rear ended last night, anything I should be weary of?

[stumpjumper]

last night driving home in traffic, driver behind decides she wants to go into the lane to my left except traffic in front of me was stopping... so I was stopping, she floored it and cracked her passenger side front into my driver side rear

bumper cover is ruined, a plug too, the heat sheilding on the rear was pushed in far enough that it touches the exhaust between the muffler and the cat, bumper cover was maybe 3/8 of an inch from the same spot, wheel well liner is pushed forward (pics won't be available till batteries charge) :)

so I've got a great, very reputable body shop to go to, so I'm not worried about their work, but more the woman's insurance messing around with what they will and won't replace, I'm willing to put up a fight to get everything done correctly and with OEM parts I just don't want to miss anything

(oh, and much to my chagrine the pontiac was much worse for wear than the boxster)

[stumpjumper]

now with pics

some the dent on the lower half of the bumper was caused by her bumper, the scarring was caused by her headlight, and the hole was caused by the sheetmetal of her fender, I can't picture how her bumper went below mine, speed was so low that braking wouldn't have dropped her nose that much and I hadn't braked hard enough to drop my nose either

[mikefocke]

She braked and it dropped her nose.

Your major concern is to keep the case open until your body shop has time to get inside the bumper and see all the hidden damage to the bumper support structure. In other words, don't sign anything before it is all done that says "this is all they pay".

Also, you have the right to go through your insurance company or hers, even though it is her fault. Whichever seems to allow you to work better with the body shop.

On my web site, I have a picture of my car after a similar rear-ender. Unlike yours, you absolutely can't see any damage unless you know where to look. First estimate was $3k and that included reusing the bumper cover. Insurance wanted to pay off at $1500. To make a long story shorter, the body shop had to go back to the insurance company twice more after they found more hidden damage...and there still was no body or lights work done, the work was all to the bumper and support structure.

Look hard at the muffler too as it is easy to have bent it and there is no straightening it, I ended up having to get a new muffler.

Also, an opportunity to get Eric to redo your bumperettes with painted ones if you'd like. He charged me less redoing mine than what the dealer's body shop was going to charge me to replace mine. And the body shop just deducted the bumperettes charge.

[Loren]

I would be sure and check the motor and tranmission mounts for damage.

[White987S]

What about a "Diminished Value" claim too?

[stumpjumper]

thanks Mike and Loren, I'll be sure to check those out myself before I bring the car to the shop, and have them check it as well

What about a "Diminished Value" claim too?

I understand the concept but what kind of diminished value could I prove? I mean, it's a 4 year old Boxster S with 20k miles

[mikefocke]

Depends. If your rear ender is like mine and no paint work needs be done other than the bumper and paint matches perfectly and all the underneeth structures are OK or replaced...then there is no real loss of value. But if there is enough that it gets recorded or is detectable by a potential buyer, they aren't going to want to pay as much for your car. So its value is diminished, even if the car is repaired.

HereDV info for background

[stumpjumper]

thanks!

[percymon]

The horizontal crease line of the top left of the damage is fom the aluminium 'bumper' behind the cover - it doesn't look sufficent to jave damaged the bumper bar but maybe worth checking the mounting pieces as they are part of the crash deformation zone.

After that exhaust components, headers and engine alignment

[stumpjumper]

thanks guys

the exhaust is rattling something awful now, so in a way I'm glad I wasn't able to get it into the shop right away, can't wait to how high this bill goes since I don't have to pay for it :)

luckily for me the body shop is part of the dealership that I bought the car at so getting techs out to inspect the cars isn't difficult, I'll be requesting to see underneath it myself before I sign anything as well, maybe the hours I've spent underneath it will pay off