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Last Wednesday night i park my car Thursday morning i go to my car to find its been severely damaged from the door handles up, obviously the upper leading edge of a snowplow caused the damage , police report files the accident report as a hit and run, insurance just called to inform me they are writing off the car and will probably give me next to nothing for the car which was a very low mileage mint condition 03 Toyota Echo, the real p iss off is the plow driver gets no accountability for his inept actions.
I called the city hall to complain and they said they would direct the complaint to the appropriate dept yeah sure.Merry Christmas Jim, ya got no car. http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps56d56440.jpg
You could probably buy it back and get a door from a junkyard and put it on. It will have a salvage title but you'll still have a car.
You could also call your local newspaper or TV troubleshooter/consumer interest reporter and they would love to run a story about the city screwing the little guy over.
You could probably buy it back and get a door from a junkyard and put it on. It will have a salvage title but you'll still have a car.
You could also call your local newspaper or TV troubleshooter/consumer interest reporter and they would love to run a story about the city screwing the little guy over.
This.
And I apologize but I had a good laugh at this story just visualizing the scenario...
Sorry to hear... I had a similar hit and run experience on Thanksgiving day this year and my parked car was hit on the rear quarter panel. My damage wasn't too bad but the estimate still came out to $2k. By the looks of the yellow paint transfer, I am willing to bet it was one of those NYC cabs. Insurance covered but still... had to shell out the deductible.
You could probably buy it back and get a door from a junkyard and put it on. It will have a salvage title but you'll still have a car.
Agreed. How is the A pillar, the section between the front door and the windshield? If that is not damaged badly, you can get two doors from a salvage yard for about $200-300 each on www.car-part.com to replace the damaged doors. Painting them would be another several hundred. If they "total" it out, and you want to keep it, you should be able to get it back running for $1,000 - 1,500 or so. I would not worry about having a 12 yr old car fixed perfectly, but just good enough to look OK and function properly. If the value is say $4,500, and buy back price is say $900, you can probably buy it back and have it repaired and running again for $2,500. Then you can end up with $2,000 in your pocket to compensate for the salvage title and hassles. Whoever buys the car from the insurance company auction will probably do the same repairs and sell it for $3,000, making a nice profit.
You could probably buy it back and get a door from a junkyard and put it on. It will have a salvage title but you'll still have a car.
You could also call your local newspaper or TV troubleshooter/consumer interest reporter and they would love to run a story about the city screwing the little guy over.
That's what I was going to suggest too. I got side swiped, took out two doors and a fender. The insurance company totaled it cut me a check for $500. I went to the junk yard bought the doors, and a fender, and spent the weekend putting them on and had the body shop straighten out the "B" pillar for a couple hundred dollars.
Not sure how much they would give you but I'm sure finding a couple of doors at the junk yard shouldn't be to much of a problem. Find a body shop that does work for cash, and you could have it swapped out in a weekend
NADA puts the value (using 60,000 miles as a guess) at $4,600 clean trade in and $6,500 retail. If you fight and get something in between the two, you're in good shape. The question is, do want to keep the 12 year old car that has been damaged or want to use the money to make an upgrade?
As far as the driver, the insurance will take on the municipality to get their money back, not your fight. When the claim comes through, if the fleet and risk departments do their job at all, he will be held accountable. Unfortunately, you may never get the satisfaction of knowing that.
The A pillar is mashed, 2 doors, possibly B pillar damage too. That's why it's totaled.
While you can, in theory, just slap a door (or 2 doors) on it and drive it, it's not that simple. If the car is totaled, it will come to you with a salvage certificate, which can't be registered. Meaning, your car can't be driven legally until you have had it inspected and the salvage certificate cleared. At that point you would have a "rebuilt" or "reconstructed" title and would be able to register the car again.
I wouldn't put my money on passing salvage inspection with a mashed A pillar. I can't say you WILL NOT pass or WILL pass, because frankly, nobody here can guarantee either way. But if the car didn't pass, you would have a salvage certificate attached to the car, and you could not register or drive it until further repairs were made. FWIW.
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and will probably give me next to nothing for the car which was a very low mileage mint condition 03 Toyota Echo, the real p iss off is the plow driver gets no accountability for his inept actions. 
yeah sure.Merry Christmas Jim, ya got no car.
