After having work done on my car, my mechanic took it for a test drive, a woman ran a stop sign at speed and he crashed into her, hopefully this is repairable and the insurance company won’t write it off, I love this car and of course have more money into it than it is probably worth, thoughts?
Interestig insurance tangle!
- The company tht insured the woaman that ran the red light.
- Yiour insurance\
- The mechanics Garage Liability policy.
I used to deal with those tangles, decades ago.
CHJ
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For sure will be
Insurance will likely condemn the car. They just don’t want to deal with this, and the fact that your shop will be forced to use secondhand and used parts…ugh.
Pinstripe and paint can be redone, that’s the least of your concerns.
Fender, door, hinges, glass fit…what does the front end look like?
Veekey,
Could be correct…
Who is Pelosi?
Front end looks good, there is no broken glass not even the fog and headlights it has pushed the fender back into the door. I am waiting for the police report, apparently takes about 10-11 days, she had her kid in the back seat they had to force the door open to get him out, luckily no one was injured, if the police report finds her at fault (which they will) she should be charged with child endangerment in my opinion.
Another thing, we found out the ABS did not work and the airbag in the steering wheel did not go off! but the inertia switch worked.
I have yet to notify my insurance company, should I? I thought it would be either the garage’s insurance or the other driver’s insurance that would be dealing with it, I really want to keep this car and get it repaired I have done too much work on it, to go through it all again with another car would be a royal pain!
Talk to your mechanic asap about what you and he are going to do
He must feel awful, but should have his own insurance
Depends on the insurance vale AND the depreciated value of vehicle, unless you have agrred value
It may be a “repairable write-off” = they pay you out, you fix it
What you do not want is a 'non-repairable writeoff" as they cannot be road registered
Almost every Insurance policy has an “excess” which has to be paid before anything can happen
This has been an issue for me as the at fault driver has to pay that first
In the 2 cases my $2000 Jeep Cherokees were written off by 18yr olds slamming into the back, creasing the unirail, I did not have comprehensive insurance, they had to pay up the “excess”…and pay me an agreed extra amount as my vehicles were worth more
I did have to have some stern words with the fathers of the kids who crashed me 
the two Jeeps are both still drivable, they act as spares for my “new one”, which is the same year, I am actually “in profit” in the Jeep Cherokee XJ dept 
very sorry to hear of your damage, one of mine would have been my 420G if the Jeep had not been blocking it in.
Good luck, negotiate firmly, read the fine print in your insurance policy before you even talk to them
Even though it was not the mechanics fault, and he probably is not a body guy, if I was him, I would bend over backwards to help out, they usually have mates in the industry to call favors etc
Tony, you make a lot of sense, I have full comprehensive insurance and my mechanic who does feel absolutely awful about this has very good insurance as well, yes I am sure he has mates in the business that can help me, he and his father who used to run his business have been here in Napa for ages and I have spent many thousands with him working on my Triumph Spitfire this XJS and my XJS V12 Coupe so there are favours to be had, I really don’t care about the paint not matching 5-10 years down the road, I don’t think I even have 10 years left myself! Equally I don’t care about a salvage title my Spitfire has a salvage title and has not affected anything.
How is the gap between the front fender and the door?
It the fender touches the door then the frame is bent and will need major surgery.
I would hold off on contacting your insurance company and see what the other driver’s company says. If that isn’t satisfactory then go to the mechanic’s insurer. Only if there is no recourse from the 1st 2 would I contact my own (your) insurance company.
For your own insurance, unless it was covered by an agreed or preset value policy (where the amount to be paid off in case of total loss is predefined) it is likely these older but-not-yet high value cars will be totaled.
In that case, if you think the damage can be repaired at a cost that’s acceptable to you, hopefully they will let you buy the totalled wreck back for a certain price. Then you can repair it though it will get a salvage title in that case. But that doesn’t bother you, so no issue there. In the USA salvage cars can be titled and driven.
Dave
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Make sure you read your policy asap. Pretty sure here in NZ a standard clause would require that you notify your insurance for any matters which may result in a claim within a defined time frame of the matter becoming known.
Irrespective of whether or not any claim on your insurance results, if you have not done so they could use this omission to decline a claim if one eventuates down the track.
Read your policy carefully, now’s good 
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I hate it that such a thing happened!
You see stop signs run through more often these days and people speeding in parking lots.
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I saw a woman killed in a mall parking lot by a car traveling an estimated 60 mph. It flipped her into the air like a rag doll. To this day I still envision it in my mind whenever I see some fool driving fast in a parking lot.
The teenage driver was convicted of first degree manslaughter. I do not believe we had a vehicular homicide charge in Texas circa 1982.
When you leave your car with a repair shop, you are authorizing them to test drive the car according to reasonable use for that purpose. Same as if you loaned your car to a friend. Assuming the shop wasn’t using the car for unauthorized use, you or your insurance is responsible. They will go after the person that caused the accident. Garage Liability Insurance is to cover the shop for something where they contributed to the damage. There doesn’t seem to be anything in the info you provided to indicate this.
There are a few states that have some unusual differences to the vehicle code that might affect this.
The big issue will be if your insurance covers the car for its real value. Nice older cars need insurance that does that.
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Greg,
nicely written with clarity
Mitch
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Re the airbag, it probably shouldn’t have gone off. This may help explain…
How did you conclude the abs isn’t working? My understanding is that abs systems don’t operate at low speeds (under 25kph or so).
I think he was doing about 25-30 mph and slammed on the brakes they locked leaving a big skid mark on the roadway.