks.. just SCRAPED paint off my rear bumper!!! and tapped the cars rear passenger door side molding

i had her take it to a shop i know.. get this! the metal inside the door that basically forms around the bottom of the seats.. hard to explian but you probably get what i mean.. THAT METAL was bent!!!!!!! to fix was about $2000.. worth more than the Fin car!! i called my insurance.. told the adjuster to come look at my car and then this ladys.. adjuster didn't even look at mine.. i paid my deductible.. said F it.. my rates went up about 10/month and because i was backing out.. i was 100% at fault..

now i'm extremely paranoid in parking lots..

[luunta]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

let your insurance company handle it, it's why you pay them. THEY will decide if you owe anything. tell her to **** off in the interim, just nicely.

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

Well the way I see it is that it's your friend's fault. 100%
Her insurance has to contact his insurance. He just has to pay his deductible...now correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are involved in an accident, don't you have 48hr to report it or a week tops? I don't believe she actually phoned her insurance company, otherwise she's be phoning him alot sooner then a month and half later...
She probably talked to a few people and her family and they all advised her to ask for $1000 and call it even.
The damage may be minimal but it's her car, I'm sure she wants to get it fixed and nowadays body work is so expensive for the smallest ding/dent. BUT I wouldn't give her $1000 I'd offer her half of that and see her reaction.

I see in this situation it could be his fault, but most of the time arent parking lot accidents considered 50-50?

I fully agree with you on she definitely did NOT contact her insurance. It usually takes a week to get a claim and clearance from insurance.

This is a collision between vehicles, this needs to go to an autobody shop, they then can deem whether the accident may have caused the shakiness. It may have, but highly unlikely, more likely its winter and she slid into two fents and a crub.

Working in the autobody industry, the claim should be opened by her insurance, her insurance would then contact your insurance, then your insurance would contact you. Its nice that she contacted to say this is how much its going to cost incase you didnt want to go through insurance.

As for shop rates, nothing has changed, there are still cheap shops like Maaco, you get what you pay for. Small dent repairs though, Paintless Dent Repair, very effective and you might be surprised by what they can fix.


Tell her if there are "damages" she needs to take her car to a shop and get the shop to fax you the quote. Then you need to go to the shop and ask them if it could be related to the accident.

[longsock]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

I see in this situation it could be his fault, but most of the time arent parking lot accidents considered 50-50?
I fully agree with you on she definitely did NOT contact her insurance. It usually takes a week to get a claim and clearance from insurance.

This is a collision between vehicles, this needs to go to an autobody shop, they then can deem whether the accident may have caused the shakiness. It may have, but highly unlikely, more likely its winter and she slid into two fents and a crub.

Working in the autobody industry, the claim should be opened by her insurance, her insurance would then contact your insurance, then your insurance would contact you. Its nice that she contacted to say this is how much its going to cost incase you didnt want to go through insurance.

As for shop rates, nothing has changed, there are still cheap shops like Maaco, you get what you pay for. Small dent repairs though, Paintless Dent Repair, very effective and you might be surprised by what they can fix.


Tell her if there are "damages" she needs to take her car to a shop and get the shop to fax you the quote. Then you need to go to the shop and ask them if it could be related to the accident.

Now don't quote me on this. But my opinion in this situation is no. In some cases it can be 50-50 if both were at fault but her car was parked, it wasn't moving so I don't see how it could be 50-50.
I guess in the end it all comes down to how the insurance looks at it, but I don't think they'll see it as "both of their faults".

[Stonewall]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

It may have, but highly unlikely, more likely its winter and she slid into two fents and a crub.

^^^ This!
There is no way backing out, hitting someone, no visible damage is going to cause alignment issues. I would tell her to hit the crub. Plus if it did happen she would have noticed right away and reported the accident, not do it a month later.
As a side note if she did contact her insurance company then she would not be contacting him, the insurance adjuster would be contacting him and if wanted he can pay them directly rather then use his insurance.

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

Now don't quote me on this. But my opinion in this situation is no. In some cases it can be 50-50 if both were at fault but her car was parked, it wasn't moving so I don't see how it could be 50-50.
I guess in the end it all comes down to how the insurance looks at it, but I don't think they'll see it as "both of their faults".

Yeah i wasnt sure.

"About a month and half ago, he was in the Wal Mart Parking lot in Royal Oak. As he was backing out from his stall, he didnt quite see a car behind him. Therefore there was a light "bom" sound. "

This can be taken either way, that she was sitting there/pulled up, or it was parked, if it was parked, 100% his deal.

Now reading back on this, a month and a half ago? Tell her to get bent! If an accident happens it needs to go in for a damage inspection and all that ASAP.

Shes mad cause he took pictures, its not uncommon for there to be a little damage, then when it shows up again theres a LOT of damage.

[Geobmx4life]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

1000$ and up, there MUST be a police report...no police report...good luck her getting your friend to pay...or his insurance company! Sounds like a scam to me, because if they traded info, the insurance companies would be contacting both parties!

[RONDAL]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

let insurance handle it. once the repairs are done you have the opportunity to pay yourself or let insurance take it out via raising your rates.
if there are pictures and things are different i would definetly be calling your insurance agent and speaking with them

[luunta]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

she should never have called your "friend". insurance companies are there to represent you. seriously. tell her to insert her car into her trolling vagina.

obvious troll is obvious.

[Geobmx4life]

Re: Odd fender bender scenario, need opinions please!

she should never have called your "friend". insurance companies are there to represent you. seriously. tell her to insert her car into her trolling vagina.

obvious troll is obvious.

^^^LMFAO...you effen rule sometimes!!!