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Just Got Rear Ended...Now What?

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Hi all,

My wife just got rear ended by someone while stopped at a traffic light in our 3 month old 75 D. This is the first time we've been in an accident in the Tesla, so I need some advice on what do.

What happened: Both cars were stopped at a light, then the driver who hit her slowly crept forward for some reason and hit her. She was going very slow, so thankfully the collision wasn't hard and everyone is OK. My wife was able to direct her to a parking lot nearby where they exchanged insurance info. The whole thing was captured on dashcam footage (blackvue 650s). Clearly shows what happened and the driver is 100% at fault.

Damage: The damage to the car appears to be in 3 places, two very small marks that appear to be paint chips (i.e. through the clear coat and paint) and minor a few minor scuffs in one spot that may or may not come out. Appears that the marks are from the driver's license plate, although I'm not 100% sure. It's on the rear bumper. I will try to upload pictures in a bit. As far as I can tell the options will be, 1) take to a detailer to see if they can buff it out/touch things up (not likely) or 2) take to a body shop who will most likely replace the rear bumper.

What we're already done: Gotten insurance information from the driver (it's Geico), taken pictures of the damage and copied the videos for today from the SD Card onto our computer to avoid them getting written over. Should we have done anything else at this point?

Next Steps: I have a call into my insurance agent (State Farm) for advice and will be calling Tesla to discuss with them if anything should be inspected and where that should happen. Geico has already called us, so the driver started the claim. I'm guessing they will send out an adjuster to inspect. Before I call back Geico, I wanted to get advice from the community. Should I get the car inspected by one of Tesla's approved body shops? Should I get the car inspected by our service center to ensure there are no issues with any of the sensors (auto pilot, etc)? Any other advice or anything to lookout for would be great.

Thanks.
 
Hi all,



Next Steps: I have a call into my insurance agent (State Farm) for advice and will be calling Tesla to discuss with them if anything should be inspected and where that should happen. Geico has already called us, so the driver started the claim. I'm guessing they will send out an adjuster to inspect. Before I call back Geico, I wanted to get advice from the community. Should I get the car inspected by one of Tesla's approved body shops? Should I get the car inspected by our service center to ensure there are no issues with any of the sensors (auto pilot, etc)? Any other advice or anything to lookout for would be great.

Thanks.

Man that sucks, glad everyone is ok. I don't have my MS yet, on order, so can't comment on that part. With that said the first thing you need to do is call State Farm, I have been with them 30 years, and never had an issue. You should not talk to to Geico, let your State Farm people deal with that. State Farm will handle getting your car fixed up, and take care of telling Geico what they need to pay. We pay a lot for insurance, so this is their time to do their job.
 
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: The damage to the car appears to be in 3 places, two very small marks that appear to be paint chips (i.e. through the clear coat and paint) and minor a few minor scuffs in one spot that may or may not come out. Appears that the marks are from the driver's license plate, although I'm not 100% sure. It's on the rear bumper. I will try to upload pictures in a bit. As far as I can tell the options will be, 1) take to a detailer to see if they can buff it out/touch things up (not likely) or 2) take to a body shop who will most likely replace the rear bumper.
fortunately the damage to both your wife and car were minimal and the car is drivable.
it sounds like most of the cosmetic damage can be easily repaired, if the rear bumper needs to be swapped out then you are looking at a longer term ordeal, getting replacement parts can be a tedious exercise and then you might have to use an authorized body shop to do the work.
good luck and be glad that everything that happened is minor.
 
We are sorry to hear about your recent accident and glad to hear everyone is okay. It's a good thing you invested in a Blackvue camera for events like this. Since you have already made copies of the event onto your computer, you are in good shape. The last thing we would want is to loose that footage! As far as the repairs go , we work with Tesla approved body shops and would be happy to help you in acquiring an estimate. You can email the photos to [email protected] and I will be able to provide you an estimate within 24 hours.
 
WARNING: because the driver that hit you had GEICO, they will fight TOOTH and NAIL not to use a "Tesla approved body shop".

Have your insurance FIGHT them back. The key in this is the following: Tesla will NOT support the car in the future if it is not repaired in one of their authorized body shops. And there are ZERO "aftermarket" parts like bumper covers, etc. that GEICO can use to price this out elsewhere aside from a Tesla approved body shop.

This is the Achilles heel of Tesla ownership, be prepared to fight for it if you see them going in the wrong direction.

Also, since this is through insurance, it will likely show up on a CarFax report in the future. You need to fight for Diminished Value as well.

Get your boxing gloves on.
 
Man that sucks, glad everyone is ok. I don't have my MS yet, on order, so can't comment on that part. With that said the first thing you need to do is call State Farm, I have been with them 30 years, and never had an issue. You should not talk to to Geico, let your State Farm people deal with that. State Farm will handle getting your car fixed up, and take care of telling Geico what they need to pay. We pay a lot for insurance, so this is their time to do their job.

The only caveat to this advice is if the OP wants to pursue a diminished value claim. Then they would have to make that claim to Geico directly.

It might be beneficial to do it this way (filing your claim thru State Farm and a DV claim thru Geico) if the other party might not have enough coverage for both. It doesn't sound like a huge amount of damage though.

The folks over at All Things Insurance • r/Insurance seem pretty knowledgeable and helpful.
 
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Your agent will tell you to call State Farm claims. If you can buff out the scuffs and touch up the bumper that would be great.

I am having to replace my front bumper after a minor accident. I called Tesla to get the name of my area Tesla certified body shop.
 
