I "installed" my dash cam on Saturday, or 5 days ago. I didn't have a chance to hard wire it to the car, but I had to stupidly long cord going to the power outlet for the back seat as a temporary fix.

I was in the left-most lane and was patiently waiting behind a turning car. The car turns, and I continue on my way (My lane is pretty clear because that turning car prevented cars from flowing down that lane. I guess some doofus got tired of waiting in one of the center lanes and wanted in on my lane... But doesn't look like he checked to see if anyone (in this case, me) was there. Boom! Good thing I mounted the dash cam even though I couldn't hard wire it yet -- According to the cop, the guy in the CR-V's story is that I hit him from behind (making it sound more like I rear ended him).

Damage wasn't too terrible visually, but was not drivable because the fender/fender liner was bent into the wheel well. I'm guesstimating around $2500-$3500 in damage
-New front bumper (Completely cracked)
-New RH headlight
-New RH fender
-New render/bumper liners

The fender was pushed back and seems to be making contact (or extremely close to) with the passenger side door.

Sidenote: Anyone have any experience with diminished value claims?

 

Good thing you had a camera. Or else it could get sticky.

diminished value is typically 15-20% of your repair cost. Get a dealer appraisal asap. Good luck!

 

The part that sucks is your going to have an accident on the vehicle history and that will kill the resale value if you try to sell it some day, regardless of how well it's repaired.

At least the dash cam makes it 100% clear who was at fault.

 

Sorry to hear that! Not much comfort, but having the dashcam hopefully helps your case.

In the most recent wreck we had, we ended up not pursuing the diminished value claim due to being busy and not having much time to deal with them. Needless to say, they make you work to get your money from them.

Firstly, we were told we must first wait until after the vehicle repairs are complete. After it was complete, I hoped I could easily enough get somebody to value the car in the same condition minus the wreck -- wrong! While I didn't try hard, my experience was nobody (including the dealer) wanted to touch that for "legal reasons."

So it sounded like not only would I have to deal with the insurance company again, I'd also end up having to argue with their valuation versus my belief. I didn't find online car valuation systems handle wreck damage.

I heard from a couple other folks who had successfully claimed and their numbers were closer to the ~ $200-500 range -- decided our time was probably worth more than that hassle and we relegated.

 

That's the point of a diminished value claim.

 

Hopefully you get at least 5-10k

 

I wonder what the persons face looked like when you told them you had a dash cam that recorded everything and he cut you off! LOL. Im not an expert but it seems like he did not take the time to properly check you had the right of way before that person cut you off! What does your insurance company say and who is at fault? GL

 

Curious to know what the insurance claims will determine. It's clearly the other drivers fault. But I've seen the arguments where the assign percentages of responsibility.

 

I hope you are okay.

what model of dash cam? I like how I can read the license plate.

Definitely push for diminished value claim.

 

Quite unfortunate but glad you're okay. Idiots like that are one of the main reasons why I got a dashcam--there's just too many of them on the road.

I'm thinking it'll be more than $3500 worth of damages. My car got backed into last year and this came out to $3400. Needed a new rear bumper and trunk.

 

It's ridiculous how the guy dared to claim you rear-ended him with the damage being on your passenger side front corner and his driver side rear quarter, and the cop didn't arrest him on the spot for giving a false statement(then again, 'Merica law/rights never ceases to amuse me).... Even without the dash cam, it doesn't take a physicist to figure that one out, it's simply not possible to "rear-end" someone in this manner.

 

I'm curious if you were cited if you don't mind me asking?

 

That is the reason I have a dash-cam now. Too many inexperienced/bad drivers in south Texas. One thing I am curious about; do you have collision avoidance and if so did it activate?

 

Reminds me of the time i hit a deer and had my dashcam rolling. Take look! I'll say your car is about 4-5 grand in damages. My insurance company paid out 16k this huge mess...

 

Yes I hate jackasses that pull out like that. One time the same thing happened to me but I was on my electric skateboard, the fool turned into the bike lane and I plowed straight into him and it wasn't pleasant. I've been armed with a dash cam since I got my GS and now I'm armed with a gopro on my shoulder.