lady was in front of me in a 2010 camaro and didn't see me behind her. threw her car into reverse and smashed into me. pushed the hood up, pushed in the grille/bumper.

taking it into the insurance today to get looked at, but my question was should I tell the insurance my airbag light went on? dishonest I suppose. airbag light has been on for about a year+ now. it's the floormat one on passenger side. never got it fixed cause its a rip off ($1000+!!)

would insurance know whether or not this accident caused the airbag light to trigger? when they pull up codes, are there dates and/or time periods attached to when that code was triggered? my mom said to give it a try lol

thanks !

 

Sorry bout your luck. Hopefully the will fix it good as new.

Cant tell you whether the code will tell on you or not. But you may be able to pay for it yourself more cheaply if they are already working on the airbag system. Might want to ask for a side price of having them do it.

 

As a claims adjuster from State Farm, I can tell you it is not worth the risk.

Modern cars have data recorders that can reveal a great deal about your car. Not saying the airbag light indicator is one of them... I'm not sure.

But I can tell you the penalty for Insurance Fraud is very steep.

 

"Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool that to open your mouth and remove all doubt." : A modern version of a Proverbial teaching.

 

I've witnessed several wrecks that were carbon copies of what happened to you, hope you get it fixed without hassle. Also Camaros have never had good visibility.

 

Just don't mention the light at all. They might fix it anyway.

 

Attitudes like the OP's and this one are a reason everyone's insurance rates aren't lower.

You might as well be shoplifting. Same thing.

 

Considering the airbag sensor is in the passenger seat, I think they'll know it's not related to the front end damage once they plug in the code reader (they'd do that, right?)

I certainly wouldn't take the risk of lying about it, but I don't think that not mentioning you have an unrelated light is tantamount to shoplifting.... I also don't think my insurance company would lower rates if they were paying out less on claims.

 

Your insurance company, and all of them, Danny, have to be profitable, of course. The more they pay out on claims, the more they have to charge for coverage. It's simple.

Of course, the biggest amount of fraud is on injury claims because it's harder to prove. But we do catch many people on that. Even attorneys. One attorney I've worked with many times is facing fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars and up to 20 years in prison.

You'd be amazed as some of the tools I have available to me to help me detect fraudulent claims.

And it is stealing. So is shoplifting.

 

I'm halfway joking, my insurance company has actually been very good to me (all three of them, in fact.) but as a cynic, I'm more inclined to believe a reduction in claims would be primarily rolled into larger profits, not lower rates. Of course in my case, the largest insurer is a Crown Corporation which means there is zero competition for liability insurance, and very little for comprehensive/collision)

I do agree that if OP mislead his agent and suggested the airbag was damaged in the accident, that would be wrong, but I can tell you that when I got hit while parked I didn't mention the airbag light on my dash either. Not because i thought they would fix it, but because I assumed they wouldn't (for reasons I gave above.) and didn't think it was relevant.

 

Fair enough, Danny... we'll just disagree on this one. But hey, you still have one of my favorite MINIs on this forum.

 

Sounds good, and thank you!

And to the OP, good luck getting your MINI repaired. When mine went into the shop to fix a dented door, I ended up rolling around in a 2012 Benz for three weeks, sometimes bad drivers are a blessing in disguise!

 

OP- Sorry about your MINI. Hope it gets fixed as good as new. We both know lying about your airbag light is not the right thing to do. Would you want your insurance company to lie to you & do a cheap **** repair?

 

Sorry to hear about your mini.. I would of been seriously peeved. Anyway about your airbag light you could get a BMW200 tool(I believe) and try to reset it or at the very least get the code for it.. Usually they pop up a the bad connection... Also I wouldn't out right say anything... Just don't mention it and the repairer will most likely fix it anyway

 

Took it in yesterday didn't bother saying anything about the light. My conscience got the better half of me. Thanks for replies hope it's fixed soon. Getting an aero grill out of it so that'll be cool

 

Glad I hear its being fixed. You may want to ask them about having it repaired on your dime only because most body shops seem to have the best access to used parts and if its more than just a reset, they may be able l get you a better price with something like that.

Hope you are back motoring soon!

 

As a practical matter, it would probably be good to let folks know that the light was already on. It may save someone from looking for a cause. But there is no issue at all with asking the shop if they know how to turn it off. They may just do it as a courtesy as long as they are not spending time trying to figure out how it ties to the damage.

Just in case anyone misses the message here, honesty is not only the best policy, its the only policy.