iwannam3
Active Member
Contact the state insurance commissioner and file a complaint for lack for response. All auto insurance companies are regulated by the state.
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I had a car crash and freaking out regarding the next steps
- Thread starter cerealzealot
- Start date
I have never leased a car but wouldn’t the money factor be impacted by the down payment?
Money factor is set and doesn’t change like interest rates on a loan can. Just how it is.
Again, I may be way off base here but isn't the capitalized cost impacted by the down payment, which then reduces the monthly interest via the money factor?
Yes, you may pay less interest over time, but it won’t change the money factor rate. Tesla isn’t a great example, but usually money factor is so low that it doesn’t make sense to try to “save” on interest. (When I leased a Volt a few years back I think the MF worked out to be about equivalent to 0.9% interest, and that wasn’t even during a super summer blow out event or whatever BS they wanted to advertise at the time.)
I don't think he will get anywhere with regulators for not getting a response in 2 business days.
And from my experience if a static object is hit the driver was usually going to fast, not paying attention or following to close, or a combination of more than one.
I expect OP will lose some of the down payment but not most, as the car wouldn't have depreciated too much in the short time he owned it.
Remember insurance pays replacement cost, not trade in value. So the OP should get pretty close to the cost of a new car. That's why a 3rd party appraisal is needed if the insurance appraisal comes in low.
I thought insurance paid "market value" or some crap... some amount probably determined by NADA or someone... though with a brand new car or Tesla getting that value might be hit or miss, so I'm not sure how an adjustor figures out the market value then...
I won't show the video here, but trust me, I was going slower than most and had 3 full white lanes with the pick up in front of me (and I was looking straight ahead). But that pickup wasn't looking in front of him, didn't saw the car in front of him slowing down (it must have brake for at least 4 seconds to be at a full stop, traffic was very fluid). The pickup didn't break, just made a sharp left and NARROWLY dodged the stopped car. Just to left it to me.
If the pickup had break, I would have had double the distance (his braking distance + mine), and I wouldn't have hit it. The car behind me had less distance than me and the pickup, braked when he saw me braking and stopped juuust before me.
Usually insurance pays ACV (Actual Cash Value) not Replacement Cost, unless the OP got a Replacement Cost policy which is significantly more expensive. ACV will be lower than Replacement Cost. Trade in value will be a good approximation to ACV.
Look at this: How Car Insurance Companies Value Cars
Insurance did say:
As it relates to the total loss we pay the actual cash value of the vehicle. The Actual cash value of your vehicle is determined by the market value, age, mileage and the condition of your vehicle at the time the loss occurred
But again, Tesla's Model 3 2020 with 1200 milage, it sells for at least $38K online, it's basically new.
I think whenever you hit someone from the back, it's always your fault.
From the insurance side? Maybe. Everyone I showed the video told me I couldn't have done anything and it wasn't my fault. It's the pickup's fault who wasn't looking at the road.
Because in this case, I'll just go on the freeway, and everytime the person in front of me brakes I won't brake until last minute and change lane very quickly, and create thousands of accidents and it won't ever be my fault. This is plain stupid (but I get it that's how insurances work).
I don’t get the emphasis on your driving slowly or in this case actions of others as if it should matter here. Are you thinking someone else like the car who swerved out of the way (I guess based on your above comment) or the stopped vehicle you hit should be held accountable and pay for part or all of this insurance claim on your car?
It doesn’t matter. You rear ended a vehicle by following too closely in traffic, whether you think so or not, not allowing enough space between you and the guy you were following to react to changing traffic in front of you. Sounds like the pick up that swerved out of the way was blocking your view of traffic forward, similar as if you were following a box truck or van. You’d have to give more space following those vehicles too. You didn’t intentionally hit the stopped vehicle but all the same it was an accident attributed to you. I’m sure the car you hit will be filing a claim against your insurance for the damage caused (hopefully no injuries).
It doesn’t matter. You rear ended a vehicle by following too closely in traffic, whether you think so or not, not allowing enough space between you and the guy you were following to react to changing traffic in front of you. Sounds like the pick up that swerved out of the way was blocking your view of traffic forward, similar as if you were following a box truck or van. You’d have to give more space following those vehicles too. You didn’t intentionally hit the stopped vehicle but all the same it was an accident attributed to you. I’m sure the car you hit will be filing a claim against your insurance for the damage caused (hopefully no injuries).
No I get it. Next time I'll leave 10 white lines between me and the front vehicle.
No (I mean they didn't say anything). I made my claim, explained in details to the police officer what happened. Then another came, and told me "you have a Tesla, didn't it record everything?", I said yes everything's on the USB key. So we went in the cop car, he plugged it in and we all watched it. The police officer asked the one I made the claim to "What do you think?", he said "Yeah that's pretty much exactly how he described it".
That's it. Both of them didn't tell me I was following too close or made any remarks.
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
You know you want to upload the video so the TMC accident investigators can get on the case... 
I don't think it was the pick up's fault... I mean he didn't hit ANYONE. If anything it was the disabled car's fault... but maybe they tried to get over to the shoulder to get the car out of the flow of traffic and just couldn't, maybe they didn't. Then it was probably your fault for not having enough follow distance. Even in the flow of traffic you still should have about three seconds of follow distance or more. That means if the truck in front of you passed a sign it should take you three seconds before you pass the same sign. At 60 mph with a 3 second follow distance that mean you should have about 260 feet between you and the truck... or almost 17 Tesla Model 3 car lengths between the two of you. Now on a busy freeway that's probably extremely hard to do and you'll have people cutting in front of you all the time... still doesn't make it not important though. It's likely that if you had three seconds to react from when the truck moved out of your lane to hitting the car you might have had time to slam on the brakes and stop. A Tesla Model 3 has been tested as taking 133 feet to stop from 60 mph with the stock tires that it is sold with. That leaves a bit over 120 feet for reaction time from seeing the car to hitting the break, which at 60 mph is about 1.4 seconds. Average reaction time while driving is easily half a second to one second... many accident investigations will use 1.5 seconds as their average reaction time. That means you would likely have stopped in time if you had been 3 second (260 feet or more) behind, but it still could have been very close.
No matter who you believe is at fault, you can always cover yourself by making sure you have enough time to act. Again, it's probably frustrating and hard to do that on a freeway and so many people don't, but that doesn't mean you can't try to open up more distance between you and the other cars.
Those white lines are approx 10 feet in length. If you leave "10 white lines", 100 feet (1.13 seconds at 60mph) is "too close". You should leave about 30 of them in-between you.
Edit: Also, this suggests you were less than 100 feet behind the vehicle in front of you, at 75 feet you might not even have had time to hit the brakes before hitting the car. Less than one second between you seeing the car and impact. Would be very curious to know if the Tesla radar and active safety features applied the brakes for you and drastically reduced the force of the impact. It may have only been able to shave off 10 or 20 mph before the hit at those distances but that still would be a huge improvement.
