Or should I say some other careless and reckless driver wrecked it for me. He pulled out from the oncoming turn lane right in front of me and I had no time to react except to slam on my brakes and I hit his right front corner with the middle of my bumper and left front corner. Here's a few pics of the carnage:

http://img94.imageshack.us/i/0329001721b1.jpg/

http://img706.imageshack.us/i/0329001721a1.jpg/

http://img16.imageshack.us/i/03290017211.jpg/

http://img34.imageshack.us/i/03290017181.jpg/

This whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. If the guy who pulled out in front of me had been patient and waited another 3 seconds this would not have happened. At least no one was hurt. I was only going about 25 mph, downhill with the truck in neutral and my foot on the brake. I'm glad I take good care of my truck and I have good brakes and it braked in a straight line like it's supposed to, otherwise I would have hit someone else too.

What bugs me is I bought my truck used from Carmax 4 years ago and I still owe $3,700.00 on it. I bet the other guy's insurance won't fix my truck because they will say the truck isn't worth what they have to pay to fix it and they will write me a check for its actual value from NADA or KBB and I will not have my Dakota and still be in debt for the difference. Anyone else have something like this happen? I don't think it will be too awful easy dealing with the at-fault driver's insurance company about this. And even if they do fix my truck, it won't be the same as before. There are always problems with driving a wrecked-and-then repaired vehicle.

Rant is over now but I still don't feel any better.

Jimmy

 

That sucks but least everyone is ok. I know people that have been in some serious accidents and the cars were fine once repaired, just look it over before you sign. I hope all works out for you!

 

That's the problem with insurance, you pay and hope you never have to use it. I really don't see 4k worth of damage to it.

Can you show us the intersection on Google Maps?

 

http://maps.google.com/mapsf=q&sourc....931641&ie=UTF &hq=&hnear=Hancock+Rd,+Clermont,+Lake,+Florida+347 11&ll=28.548579,-81.706905&spn=0.001202,0.001676&t=h&z=19

I was headed south, the guy who hit me was going north on Hancock Road and had made a left turn at the intersection there. You know how people will let you out into traffic, he went out into the inside lane making his turn and tried to gun it through and didn't see me coming in the outside south bound lane.

Thanks for the well-wishes. I am very glad no one was hurt, my girlfriend was with me when it happened and she was pretty shaken up emotionally but we are grateful nobody was hurt.

The damage may end up being only cosmetic, I think it will need a new hood, new fender, new headlamp/parking lamp assembly and a new bumper and/or bumper cover at least. I wasn't able to open the hood so I have no idea what kind of damage was done there, but I do know I will need a new radiator since there was coolant leaking out on the ground.

I hope I can talk the at-fault driver's insurance into fixing the truck and I hope the body shop knows what it is doing and the tech who fixes it actually cares about his work. That is part of the problem for me - I don't know the reputations of the body shops around here. I need to ask around at the dealers and garages here and see who they recommend. There is a very honest and reputable garage near my house, I would trust them if they referred me to a local body shop. Hopefully there will be a labor guarantee if I use a body shop approved by the at-fault driver's insurance. I thought about the prospect of a new (used) truck and even looked on autotrader.com tonight but I have put a lot of work into my Dakota. I put my heart and soul into that truck. Not to mention a considerable amount of money. If I had to buy a used truck, it could be just someone else's money pit, and I really don't want to trade one set of probelms for another.

I'm still prety pissed about it and am aggravated with his insurance not giving me a rental car until they review the claim. The at-fault driver has insurance with a major company but I still could not get a rental car today because it was after 5:30 pm and the adjuster has to review the claim first to determine whether they will "assume full liability". What a bunch of BS.

Thanks for the support here. I'll get over it as soon as I know whether they will pay to fix my Dakota.

 

that sucks....if it makes you feel any better about 2 months ago i was sandwiched by a fire dept. ladder truck.not going to a call and the driver didn t have his license on him.

 

Man that sucks really all you can do is take it to a shop and have them give you a quote. Like others said I dont think thats 3,000 worth of damage. Depending on who your insurance co is and the other drivers insurance is you might be able to talk about your problem and just give you a break. I know when my mom wrecked our old f150 there was some damage and even frame damage and the total was under 5,000 and thats what was still owed on the truck(with 150,000miles) and that was all oem parts too. Hood,fender,headlight/turnsignal,fog light,bumper,grille,bug deflector, frame straighting pin stripe and paint this is from a good shop that does excellent work

IMG_6493.jpg

 

damn that sucks bro, well great to hear yer ok. Today i almost got backed into as i was driving down the road on a major street where there were homes and boy lemme tell ya i was friggn crappn my pants. guy threw his truck in reverse and looked behind me but not at me he just floored it in reverse and missed me by a hair.

 

A couple of questions...

First, I am in Michigan, so I may be operating on some assumptions that don't apply here, but...

Since you have a loan out on the truck, don't you have collision coverage??? If so, why aren't they paying to have it fixed? Deal with YOUR insurance instead of the a-hole's insurance. Let your insurance deal with his dumbass.

That being said, in my experience, since you are preferably going to have someone else (insurance company) pay for the work (ergo cost is not really an issue), I have found dealers to be somewhat more inclined to do good bodywork. There is, in my experience, a reason that they charge so damn much more.

 

I have full coverage insurance but the wreck was not my fault. So in Florida, the at-fault driver's insurance has to pay. Unless the at-fault driver is like a lot of dirtbags here who have no insurance, or it was a hit and run-which also happens a lot here, then my uninsured motorist coverage would pay. That is why car insurance costs so much in Fla in the first place, too many dead beats who run away from a wreck they caused and/or carry no insurance. Most dealerships around here don't have body shops and they sub out body work to independents. Those that do have body shops, well I have no info on them.

Jimmy

 

have any friends that do body work? and it might be close i had a guy in a ford back into my rear bumper and it dented it but it wasn't that bad at all...insurance guy came out and wrote my dad who had the truck in the mountains at the time a check for $1000 got a bumper from a guy off a forum for $100 and traded my friend who paints my sub box and he painted it...hopefully it all works out let us know what happens