My baby got rear-ended and my wheels almost abandoned me.. again.

[wickedfrisone]

Still trying to get over this.. happened 8/19/20 in the morning headed home after dropping my mom off at my grandma’s (we had dropped her car off at the shop earlier in the morning so she needed the ride).
I was getting off the highway and turning left onto a bridge that’s been under construction for months now (there is only half the bridge drivable now as the other half is having the support beams replaced) - and I guess traffic was starting to pile up so the guy in front of me stopped short unexpectedly. I stopped perfectly on time but not the Amazon delivery van that was behind me... and as hard as it felt, I guess it wasn’t that hard because no airbags deployed. So I get smacked and hear my ABS pump freak out (probably because I had brakes fully applied and wheels still turned from the shove) and end up pushing the guy in front of me too.

I was actually mad for a split second at my Pumpkin for not deploying the airbag, thinking surely he wanted me dead. I was just inches away from kissing the steering wheel after all (I’m short, so unfortunately I have to sit a bit closer than normal to the wheel but I try to not be that close). Then I thought, eh whatever no air bag means maybe there’s a chance my car didn’t get a*spacked like I thought he did, so maybe he can be saved (that would be my worst nightmare after all). I’m glad I remembered to bring the dash cam back into the car before leaving that morning. But the one thing I couldn’t find... my phone. I swore I had my phone in the cup holder before it all happened, and I thought I saw something go flying next to me (besides my sunglasses that abandoned my face too) but I couldn’t find my damn phone ANYWHERE - under the seats, under the mats, nowhere. Later on when I got home we found it somehow went flying forwards then slid back underneath the floor console. I had actually convinced myself at the time that I somehow forgot my phone at home, and I ended up having to borrow the Amazon driver’s phone to try and call a family member (which, NOBODY would answer at first but eventually I got a hold of someone to let them know what happened). I feel bad because when my mom found out, she told my grandmother what happened and that she needed to come find me and my poor grandmother (who suffers from COPD and has lung cancer) seemed to start to panic and have a harder time breathing) likely thinking that I was in worse shape than I was.
Anyways... the three of us vehicles involved had to relocate further down the road past the construction zone because as I said, only half a bridge available and we were blocking traffic. Guy in front of me seemed fine (just upset, actually looked like he just got rudely awakened) and just had a small hole in the left half of his bumper from my front plate. My front plate was kind of bent, right headlamp appeared to slightly pop out of place on the inner corner (I realized that when I got home). My rear bumper has a decent sized dent, a crack above it and wrinkled paint (if that even makes sense) where it creased on impact. Bumper is slightly jutting out to the right beneath the tail lamp, the locating pins along the top of the bumper (only visible with trunk open) have all mostly popped out and shifted to the right also. This I noticed a day after - the trunk lid seems to be crooked. It opens and closes fine, but the gap on the left side is bigger than the right. Hard to tell, but I can fit my pinky in the left side gap and it does not fit in the right side. It looks like the left side hinge is somewhat bent inwards as well. Got a big scrape with all the paint gone in the lower left corner of the trunk (and same part of the bumper) from the bumper being pushed into it, and a small scrape underneath my Comp G badge too which I think might have been from the broken plastic bumper on the ProMaster that hit me.

