Welcome to the Cadillac V-Series Forums!

Side swiped a concrete pillar in a parking garage

Ungwei

Seasoned Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2021
Messages
414
Location
Connecticut
I'm gutted right now. My parking garage has a horrible 2 way traffic design which often results in near accidents with people not giving enough space. Yesterday when driving up, a driver zoomed around the corner, which caused me to turn in to avoid, and I side swiped a concrete pillar going around the corner. The damage looks pretty bad, the rear fender in particular. I haven't needed auto body repair before, so I'm not sure where to go from here. Should I contact insurance, the dealership, or try to find some independent shop and get a quote? Pictures NSFW
20220611_102407.jpg
 
Since technically there is no other car involved, I'd likely contact my insurance company last. It depends on your insurance company, your deductible, your rates, your driving record, and even if you have a good agent (probably 10-15 years ago my parents called their home owners policy holder once with a question that they ultimately never filed and they still got a ding on their record for when the renewal came up...I don't know how,... but then I was told by an agent of mine a little bit after that to literally start my questions with "Hypothetically,..." and have followed that to do this day!)

It's a shame your not in South Jersey,... because I got a guy (that does great work and is more than reasonable... he literally has his own legit fully certified licensed garage in his backyard and is a one man business... it's like he gets paid to do his hobby/passion and works on everything from junkers to high end)
 
hopefully you get it fixed up by a good a reputable shop. I've learned my lesson in the past and I think I would've just let the person hit me. Seems to be handled easier according to past experience with Progressive and State Farm
 
I'm gutted right now. My parking garage has a horrible 2 way traffic design which often results in near accidents with people not giving enough space. Yesterday when driving up, a driver zoomed around the corner, which caused me to turn in to avoid, and I side swiped a concrete pillar going around the corner. The damage looks pretty bad, the rear fender in particular. I haven't needed auto body repair before, so I'm not sure where to go from here. Should I contact insurance, the dealership, or try to find some independent shop and get a quote? Pictures NSFW
View attachment 9444
That honestly doesn't look that bad, hard to tell form the picture, but I only see one dent, above the checkered flag on the tire? I would take it to a local reputable shop and I would imagine they will tell you the rear qtr, right rear door and maybe blend into the front door. I would expect around 1k to fix it....imo
 
That honestly doesn't look that bad, hard to tell form the picture, but I only see one dent, above the checkered flag on the tire? I would take it to a local reputable shop and I would imagine they will tell you the rear qtr, right rear door and maybe blend into the front door. I would expect around 1k to fix it....imo
Unfortunately there is more damage on the rear qtr, you can see how it's dented above the side skirt, not sure how fixable it will be
20220611_124238.jpg
20220611_124243.jpg
 
I feel for you friend. But don't beat yourself up. Nobody down here is perfect, every one of us makes mistakes. These cars, as much as we love them, are only material things. In this case, a sum of money will completely fix the problem. It sucks for sure, but get it done and move on. It's gonna work out 👍
 
I feel for you friend. But don't beat yourself up. Nobody down here is perfect, every one of us makes mistakes. These cars, as much as we love them, are only material things. In this case, a sum of money will completely fix the problem. It sucks for sure, but get it done and move on. It's gonna work out 👍
Pretty much what I need to hear, thank you.
 
Get estimates and if you can afford to pay all out of pocket you may be better off as your insurance won't ding you AND this minor damage won't show in your car history when you go to sell the car.
 
Get estimates and if you can afford to pay all out of pocket you may be better off as your insurance won't ding you AND this minor damage won't show in your car history when you go to sell the car.
I'm going to be going away for a week tomorrow, do I need to worry about the exposed metal rusting?
 
If you pay cash, be careful about that carfax. Some shops will notify carfax either way, they don't care. Ask them their policy about carfax either way.
 
Ouch, that hurts to see.

But I will say this: not only as a licensed insurance agent, but as someone who also hit a concrete barrier in a similar way in my SS, I'd also suggest to leave it as a last resort unless another party was involved, and/or if you think damages exceed your deductible by a vast amount. Should you file a claim, I can almost guarantee the adjuster will slot this underneath a collision related claim due to driver carelessness, or collision with another stationary object (regardless of the extent of the event), and you'll risk having this marked on your carfax once the companys pays out towards the bodyshop. Whether if that matters to you or not that's up to you but it's inevitable it'd show as "damage reported."

