I went out to my car today and discovered it had been hit. It's in a gated parking lot and the person who parks along side me says she didn't do it. I believe her but now it seems I'm screwed as far as paying for it. It's either one of the other residents or more likely a maintenance workers fault. Either way I have no proof since there was no note. So I'll have to pay the 500 deductible to have the body work done. Does anybody have experience with this and know if my insurance rates are going to go up drastically?

 

That almost looks more like an attack than a hit by another vehicle.

No point me commenting on the effects on your future insurance rates as US and UK will be very different but I'm sure everyone will join me in hoping you get out of this with the XK8 good as new and without too much of a financial penalty.

Graham

 

1. Vers sorry
2. Most curious 'wound'. Doesn't look as if it could be done by a car - is there a forklift on the lot?
Hope you get it sorted - I've seen worse.

 

been there..had it done to a few of my cars over the years..you will never find out who done it..these people are scum..sorry you have to find your car like that...

 

I agree that it looks more as if somebody attacked the wing with an axe! When I went to collect my car from the UK two years ago, I stopped overnight at a hotel on the way back to France and somebody bashed my rear bumper without leaving a note. It broke my heart as I had only JUST bought the car, but a week later it was repaired and as good as new. Cost me about $400.

 

Sad news. This should be considered a "comprehesive coverage" claim since you were not operating the car at the time and generally has no impact on your insurance rating or premium provided you were parked legally and no way at fault in the incident. You are simply out your deductible and the aggravation of dealing with the mess.

 

ouch - any kids riding bikes in the area? had similar damage to one of my previous vehicles when the kids were trying to do tricks on their bike - lost it and fell into the car.

 

artstar

Depends on who your insurance carrier is and what is on your insurance/driving record.

My mother inlaw has a Cadillac that someone recently side swiped the front fender, both doors and broke the mirror off in a parking lot and of course no note. She has Allstate carrier, clean record as they are concerned. They have the "accident forgiveness" plan for their customers.

Long story short, MIL pays her $500.00 deductible and her insurance stays at the current rate supposedly. BTW her Caddy goes in on Monday to be repaired.

 

I concur that this damage looks to be deliberate and should be covered under comprehensive. Such a shame, and I'm very sorry for you as well. Stand your ground with your insurance company since you are obviously not at fault given the circumstances. Keep us posted on your repair as well as how your insurance company treats you in this case....

 

There were workmen working near the car 1 day before this happened. This is a gated parking lot underneath my building so I actually now think it was one of the "plumbers" the leasing company had working on this plumbing leak that was coming from some of my pipes below the building. Someone who parks down there saw a workmen walking around there with a bucket of some sort so it's possible this was the weapon. I have Geico Insurance in California. When I called them they wanted to do a collision claim which I am now not thinking happened. Called Geico again and told them I think this is vandalism. None of the cars parked there have damage that would indicate any involvement. According to insurance they're doing comprehensive and it shouldn't effect premiums or be on my record but who knows. I'm going to the police dept and filling out a damage report just for my records. Monday I'm supposed to go to a Geico shop for inspection and drop off for work. I believe it was some of the maintenance workers and I have contacted the leasing company so we'll see if anything comes of that. More pics attached, showing some of the lovely plumbing work done and hopefully not finished thanks for the comments.

 

That definitely does not look like an accident from another car. There are clearly two sharp edges on whatever did that and would much more likely have come from some sort of work truck or something. As stated, what ends up happening has a lot do with your own individual policy and how it covers such things. Good luck, hopefully, when it is repaired is is done well enough that you can't even notice it.

 

On first view, a ladder hung on the side of the cable guy's truck came to mind.

Now that you mention plumbers, drain pipe, ladder, etc hung out the back or side of the van is a likely culprit.

If so, your building management has a duty to safeguard and properly supervise their staff and contractors.

They should know who was doing work, and when the workmen were in the garage.

If you can establish that the damage was caused by someone that the building invited onto the premises, then it is they are liable. Let their insurance pay out, and let their insurance company work it out with the contractor's insurance.

 

Unfortunately, the insurance will probably only want to paint the damaged area. If you don't have the entire car painted, the repair area will appear to have been re-painted.

 

Tossing my hat in with Plums. If the contractors may have damaged the car, I would press very hard to have the management cover it under their policy. Then their company can go after the contractors. Any security cameras down there that might have shown who was coming and going during that time frame?

 

Its happened to me, twice, though not so great of damage. I've been rear ended twice, hit by debris twice on highways, and can't count how many door dings I've "paintlessly dent removed". We fully understand your plight, and sympathize w/ you.

 

The damage does appear to be consistent with a pick-up truck loaded with overhanging copper pipes or some such, reversing into your car.

 

As written by Jeff
Any good body shop will blend the damaged area where you won't be able to tell it was damaged. The shop that doesn't blend will leave you with mismatched panels, it's cheaper to do.

 

Hi Artstar, so sorry about your car.

About insurance rate:
I have 2 incidents on the past 6 months.

The first with my daily driver Honda, I ran over a tire carcass on the interstate at night. No way for me to avoid that since it's right over a crest. It cost me $250 to fix.

The second with the Jag, got rear-ended on stop and go traffic. The other driver took the responsibility.

When the renewal for the next 6 months came up, I saw an increase of what .. maybe $25-$35 or so, spread over 6 months? Maybe it was unfair etc regarding how the insurance made that adjustment, but that amount of $ was not worth arguing about on the phone, at least to me .....

The color match:
The body shop did a really good job matching the color. They replaced the trunk lid and the rear bumper on the Jag and the difference is non-existent. You can mitigate the color match concerns even further if you can find a Jag-specialized shop. Go ask the local Jaguar Club of North America members if you want some info. More likely they would have some ideas of which shops that are used to working on Jags.

Here's their link to their officer list:
Jaguar Owners Club, Inc. Page

Regarding your parking lot:
Was there any security cameras on premise? With the way the car is parked, that's not like a typical collision scenario. Just my 2c ....

 

Hi All, yes I'm pretty sure it was either a maintenance worker doing vandalism or a maintenance vehicle. I've emailed the leasing company with a couple of pictures and asked them to look into it. The parking is controlled access so it's either a resident or a maintenance worker. I've looked at the other 7 residents cars and can't see any damage that would indicate it was them. There are no video cameras down there. Is it likely the leasing company will do anything for me?

I went a had a police report done. They didn't even take my statement so not much hope there. Geico seems to be very helpful so far. Of course I have to pay 500 on the damage but the rep said on the phone this won't be reported on my record and shouldn't raise my premiums but I have little faith in insurance companies. They have shops they work with so I'm scheduled for Tuesday to drop it off and pickup my rental covered by insurance. It's Valley Motor Center in Van Nuys.

I'd think any body shop who can stay in business would be able to pound this out and respray satisfactorily right? It's guaranteed as long as I own the car through the insurance, etc. I had a shop do some other insurance work last year on the bumper and it was great, although they did just repaint the whole thing rather than piece. It doesn't look feasible to repaint the whole car and it doesn't look like there is even a removable panel in this case.

 

About 2 1/2 years ago a drunk driver took out my wife's Volvo C-70 convertible I had bought for her about one week earlier!!


Like your car, the car was legally parked and unattended at the time. We had Geico insurance and they covered the vehicle. They were unsucessful in subrogating the individual who caused it, since it seems to be pretty hard to subrogate someone serving 2 to 10 in the state pen. But, they never did hit my rates for the loss.