unless they are willing to pay you a grand or two, i would have went through insurance. because you KNOW its gonna cost more than you think, and the trouble you have to go through, getting a good shop, getting the parts, thats worth money right there.

honestly, you should have went through insurance, unless this person has a HUGE wallet.

You have seven days to report the accident and let the police know that you have the persons name and phone then they can call and tell them that a report has been made, by law in Illinois if there is more than 500.00 dollars in damagr a report has to be made and now adays 500.00 is nothing more than a scratch. Good luck with this but file a report for piece of mind.

08GTCA,

Why did I know that you were going to say "she" was driving the Suburban that backed into you! There are TONS of soccer moms in Suburbans in Dallas/Fort Worth. Avoid at all costs! They have no clue.

I also can relate to your issue with getting a police report. They will not show up here either unless there is an injury or traffic is being significantly blocked. I had someone side swipe the crap out of my brand new F-150 in a parking lot and they would not come out, as it was during rush hour. So, I paid myself (over $2K in damage). It sucks.

And when guys ask Pete if his car was fast, he'd tell them he's seen it with the front tires a full six inches in the air.

please, please, please...get a police report filed. i have known some people to get screwed because others will just lie about it later. i will always call the police right when it happens for now on.

Always insist on an accident report if it's their fault. You are going to be surprised at what it is going to cost to fix it and she still may not pay. If you can still get a claim in, do it now or you might end up paying to fix it yourself. She would have had to give me 2 grand cash on the spot to keep me from reporting it right then.

Figured that would cheer you up!

Everything turned out great. I’ve written at least a 1000 crash estimates while working at dealers so I know how to work the insurance companies. I got $14,700 out of them for a car that Blue Booked for $18,500. It should have been totaled. Ahhhh, the art of the supplemental.

A past customer of mine owns the shop where I got it fixed and they specialize in BMW, MB, Porsche, etc so obviously their work is top notch. We worked out a deal where I stripped the car down so I didn’t have to pay the labor for that and I sourced all the GT500 front end/hood stuff from a good hookup I have so I ended up getting everything back to as it was or better and the entire car got painted, badges removed, antennae removed, fake gas cap removed, etc. It’s still the OEM color but has a lot better application and there is a mile of clear on it. We still have not wet sanded and buffed it out and it already looks better then the stock paint! I even got it on the frame rack and squared the car up (not needed from the hit) which was nice because none of them are perfectly square of the showroom floor.

It was a lot of work but this winter it was getting a motor anyway so the timing was right. If I ever get the car back together it will be light-years nicer than when it got hit.

You’ll get your front end sorted in no time and have an upgrade to boot. Certainly could be worse. Good luck.

My '07 has a tick over 2000 miles on it & thanks to my best friend its nicer than stock. Too bad his divorce destroyed his life. My wife is bad enough but his was something else.

I sure hope you have a witness or two to back up your story. Generally, the burden of proof is always on the car with front end damage where there's a collision between the front of one car and the rear of another car. There's nothing to stop the other party from saying you hit them since the legal assumption is typically that their vehicle was rear ended, unless there is evidence to the contrary (e.g., witnesses).

A long time ago I had a father and son at a stoplight pull too far forward, then back up into my car. I was completely stationary. They were all nice about it being their fault, then they later refused to pay anything at all. Learned my lesson back then...

Update! and the total is............. $1,011.18
When i called her and told her, she almost fainted. " I don't know if the insurance will approve that"
Me, " Trust me, they will and the shop is an approved Allstate repair facility. Give them a call and talk to......."
The shop does many high end Porsche and BMW repairs in my area and there reputation is great.
So i will be checking back later today to make sure she files the claim.