[Giri]

Tragedy strikes!

I was driving back from work tonight at around 8:30pm up the I75 and out from nowhere a ginormous piece of plywood came flying at me. Hit my bumper.

I thought "hey, must be cardboard, it'll be fine"... Keep on cruising.

2 minutes later Car says "engine overheating" and bar is on red. I start pulling over. Right after the car says "engine oil low". I GTFO road and pull over immediately.

Damage is bad. Whole side of car is covered with coolant. I shut down the engine in time and hope there is no damage. I have the whole thing on dash cam.

Front bumper is ****ed. both wheel wells are too. So is a significant amount of stuff underneath.

I got the car towed to the dealer where it awaits the morning and I'm really freaking out. How bad can this be?

I'm really worried about a few things.

1. Will my insurance go up from this comprehensive claim? THere's nothing I could have done to avoid it but it seems like I'm totally SOL.

2. What if my engine was damaged?

3. Underhood stuff ripped. Both my DRLs are gone. Even after fix what if there is more unseen damage?

4. I called FHP who came and wrote me a police report as a courtesy (my thinking was to prove that it happened). They filed a "crash report". Will this be on my record and f*** with my insurance?

5. Deductible. I heard that I can ask the body shop if they'll cover my deductible?

6. Will my car value now go down? What can I do about this?

Any help, advice, or experiences are welcome. I'm hella freaking out right now and need support.

[c4racer]

That's a collision claim. Not comp. comp only applies to damage to a car when parked. And yes most likely insurance will go up. That's how they do it. Sorry man - I would be pretty pissed off.

[kasperdsmk]

Im just curious. from the extent of the damage in the pictures how did u ever think it was cardboard lol? Plywood hitting your car at that speed had to make a serious thump or bang.

[Giri]

Originally Posted by kasperdsmk

Im just curious. from the extent of the damage in the pictures how did u ever think it was cardboard lol? Plywood hitting your car at that speed had to make a serious thump or bang.

at the time I didn't feel it at all, Until the car started talking to me I legitimately thought it was light cardboard. I guess that speaks to how sound proof our cars are?

[Richard0nee]

So sorry man.. totally sucks.

When my previous vehicle hit a rolling blown up tire, I had no choice but to run it over. Messed up my front bumper and rear bumper and damage was $2k. With my insurance, the law states that if that tire was stationary then I'm at fault and my insurance will go up. But since the tire was moving, I wasn't at fault and my insurance didn't go up.

I paid the $500 deductible and got a check for $1500. When I traded my car in, it was on the history of the vehicle and because of that, I lost about $2k sadly.

In your case, the plywood was moving towards you so you shouldn't be at fault and your insurance shouldn't go up. As far as the engine damage, hopefully your insurance covers it too since the dealer probably won't.

Good luck man, let us know how it turns out.

[kasperdsmk]

Wow... that's a bummer. sorry about the luck. The car should be fine. Motor wise. sounds like you stopped it soon enough before real damage could be caused.. That's why the warnings are there in the first place., but yes insurance will go up and the value of your car will go down.. That's just the nature of cars. There really not good investments you almost always lose on them lol

[edgehead2000]

Yikes! Sorry to hear about this misfortune. Like the guy above said, it's these annoying little things that scare me away from buying really expensive rides After I got in an accident in Sept, 2015, I came to realization that I'd rather spend less on vehicles.

[Thor142]

That sucks. I've seen some crazy stuff come flying off trucks in my time. Sheets of drywall, tires, mattresses, a giant sheet of glass. Luckily I never hit any of it. Closest I ever came was a tractor trailer tire losing a re-tread right in front of me while I was on my bike. Missed that one by inches. I guess it really demonstrates the rigidity of the Alpha chassis that you thought it was cardboard.

[nbryant]

Damn, another car injured, makes me sad! Hope your road to it's repair isn't too bad.

[Eric SS]

Originally Posted by c4racer

That's a collision claim. Not comp. comp only applies to damage to a car when parked. And yes most likely insurance will go up. That's how they do it. Sorry man - I would be pretty pissed off.

Not true. This is a comp claim under most auto policies. It is technically a "missle" and a missle is covered under the comp portion of the policy. Unless the object was at a stand still on the road it is a comp claim. It's similar to an animal strike. This will be a not at fault loss. Sorry to hear about it.

[Zodiac]

Damn sorry to see this. If your dash cam shows this as a flying object (missile) it will be a comp claim and not collision. If this was in the road and you hit it, it would be a collision.

Unfortunately it probably will raise your rates. My wife had a truck blow its tire in front of her and flew and damaged the front bumper of her Jeep. Was filed as comprehensive, yet when it came time to renew it showed up.

Best of luck.

[gw6211]

i had a hail damage claim on my 2014, although USAA did NOT raise rates but when i went looking, the other pos insurance companies gave me allot bigger price after they found out about the comp claim.

And dont ask a body shop to "save" your deductible. The way they save your deductible is using used or aftermarket parts when insurance estimate called for new. And it takes allot of parts to make that up. NO body shop will just "give" you 500 dollars. 2nd, no aftermarket parts yet, had someone run a red light on me and clipped the front bumper. 3rd, dont want aftermarket parts on mine, sure you dont either.

[Giri]

Thank you guys for your input!

I went by the dealer body shop today morning and the guy took a look at the car and said "call your insurance company... this is going to be waaaay more than your deductible"

I called insurance and my agent said it's unlikely to raise my rates (fingers crossed/praying). She said it's a claim as if I hit a moving animal, with me not being at fault. It would go on my claims history of course.

Body shop estimated 1 1/2 weeks for repair to be completed. Is this normal?

I walked over to the service dept about a bunch of service I had scheduled for tomorrow and the service manager agreed to look at the car whilst it was parked there anyway small bonus.

Now to come up with the deductible and hope it all goes well.

What should I look for during the whole process? anything I need to push / make sure get's done? I want to make sure I get my car back just like new.


Also, how much could this realistically lower the value of my car?

[Eric SS]

1.5 weeks is completely normal for that type of damage. That should be a pretty routine repair so just look it over well when you go to pick it up. Good luck.