Rear Ended: Damage & Crunching/Grinding Engine Noise

Since the time change, it's been too dark by the time I've gotten home to take some decent pictures of the damage and my weekends have been kind of busy.

Anyway, I was finally able to take a few pictures showing the damage (see attached). What do you guys think about repairability--mainly in regards to the bent portions around the hatch?

The Statefarm agent "thinks" the repairs for the damages will only be $2159. Of course his estimate is way below the estimate of the Nissan body shop, but I did not expect an insurance agency to come up with a realistic first number.

Negotiations with the insurance company are still under way...

So far it's a pain dealing with these guys, and I can't imagine the hassle they will try to give me when I try to claim diminished value (allowable as per Louisiana state law) after the vehicle has been repaired.

I've had bad experiences with State Farm. They have a rep for trying to get by with shoddy replacement parts and underestimating the extent of the damage by using shortcuts - basically pressing for a superficial cover-up repair while ignoring structural issues that they hope will never be revealed. I've had paint start flaking off of a VW three years after a SF repair because the body shop took shortcuts that VW didn't.

That looks to me like about $4,000 to $4,500 in damage, not $2,159. A mere R&R on a fender will be $2,000 at a reputable shop and you have damage to the body if the hatch won't close, there's no way the latch area and under body pan had no damage at all after that one, state farm is hoping the body shop will 'adjust' the latch & hinges (weld or bolt them down somewhere other than exactly where Nissan did at the factory) to make the hatch shut, which will mean rattles & mega-leaks in the first bad rainstorm.

You might need to have your own insurance look at the car and make a counter-estimate that'll have their legal force behind it rather than some independent shop without any clout. If State Farm disagrees with it, it'll go through arbitration, but the worse thing that'll happen is that they'll rule against you and you'll have to let SF repair it at whatever they will pay.

You'll really need that diminished value compensation, really low offers on a trade will happen when the dealer runs a Car-Fax on it...or they might even refuse the trade. I had that one happen at the Hyundai dealer when I tried to trade my 2010 Accent in on a newer one after it was repaired, that's why I have my Versa.

2013Versa said:

I've had bad experiences with State Farm. They have a rep for trying to get by with shoddy replacement parts and underestimating the extent of the damage by using shortcuts - basically pressing for a superficial cover-up repair while ignoring structural issues that they hope will never be revealed. I've had paint start flaking off of a VW three years after a SF repair because the body shop took shortcuts that VW didn't.

That looks to me like about $4,000 to $4,500 in damage, not $2,159. A mere R&R on a fender will be $2,000 at a reputable shop and you have damage to the body if the hatch won't close, there's no way the latch area and under body pan had no damage at all after that one, state farm is hoping the body shop will 'adjust' the latch & hinges (weld or bolt them down somewhere other than exactly where Nissan did at the factory) to make the hatch shut, which will mean rattles & mega-leaks in the first bad rainstorm.

You might need to have your own insurance look at the car and make a counter-estimate that'll have their legal force behind it rather than some independent shop without any clout. If State Farm disagrees with it, it'll go through arbitration, but the worse thing that'll happen is that they'll rule against you and you'll have to let SF repair it at whatever they will pay.

You'll really need that diminished value compensation, really low offers on a trade will happen when the dealer runs a Car-Fax on it...or they might even refuse the trade. I had that one happen at the Hyundai dealer when I tried to trade my 2010 Accent in on a newer one after it was repaired, that's why I have my Versa.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response.

I chose to go with the Nissan collision center. Thankfully we are allowed to choose the repair center, by law, even if it is not (and this collision center was not) on State Farm's "approved" list.

It looks like the collision center requested and was approved for an extra ~$800 in supplemental damages bringing the total to around $3000 (for body work). I'm still quite disappointed with the whole experience thus far. I told the repair center to contact me if supplemental work was required, which they never did. I had to go into the shop to find out. I really wanted to be there when the adjuster came by to see my car because I am worried one or both of these companies are trying to screw me around and use shoddy parts and/or not fully repair the vehicle to it's pre-crash condition.

With damages totaling around $3000, that is a good chunk of what my car was worth. On KBB, it was valued around $5500 trade-in/$6500 private party and somewhat comparable cars in the area with the same mileage/year were selling for $8000-9000. And actually, most of these were S models and not the SL.

I do plan to claim for diminished value, but from what I've read I need to wait until the repairs are complete in case the repair was done poorly, further diminishing the value of the car. Do you mind if I ask how you went about claiming diminished value and if you start a new claim? Also, how did you prove how much its value has diminished? I think that is going to be the difficult part.

I was test driving a vehicle at the Honda dealership and was inquiring whether they accept trade-ins that had previously been in a wreck. He was telling me that if there was body damage, the then the title becomes a salvage title, and he said they pay very little for those vehicles since they supposedly can only sell them for very little at auction. I'm not sure if any of this is true, but can anyone chime in on the subject?


I also just checked the NADA estimate for an 08' Nissan Versa SL w/ 95k miles:
Rough Trade-In: $4,875
Average Trade-In: $5,825
Clean Trade-In: $6,575
Clean Retail: $8,900


Anyways, I'm currently renting an Impala, and while I normally dread driving them, I'm really impressed with the one I'm using now considering the mileage I'm getting with a 300hp V6. If the instantaneous fuel meter is to be believed, I'm getting upper 30s to lower 40s cruising at 70 depending on the atmospheric and road conditions.