My Clarity rear ended

I am hoping to get the "Diminishing Value" from the insurance. I am afraid that since my insurance (State Farm) and the other party (State Farm) are the same company, State Farm might do the easy route and declare this an 50/50 so I can't claim DV. I might be over thinking it.

The Honda World in Irvine, CA has an auto-body repair shop. I am hoping they will know how to fix Clarity. Or else I will need to research on a Tesla body shop. If anyone know of a good body shop in Orange County, CA that will be appreciated.
 
The Gadgeteer said:
Make sure the body shop is one that can work with aluminum and follow the temperature and time limits baking in the paint booth or your battery will be damage. A shop that is certified for Teslas would have the knowledge and skills to deal with both aluminum and the temperature limits on the traction batteries.
Click to expand...
^^^ This is very good - no wonder I saw that warning sticker on the door jamb about high temp caution on the batteries....

Certified body shop that can handle both aluminum and HV batteries on an EV/PHEV car - that's got to be rare....
 
Status report? Curious of progress on these 2 accidents....repairs done? Still in shops?

chitchatalot or Dwight?
 
Last edited:
Hi Craze1cars/EvenSteven21.... the initial guesstimate from the insurance company was $3,700. But after my repair shop open up the back and saw the damages from the inside. The total became $10,300.

I'll try to do the diminishing value once I get my car back... the insurance company said that its on me to provide proof that the car diminish in value. I'll tell the forum how that goes.
 
4sallypat said:
Glad to hear no one was seriously injured.

Make sure you do NOT sign off any insurance docs releasing them of liability in the future.

Case in point:
My wife was in a rear ender accident but a few days later, she could not lie down because there was soft tissue damage to her neck and spine. Interestingly, their insurance company had mailed us a "settled in full" check of $2,500 for the "cosmetic repairs" and a liability release claims later which I promptly declined and told them that repairs and medical were going to cost a lot more.

The total costs were actually about $25,000:
  • $12,000 body shop
  • $1,500 car rental for a month
  • $7,500 medical reimbursement (MD & DC)
  • $3,500 Diminished value claim check (my attorney had to help)
Click to expand...
Hi @4sallypat... what did you used as proof of Diminished value? Can we just use KBB or some website?
 
chitchatalot said:
Hi Craze1cars/EvenSteven21.... the initial guesstimate from the insurance company was $3,700. But after my repair shop open up the back and saw the damages from the inside. The total became $10,300.
Click to expand...

Typical. No eta on repairs being done yet? Normal cars in a hit of that size would be done in about a month. Curious how parts availability is planning out...

Hope you get it back soon!! The update is much appreciated and I wish you all the best on the whole situation! I know it can be stressful.
 
chitchatalot said:
Hi @4sallypat... what did you used as proof of Diminished value? Can we just use KBB or some website?
Click to expand...
I used my lawyer who did a 5 minute research on car devaluation and sent a letter to the other party's insurance.
The insurance company did not protest so they cut a check out to my attorney.
He kept $300 for his time.
I got the rest.
 
Unfortunately, as the last Monday, I have joint "Rear-ended Clarity owners" club. So far my insurance company estimated ~$15K repair cost before they decided to take the car into a shop to investigate electrical issues. Another party's insurance (at fault party) is the same as mine, so I have decided to go through my insurance vs them.
I would prefer to get car totaled since looks like a repair could take months! Should get updates from Honda shop tomorrow, will see how it goes.
20190415_185623.webp
20190415_185654.webp
20190415_185701.webp
20190415_185749.webp
20190415_185756.webp
20190415_185806.webp
20190415_185812.webp
20190415_185815.webp
20190415_185818.webp
20190415_185820.webp
 
Sorry to hear you joined the club that nobody wants to join. Hope everyone came out safe.
Alec said:
Unfortunately, as the last Monday, I have joint "Rear-ended Clarity owners" club. So far my insurance company estimated ~$15K repair cost before they decided to take the car into a shop to investigate electrical issues. Another party's insurance (at fault party) is the same as mine, so I have decided to go through my insurance vs them.
I would prefer to get car totaled since looks like a repair could take months! Should get updates from Honda shop tomorrow, will see how it goes.
View attachment 4525 View attachment 4526 View attachment 4527 View attachment 4528 View attachment 4529 View attachment 4530 View attachment 4531 View attachment 4532 View attachment 4533 View attachment 4534
Click to expand...

Sent from my SM-G955U using Inside EVs mobile app
 
I am so impressed at your presence of mind to take all those picture. I would have been dithering so badly I would never have thought of it. I hope you are alright and can get a good result from your insurance company.
 
Thanks everyone for a sympathy. All involved people walked away , the lady who hit me had some minor aches where the airbag impact was.
Took a LOT pictures , since I have a previous experience with insurance companico.
Should get an update tomorrow, will post it.
 
Here is an update - the insurance company has ended up to total my car and paid me almost a full MSRP price plus TTL (I am satisfied with the outcome).
My local dealership did a great job to convince the insurance - it not worth to fix it. ;)
I ended up with a new car purchased yesterday. The exact replica of totaled one.
 
These are really posts and comments - thanks to all. Yesterday someone turned left into oncoming traffic and my wife T-boned them at 20-25mph. She and my daughter are fine, just sore. Air bags deployed, some front end damage. The guy at the repair shop sounded reasonable, and he estimates it's going to be an $8000 repair. We've had the car for 14 months and of course I would like to see it totaled, so I am preparing for the adjusters. These posts all seem to be about getting rear ended - I wonder if anyone has experience with front end damage? Should I start a new thread? I'm concerned about the impact force on the battery connections - how do we verify that was not damaged? Anything else to be checking? thanks in advance
 
There were some real risks with loss of coolant that I remember from reading in some threads. If you had coolant leak as a result of the accident, I'd pay particular attention to that.
 
@Rockchalker sorry to hear about the accident. Glad everyone is ok. Did the auto emergency braking didn't kicked in or it kicked in but couldn't stop in time? The damage from t-boning someone isn't as bad as rear-ends since the bumper would have taken most of the impact. Due to different bumper heights and how car nose-dive when braking, most rear-ends impacts would be absorbed by the trunk. So rear-end damage would normally be worst then your frontal t-bone. Expect coolant lost, which won't be a big deal since ICE isn't running. AC refrigerant and condenser properly damaged and leaked. I don't think insurance will total the car for 8k.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top