silver A$

Hello everyone.
I got into an accident earlier which the only thing that got damaged is my car. Most of the damages are at the bottom of the car, so i could not estimate the damage at the moment of the incident.
Today, the body shop person called me back. According to the person who checked up my car, there were numerous things that got damaged and several misalignments. (I am sorry that i cannot provide the list of exact damages. it is a long list with long names.) The repair estimate is around $6000 (but there are some overpriced items, such as tires and rims).
Now i have to make a choice. To minimize the repair cost (could prob be lowered to $3000) and to pay it from my own pocket, or to tell the insurance to bear some cost, which i am not sure how much damage is "qualified" and how much i have to bear myself. The pro of calling up the insurance is that i prob will probably pay less than if i pay by myself. the con however is that the insurance cost would go high for the next few years.

I should add some more info about the accident.
When I was turning, the brake was not working properly and I ran on to a 5 inches tall curb.

I told the body shop to check the brake in addition to the damages. Currently, no word about the break.

Seriously, i have no idea about what to do. An addition option is to get a lawyer, but it might be better to get the words about the brake from the body shop people first, right?

Can anyone gives me some valuable advices?

Thank you for your time.

OSTalex

I usually only claim stuff it the costs to repair the damages are more than $2000, because the premium goes up. If the estimate came to $6000, I would go through insurance, unless you really can get it to $3000 to fix your car. But even then your still paying $3000. If you do claim it, depending on what policy you have, your insurance should pay for everything except your deductable (ex. $500, $1000...).

jusatry

how much its onna raise your premium to lose your accident free status. If you didnt get a ticket it may not be much. Here in LA if i lose accident free driver status prems go up AT LEAST $600 a year for 3 years. But i am 20 yrs old and totalled a car when i was 17....so i dunno. It also depends on your company. Find out what its gonna cost and then do the math.

Good luck

silver A$

I got three tickets for the accident. They are all nailing on the speed and "poor judgement", which i have to admit that i really judged poorly.

Yea, in addition to my concern is the amount of insurance inflation and the length of the inflation. But would they tell me and ask me to make a decision?

And on the math, even if they raise my premium $600 every half year, it would still take a while to reach $6000. But Is there any other factor that i have missed in my thinking? This is a very important decision and i don't want to make it wrong.

E22SKI22

first, what is your deductable? this should be part of your equation. at 3k and no brake problem you should pay it ur self if you can. at 6k its worth it. actually, i would say insurance if you question the warrenty of the repairs. cause if there is a problem later, the ins. co. can back you up.

silver A$

Sorry that i kept on missing stuff on my response.

If i remember correctly, i have a $1000 deductible.

E22SKI22

co will back up repair problems in future.

jusatry

i would say you should ask your insurance company in a hypothetical way. Just say "Hey buddy, i was just curious how much i can expect my premium to go up if i lose my accident free status?"...he wont give you an exact number - just a baseline i would think. The other factor is that if you claim this accident and then you get into a serious accident (not that this isnt serious, but i mean close to a total), and you HAVE to report it your premium goes through the roof. especially if it isn the next 3 years.

AudiFolks!

you're prolly better off reporting it and handling it the 'normal' way. If the repair cost is $6k and they can somehow get it down to $3k, what are they short-changing you on?? Something that could cause another malfunction or accident later on? Like fixing the brakes? Sometimes, you have to take responsibility for decisions/judgements you make, and to avoid having another problem in the future, you may want to consider this. Bottom-line is, you want your car to be safe after it's fixed! Sorry for the length, this is all just my opinion.

A4mer

1) turn in claim 2) drop carrier 3) learn how to drive