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So I killed my gf's car today

S

Starfury

Well-Known Member
Well, it wasn't really my fault, but it's good and dead.

My gf commissioned me to help her move boxes to her new place with her '94 Saturn SW1 wagon. I was doing ~30mph through downtown when a nice Sedan Deville pulled out in front of me from a stop sign. Slammed the brakes at the same time I went 'ah shit,' because it was too late. Smacked into the r/f quarter of the Caddy, stopped the Saturn cold. Airbag deployed, completely destroyed the front of the Saturn. Did only minor damage to the Cad, but then I wouldn't really expect much considering the Cad is 3 tons of steel and the Saturn is 2600lbs of plastic and recycled tin cans.

It happened right in front of a Porsche repair shop, so all of the techs there saw it, and several city roadworkers from the yard across the street saw it too.

I'm fine aside from some rug-burns on my forearms from the airbag and a bashed knuckle that i think hit the turn signal witch. The other guy is an older guy who shouldn't be driving, but fortunately has insurance. Judging from the car and the driver, he probably has really good insurance.

My gf is rather distraught. The car is a pos, but it ran very well, got good mileage, only had 98k mi on it, and had no mechanical problems whatsoever. Unfortunately, it's a '94 Saturn SW1, so it's worth beans to the insurance company. I'm not expecting her to get any more than $1400 for it (Nada 'clean trade-in'), but $1k would probably be closer to my estimate. Not really enough to get another reliable car to replace it, in any case. Not really sure what she's gonna do.

On top of all this, we still need to get her moved by Tuesday, and she needs to find transportation so she can get to each of her 3 jobs.

*sigh*
 
That sucks! The old man's insurance will pay for a rental car, so finding transportation shouldn't be a problem. Hope it all works out for her.
 
Depending on the ins company, they will more than likely pay closer to private party value. They can't pay you trade cuz there's nothing to trade.
 
KBB is more optimistic, saying something like $3k for a pristine car, but it wasn't pristine by anyone's definition.

The guy's insurance is going to comp a rental car, but we have to wait until tomorrow to get that sorted, and we're not sure how long that's going to last.

Meanwhile, her uncle, who is the controlling party in the 'college' fund her grandfather left her, said he'd match whatever the insurance company puts out for the car, so hopefully she has enough money for something reliable. Meanwhile, we're car shopping, and when I get to work tomorrow I'm going to ask some of the local shops to keep an eye out for reliable cars.
 
Wow, that sucks, dude! I'm glad you're ok, though.

I have a '94 Saturn SC1. We call it the RatMobile, because it's not rated in Horsepower, but it dynoed at 34 RWRP (Rear Wheel Rat Power).

Seriously, I picked it up from my son's GF (now ex) a few years back for $300 and the car just won't die. I'm selling it tomorrow to my son's roomate for the same $300.

Those Saturns aren't much to look at, but GM actually did a real good job on those cars. They are extremely reliable. You should be able to pick up another for pretty cheap.
 
I am now thoroughly pissed at the USAA adjuster. I had to call her today (on my lunch break) to give her my statement, and afterword she tried to give me a bunch of shit. She asked me things like how fast I was going, how far away I saw the guy from, how many lanes there were, etc. Then she goes, "well, if you were going this fast and saw him from this far away...shouldn't you have been able to stop?" No, bitch. He pulled out, I didn't have time to stop, period. I was estimating distances and speeds; I don't know exactly how far away I was when I saw him and when he pulled out, or exactly how long it took me to apply the brakes, or exactly how fast I was going. I fucking guessed. And in any case, he pulled out into traffic from a stop sign. I'm not required to yield to cross traffic, he is. The law says he is at fault. The cop said this in his report, and all of the witnesses will say the same thing.

Basically, she's trying to weasel out of taking full responsibility for the old senile sob pulling out into traffic, which is not going to fly. In addition, she tried to tell me and my gf that it would take 4-6 weeks to process the claim, because she had to call the police department and get a copy of the police report mailed to her, which supposedly takes 4-6wks. And until the claim gets finalized, my gf gets no rental car, and they told her she needs to move her (totalled) car from the towing yard so they don't have to pay storage fees for it. I told her that was a bunch of bullshit, because a) it doesn't take 4 weeks to mail something 250 miles, b) there are these things called fax machines, and if I really needed to, I could go get a copy of the report and fax the damned thing to her on Monday, and c) my gf isn't reponsible for having to store a non-functional car because their client, who should not be driving, pulled out into traffic without paying attention.

Not happy. I may have to have a talk with my gf's insurance company on Monday. I shouldn't have to be dealing with this shit...
 
I finally called GEICO (my insurance company) last night. They've been infinitely more helpful than either of the other companies. They've informed me that since my gf doesn't have collision insurance (dope), my collision insurance will pick up if the final decision says it's 10% my fault, or whatever the case is. They gave me the legal rundown of who's responsible for what and what we need to do to get her back on the road.

So things are looking up...ish. The three insurance companies still need to get their poop in a group and make a decision.
 
Hmmmm.....

Before I make any comment on this thread, let me get this straight...

Some "old guy" in a nice car with the proper insurance coverage pulls in front of you and because you have the right of way and don't have to yeild to cross traffic you decide to smash into him with a speeding underinsured POS Saturn with bad brakes and no ability to steer around him?

:conf

Is it possible that "all three" insurance companies do have their shit together and someone else doesn't?
 
I wasn't speeding (30mph in a 30 zone; I wasn't in a hurry) and the brakes work fine. The car was 100% mechanically sound. My gf does have liability insurance, which would cover any damage to his vehicle were it my fault. Collision insurance would handle damages to her car in an at-fault accident. However, it was not my fault, according to state law (the guy at the stop sign is legally required to yield to oncoming traffic) and by admission of the other guy at the scene, the police officer and his report, every witness, and myelf. And as far as I'm concerned, neither my insurance company nor my gf's should have any liability in this situation. Old senile sob pulls out into traffic without looking, and I smack into him. Wouldn't have been any different were I driving my fastback, aside from more damage done to the caddy and me going to jail for killing the guy that wrecked my car.

Unfortunately, California law sucks ass, and the other guy is a dick and told his insurance company it wasn't all his fault, so they're trying to weasel out of it, and legally they can.
 
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