My deductible for collision was $1k, $500 comprehensive. Body shop evaluated damages near the fender, and door incl labor to be around $1850, and if I paid cash - $1,200 so it was a no brainer on my end and no damage reported to carfax.

OP, my suggestion would be to try going to some body shops and shop around for estimates.
 

Attachments

  • SS side.jpeg
    SS side.jpeg
    74.6 KB · Views: 199
Ouch, that hurts to see.

But I will say this: not only as a licensed insurance agent, but as someone who also hit a concrete barrier in a similar way in my SS, I'd also suggest to leave it as a last resort unless another party was involved, and/or if you think damages exceed your deductible by a vast amount. Should you file a claim, I can almost guarantee the adjuster will slot this underneath a collision related claim due to driver carelessness, or collision with another stationary object (regardless of the extent of the event), and you'll risk having this marked on your carfax once the companys pays out towards the bodyshop. Whether if that matters to you or not that's up to you but it's inevitable it'd show as "damage reported."

My deductible for collision was $1k, $500 comprehensive. Body shop evaluated damages near the fender, and door incl labor to be around $1850, and if I paid cash - $1,200 so it was a no brainer on my end and no damage reported to carfax.

OP, my suggestion would be to try going to some body shops and shop around for estimates.
This seems like sound advice. I'll definitely get some quotes, hopefully I won't have to go through my insurance.
 
@Ungwei .....I can't tell from the pix, but is your wheel buggered too or is that reflection? I don't think this will be cheap. I'll go $2500-3000 including the wheel. Is that carbon damaged? Doesn't look it....thank the Lord!

I know how you feel, and I'm sorry. Sucks to damage any nice vehicle
 
If money is no object, is it possible to just purchase new, factory components already painted and just replace what you have? I would image that would be substantially more, but then it would literally be like it never happened.
 
@Ungwei .....I can't tell from the pix, but is your wheel buggered too or is that reflection? I don't think this will be cheap. I'll go $2500-3000 including the wheel. Is that carbon damaged? Doesn't look it....thank the Lord!

I know how you feel, and I'm sorry. Sucks to damage any nice vehicle
There is a little bit of a scrape on the wheel, carbon is fine. I'd be happy playing 3k to fix all of this to be perfectly honest, would not bother with insurance in that case.
Screenshot_20220611-174302_Samsung Internet.jpg
 
As others have suggested, I wouldn’t even consider notifying your insurance company. After deductible and increased premiums for years, you will be far ahead paying out of pocket. The insurance company is not your friend. Don’t even call them to inquire. In this scenario, fortunately you have the choice.

Keep it in perspective. Most of us, at some point, have done something ourselves that damaged our vehicle in some way or came back to our car in a parking lot damaged (with the note from the responsible party nowhere to be found). That’s superficial damage and with a quality repair you will continue to enjoy the car. Your life didn’t change and put it behind you.

It’s a different story when the car is “wadded up” and you have legitimate concern that the car will never be right again. In those cases, repair and dump it.

I view all insurance as only an option to use for catastrophic loss. The number of people with $1000 deductible that run a repair of $1200 through their insurance is surprisingly high. I realize the delta between your deductible and repair cost will be more significant, but very unlikely enough to consider the insurance route once you take everything into consideration.
 
There is a little bit of a scrape on the wheel, carbon is fine. I'd be happy playing 3k to fix all of this to be perfectly honest, would not bother with insurance in that case. View attachment 9453
Go to your local dealership, nicer the better and ask who there "wheel guy" is. My wheel guy could fix that for 50 bucks. You would never know!
 

Win 2 Supercharged Cadillacs!

Win both supercharged Cadillac Vs!

Supporting Vendors

Delaware Cadillac

Exhibitions of Speed

Signature Wheels

Taput Tunning LLC

V-Series Marketplace

Advertise with the Cadillac V-Net!

Torque Shop

Our Partners

Back
Top Bottom