Make sure your body shop doesnt report that to carfax and even worse AutoCheck--- that will kill your trade in value. Hopefully they didnt report frame damage as well. There is some seriously shady **** that goes in the wholesale world these days.

 

I'm curious to see what my estimate from a reputable shop is gonna be as well. Similar situation here where my trunk/both tail lights/rear bumper is ruined, but I already see sensors mashed in and everything else. Initial quote from the adjuster was $7k, lol. My guesstimate was close to 25k in repairs. My big question is how long is the thing gonna be sitting for them to source all the parts.

Unfortunately the tow shop backed my car up next to a fence and I have been unable to get pics - needs to wait until it gets transferred to the body shop, hopefully today.

 

Turns out she only has $25k liability. So I think the way it works is that my insurance will cover everything, get the $25k from her insurance, and sue her for the remainder...~$100k.

 

Wow. How stupid is she to have that low coverage ! No brain.

 

Wow! What state is this? I'm not even sure that's legal in California.

And didn't she have an Escalade? Should have been able to afford more, seriously, some people.

 

I think California only requires you to carry $5,000 of property damage insurance.

 

This was in Texas and the minimum for liability in property damage is $25k. I checked my insurance after this and I carry $100k liability in property damage - wanted to make sure I was never in her situation...if I was responsible for an accident. I checked with friends and they all had $50k. Even $50k can be risky.

 

The limits of liability on an auto policy may not be all the coverage the insured carries. They may also have a Personal Liability Umbrella Policy, which carries much higher limits (typically rated in the $millions) which covers any liability above the limits of their auto and/or homeowners' insurance.

 

Agreed,

I was probably thinking about Liability vs Property Damage. Will have to ask my wife about the CA minimums. She's a licensed agent in California.

As I recall, I had 300/100 for liability/property long time, but after kids and with car pooling and so on, we added an umbrella as noted above to increase the coverage. Fairly inexpensive considering. In CA we also have uninsured motorists, which I think may also cover underinsured as well. Not sure what it was before the umbrella, but that's $1 M, so I'm covered for the high percentage of uninsured drivers around here. Then on top of that we have a personal umbrella which kicks in after the auto insurance runs out.

Additionally I added a replacement cost rider for the E63s.

Having been sued for $1 M for an accident that I wasn't even involved in by a young trailer trash couple and their lawyer Kuzyk Law, I don't want to be running around under insured. Now I can't say for certain that Kuzyk actually chased the ambulance, but they do have huge billboards along that stretch of highway. Thankfully I won the case with a 12 to 0 jury verdict in my favor, but it was very stressful for a couple of years. Kuzyk dropped the couple after our joint deposition because they realized what a loser case it was, but the couple found another lawyer who was willing to give it a go. Allstate backed me 100% They brought in as an expert witness the man who literally wrote the book (one of them anyway) on accident reconstruction. Very impressive guy, PhD, P.E., etc.

My friends and I were returning from a track day at Willow Springs and witnessed the accident occur just behind us. We stopped to see if we could give aid, but the couple were pinned in their car, nothing we could do. We waited for fire/rescue and the CHP, and gave a statement to the CHP along with a few other people. My statement was the only one the CHP put in the accident report (the guy was cited for unsafe speed or unsafe turning movement or something like that). So, the couple's lawyer (or may I should say liar?) no doubt thought their word against mine. What they didn't know was that I had two passengers in my vehicle and that others had also witnessed the accident and given statements.

 

OMG! I just looked on the CA DMV web site to see what the CA minimums are for private passenger vehicles.
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/de...t_facts/ffvr18

• $15,000 for injury/death to one person.
• $30,000 for injury/death to more than one person.
• $5,000 for damage to property.

I can't believe in this day and age that $5,000 would be considered as an allowable minimum. That wouldn't cover a beat up Yugo . . .

 

You’ve got to be iffing kidding me?!! I guess no good deed goes unpunished. I’m sorry you had to go through the ordeal man. A coworker of mine got sued by a kid running a stop sign and T boning him. They see a nice car and they see dollar signs and think they’ve hit the jackpot.

I’ve stopped on the side of the road before to help out and have pulled people out of wreckages but it scares me to think of being in a similar situation as the one you guys ended up in. In medicine though, we have something called a “Good Samaritan” law, whereby if you voluntarily stop and render aid in a similar situation, you are protected from malpractice lawsuits, but not necessarily an accusation that you caused the wreck such as what happened with you.

I need to to review my policy, but I think it’s something in the line of 500/250k for liability/property plus there’s the umbrella. I’m not sure if there’s a replacement rider though. I should check.

 

Same here. I carry a $2m umbrella policy on top of my normal car insurance. Too many scumbags in this country.

Did they go after the couple for perjury after the case was resolved? I hope they ended up in jail.

 

Umbrella's are essential. And the premiums are usually VERY reasonable.

 

California did not take further action against them. I was advised that I could sue them and had a fairly slam dunk case. But, they were already broke and it would have been a waste of my time, so I just decided to move on with my life.

One nice thing was that following the verdict, every single one of jurors came up to talk with me afterwards and some of the women were actually tearful saying they hoped that this experience wouldn't sour me against stopping to help others if the need ever arose again. It was hard for me to tell during the trial, but several of them told me that they know from shortly after the start that these folks were lying dirtbags and just trying to get money.

 

Sorry to hear about such a ridiculous experience.

I added a $1 million umbrella policy after this ordeal. It was only $192 for the year.

The car was officially totaled today. I'm both sad and happy about it. I won't have to deal with waiting, repairs, or any future issues from the accident.

 

I had something similar happen to me in 1995. Woman got $5,000. My lawyer wouldn't even bother go see my car and check her SUV and try to line them up and see it was impossible my car was an old Celica with nose way below here she had the hit. My car was dent and scratch free too. Still lost the case. These days I have front and rear cameras in all my cars. And there so many cameras around anyway this crap will be so rare in a few years due to all the cameras in peoples hands literally.

 

At least there’s some closure. Did you decide on replacement?

 

Was traveling, but was able to drop into the collision center and get some pics today. Obviously not as bad as honeybadger’s E63, but still lucky it is fixable. Good news is MB has all of the parts readily available including the carbon pieces and they estimate it will only be out of commission about a month once they get clearance from insurance.

Unfortunately I am in a similar situation where the at fault driver had very minimal personal property limits, and will likely need to use my own insurance policy to have the thing repaired.

Adjuster wrote the bill up for $8k, certified MB collision center says it will probably be on the top end of 25-30k out the door which seems more reasonable.

I attached an image of the at fault drivers vehicle as well. They were kids in their teens and driving at unreasonably high speeds on a windy two lane parkway, total recklessness on their part and I truly hoped they learned a lesson after climbing out of their sun roof unharmed.

As long as everyone is OK was the main part as metal can always be replaced. Was on business traveling with my buddy last night and he lost control of his 458 in the rain winded up totaling that thing as well! Might sit the rest of this month out in a padded room….lol


at fault drivers E class.

 

Yes...after waiting 7 months for my E63s I didn't want to make color/option compromises in getting another one and I just couldn't find one like it already available for sale. I found one other car that had the color and specs I wanted...



Stopped at the bodyshop to get everything out of the AMG and say goodbye. For a few more days I technically own both the E63s and M5 Competition.

 

Enjoy in good health buddy and post your impressions sometime.

 

 

I'm looking for a 2017-2019 Mercedes-Benz E63S accident car. Does anyone want to sell it?

 

I knew of one a couple years ago. It was a black wagon that had went off road and rolled down a hill. As you can imagine, it was a mess. I'm sure what was left has been fully parted and is long gone.