And the prius takes damage

So it turns out the guy had a canceled insurance policy ("you should have taken the money"... No I should not have). I still want to be repaired back to full. There will be no way to pull a crease line out of a door. I will file against myself pay the deductible and let the insurance company go after recovery, whats the point of insurance if it isnt to cover yourself or other people that simple do not respect the rules of this country. What about the value? I can go after diminished value even with my own policy. The offset will cover the less amount I will get when I sell. I am not too concerned here. It is a door and at most a door replacement. It isnt a rolling accident and there is no structural integrity issues. My previous Prius had an accident on it (rear ended not my fault) and I still got $1500 over KBB value because of the options and condition.

What about insurance increases? Will there be? There might be, while I have already been declared not at fault there is still an insurance payout and they want to recover that money. Honestly there is nothing they can raise it to that would scare me. The insurance in Ohio is literally half what it was in New York for the same coverage.

I anticipate a door replacement and a paint\blend needed. Maybe the body shop could surprise me and work with what there is but I am not going to accept anything less than undetectable. Will any of this financially sink me? No, does it change my opinion on "undocumented aliens" that drive without insurance or licenses? Honestly yes, but I know full well you do not have to be "undocumented" to fall into that set of people so it is what it is.

Titan\Nationwide wouldnt give me the guys address but I have pictures of his old insurance card and license plate number to submit to my own insurance. Of this guys back to back expired cards, they both listed the same address so he was there for at least the last year (most recent card expired in November 2016) so chances are it wont be a total loss and if they recover money I get my deductible back.

This is no different than paying higher medical costs to cover the people that use the emergency room as their primary care. I will try to get a better picture of the dent.

 

You never know what will happen. Could get this fixed and then drive off a bridge. I am not sweating the accident on the record because accidents will happen and you cannot live like that. In this case, even if there is an accident on the record I can clearly show pictures and there will be a record of what was actually wrong. There will be a hit to value but it will be easily something that can be negotiated up if I use the car for a trade in at the dealership for a new 2020. Remember dealerships want to sell you a new car so they arent going to totally kill you on value. This is a bigger blow to value now, but in a few years it wont matter much. My $28,000 Prius Gen II was only worth $11,500 4 years later no accident. My $35,000 Prius Gen 3 was only worth $12,000 4 years later (would have been $10,500 with the accident according to KBB but I got the full value on trade in) so while the record will show what the record shows that is not what is bugging me. The adjuster tomorrow may offer a lesser repair to try to pull the dent out. To that I say I want it to be undetectable and I dont care what it costs do not try to save me any bucks I will pay the deductible, and that's that. The more it costs over the deductible the more incentive Geico has for money recovery. The accident is already going to be on the record if a flawless job is $5000 vs a slight ping for $3000 let it cost $5000.

What really pisses me off, if you are here illegally you should be crossing Ts and dotting Is on things like insurance so as not to screw legal people around you. We are already paying for them being here and you dont need to prove citizenship to get health insurance, car insurance, a drivers license, etc so there is no excuse. Living in poverty? Dont get behind the wheel of a car. Use the bus, leave the country, I dont care. What if he drove away and accidentally killed someone? Does he even have the skills to drive? the eye sight? etc? a total disregard for law and order is not all about just the financial burden that it places on people to comply but there is an element of society attached to this that everyone needs to do their damn part. Dont deport because people are simply here trying to make a better life but if they put others at risk- that is a different story.


Edit for the record KBB value excellent trade-in: $17,700 taking it down two rating levels to good is $17,100. again I am not worried about the value drop that much. My deductible will be > the value drop quite frankly at $1000

 

The estimate is $740. The damaged area and some of the front door will need to be blended but the damage can be fixed though paintless dent repair would probably not be able to handle it. The two expired insurance cards the guy produced were back to back the same address and it appears to match the address the vehicle is registered to via the Geico license plate run. There is no other insurance connected with the other guy's vehicle so it will need to go to Geico Recovery.

The Geico adjuster at the body shop looked up how things get onto carfax. This might not get there. He sent me this link:
Where Does CARFAX get its data? Car Data Sources | CARFAX®

I guess we will wait and see what actually gets picked up on the report.