fender bender question
 

Last week my wife was in a very minor colision when a woman rear-ended her. The damage was only some small imprints from her license plate screws and our rear bumper is shifted slightly, barely noticeable, maybe 1/8 of an inch off. They exchanged information and went on their own ways.

The bumper already had some scratches on it, so when we told the woman that the estimate for repair was $560, she offered to pay 75% because she didn't think it was fair that we got our previous damage fixed on her dime. Now if we went through her insurance, I'm pretty sure they would pay the whole thing (correct me if I'm wrong), but I can see her point, but I also feel like... she shouldn't have hit us.

What do you guys think we should do?

what car was your wife driving? was she driving your s2000? did the other driver already report the accident to their insurance company? what was the damage to the other driver's car? Sometimes people (the other drivers) say things at the time of the accident, then later you are getting a call from your insurance company and it snowballs from there. Hope it all works out for you.

it was our '02 civic si. it was clearly the other woman's fault, she just kept rolling when my wife was stopped in front of her. She's admitting fault and wanted us to give her the option of giving us cash instead of going through insurance, which is what we did, but we didn't really expect her to make a counter-offer. Though taking the check for 75% of the cost would be way easier than bothering with insurance.

To my knowledge there was no damage to her car.

Nonsense. Tell the at-fault driver that she is either paying the full repair cost or you will file a claim with her insurer for the full repair cost.

Andrew

:stupid:

:stupid: :stupid:

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file a claim on her insurances. let them deal with it

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll go with it. I'm going to tell her that we want the whole amount or we'll file a claim. Whether we had scratches on the bumper before or not isn't any of her business.

Don't speak to her anymore, just have your insurance contact hers. Your insurance company will take care of everything, it really shouldn't be a hassle at all. All you have to do is set up and appointment at the body shop. Everything will be covered by the other lady's insurance in terms of damage.