I’ve never cried over a car until today...

[JetFalcon]

Some guy hit my Tesla. Thankfully it was a minor scrape. He said he would pay for it. He ended up being some broke guy who has a divorse lawsuit and kept needing more time. I only like half off the repair cost in a Target gift card around $250. He said he pay the rest back. I told him just find something worth $160 (the remaining amount).

He kept wanting more time. To eventually blocking my number without telling me. Then eventually just said "our business is done". I hope the credit card company fits this guy into some cement shoes because he told me he can't even pay off his credit cards and probably paying way more than he should. Oh well, I guess because of him, the rich can use the credit card as a free service.

 

[adrianp89]

Oh sorry, no. He wasn't in the vehicle at the time. He was not in danger until he confronted the guys. So he was charged with assault.
He admitted it was a bad decision fueled by anger. And he could have died. Not worth it. Cars can be replaced. People can't.

What state? Many states you are allowed to defend your property. What did the 3 guys get charged with?

 

[smatthew]

What state? Many states you are allowed to defend your property. What did the 3 guys get charged with?

Sorry, but even if you're allowed to defend your property, who goes up against a group of 3 guys who are already amped up on property violence? I don't know anyone who can take on 3 adrenaline charged guys and win without using a gun.

What if he had just called the cops? And stayed 50-100 feet away and filmed from his phone? Those guys would have been arrested and his insurance would have sued them for the damages. And he guy wouldn't have ended up in the ER beaten up to a bloody pulp. He could have died. Is your car worth more than your life?

I love my car. I would never engage with a group who was trying to destroy my car. I might turn on summon after I call the cops though ;-}

Also, We don't know everything about that story. The guys post was deleted from Reddit because he admitted to breaking the law.

 

[Johnstac]

State Farm is pretty easy to work with that they should make you whole on EVERYTHING. I wouldn't get your insurance involved unless you run into an issue that you can't personally resolve with State Farm. If they do end up totaling it, they will offer you a payout. You don't have to simply accept it if it's not satisfactory. Compile a list of used Model 3s with similar miles and make sure to add in tax due on a new purchase to get an idea of what payout should be. Also, as was stated before, make sure to ask for diminshed value reimbursement from State Farm if the car IS NOT totaled.

I'm feeling as though it was a mistake using my Tesla insurance. I should have dealt directly with State Farm. For some reason I thought that I would need someone to represent me to make sure that someone had my best interests. It has felt like anything but that so far. The hold ups have been all through Tesla Insurance so far. It took 5 days just to get the car from the impound yard to the body shop. Speaking with Amato's Body Shop, the girl there frankly told me that they have had major delays dealing with Crawford Insurance (Tesla). They have had to go as far as contacting Tesla and getting them involved and they said that it has helped but it often goes back to the way it was over time. Suffering some serious remorse now. I should have just dealt with State Farm.

I spoke with Amatos yesterday and they said it's going to be close on whether it gets totaled. She said if it was not a performance model, it would likely have been totaled right away. Still, they will need to break it down and check out the extent of the damage. For example, while the car was hit on the left side, the axle and wheel on the right side is bent in. There's going to be a lot to look at. I think at this point, I will lose less money if they can fix everything and then I will pursue diminished value after.

 

[acarney]

Some guy hit my Tesla. Thankfully it was a minor scrape. He said he would pay for it. He ended up being some broke guy who has a divorse lawsuit and kept needing more time. I only like half off the repair cost in a Target gift card around $250. He said he pay the rest back. I told him just find something worth $160 (the remaining amount).

He kept wanting more time. To eventually blocking my number without telling me. Then eventually just said "our business is done". I hope the credit card company fits this guy into some cement shoes because he told me he can't even pay off his credit cards and probably paying way more than he should. Oh well, I guess because of him, the rich can use the credit card as a free service.

Someone gave you a target gift card to cover repair costs...

 

[vogz]

I'm feeling as though it was a mistake using my Tesla insurance. I should have dealt directly with State Farm. For some reason I thought that I would need someone to represent me to make sure that someone had my best interests. It has felt like anything but that so far. The hold ups have been all through Tesla Insurance so far. It took 5 days just to get the car from the impound yard to the body shop. Speaking with Amato's Body Shop, the girl there frankly told me that they have had major delays dealing with Crawford Insurance (Tesla). They have had to go as far as contacting Tesla and getting them involved and they said that it has helped but it often goes back to the way it was over time. Suffering some serious remorse now. I should have just dealt with State Farm.

I spoke with Amatos yesterday and they said it's going to be close on whether it gets totaled. She said if it was not a performance model, it would likely have been totaled right away. Still, they will need to break it down and check out the extent of the damage. For example, while the car was hit on the left side, the axle and wheel on the right side is bent in. There's going to be a lot to look at. I think at this point, I will lose less money if they can fix everything and then I will pursue diminished value after.