Timing couldn’t have been better as the next day my boyfriend had a job interview at a good spot south of us, so I guess I’m glad the airbags didn’t deploy because that would have rendered the car undriveable. The next morning we drove some 10 miles south and on our way back while on the highway, thought we heard something like a rock hit the passenger side door... to which I thought great more road debris that has to get kicked up and hit MY car and nobody else’s. Later that afternoon is when our insurance company’s adjuster was to see the damage at a designated location. I went with my father because he knew where the location was, I didn’t. $1,740 in visible damage according to him. When we left, we temporarily heard some weird rattling from the passenger side and thought must be something loose from the damage (even though never heard it before/immediately after the accident. The day after... I thought I was good to go drop off the car at the shop of my choice (wrong).. I’m just desperate already to get my baby fixed. I took all the junk out of the trunk and drove to a shop I was going to pick and when we got off the highway, this guy just sounded like we had a flat in the front passenger side... didn’t feel exactly like a flat but sounded like it. If tires were really low then the trip computer would tell, so I knew it wasn’t that. At least we were close to the shop and pulled into the parking lot to look.
....... 2/5 lug nuts are MIA on the front right wheel. Just gone. Bye. We came to realize that’s what we heard the day before on the highway. But how?? Nobody has touched the wheels in a while. My dad immediately assumed someone sabotaged the car and that I needed to check our surveillance cameras at home... doubted it but checked anyway. Nothing. My sister insists that the only way was if my mechanic left them loose last time he touched them. No... the last time he did was in May and I’ve driven enough since then for them to have become noticeably loose if that were the case. It happened after the accident.
All I can think of is, when I was hit and shoved I had the brakes fully applied and I never let go, hence the ABS pump reacted as well. It is audible in my dash cam video too (which I wish I could upload here - maybe I should send it to MegaDrivingSchool on YT to add to one of their compilations). My guess is with brakes/wheel hubs locked and tires forcibly turning from the impact, it was enough to get them to barely break loose. By the way, had to limp over to my nearest O’Reillys to grab a small set of lugs and a wrench (because I did empty the trunk and didn’t have my lug wrench in there) and my boyfriend fastened me two shiny new chrome lug nuts to match the remaining three black ones we had on there. Because they didn’t have black. I didn’t think to check the others... but that helped anyways. When we got home, later that day I said well it might be a good idea to check all of them... and yup, ALL of them were loose on both front wheels. I’m glad I did not get back on the highway that day. But now I’m still mad I’m going to have to buy a new set of black ones so they match again. Definitely still keeping the chrome ones in the vehicle as spares because this is the second time I almost lose a damb wheel.
It has been a week and we still have not heard back from our insurance or Amazon’s insurance to know if they are going to send someone of their own to look at the damage and agree to pay for the repairs because by gosh they will pay my baby’s medical bills one way or another. I just wish they’d hurry the eff up.

I wonder if I get an award for record long rant...


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[Xerosiv]

That sucks, but at least it sounds like it is fixable?

I had a kid (only 18) rearend me in December, took out our 05 Compg with his explorer. I was stopped at a light, saw him way, way down the hill behind me in the mirror, looked front waiting for the light to change and he hit me between 55 and 60. My airbags also did not deploy. It still drove after all this damage, but it was too much to repair. Sadly, we had to let old grumpy go.

It seems to sting a lot worse when it was something 100% not your fault. It's been almost 9 months and it still bothers me that it's gone.

Hopefully, the insurance and all gets figured out quickly for ya. Took about a month for us to get paid.

More pics of the damage here if you're interested: 05 GP COMPG - Google Photos

[idrivejunk]

Don't be angry with the airbags. They did right. I had an 02 upside down and that doesn't trigger them either. If you are braking hard and under 5 mph or stopped, and a Ranger clips the right front corner not hard enough to do anything except break headlight and tear bumper cover off... but going fast enough to rip the Ranger axle off the spring: Full deployment. You don't want to ever experience a deployment. Sounds like your boy got the spanking at an unfortunate angle rather than straight on. Takes either measuring or trying to replace parts to find out how bad. When its a double hit, thats always extra unfortunate. I, of all people understand the rant. In '13 I got hit in every month starting with J and dang if I didn't get a bit of a stress disorder off it and other events. 1,700 don't sound like a bad hit but could be a halfhearted estimate. Many are, and thats the nature of the business. Just in case, in the meantime mentally distance yourself from the car and keep an open mind. The second wreck is on you going by my understanding of how that works here. Most of the time, insurance claims are generous in my opinion. It'll work out. Prepare yourself to deal with insurers meaning think out your answers... then put it out of your mind and let due process run it's course.

