and not 5 minutes out... he calls me and says he crashed it.

my heart hopes that he is kidding but then he tells me that he would not be calling me if he didnt.

i dont think i can go into the details but the end result is that he got stuck in a ditch. i have some pictures that i can post up later but right now im in a pretty bad mood.

the police ended up coming but i did not get a police report. no one else was involved but my car.

there isnt any noticeable body damage except the front lip is loose. the right rear tire/suspension is messed up.

i dont want to tell my insurance company but i feel that i might have to. the damages might be more than my friend can handle. my plan is to have him pay me for the deductible (500), tow costs (220), plus my estimated insurance increase for the next x amount of years. is that fair? im not trying to make him pay me anymore than he should but at the same time, i want the car in the same condition, plus any other expenses (like raised insurance) paid for.

is there a way that i can get his insurance company to pay for it or am i going to have to accept responsibility for it? i dont know all the rules and i should have not let him borrow my car but i guess i learn the hard way. im too nice sometimes. the damages will be assesed on monday when the service department opens up again and i fear it will be a lot. the extent of the damages might not be visible but i dont know how everything is linked together to make that assumption 100%.

click here for images

after reviewing my pics... i have come to the conclusion that i am not a great photographer

 

Typically whoever is driving any car is responsible for that particular car (whether it be a rental, your friends car, your moms car, etc.). Your insurance should not be involved, but rather your friends. Sorry to hear about your night.

 

If I were you, I will make him to talk to his insurance company and say it was his fault.

 

i will talk it over with him tomorrow. he is pretty shacken up. hes going through some tough financial times, so i feel kind of bad. were going to sit down and discuss what we will do but i will bring up the insurance thing and see if he can talk to his insurance company.

 

it's hard to tell from the pics exactly how bad the damages are, just be thankful your body didn't get damaged as paint matching is not very easy and takes time and patience...qualities hard to find from a body shop.

Try to get the car on a lift, you'll be able to tell if the subframes are tweaked, look for fluid losses, shifting moutning points, and of course bent components. Did he hop that curb? I'm a bit intoxicated so it's difficult for me to clearly make things out. But I would say that the damages don't seem too bad.

-ardy

 

well, the curb was hopped, yes. how fast, i dont know. the curb needed to be hopped again (very slowly grinding the bottom) to get it out of the ditch.

the hook that goes into the bumper was ver helpful and also stayed intac through the whole towing process. i feared it would snap or bend but it didnt.

the body was not damaged, as far as i could see. i didnt not take clear pictures that depicted the scene and the car but just took some random shots when i could.

the only problem area the i know of is that rear right area. there were no fluids on the ground and the car sounded normal. i didnt drive it because the rim looks like that and im afraid im going to mess it up even more than it already is by driving it.

i have it sitting on the lot at my local honda dealership and hopefully they will do a good job of looking for stuff when they open back up on monday.

i was just debating on whether i should spend some money on the car for christmas but maybe its a sign that i shouldnt. it will probably be a couple of weeks until im driving it again. anybody selling a beater? 500 ~ 1000 bucks?

 

the only way your insurance should be involved is if your friend has no insurance, then you would need to use your uninsured motorist portion of your policy, but if you can prove he has no insurance they waive the deductable.

 

ok that makes me feel a lot better that his insurance should cover it. the CHP guy said that I was responsible no matter what. he was nice but i dont like getting the wrong information, especially from someone like the CHP.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by s2ksleepy
ok that makes me feel a lot better that his insurance should cover it.

 

I was in the same situation a few years back with my civic. I let one of my friend borrowed my car and he crashed into the city light. He received a $2000 bill from the city. I was about to claim it to my insurance, but dis dad was nice enough to fix my car without going thru my insurance. My point is, your friend (like mine) do not have to fix your car. Depending how close he is to you, he is not obligated to fix your car. Since your car have insurance, it should cover whoever's driving it unless you exclude him. You are fully aware of what might can happen when you handed him the keys. You should take it out of your insurance if you can. Your insurance won't increase as much since you weren't the one driving. Good luck