Yea, that's a bummer. I would personally hope for a total with that much damage. The way the Model 3s are holding their value (especially the Performance model) you should be able to get a really solid payout.

 

[Johnstac]

Just a quick update. The initial estimate from Amatos is $47k. When I spoke to Crawford though, they told me that this initial price would go up once Amatos starts breaking it down. Crawford normally gets at least two more invoices during the process raising that price. Anyway, the price has been sent upstairs now and am told that they may have an answer next week. Even with the car having Autopilot and FSD, it doesn't sound promising. Crawford mentioned using an 80% rule, sometimes 90%. If the damage doesn't exceed 80-90% of the car's current value, they will repair it. Otherwise, they salvage it. I will update the thread next week.

 

[acarney]

WOW. $47k, man!

 

[Phlier]

Just a quick update. The initial estimate from Amatos is $47k. When I spoke to Crawford though, they told me that this initial price would go up once Amatos starts breaking it down. Crawford normally gets at least two more invoices during the process raising that price. Anyway, the price has been sent upstairs now and am told that they may have an answer next week. Even with the car having Autopilot and FSD, it doesn't sound promising. Crawford mentioned using an 80% rule, sometimes 90%. If the damage doesn't exceed 80-90% of the car's current value, they will repair it. Otherwise, they salvage it. I will update the thread next week.

Thanks for keeping us updated... I think you have a lot more people reading and keeping up with your story than what you might think.

Really hope this works out for you. I'd be hoping for a total loss, as I've never been happy with cars that were extensively damaged then repaired.

 

[Phlier]

I was super disappointed when I reviewed the video from my car and there is a 20 minute gap from the time we walked away from the car to the next frame which shows his car immediately after it hit mine. I don't get this at all because video should have been recording during that entire time. It ends though shortly after we get out of the car. That's not supposed to happen right? I had initially told the officers that it should show him hitting the car and then taking off. I brought my hard drive home and went over all of the folders and just can't find it.

Before you remove the drive from the USB port in your car, make sure that you press and hold on the camera icon until it does a quick little animation. This "unmounts" it, making sure that it's safe to remove the drive without causing any corruption to the drive's directory structure and files. If there is a time gap of missing videos in the one hour buffer, it is most likely because the drive wasn't unmounted correctly before you removed it from the USB port. Remember that the car is constantly writing the cameras data streams to the drive, and if you just pull it out while it's still writing data, bad things happen. Using the unmount procedure stops the data stream from being written to the disk, and performs a bit of housekeeping.

If you're an old guy like me, this analogy might help... Imagine someone yanking a piece of paper out of a typewriter while you're still actively typing. Using the "unmount" procedure allows you to finish typing the sentence you're on before the paper is yanked out.

You should also use the Windows "Eject" command prior to removing USB storage devices from your computer/laptop for exactly the same reason. To do this: from Windows Explorer, right click on the drive and select the "Eject" menu option.

 

[CyberGus]

You should also use the Windows "Eject" command

Someone should eject the DUI driver from the universe

 

[Johnstac]

Before you remove the drive from the USB port in your car, make sure that you press and hold on the camera icon until it does a quick little animation. This "unmounts" it, making sure that it's safe to remove the drive without causing any corruption to the drive's directory structure and files. If there is a time gap of missing videos in the one hour buffer, it is most likely because the drive wasn't unmounted correctly before you removed it from the USB port. Remember that the car is constantly writing the cameras data streams to the drive, and if you just pull it out while it's still writing data, bad things happen. Using the unmount procedure stops the data stream from being written to the disk, and performs a bit of housekeeping.

If you're an old guy like me, this analogy might help... Imagine someone yanking a piece of paper out of a typewriter while you're still actively typing. Using the "unmount" procedure allows you to finish typing the sentence you're on before the paper is yanked out.

You should also use the Windows "Eject" command prior to removing USB storage devices from your computer/laptop for exactly the same reason. To do this: from Windows Explorer, right click on the drive and select the "Eject" menu option.

When the accident happened, I clicked on the little down arrow icon. It doesn’t sound like that is what you are referring to. I wasn’t aware that I was supposed to hold the camera icon down for an animation. That must’ve been an update that I didn’t read. Anyway, before they towed the car, I removed the SSD. Damage is done now but lesson learned.

 

[Johnstac]

Heard back from Crawford Insurance (Tesla Insurance) today. They wanted to go over the car model. I thought the VIN brings up everything about the car. I told them him it's a Model 3 performance and the only thing factory added was FSD. I didn't want to tell him that I only paid 2k for it because it looks like I'm going to have to replace the car and I know it will cost me 8k this time. This just doesn't seem right. I asked him flat out if they plan on totalling the car. He said it probably will be totaled. The paperwork went to an appraiser. Then I think an estimator came out to take photos and get more details. They just don't want to get into the cost involved when they are starting at 48k and it can only go up from there.