[wickedfrisone]

Yeah... I’m sus of insurance companies seemingly trying to make my car seem less valuable than he is. Sure, I know it’s a 17yr old car and that it’s no longer worth the near 30k it used to be brand new. But they act like it’s too old and parts are only available through a junkyard (only on a few very specific things) but at the same time not old enough to be special (“classic”) even though the brand doesn’t exist anymore and with dwindling numbers on the road, they are just that much rarer. I got the estimate online from the at-fault party’s insurance (They’re not a company physically here in my state and do it online thru Snapsheet) and I’m not sure if insurance estimates typically are supposed to show all of your vehicles options from the factory (basically what you’d see if you’d look up your VIN in the GM catalog) but if they are supposed to, not only did they leave out a handful of things seemingly to make it look like there’s less value to the build, but they put that ya vehicle has cloth seats (wrong) and that the exterior is... light Bronzemist metallic. As in the color of the Bonnie we used to have. Not Sunburst Orange Metallic, but a color that doesn’t even show up as one ever used for the 04 GP. How do you fudge something up like that? When I was on the phone with the guy from their estimating dept, he even had to stop and let me know he loved my car’s color... but then they go and change the color on the estimate to a blander color. Not that it’s an ugly color, it looks good on the Bonnie, but it’s nothing like my orange.

Dropped my baby off today at the body shop. My reg mechanic did notice this morning (had to stop by to see if he could reprogram my key fob for me) that the right side of the exhaust did get pushed in a bit and does not come out as far as the left side. Yet another thing not noticed before. They got me a rental through the shop’s own fleet, this stupid 2013ish Camry (I’m sorry, but I HATE how it drives. I hate it. Brakes nowhere near as responsive as my Pumpkin and acceleration is also a thumbs down from me). I literally do not want to drive this thing, I do not feel comfortable with it (not referring to seat comfort). The brake pedal is so obnoxious every time I let go of it - it sounds like it’s going to fall off and is nerve wracking and not something I want to hear constantly (especially driving in the city).

I was told that in a bit one of their shop guys would go outside with me to do a walk around of my car and answer any questions I had about repairs/estimating. The guy walked by and asked for my keys and if I needed to get anything out of my car (I didn’t because I already emptied it before leaving home) and he just went on his way to fetch my car and move him wherever they were going to. Didn’t get to actually speak to anyone about my car/by the car. When we asked the woman who got the rental for me, she called some guy to help us out with that matter and he just spoke to us in his office and all he did was go online to find a general estimate of my car’s value just based on year/make/model and mileage, to tell me that of course if repairs exceed that low number the insurance company will likely want to declare my car a total loss AND that “his advice” was that if they did that, I “shouldn’t opt to keep my car and the money” (just let them have it and auction off my car and likely get their money back immediately if not profit off him) because of course the new salvage title will be more difficult to fix....
Sorry not happening. Nobody seems to understand that this car is the world to me and it’s more special than what any website tells you off of general details. I just can’t in my right mind let some jerk who knows nothing about my car decide that it’s a worthless heap of scrap metal when you know they’ll just turn around and auction him off (or actually be insane enough to sell him to a scrapyard).

I’m so close to imploding from all of this, I really am.
Hope photos upload/attach properly. Just noticed I can add them here







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[wickedfrisone]

That sucks, but at least it sounds like it is fixable?

I had a kid (only 18) rearend me in December, took out our 05 Compg with his explorer. I was stopped at a light, saw him way, way down the hill behind me in the mirror, looked front waiting for the light to change and he hit me between 55 and 60. My airbags also did not deploy. It still drove after all this damage, but it was too much to repair. Sadly, we had to let old grumpy go.

It seems to sting a lot worse when it was something 100% not your fault. It's been almost 9 months and it still bothers me that it's gone.

Hopefully, the insurance and all gets figured out quickly for ya. Took about a month for us to get paid.

More pics of the damage here if you're interested: 05 GP COMPG - Google Photos

Ugh, I swear to you when I got hit I had the worst thought in my mind that that was what my car was going to look like. Obviously I was exaggerating. I’m 5’2 and 110lbs so any hit feels bigger to me lol.

I wonder if video can be viewed here from my drive.

