Accident in 2019 Clarity.. only 3 months old

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So someone backed into my clarity going about 5mph... They were driving a large SUV and apparently were trying to park and didn't see me and backed into my clarity while I sat stopped behind them at a stop sign. His back left metal bumper crunched my front right side good though. I was actually a little shocked at the damage... but he was kinda slow to stop and the size of his vehicle somehow caused $10K in damage .... New Hood, new front fenders... new headlights... (they didn't replace the honda logo apparently.. but it didn't take the hit.. since the impact point was about 2 feet left of center. I wanted it fixed right away so I sent it to my Geico recommended shop. And they did the repairs in about 13 days and I drove it home yesterday. When I picked it up it had about 13 miles of EV range left... I had dropped it off with about 26 miles of EV range, so I wasn't too concerned. Frankly, was just glad they hadn't run it down to empty.

Here's where my concern comes into play. I charged the car overnight a full 18 hours I had it charging... honda app said it had a full charge.. but i didn't really look at the EV range estimator until I was already on the highway to Thanksgiving dinner about 13 miles away from home. I glanced at my battery and saw the range was about 36 miles of EV.. I was only about 5 miles from home... and a full charge usually gives me 50+ miles of range. So, to drop to 36 miles from full charge was odd.. but I didn't think much of it, since i figured all the memory of prior charge was reset. Had dinner 13 miles away with my family... and drove home... pulling into my neighborhood i notice the HV engine had clicked on... I then looked down at my EV range had hit 0. My round trip from my house to was 26 miles.... and my battery had drained completely. That's almost HALF the range I used to get.. and it might have run out on the freeway sooner for all I know... I just wasn't paying close attention, so the range may have been even less!!!

How concerned should I be? I'm charging it overnight tonight again...only have a 110 volt charge so it takes 12 hours roughly to full charge. I wouldn't think a 5mph accident to the front of the car would damage the battery? But then I panicked when I read when they paint the car the high heat can damage the battery if they don't take proper precautions to dissassemble it. I live in Los Angeles where a 1/4 of the cars on the road are electric vehicles or hybrids of some sort... so I would hope most shops know how to paint an electric /hybrid car properly without damaging the battery in 2019.

Anyway, i'm crossing my fingers that I wake up to a fully charged battery and I'll test drive it to see the range i get in my errands tomorrow. No other error messages have appeared yet.. just what appear to be a severely shortened battery lifespan.

I have many more questions... but I'm hoping to wake up and give everything a closer look once the battery is fully charged again. I uploaded a photo of the front end damage...

Long term concern.. I didn't buy a HondaCare warranty.. but was planning to before my 3 year warranty was up. I only have 5100 miles currently on the car.. would an accident like this make it hard or impossible to buy a HondaCare warranty online now?
 

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NocEdit said:
So someone backed into my clarity going about 5mph... They were driving a large SUV and apparently were trying to park and didn't see me and backed into my clarity while I sat stopped behind them at a stop sign. His front left metal bumper crunched my front left side good though. I was actually a little shocked at the damage... but he was kinda slow to stop and I the size of his vehicle caused $10K in damage .... New Hood, new front fenders... new headlights... (they didn't replace the honda logo apparently.. but it didn't take the hit.. since the impact point was about 2 feet left of center. I wanted it fixed right away so I sent it to my Geico recommended shop. And they did the repairs in about 13 days and I drove it home yesterday. When I picked it up it had about 13 miles of EV range left... I had dropped it off with about 26 miles of EV range, so I wasn't too concerned. Frankly, was just glad they hadn't run it down to empty.

Here's where my concern comes into play. I charged the car overnight a full 18 hours I had it charging... honda app said it had a full charge.. but i didn't really look at the EV range estimator until I was already on the highway to Thanksgiving dinner about 13 miles away from home. I glanced at my battery and saw the range was about 36 miles of EV.. I was only about 5 miles from home... and a full charge usually gives me 50+ miles of range. So, to drop to 36 miles from full charge was odd.. but I didn't think much of it, since i figured all the memory of prior charge was reset. Had dinner 13 miles away with my family... and drove home... pulling into my neighborhood i notice the HV engine had clicked on... I then looked down at my EV range had hit 0. My round trip from my house to was 26 miles.... and my battery had drained completely. That's almost HALF the range I used to get.. and it might have run out on the freeway sooner for all I know... I just wasn't paying close attention, so the range may have been even less!!!

