My baby returned home - the long soap opera

Congratulations on the upcoming delivery! And thank you for educating me on a situation that I hope I'm not involved in ever!

 

Amazing story. Thanks for sharing. Best of luck with your new car.

 

Actually, you wouldn't have been screwed (I don't think) because YOUR insurance company would have absorbed / paid for the difference in the repairs because it was YOUR vehicle that was damaged. When you buy 'comp' and 'collision' coverage -- both of which are not required by law in PA (but are usually required by banks that originate loans, should a car be encumbered by a loan) -- you are insuring YOUR vehicle against all perils, including improper acts by others, like your getting rear-ended. So, in your case, if you had $46k in damage and she had $100k in "property damage coverage for others" (which sounds incredibly high to me but, as you say, laws and rules of engagement vary state to state), then what would have happened would have been that your company would have attempted to assign 100% fault to her and gotten her policy to pay all $46k of the damage to your car. Conversely, if she only had $5k in coverage (and they still found her to be 100% at fault) THEN they would have collected $5k from her insurance company, themselves paid the remaining $41k under the 'collision' portion of your policy, AND probably still attempted to get a judgement against her personally for the $41k, unless they determined it wasn't worth the effort, but they usually try because they have attorneys on retainer (or in house) for this sort of thing anyway.

 

FWIW, from Arizona's state insurance website:

The required coverages in Arizona are Bodily Injury and Property Damage. The minimum required limits are $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident for Bodily Injury and $10,000 per accident for Property Damage.

Virtually identical to PA, save for $5k in PD here being upped to $10k there.

 

You know, now that your car is fixed this really makes no difference but this post and the post above it (post #5, with the pic that you say you took after the accident -- the one with the lines showing the cracks and damage, etc), make the claimed damage to your underpinings seem kind of suspicious. First, the body shop has the car for a week or two and says there is no structural damage and the repair is $6,500. Then, this guy Lance got involved. Then, they keep the car another two weeks and add another $40k in damage and claim that the damage that they said wasn't there is in fact there and proceed to make a lot of money (presumably) setting the car up on a jig and replacing tons of parts. I know that hidden damage is sometimes discovered after the fact but what is odd about your situation is the pic in post #5 shows no damage to your license plate (or anything near your license plate) at all, and it appears that it is directly under you license plate where this surprise crease/damage appeared in the bumper sub-frame. The damage to the subframe seems very sharp and angled in the center as well, which seem really inconsistent with the damage to the bumper cover (in fact, there's no damage at all). It almost looks like someone may have added this damage to create a larger claim. Again, its all in the past now but I mention it because God forbid if you have another incident in the future, you may want to keep a close eye on your car while its being assessed.

 

I would do a diminished value.My friend sold his 2011 Ferrari California at a big loss do to the carfax report even the dealer wouldn't buy his car and he sold it for 28k less than expected.He only had the lens crack on the head light which the replacement head light was 4200 through the other party's insurance that placed the carfax report what he didn't know was when the car was ready the insurance had a release on the body shop invoice he was livid

 

Same EXACT injury happened to my friends 458 and it was EXACTLY $46k to repair as well.....

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Without knowing how the bumper subframe is supported it is not possible to say for sure, but my guess is that it buckled at its midpoint, even though the impact wasn't at the midpoint. Many crushable components on cars are designed to absorb energy, by bending and collapsing.

 

Just to let everyone a little known fact any current model Ferrari such as the current 458 model that has a salvage title anywhere in the world Ferrari buys that salvage title from the insurance company.You will not see a salvage titled current model car for sale

 

That's good.So it won't affect your trade in value on the new car coming?.I would want some guarantees on the upcoming trade and would not sign any releases

 

How hard did she hit you? I'm still in shock at the $48K bill. That seems extreme when the car is supposed to take a 5 MPH hit.

This has really scared me. To think you could back up into a post and be $50K lighter in the wallet is scary.

 

I'm confused about the sales tax. I'm in CA and if you bought the car the sales tax was paid at purchase. If you leased the car you only pay sales tax on the original cap reduction and subsequent payments. You would have to pay the unpaid sales tax if you paid off the lease and then resold the car. The way to avoid this is to find a buyer and have them buy it from the leasing company directly. You would either make up the difference if you sold the car for less than the lease payoff or pocket the difference if you sold it for more than the lease payoff. Maybe sales tax is treated differently in AZ than CA?

 

In CA, you pay 100% of the sales tax of the MSRP of the car. In many states (Nevada for example), you only pay on the difference in value from your trade.

In effect, CA makes you pay sales tax twice. You pay 100% sales tax for the first car and 100% of the sales tax for the second car even though you didn't pay 100% of the money to buy it.

Sorry, that's CA for you.

 

Fascinating story and thank you for sharing your experience.

I may have missed it but would you provide Lance Coren's address, company name or phone number?

 

Giallo
I took time to read every post.I would suggest you get an attorney.The worst person to deal with the insurance company is the insured.The insurance has 2 objectives get premium and save money.They will tell you what you want to hear and then completely forget what they said and its always at your expense either now or later.Personally I would tell them to buy the car thru an attorney and thank them when they do that of course that's what insurance is for if you have a 46k bill and a diminished value you can get it totaled and forget about the tax because they will pay it

 

$46K for a 5 mph tap, plus $125K diminished value? I'm sure there are experts to attest to that, but I find it insanely difficult to believe. I've done far worse damage to other current model Ferraris in the past and NEVER saw anything like that in terms of diminished value. But the kicker to me is $2000/day loss of use. Five months of that pays for a new 458 entirely. IMHO, that is an abuse. Use that car every day and you'll see real, actual diminished value.

I'm glad you made out well financially, but if this was commonplace these cars would be completely uninsurable. No company is going to risk that exposure for a minor bumper hit. All of us will see rapidly escalating premiums.