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Sideswiped by a minivan!

3K views 19 replies 9 participants last post by  Blogson 
#1 ·
On Monday afternoon, a 22-year old kid veered over to my side of the street and sideswiped my beloved 2008 Limited with his aunt's 2014 Pacifica. Broke the driver's side mirror, dented the driver's door, passenger door, rear quarter panel, and pushed in the rear wheel at the top. Me and my wife were sick, as we have babied and pampered the RAV since we bought it new 11 years ago and it has less than 66K miles. On Friday, we got good news--it's NOT totaled, and they will repair the $5755 worth of damages minus our $500 deductible. They said I still had $1500 available if they found any hidden damage. We will get the deductible back when Geico goes after his insurance since he was clearly at fault. Watch the dash cam video here:



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#2 ·
Damn, I feel your pain! Surprised you need to pay your deductible if the other driver is known, but must be your insurance rules in your state. No deductible (for me!!!) in my case.

Glad to hear it’s not wrecked, hope the shop treats it as well as you have.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Thank God you were not seriously hurt. Good thing that you had the dash cam to record the accident. That young driver was obviously careless not looking while driving. I am also wondering why you need to pay a deductible if it was not your fault.
 
#4 ·
Wow, I felt my heart sink just watching it!
Using your own insurance likely lets the repairs get started immediately w/o waiting for the insurance companies to settle it between themselves.
 
#6 ·
That's awful, but thankfully neither of you was injured! I put myself into your place when I read your post - have babied our '11 RAV4 V6 as well and would really be put off if someone were to do that to our RAV4! Good to hear that your insurance has not totaled it and hope that the repairs will restore it to un-crunched babied status!
 
#7 ·
Dr. Dyno hit the nail on the head! Progressive were dragging their feet with excuses about not being able to contact the owner, so I went ahead and let Geico take care of it and they will go after Progressive and get my deductible back later.

The kid confessed to me that the white bucket on the floorboard got stuck under the pedals, and he was trying to pull it out while negotiating a turn! Look at his seat belt--it was fastened but he was just sitting on it!

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#9 ·
Dr. Dyno hit the nail on the head! Progressive were dragging their feet with excuses about not being able to contact the owner, so I went ahead and let Geico take care of it and they will go after Progressive and get my deductible back later.

The kid confessed to me that the white bucket on the floorboard got stuck under the pedals, and he was trying to pull it out while negotiating a turn! Look at his seat belt--it was fastened but he was just sitting on it!

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Great idea taking that pic!
 
#12 ·
Photo of the minivan's driver seat area makes one wonder how many other people drive with that sort of rubbish making vehicles unsafe to drive and drive like jackasses to boot! Good that the photo helps to establish fault.
 
#13 ·
Update: After the teardown, the insurance adjuster came out for another inspection and of course, found suspension damage. They are replacing the hub, knuckle, control arm, trailing arm, and both shocks. The supplemental inspection brought the repair total to 6258.88, just shy of being totaled. They said it should be ready next week!
 
#16 ·
I've no idea how I missed this post! The dash cam and picture you took says it all. I'm so grateful that you and yours are uninjured. Both the kid driving and Progressive need a kick in the butt. I hope his aunt sees all the litter in her car and permanently bans him from getting behind the wheel.

Also happy that you squeaked under the "Its totaled" scenario. I ran KBB and other pricing on mine recently with just over 30K miles and was amazed at how low the value was for trade & private sale. Were it on a dealer's lot the price would be WAY up there.

I hope GEICO is aggressive in getting this settled on your behalf.
 
#17 ·
Update: I finally got the RAV back from the body shop after a month. They did an excellent job! They squeezed every nickel out of the insurance company, but it was just over the threshold for being totaled. So I agreed to pay the difference. I ended up paying $477.37 plus my $500 deductible, but that $500 should be coming back to me from the other driver's insurance. The shop broke one of my Weathertech visors, so they installed a brand new set. My wife is glad we don't have to go looking for a replacement RAV--it's good to have ours back!

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#20 ·
Congratulations! Good to know that The Silver Bullet is back on the road and is looking great! Now, watch out for kids and others driving minivans haphazardly . . . .
 
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