2020_0819_11am_Exit3C-rte10N-Trim.mp4 - Google Drive


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[Fivefingerdeathpunch]

If it's a total, buy it back and fix it through the body shop.

Thats all you can do if they total it. The car is worth what their system says and the avg cost of vehicles like yours in your area. Typically $2,000-4,000 is going to the range.

Remember that insurance doesn't give a damn what you think about your car, this is a business and not about feelings. This is why they give you the option to buy it back and take a lesser amount of money.

[Xerosiv]

Damn, that video made it look like it was going to be worse than your pics look. My crash must have looked really violent. The officer was very shocked that I did not hit anyone else..

I really hope they don't total it for that, it doesn't look like it can't be fixed.

Make sure the insurance gets all the details right, our 05 got us just a hair shy of max value because everything was in excellent condition, only dinged for clear coat issues.

Off topic a bit, but, what kind of dash cam do you have? We've been talking about getting one, that one looks to take quality videos.

[wickedfrisone]

Damn, that video made it look like it was going to be worse than your pics look. My crash must have looked really violent. The officer was very shocked that I did not hit anyone else..

I really hope they don't total it for that, it doesn't look like it can't be fixed.

Make sure the insurance gets all the details right, our 05 got us just a hair shy of max value because everything was in excellent condition, only dinged for clear coat issues.

Off topic a bit, but, what kind of dash cam do you have? We've been talking about getting one, that one looks to take quality videos.

I have a Vantrue T2.
I feel like they are desperately trying to devalue my car to make it easier to total. Like I said (I think) they changed my interior type and exterior color, omitted certain build details that would add value. My clear coat is perfect and only a couple of minor scratches on both bumpers from previous owner, as well as one hole in driver seat from previous owner also. But they will of course deduct a ton from the value for those things especially since it’s over 10 years old because according to standards an 11 or more year old car is almost surely disposable scrap metal that is irreparable or useless. Then people want to claim we need to reduce, reuse, recycle while they act like cars are disposable for the most minute problems. I hate insurance companies.
I’m telling you the guy from their estimating dept called me to ask questions for their estimate and he had to stop and tell me that he loved my car’s color and said it was his dream car. I know if I lost my mind and decided to list it for sale, I would have no trouble finding someone who wants it. But they don’t have the capacity to consider things like that/brand no longer existing/rarity/etc.


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[BillBoost37]

Call your insurance person on the mistakes. Unless you have the super cheap lizard insurance your company should be happy to correct mistakes and update the value of the car. Also tell them if you've gotten major work done in the last year that would increase it's value.

When my company called me to talk first numbers and check that features were correct, they added in the 12 disc factory changer that was under the seat, sunroof, fresh transmission but said a new driveshaft was considered normal maintenance. Then they looked up replacements in my area and offered me a lot more than I felt the truck was worth.

Meanwhile my buddy was paying the lizard for modded car insurance so that if there was an issue he could recover more based on the mods. They started off treating him like he had a normal policy and that his pristine car was a rusted pile of dog crap. He had to fight a bit and after the claim dumped them for a better company.

[wickedfrisone]

Call your insurance person on the mistakes. Unless you have the super cheap lizard insurance your company should be happy to correct mistakes and update the value of the car. Also tell them if you've gotten major work done in the last year that would increase it's value.

When my company called me to talk first numbers and check that features were correct, they added in the 12 disc factory changer that was under the seat, sunroof, fresh transmission but said a new driveshaft was considered normal maintenance. Then they looked up replacements in my area and offered me a lot more than I felt the truck was worth.

Meanwhile my buddy was paying the lizard for modded car insurance so that if there was an issue he could recover more based on the mods. They started off treating him like he had a normal policy and that his pristine car was a rusted pile of dog crap. He had to fight a bit and after the claim dumped them for a better company.

Sadly we have Allstate which is one of the not-so good guys. But it is not my insurance that should be paying for the damage/got things wrong on the estimate. Well, actually we got an initial estimate from our own insurance and they also put that my car had cloth interior. Anyhow, insurance company is I believe Old Republic Insurance? And claim handled by Sedgwick. Just attached a photo of the “options” they added for my vehicle. No mention of the sunroof, wrong interior, no mention that the CD player has 6-disc changer, no mention of “sport handling package” or however GM worded the Comp G package in their catalog.



