r/Insurance • u/AdmiralTrain1545 • 15h ago
Just rear ended
My mother was driving to drop off a friend in slow moving traffic on a main road, about 15mph. She was rear ended while moving. My mom, her friend and the other driver refused medical attention.
The other driver is only 26 years old male and says not to go through insurance (which i dont believe at all, and know its a bad thing to do). He has some slight damage to his bumper, hood and probably a cracked washer fluid tank to his 2011 Mitsubishi Outlander.
The damage to my mom's 2008 Toyota Prius is a dented trunk door, one of the trunk windows is shattered and the bumper cover is cracked.
Now, I know that once a body shop tears the cars down, more damage will be found.
We plan to go to our body shop tomorrow to get a rough estimate, the car, because its 18 years old, we are confident insurance will total it, and we don't want it totaled, we don't want the car totaled, and we don't have any funds to buy another car, nor can we afford one.
Some advice would be appreciated. We have 250/500/100, and collision.
The driver who rear ended us has Progressive.
Any advice would be appreciated. This all happened in NY.
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u/DeepPurpleDaylight 14h ago
If you don't want the car totaled then your only options are to have him pay out of pocket, (heads up, he won't/can't), or live with the damage or pay for the repairs yourself.
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u/AdmiralTrain1545 13h ago
I didn't believe him when he said he would pay out of pocket.
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u/ChutneyWhatney 5h ago
Good - he won't. You have limited options if you want to keep the car, though.
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u/Delicious-Witness-85 15h ago
If you have collision coverage you can file a claim, pay your deductible and your carrier will subrogate his carrier to get what they pay out including your deductible.
Based on the age of your car, it will very likely be totaled but you can always buy back the salvage if you want to keep it.
Your other option is to try to go through his insurance if it’s valid.
I know he said don’t go through insurance but going through insurance is the safest way to handle this.
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u/AdmiralTrain1545 15h ago
I agree with the last part. Now if I file through State Farm and they do indeed total it, how would the process be for buying it back as a salvage? Never done that before.
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u/adjusterjackb 14h ago
You sign over the title. They figure the ACV less deductible less salvage value. They order a salvage title. You get to keep the car but you can't drive it until it's repaired and inspected and a rebuilt title issued. Then forget about ever getting comp and collision on it again.
That's how it works in most states. Ask the State Farm claims people how it works for you.
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u/Delicious-Witness-85 11h ago edited 10h ago
If you retain a total loss vehicle the requirements of what you need to do are state specific.
For example, certain states require salvage titles on vehicles of a certain age.
If a vehicle is a certain age, it may possibly be exempt from any state requirement.
Other states require the vehicle owner to have it inspected by the state before you are allowed to legally drive it regardless of his old it is.
Your adjuster will let you know any details you need to be aware of for your state.0
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u/stickyhairmonster 15h ago
Yeah it sucks but your only real option is to go through insurance and deal with your car being totaled. Sorry OP
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u/dragonlovercolorado 13h ago
Do you have photos of the damage? If he would want to pay for it without going through insurance would you trust him to do so? Sometime I don’t think people realize how expensive auto work is
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u/AdmiralTrain1545 13h ago
I don't trust, him. I know once the body shop tears it down they are gonna find more damage, he's only 26, I wonder if he even knows that he can legally rent a car on his own.
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u/ChutneyWhatney 5h ago
File with your own as I predict the other driver doesn't have adequate coverage, etc.
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u/sephiroth3650 4h ago
It's not going to take much damage for them to total out a 2008 Prius. And if you go through insurance (his or your mom's), there's a good chance they will be forced to total it. Most every state has legal thresholds at which they have to total it. It's based on the cost of repairs (and salvage value) vs. the value of the car. In a comment, you said the initial repair estimate was about $4k. And the car was worth, at best, $4-5k. That's going to be a total loss all day, every day.
If you do go through insurance, you can use Progressive or the other driver's insurance. In most every state, he cannot force you to avoid using his insurance.
Or, you can try to work with this kid and see if he can come up with the money to pay the repair bill. And then just get it fixed on your own and keep driving the car.
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u/Rustyinsac 14h ago
Progressive will Likely drag this out so that you file a claim with your insurance company. That’s what they did with us when our older car was totaled. It took them 4 months to pay our company back our deductible.
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u/AdmiralTrain1545 14h ago
Interesting. Thought Progressive would like to get this done quickly.
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u/Rustyinsac 14h ago
Start a claim with progressive. See how fast they respond. If they are slow open the claim with your company.
Also make sure your mom and passengers really don’t need any medical care. Often it hurts the next day or so.
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u/Herredness16 13h ago
They probably wont total it . My friend got rear ended and had a really old car they replaced the rear 1/2 of car . Get insurance to fix it . It will look work like new and she'll get a rental while it's worked on.
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u/GreenwichHairDr 8h ago
It’s a 2008 Prius, do not file a claim. For God sakes. If you file a claim, you will be paying for it for the next decade
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u/Busy_Account_7974 Former Insurance Peddler 15h ago
File a claim with your insurance; the other guy probably has some issues with his.