How concerned should I be? I'm charging it overnight tonight again...only have a 110 volt charge so it takes 12 hours roughly to full charge. I wouldn't think a 5mph accident to the front of the car would damage the battery? But then I panicked when I read when they paint the car the high heat can damage the battery if they don't take proper precautions to dissassemble it. I live in Los Angeles where a 1/4 of the cars on the road are electric vehicles or hybrids of some sort... so I would hope most shops know how to paint an electric /hybrid car properly without damaging the battery in 2019.

Anyway, i'm crossing my fingers that I wake up to a fully charged battery and I'll test drive it to see the range i get in my errands tomorrow. No other error messages have appeared yet.. just what appear to be a severely shortened battery lifespan.

I have many more questions... but I'm hoping to wake up and give everything a closer look once the battery is fully charged again. I uploaded a photo of the front end damage...

Long term concern.. I didn't buy a HondaCare warranty.. but was planning to before my 3 year warranty was up. I only have 5100 miles currently on the car.. would an accident like this make it hard or impossible to buy a HondaCare warranty online now?
Click to expand...

I'm starting to feel a little less worried.... I remembered I was running the heater of the car on 100% Hi power on the entire 13 mile drive home... could that account for the battery drain? I've never had to run the heater at all yet since I bought it. But it's thanksgiving and rainy and 40s cold today in Los Angeles... first time I needed to run heater... maybe that's the cause of the battery drain?
 
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NocEdit

Sorry to hear about the accident. Always something. Amazing it cost 10k for such a seemingly benign accident.

I think you're on the right track. Give it a few cycles to see what happens. To be sure they had to disconnect a lot of the electronics to replace the parts thus resetting the entire system. I would expect the charge cycles to return to what you observed before the accident. If not...troubleshooting time.

Consider yourself lucky...I read somewhere the Honda logo cost $450 if purchased directly from Honda...lol

Good luck.
 
40F outside temps and running the heater on high and Interstate driving and lights and wipers and maybe A/C to defrost are the reason for the 26 mile range, IMHO. I think your fine on the battery. You asked an interesting question about Honda Care for a car with a collision history. I'd go ahead and purchase the Honda Care before the accident shows up on the VIN record. I'm suggesting that not to be nefarious or underhanded, but rather because I don't think a "fender-bender" like that should disallow availability of Honda Care.
 
Clarity_Newbie said:
NocEdit

Sorry to hear about the accident. Always something. Amazing it cost 10k for such a seemingly benign accident.

I think you're on the right track. Give it a few cycles to see what happens. To be sure they had to disconnect a lot of the electronics to replace the parts thus resetting the entire system. I would expect the charge cycles to return to what you observed before the accident. If not...troubleshooting time.

Consider yourself lucky...I read somewhere the Honda logo cost $450 if purchased directly from Honda...lol

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think the headlights assemblies were $1200 a piece! That’s was the most expensive part. More than half of the cost was labor.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
Yes heater destroys range...those of us in cold climates know this very well as we lose nearly 50% of our range every winter. It comes back in summer.

Also body repairs like that require disconnect of the 12v battery. This is kinda like a hard reset in this car...so you need to drive it a while for computers to relearn things, especially range calculators.

I vote Don’t worry in short term. If this starts to seem long term, just take to dealer and express your concerns of loss of range. Battery has a 80,000 mile minimum warranty. Plenty of time for you to figure out if this is a real problem or not.
 
Id be sure to pursue diminished value on that large a repair and such low mileage. Id guess diminished value is several $k
 
Range climbed back up to 48-49 miles a week out now. Battery seems fine... Now just waiting to get back my deductible and rental car expenses from the other insurer.... I've read you have to open a separate claim for diminished value and it usually ends up in court. I guess if i keep this car for 10 years.. then the diminished value won't really be a factor at that point... (I did keep my last car for 10 years). All 10 year old cars are worth very little.. accident or no accident. But it does inhibit my ability to trade it in for a newer tech EV in say 2023 without taking a hit.
 
Bender said:
Id be sure to pursue diminished value on that large a repair and such low mileage. Id guess diminished value is several $k
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Any tips on the best way to approach insurer about diminished value claims? I've seen online companies that charge a fee to do an estimate you hand over to them.... I've also heard finding two comparable models of the car .. one with an accident and one without an accident online somewhere and asking for the difference. But that would probably be damn near impossible to find with so few Clarity's in the wild. Part of me just feels happy I didn't splurge on a new tesla or more expensive car.... After the tax rebates this was only a low-mid- $20K..
 
NocEdit said:
Any tips on the best way to approach insurer about diminished value claims? I
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I haven't done this myself before. I'd probably ask and try negotiating on an offer first, but it might depend if I'm going through my ins co to make the claim against the other insurer or not. I'd imagine many insurers would be uncooperative on working on diminished value and only address it through small claims, but some may make an offer when the topic's brought up just to get it closed out and agreed to rather than small claims.