As you can see apparently my paint has faded SO much in 17yrs that it is no longer orange but a very light bronze shade... lol.


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[wickedfrisone]

Update (kind of)... I emailed one of the women who work in the office/deal with insurance companies at the shop. I let her know about the mistakes the paying company had on their initial estimate, and sent a copy of the build sheet I got from GM and said I wasn’t sure if they have come out to see the car or not but wanted to make sure they corrected that info. (Of course I forgot to mention any work done on my car that would help with value..) but the only response I got from her was stating that they will be coming out to see my car on Thursday (tomorrow) “to review anything they have missed” but I’m pretty sure that means to review any missed damage, not any of their own mistakes, intentional or not, on the vehicle’s build. *sigh*.. just have to cross fingers at this point... this darn Camry is so weird. The one thing I like about it is that I can charge my phone and play music from it at the same time lol... BUT for whatever reason it shows the time of the song playing in... feet and inches. Not minutes and seconds...


(Don’t like this man one bit but it’s a fair meme)


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[ThatOldCarSmell]

I wonder how "long" it says Stairway to Heaven is?

[ThatOldCarSmell]

Seriously though, I wonder why the body shop doesn't sound like they're really on your side either. My experience is that in a not at fault accident, the body shop doing the work will do everything they can to make sure they get all the money they can from the insurance company that's paying.

[wickedfrisone]

Seriously though, I wonder why the body shop doesn't sound like they're really on your side either. My experience is that in a not at fault accident, the body shop doing the work will do everything they can to make sure they get all the money they can from the insurance company that's paying.

Yeah, based off of my sister’s referral and other reviews online of the shop, they seem to be a good place hence I picked them. My sister said when she got rear-ended in her 2012 Accord, she had the insurance pay the shop directly and after it was all done they ended up having about $400 leftover that they gave back to my sister in a check which is nice. But my sister’s car was not (and still isn’t) over 10 years old and ‘devalued me so they likely were more than willingly to just pay for repairs and were not attempting to total it or anything.

I think after some research it seems that the guy that was in front of me (that I ended up pushing when I got hit) should be going after the same ins company of the van that hit me because my car was fully stopped when I got hit so technically the fault of the damage to both of our vehicles falls on the guy behind me. I don’t know if the guy has gone after them and if they are also trying to save money because they have to pay for two cars worth of damage. (Although the guy in front of me only got a small hole in bumper from my plate bracket, so I’m pretty sure all he needs is bumper cover).

I honestly don’t know what to think of the response from the lady who deals with the insurance side of the shop’s business. You’d think if she specifically does that work, then she knows the importance of what you said about getting their clients the most money, and making sure there aren’t mistakes on an estimate regarding the vehicles build/features that contribute to its value. I don’t know if I said this, but the man we spoke to who said they would likely try to total my car because of age/mileage/value - he said that since the insurance company isn’t Allstate or Geico that the people who they will likely send (an independent adjuster) are all friends with the shop and they might be able to work things out (I.e. omitting some minor pre-existing damage the car has from the estimate to help with the value issue) SO my hopes are that it’s true we get lucky with someone like that. And if they help in that sense, then surely they’ll be open to making sure all the features listed are the correct ones. Still haven’t heard from them, though they don’t operate on weekends. I hope to hear from them this week because I’m so anxious to get my baby fixed and back home and begone with that Camry that measures time in feet & inches.

Meanwhile, my dad has been having issues with his 06 GP and is getting frustrated/thinking he wants to get rid of Pumpkin’s sibling [emoji24]
Current project: replacing the secondary air injection pump that apparently cracked at the outlet and caused the car to stall repeatedly. Hopefully we can do it at home and not have to pay anyone for it.


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[wickedfrisone]

Update: my dad was able to contact his friend who works at the shop to find out if the car was seen/what the verdict was. They’re not going to declare it a total loss [emoji2][emoji2]




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