She hit me!!!!!!

CGW · Feb 10, 2016

This evening I was in a restaurant parking lot in Austin, sitting still when a young lady in a Ford Escape just backed right into the rear quarter panel of my beautiful car

:crying:....so I have to get it fixed. Her insurance was "lapsed".. and my agent said to get an estimate ASAP. I understand that we are to use only "certified" shops. Is that true? Please offer suggestions on where best to take the car. The damage looked massive, near terminal when I first saw it but by the time got home, calmed down and gained perspective, it looked far less serious. It looks more like relatively minor dents and several scratches.
Thanks in advance for your advice. I hope that this never happens to any of you..not fun! Not fun at all.
Grant

vgrinshpun · Feb 10, 2016

CGW said:
This evening I was in a restaurant parking lot in Austin, sitting still when a young lady in a Ford Escape just backed right into the rear quarter panel of my beautiful car:crying:....so I have to get it fixed. Her insurance was "lapsed".. and my agent said to get an estimate ASAP. I understand that we are to use only "certified" shops. Is that true? Please offer suggestions on where best to take the car. The damage looked massive, near terminal when I first saw it but by the time got home, calmed down and gained perspective, it looked far less serious. It looks more like relatively minor dents and several scratches.
Thanks in advance for your advice. I hope that this never happens to any of you..not fun! Not fun at all.
Grant

I suggest calling Tesla Service Center - they will direct you to the Tesla approved body shop. This is the exactly how I identified Tesla approved body shop after bumping a deer a while back. Make sure to use Tesla approved body shop, as car body and chassis are made from aluminum and require specialty shop to repair. As far as I know, Tesla also does not provide parts to a non-approved body shop.

Beryl · Feb 11, 2016

No advice -- only condolences. So sorry this happened to you and mad that her insurance lapsed. (I doubt she ever had any and hope she is punished.)

purplewalt · Feb 11, 2016

I would have called a police officer, and made sure the operator of the other car had a "Nice Day".

Yes, it is illegal to be on the road in Texas without minimum coverage auto insurance (financial responsibility).
Fines start @ $350, plus court costs.
Repeat offenders face fines of up to $1,000 and a two (2) year driver license suspension.

Sorry to hear about your incident and damage to your car.

TexasEV · Feb 11, 2016

The Tesla certified body shop in Austin is Autocraft BodyWerks.
CGW, you must not be on the Austin Tesla owners google group. PM me with your email if you're interested.

jerry33 · Feb 11, 2016

purplewalt said:
I would have called a police officer, and made sure the operator of the other car had a "Nice Day".

Yes, it is illegal to be on the road in Texas without minimum coverage auto insurance (financial responsibility).
Fines start @ $350, plus court costs.
Repeat offenders face fines of up to $1,000 and a two (2) year driver license suspension.

Sorry to hear about your incident and damage to your car.

It's illegal but Texas has a really silly system where you can get a registration for a year even if your insurance expires the next day.

jaguar36 · Feb 11, 2016

Roger Beasley is another certified shop in Austin.

Here's the Tesla page for finding a certified shop: Find an Approved Body Shop | Tesla Motors

TexasEV · Feb 11, 2016

They must have been added very recently. No one has reported an experience with them yet, and their web site doesn't even mention Tesla. Nice find.

CHG-ON · Feb 11, 2016

I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope you can get it fixed quickly, easily and well. I have been hit by an idiot without insurance. Sucks. I hope you were able to get her info. I tried to go after mine. But he was so shady that they could never find him. He even showed me false insurance documents!

purplewalt · Feb 11, 2016

CHG-ON said:
I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope you can get it fixed quickly, easily and well. I have been hit by an idiot without insurance. Sucks. I hope you were able to get her info. I tried to go after mine. But he was so shady that they could never find him. He even showed me false insurance documents!

In addition to an insurance card, always get a driver's license number.
And an address.
Make sure the DL info matches the insurance card.
If in doubt, call a police officer, and request THEIR assistance.
They have the means and methods to check if the insurance is legit.

People without proper (minimum) insurance need to be OFF the roads.

fwgmills · Feb 12, 2016

purplewalt said:
In addition to an insurance card, always get a driver's license number.
And an address.
Make sure the DL info matches the insurance card.
If in doubt, call a police officer, and request THEIR assistance.
They have the means and methods to check if the insurance is legit.

People without proper (minimum) insurance need to be OFF the roads.

When they started towing people's cars who didn't have insurance I thought to myself, "How draconian! How dare they!" Then I remember that in all the time me and my wife have been driving we have had 5 drivers hit us, and only ONE had proper insurance to pay for repairs. In all the other instances they either flat out didn't have insurance or they had "Billy Bob Joe Don's Travelers Mutual Fire Fighters Insurance" which usually meant a month to month or a 6 month crap policy from A-Affordable or something. And the cases when they did have insurance we couldn't get them to pay (One time they didn't even had a current address or phone number for their policy holder) and we had to claim uninsured motorists coverage and get OUR insurance company to sue them just so we could get our cars fixed.

When...sorry about the rant.

taurusking · Feb 12, 2016

CHG-ON said:
I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope you can get it fixed quickly, easily and well. I have been hit by an idiot without insurance. Sucks. I hope you were able to get her info. I tried to go after mine. But he was so shady that they could never find him. He even showed me false insurance documents!

So if the other person does not have insurance...did you file uninsured motorist claim with your insurance? If that is correct...you still ending up taking a huge dip in the value of the car (since it is considered as an accident?)

- - - Updated - - -

purplewalt said:
In addition to an insurance card, always get a driver's license number.
And an address.
Make sure the DL info matches the insurance card.
If in doubt, call a police officer, and request THEIR assistance.
They have the means and methods to check if the insurance is legit.