Another possible source of some "hard data" to provide, aside from paying for a report (which I can't suggest for or against -- that might be the best option), is to go to Carmax and/or a dealer and ask if they'll give you a quote along with an unofficial printed quote for what it "would have been with everything else equal and no accident/repairs), but I don't know if they'll do that for you (I'd probably bring a gift card or something to thank the person for helping me since no intention of actually selling it -- at least not on the same day... although alternately it could be "I might trade it in but need the estimate(s) and to finalize with ins. claim first").
 
Wait for @craze1cars to chime in. And if he misses this thread, you should PM him. He has the most experience in automotive insurance and repairs of anyone on this forum. I would take his advice in a heart beat.

FWIW, my son was hit hit with substantial damage but not quite enough to be totaled. His Tacoma never drove or handled the same so he sold it. He got a fair price but not as much as he would have if the Carfax had been clean considering what a creme-puff his truck was and how much after market options he had on it. He had a long fight with the other insurance company who initially lowballed his diminished value claim. It took 5 months and many emails and phone calls. He included pictures and receipts of all the options and improvement he has made to finally get them to cut a check for what he thought was fair. I think he also looked up prices on Kelley Blue Book and NADA. And finally got paid almost $2,000 over their initial offer. So gird your loins, get ready for a fight, and get @craze1cars in your corner.
 
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ken.

Unfortunately I simply don’t have diminished value claim experience...never handled those.

Plus I’m Indiana and this claim is in California. The two could not possibly be any more different in terms of insurance laws. I don’t know California.

Generically speaking this is something you go after the other insurance carrier for directly. You won’t get a penny of diminished value out of your own company and they won’t assist you with making claim.

Best advice I can offer is to ask your own company agent to get you in touch with someone at your company who can simply advise you on the best way to go forward with this claim against the other insurance company.

Alternately contact the other Insurance company and simply ask them...”I want to make a loss of value claim, what is the process please.” Nothing to lose. They might simply guide you the the process. They might not. If they don’t, you implement plan B....and figure it out another way. Some companies and adjusters are very helpful and forthcoming. Some are not. Only one way to find out which you are dealing with. Ask and try.
 
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I have had 2 accidents that were not at fault. Both times I was rear ended and accidents showed up on the carfax. Damage was around 1700 each time. First company was Geico and they paid out $600 for diminished value. Second company was progressive and they flat out denied. Both times I used diminished value assessment web site. My option against progressive was too sue the driver but filing fees were almost $300 in Illinois and if they couldn't serve the defendant I would be out the money. I felt the risk was too high and let it go. However in your case you should easily be able to collect in the thousands. Once your car is repaired you need to reach out to the other insurance and say you want to file a diminished value claim. They will ask you what the number is and provide supporting documents. That's where these companies come handy. Google fatwallet diminished value and there is a lot of good info. Hope that helps
 
I’m actually in a weird situation... where the other insurance has yet to officially find fault with their insurer... claiming they can’t get a hold of him.... my insurer got his info from me and got his statement and found me not at fault right away.

So filing a diminished value claim while they are sorting this out might make them dig in more to fight the fault. Probably will hold off until after fault is finalized.... cause at the very least I’d like my deductible refunded and rental car refunded.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
Varies a little by what insurance company you are working with. My wife had a minor accident where someone backed into her car in a parking lot. We didn't even think about diminished value at the time it was repaired. When we traded the car, the dealership hit the value by $750 on the trade in. I called the insurance company that had handled the claim (not ours) and told them. They put a check in the mail to cover the $750, only asking for the documentation from the dealership on the hit in value. Super easy. I had another fairly serious accident in my Chevrolet Volt when it was practically new (other party ran a traffic light). Total repair was a little over $13k. Again a different insurance company to mine. They argued at first no diminished value since "they were replacing everything with new parts". I complained and got a fly by night outfit to give me a "diminished value report" for about $175, showing $6k in diminished value. That went no where. I then took the car to 3 separate dealerships that gave me trade in estimates showing about $5-6 k in diminished value. Again, no traction. I finally told the insurance company that I could sue in small claims court for $3k (the limit in Alabama) or they could pay me $3k. They agreed to that. I kept the car long enough that the trade-in wasn't hit by too much as the car was heavily depreciated by that time. Bottom line, this can be painful, but you should pursue. Body shops will give you a rule of thumb of about 30% of the repair estimate if you can get it.
 
By "Honda logo" are all y'all referring to the radar unit that handles ACC and emergency braking?
 
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