On Thanksgiving, I was at a stop in traffic on the 405, was rear-ended hard by another car going about 40mph, and was subsequently pushed into the car in front of me...needless to say, there was relatively little damage to the rear bumper compared to the hood crumpling and various engine fluids spewing out in all directions. The airbags did not deploy (since it was initially hit from behind) but my passenger and I were okay aside from some whiplash. The body shop initially thought the car might be totalled by my insurance company and that is when I became aware of GAP INSURANCE. If you have a loan or a lease on your car and you paid above MSRP for it, please consider getting gap insurance. Then if you are in a serious accident and your car is totalled, your insurance company should pay off the balance on your loan. Otherwise, be prepared for them to offer you MSRP for your MINI and get ready to fight them for a realistic reimbursement. For the last few days while I've waited to hear from my insurance claims adjuster, I've been sweating bullets worrying that I'd be stuck in an "upside-down" loan...luckily, my car has "only" $5000 worth of damage and they are repairing with all genuine MINI parts...should get it back in January. As much as I love this car, the fact that it got so damaged in this accident scares me...I'd be afraid to see a MINI in a high-speed head-on collision.

 

Bummer.

R

 

KS sorry to hear about your accident and the subsequent damage.

Regarding Gap Insurance, that is excellent advice, and it doesn't just apply to people who paid MSRP+ though. It also applies to people who paid MSRP with little down, but have 5 year loans. In that situation, you'd be upside down on the loan for nearly the first half of the loan.

 

Sorry about your Mini. Glad you are physically o.k.
Keep your chin up!!!

 

glad you're o.k....Easier to fix cars than people! Have you asked your insurance company to compensate you for the diminished value of your car? The insurance of the person that hit you should be paying and if you assign your rights to your insurance company to subrogate as is customary, you will not be able to come back later for the diminished value, act promptly to protect your investment. PM me if you need more info.
Best of Luck

 

:smile:

Cheers!
Clover

 

Sorry to hear about your accident and I'm glad you're ok. But if you really got slammed at 40 mph and got sandwiched between 2 cars and you and your passenger weren't injured, I'd say the MINI did pretty well! I don't think ANY cars do well at HIGH SPEED, HEAD-ON Collisions!

 

It's true about gap insurance. I remember on some thread earlier, maybe during the summer, some people were evening getting 72 and 84 month loans! They will be upside-down for at least 4 or 5 yrs!!!!!!!! Most people don't think about gap with a loan but anything longer than 36-48 months and you could find yourself in trouble without it.

 

KS
Sorry to hear about your accident, I'm in the same boat myself, will hopefully get Coop back before the end of the year, though I'm not too sure. Great call on the Gap Insurance. Good luck with everything, I know it's a long and hard process with more paperwork than anyone should ever have to deal with.
-Chris

 

>>glad you're o.k....Easier to fix cars than people! Have you asked your insurance company to compensate you for the diminished value of your car? The insurance of the person that hit you should be paying and if you assign your rights to your insurance company to subrogate as is customary, you will not be able to come back later for the diminished value, act promptly to protect your investment. PM me if you need more info.
>>Best of Luck
>> :smile:

 

>>Sorry to hear about your accident and I'm glad you're ok. But if you really got slammed at 40 mph and got sandwiched between 2 cars and you and your passenger weren't injured, I'd say the MINI did pretty well! I don't think ANY cars do well at HIGH SPEED, HEAD-ON Collisions!

I'll second that. BMW's whole intent with the crashworthiness of the MINI is that, in order to protect occupants in such a small car from a high-speed crash (and I would call a 40 mph sandwich a high-speed crash), there has to be a lot of car sacrificed on either end of the passenger cabin. The MINI did do its job - you and your passenger are fine, and the car can be repaired. I'm sure there are plenty of larger cars that would put an engine in your lap in this kind of situation. Glad to hear that you're okay! Hope the repair process doesn't take too long.

 

I was in an accident in Sept and my car was totaled. (Plymouth Breeze) I was in the exact situation as you. Got rear ended from an idiot girl on her cell phone doing about 50. My car was completely totaled. Frame bent, gas tank crushed etc. I hit the person in front of me also. I'm getting the MINI because of the accident. WOO HOO!! I wasn' t hurt either but I had my two Min Pins in the car in carriers in the back seat and both of them lost teeth. (One was completely thrown from the carrier!) Anyway, it makes me feel a little better that your MINI can be repaired and not totaled. Thanks for the info.

 

If you lease a MINI (Or any other car) almost all leasing companies will automatically include GAP insurance at no cost to you.

If financing your car for longer than 36 months, you should seriously consider obtaining GAP insurance if it is not automatically included in your loan contract.

I also second Mardav's comments about filing for "Diminished Value" a repaired car WILL NEVER BE THE SAME, even if they put genuine parts back in the car. The car has sustained almost instant depreciation in the realm of 25% to 40% depending on the severety of the repairs (Been there done that). Dimished Value will allow you to dump the car once it is repaired and have enough cash recovered to replace it with a new one. Florida has a provision for Diminished Value (But insurance companies do not want you to know about it) but I don't know how this varies from state to state. An option most definetely worth looking into.

 

I am so sorry to hear what happened but you are right about Gap insurance.....it's a really good idea!