The day came...She's wrecked.

[Rail26]

My worst nightmare finally came true last night. My 987 with 6000 miles on it was rear-ended on I-10. The traffic stopped abruptly and I stopped with ease, however the old buick behind me driven by a young girl did not stop and smashed into my back end. I was suprised at the force she hit me with and I woke up early this morning with a killer head, neck and lower back ache.
After looking at the damage, it looks like her car nose dived and hit underneath the spoiler. The bumper is trashed and the exhaust is smashed. I worry though that the exhaust getting smashed towards the engine might have caused some damage at the headers...
Anyway, I have to start the insurance dance and was looking for pointers. I know there is a thread about this, but honestly I didn't try to look for it. For those of you that have had this happen, please respond. I called my insurance company and they have started the report and the adjuster will call me on Monday. I know the car will never be the same and I'm sure my resale value went into a tailspin. How do I fight to get it fixed by the dealer? How can I recoup the resale value loss or am I just screwed? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Damn, this sucks and she was brand new.

Hey Rail26, very sorry to hear about this.

I hope everything works out well, and most importantly, I hope your health is back to 110% very-very soon.

[limoncello]

Rail - very sad to hear it. My wife was rear ended a year and a half ago, while she was sitting stopped in a left turn lane (nothing she could have done). It took about nine months to settle the claim and finish the paperwork.
Take care of yourself first - make sure the doc's get you into physical therapy to work on the strained muscles. Don't overstress your muscles till they're properly rehab'ed.
Legal - hope there's some smarter folks on the forum than me. I handled our claim and I think we came out OK, but the car was totalled - so less to argue about. Getting a lawyer - weigh the attorney cost versus probable gain in your position. If it makes sense, do it.
Good luck, wish I had better advice, and glad you're mostly OK.
Concur with posts above - accidents suck.

[mjw930]

On high line cars such as ours it's not unheard of to request from the at fault party compensation for lost resale value. It's not a common occurrence but it has been argued successfully. I would talk to a lawyer as well as your insurance agent to see if they have any experience with this type of claim.

From the sounds of it you should be able to get the car back to near 100%. Hopefully you will be back at 100% very soon and remember, it's only a car, a material object. Don't make yourself sick over it.

[eslai]

Oh man, that sucks so much--totally brand new! I would have been pissed as all hell had that happened to me this year!

There should be no out-of-pocket expenses on your part since her insurance should cover everything--you won't be going through yours so there's no deductable to pay, I'm not sure if dbth is thinking of something else?

Rest up, hope it all goes okay...

[Rail26]

Well, I went out the garage and checked it out and it doesn't seem as bad as I thought. I have no idea what the internal damage is, however the bumper seemed to absorb quite a bit. From first glance it looks as if most of it is cosmetic (minus the smashed muffler). The trunk does not look tweeked and the gap between the spoiler and the body remains the same distance through out so maybe that was not affected. I will post pictures once I get them re-sized. Thanks for all the advice and upbeat messages. You all are right, the important thing is I'm still around to ******************** about it. Oh well, life could be much worse. I could be riding out a hurricane and wondering what to do when I lost everything or I could still be in Iraq. Thanks and cheers!

[jameskk]

YES, make sure to get compensated for the loss in resale value. The insurance company will most likely tell you that they don't compensate for loss in resale value, it's their standard line.. trust me, they will if you make a big enough deal over it. talk with your Porsche dealer to calculate fair value. I took a bad hit in my BMW Z3 roadster back in 1998 and I had to fight the insurance carrier over the resale value but in the end they paid me $2000 for the value, which I used to trade the car for a newer model. good luck!