The only caveat to this advice is if the OP wants to pursue a diminished value claim. Then they would have to make that claim to Geico directly.

It might be beneficial to do it this way (filing your claim thru State Farm and a DV claim thru Geico) if the other party might not have enough coverage for both. It doesn't sound like a huge amount of damage though.

The folks over at All Things Insurance • r/Insurance seem pretty knowledgeable and helpful.
I am not sure if it's worth it to pursuit a DV claim as it seems the damage is quite minor (just cosmetic) with no mechanical damage. So, photos would be helpful in this case.
 
Just to update, I spoke to Tesla body shop team/service, an approved body shop and my State Farm agent. I scheduled an appointment with the service center next week to do an inspection for sensors, etc, just to be sure. State Farm recommended I just call Geico and file the claim. They did not offer to do this for me (d'oh!). The body shop estimator (B&S Hacienda in San Ramon) seemed pretty confident that Geico would be pretty easy to deal with for this (although I've read otherwise) and would let me come to them. The shop has great reviews on Yelp, so fingers crossed. I will fight to take it there either way. I'm going to call Geico next, so wish me luck on that.

As far as pictures of the damage, it is so small that it was hard to get a good photo with the bright sun (it's HOT in the East Bay today). I've attached what I could and will take more in a bit. I'm hoping the damage can be buffed out so I don't have to wait forever for a replacement bumper (Tesla body shop team was optimistic that wait for part wouldn't be long...but who knows).
 

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Wow that's minor. I would've demanded cash, pocketed it and bought some touch up paint and called it a day. Win win for both parties since the at fault driver would get away with no claim on their insurance (their damage was probably nonexistent) and you'd get more cash than its worth. Its a bumper cover, it did its job well and body work on that small damage is a waste. Its entirely your call though as you didn't cause this damage so its really up to you on what you'd tolerate on your new car.
 
Just to update, I spoke to Tesla body shop team/service, an approved body shop and my State Farm agent. I scheduled an appointment with the service center next week to do an inspection for sensors, etc, just to be sure. State Farm recommended I just call Geico and file the claim. They did not offer to do this for me (d'oh!). The body shop estimator (B&S Hacienda in San Ramon) seemed pretty confident that Geico would be pretty easy to deal with for this (although I've read otherwise) and would let me come to them. The shop has great reviews on Yelp, so fingers crossed. I will fight to take it there either way. I'm going to call Geico next, so wish me luck on that.

As far as pictures of the damage, it is so small that it was hard to get a good photo with the bright sun (it's HOT in the East Bay today). I've attached what I could and will take more in a bit. I'm hoping the damage can be buffed out so I don't have to wait forever for a replacement bumper (Tesla body shop team was optimistic that wait for part wouldn't be long...but who knows).

I think that can be buffed out by any good detail place. It doesn't look to be deep into the primer. There is a guy here in SD that can do it, even if some paint is needed, and his prices are reasonable for something like that.
 
It sounds like they barely tapped your car and it's just superficial damage. If that's the case I would just talk to the people that hit you about covering the costs out of pocket. No sense in having an accident on both of your records for what can be fixed without replacing body panels. I would avoid using the insurance companies if this is super minor. If you have to make a claim for anymore accidents in the near future, you are going to start looking like a high risk and possibly get you insurance rates increased. It doesn't matter that you weren't at fault.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I called Geico and initially scheduled an inspection at a local body shop but later changed my mind and requested an adjuster come to me to inspect instead. I'm having the claim handled by them but what are people's thoughts in doing the claim through my insurance (State Farm) and having them deal with Geico/get my deductible reimbursed. Any downside (besides the out of pocket initially) to that?

I insisted that we need a Tesla approved body shop to do whatever repair is necessary and am planning to take it in for an inspection/quote with the approved shop tomorrow so I have information to go back to Geico with during the inspection. Geico agreed that I could repair wherever I want, but wanted to cut me a check for their estimate and then "settle up" for the difference from the approved shop, grumble.

Hoping for the best but ready for the worst. :)
 
fortunately the damage to both your wife and car were minimal and the car is drivable.
it sounds like most of the cosmetic damage can be easily repaired, if the rear bumper needs to be swapped out then you are looking at a longer term ordeal, getting replacement parts can be a tedious exercise and then you might have to use an authorized body shop to do the work.
good luck and be glad that everything that happened is minor.

Yes, very glad that everyone is ok. The damage is pretty minor, so I'm hopeful it will buff out. We'll see.
 
It sounds like they barely tapped your car and it's just superficial damage. If that's the case I would just talk to the people that hit you about covering the costs out of pocket. No sense in having an accident on both of your records for what can be fixed without replacing body panels. I would avoid using the insurance companies if this is super minor. If you have to make a claim for anymore accidents in the near future, you are going to start looking like a high risk and possibly get you insurance rates increased. It doesn't matter that you weren't at fault.

This was my first instinct. Get an estimate and try and talk with the person that hit us. Unfortunately, they filed a claim immediately which took it out my hands. Depending on the estimate the approved body shop gives me, I might try and reach out to the person and see if we could work something out.
 
I would not take it to a detailer.

May be you should call Tesla Service Center to see whether you need their service at all such as recalibrating ultrasonic sensors from newly replaced bumper ...

I scheduled an inspection with the SC to be sure nothing needs to be recalibrated. I had something that needed to be worked on anyway, so this was a good excuse to drive out and get it done.