People without proper (minimum) insurance need to be OFF the roads.

^^^^ This ...I would have called cops on that person...Sorry I am usually nice but not nice to someone who hits my car and does not have insurance

supersnoop · Feb 15, 2016

taurusking said:
So if the other person does not have insurance...did you file uninsured motorist claim with your insurance? If that is correct...you still ending up taking a huge dip in the value of the car (since it is considered as an accident?)

You can claim diminished value against your own un-insurance coverage, but it's going to be a strange and difficult process, probably ending in arbitration.

CGW · Feb 19, 2016

Thanks for all of the kind words. I was seriously distressed the night I wrote my first note.
The saga is still going on. I do have uninsured motorist insurance. The uninsured person wanted to pay themselves, but when she saw the estimates from Roger Beasley and Autocraft, she changed her mind and decided to let my insurance pay. She said that according to her agent, there is little likelihood that my company will go after her because the claim is too small (!?) so she will get off Scott Free....which doesn't seem right. The car is now at Autocraft waiting in line for repair.
I walked the yards at both approved places and saw some sad things.....a model X that the owner drove into the garage with the doors up...ugh.... and a new X that was damaged in transit from CA. There were several other MS there, most of which had minor bumps and scrapes like mine.
I will post the rest of the story when I get the car back a week from now. I have high quality expectations based on the cost. I guess that if this were anything but a Tesla the repair would be about $800.00. The estimates are over $3000.00 which is very difficult to rationalize.

Beryl · Feb 19, 2016

CGW said:
She said that according to her agent, there is little likelihood that my company will go after her because the claim is too small (!?) so she will get off Scott Free....which doesn't seem right.

What agent? The agent she had before she let her insurance lapse?

This is all so wrong. I hope they nail her.

CGW · Feb 29, 2016

Beryl said:
What agent? The agent she had before she let her insurance lapse?

Hi, Yes, these instructions came from the agent that sold her the policy that became active AFTER the collision. There seems to be something fundamentally wrong and immoral about this behavior. She pays no insurance cost and no repair cost and all of us get an increase in the cost of uninsured motorist coverage. I may ask her to pay the deductible just so that she feels some pain from her inattention.

The repair process seems to be over. I picked up the car at Autocraft this AM and I must confess that I cannot see any evidence what so ever of the repair. It seems perfect. I am very pleased. I paid, hopped into my VERY clean car and drove away. Interestingly, they turned off the remote access so I could not see where it was or....anything while it was in the shop. I had to turn that back on. The average WH/mile was about 450 when I picked it up....highest I have ever seen! I guess they either took it for a ride (no, I foolishly did not record odometer reading) or perhaps they were running the HVAC for some reason....no matter, it is all back and perfect again. I got the new summon software upgrade while the car was in the shop and I activated it this evening....nice. It now opens the proper garage door. I waxed the car again tonight just for fun and it just looks great! The thing is beautiful and I am such a lucky boy.

TexasEV · Mar 1, 2016

CGW said:
Hi, Yes, these instructions came from the agent that sold her the policy that became active AFTER the collision. There seems to be something fundamentally wrong and immoral about this behavior. She pays no insurance cost and no repair cost and all of us get an increase in the cost of uninsured motorist coverage. I may ask her to pay the deductible just so that she feels some pain from her inattention.

The repair process seems to be over. I picked up the car at Autocraft this AM and I must confess that I cannot see any evidence what so ever of the repair. It seems perfect. I am very pleased. I paid, hopped into my VERY clean car and drove away. Interestingly, they turned off the remote access so I could not see where it was or....anything while it was in the shop. I had to turn that back on. The average WH/mile was about 450 when I picked it up....highest I have ever seen! I guess they either took it for a ride (no, I foolishly did not record odometer reading) or perhaps they were running the HVAC for some reason....no matter, it is all back and perfect again. I got the new summon software upgrade while the car was in the shop and I activated it this evening....nice. It now opens the proper garage door. I waxed the car again tonight just for fun and it just looks great! The thing is beautiful and I am such a lucky boy.

Standard procedure for service (either Tesla service or body shop) to turn off remote access. Can you imagine what could happen if some joker started honking the horn or whatever while someone was working on the car?

supersnoop · Mar 1, 2016

CGW said:
Hi, Yes, these instructions came from the agent that sold her the policy that became active AFTER the collision. There seems to be something fundamentally wrong and immoral about this behavior. She pays no insurance cost and no repair cost and all of us get an increase in the cost of uninsured motorist coverage. I may ask her to pay the deductible just so that she feels some pain from her inattention.

The repair process seems to be over. I picked up the car at Autocraft this AM and I must confess that I cannot see any evidence what so ever of the repair. It seems perfect. I am very pleased. I paid, hopped into my VERY clean car and drove away. Interestingly, they turned off the remote access so I could not see where it was or....anything while it was in the shop. I had to turn that back on. The average WH/mile was about 450 when I picked it up....highest I have ever seen! I guess they either took it for a ride (no, I foolishly did not record odometer reading) or perhaps they were running the HVAC for some reason....no matter, it is all back and perfect again. I got the new summon software upgrade while the car was in the shop and I activated it this evening....nice. It now opens the proper garage door. I waxed the car again tonight just for fun and it just looks great! The thing is beautiful and I am such a lucky boy.

If they did paint work that involved putting the car in the booth, they'd have to run the a/c to keep the battery from getting too hot.

Beryl · Mar 1, 2016

She should pay the deductible and depreciation (10%?). It is just wrong for people to drive without insurance and get away with it.

Lloyd · Mar 1, 2016

She hit me!!!!!!

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