I guess you'll catch me in the Ordering, Production, Delivery section of the forum now. I know most of you said that you'd probably rather have it totaled then repaired, it will, without a doubt cost me more now. I get it, it's two years newer and there's nothing like a new car but I'm kind of over it. I really liked my car and even though I overdid it with the performance model and all the upgrades, it was so worth it.

So a couple of takeaways here. First, when it's the other party's fault, I'll just deal directly with their insurance and not get my own involved. While I'm not completely done here, I feel like I could have taken care of this myself. It's not going to hurt my rates but using my own insurance was just unnecessary which leads me to point two. While I didn't have to use my own insurance to handle things, if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to assess Tesla Insurance (Crawford) as a company. Their rates were competitive but my experience with them has been subpar. I will likely use AAA or some other company with a local office. It will probably cost more but I think you get what you pay for.

Thanks everyone for the support and suggestions here. I learned a lot as I always do in these forums.

 

[israndy]

I would buy a used version of the car. I don't need the new car with the lack of Homelink, the $10/mo for entertainment and live traffic, the back seat that won't lay flat when put down, the smaller frunk. If I am replacing a 2-year-old car, I am very happy to get a 2-year-old car.

That being said, the wife really would prefer the Model Y, so if I did have my car totalled, that might be how I get whole again.

 

[Phlier]

When the accident happened, I clicked on the little down arrow icon. It doesn’t sound like that is what you are referring to. I wasn’t aware that I was supposed to hold the camera icon down for an animation. That must’ve been an update that I didn’t read. Anyway, before they towed the car, I removed the SSD. Damage is done now but lesson learned.

Just tapping the camera icon quickly will "save" the last ten minutes; it'll move the files to the "Saved" folder.

In order to actually dismount the drive, you have to press and hold until the icon does a little animation effect. Takes about 2.5 seconds or so. I'll see if I can remember to do a quick video of it so you can see what to look for. It is extremely important that the drive is unmounted before removing it to prevent corrupted files.

Thanks for keeping us updated.... I really hope this all works out well for you!

 

[Johnstac]

I would buy a used version of the car. I don't need the new car with the lack of Homelink, the $10/mo for entertainment and live traffic, the back seat that won't lay flat when put down, the smaller frunk. If I am replacing a 2-year-old car, I am very happy to get a 2-year-old car.

That being said, the wife really would prefer the Model Y, so if I did have my car totalled, that might be how I get whole again.

Wow, I guess I'm out of the loop. I didn't know Tesla had made any changes to the Model 3 and it doesn't sound like they are for the good either. What's up with that? Are they trying to save costs? Why is Homelink gone? I used that every day! Not pleased.

 

[MP3Mike]

Wow, I guess I'm out of the loop. I didn't know Tesla had made any changes to the Model 3 and it doesn't sound like they are for the good either. What's up with that? Are they trying to save costs? Why is Homelink gone? I used that every day! Not pleased.

Most people weren't using it so to save on licensing costs they made it an option that you have to add after delivery. So it is still available for those that want it.

 

[MJP.P3D-]

Wow, I guess I'm out of the loop. I didn't know Tesla had made any changes to the Model 3 and it doesn't sound like they are for the good either. What's up with that? Are they trying to save costs? Why is Homelink gone? I used that every day! Not pleased.

I was surprised by this change as well—perhaps due to haste/frustration when placing my order online for Homelink once I learned that it was no longer included, I apparently ordered two (for the price of two, naturally) thus adding further insult to injury, I guess. Still, one was installed and one sits unopened in its box. If/when you decide/need to order a new Model 3, please send me a PM with your address—I’ll send you the second one at no cost (it should be installed for “free” too as this cost is baked into the acquisition price). Hopefully this small gesture will take a bit of this sting out of this whole unfortunate incident. Good luck and congratulations Grandpa!

 

[lynnpt2001]

Oh man, sorry for your incident. The scum bag was probably drunk and is well versed in the law that if he wasn’t caught driving the car and no one saw him driving then it’d be difficult to associate him with the accident. Good they got his ass and he bashed his head against his own windshield. Hope it works out for you. I have all around PPF as well and that’s one my concerns is that I’d be out the entire cost of that if my car ever gets totaled. Best outcome in this scenario is it’s totaled.

Did sentry mode get him on video?

 

[Johnstac]

Last Friday, Tesla Insurance made their offer to total the car. It was $54k and change. I looked it over during the weekend and realized that they quoted comparables from Tesla.com used cars but did NOT include the performance option. I asked them to resubmit it with performance. Got it back today and now it's over $58k. I was a little surprised that performance only got me 4k more even though I paid 10k more. Oh well. We accepted the price even though we won't be whole. We've also been told that we can pursue the additional work, ie chrome delete, full PPF, etc directly with the other party's State Farm insurance. We'll see how it goes. We are looking to buy a MY next so this figure will go a long way towards the new car cost. Just waiting for Tesla's battery day to see if there are any significant improvements coming.

Thanks to everyone who has followed the thread. Hope none of you ever have to go through an accident with your Tesla.