Well, This Sucks: First Car Crash

So it finally happened: last Thursday, while heading back to the office after a doctor's appointment, I was involved in a minor car crash.

No humans or animals were harmed, and the other driver was determined to be at fault. Thankfully, he had good insurance which has promised to cover everything. All good, right?

Well, unfortunately, my baby (2018 Honda Clarity PiH) did not come out of the situation as unscathed as I did:

So now I wait for repairs. In the meantime, I have a rental Chevy Malibu that only smells a little bit like a public restroom. I miss my car. Crashes suck.

Glad you're ok. That looks fairly repairable. Im sure you don't need told, but I will anyway. Please get checked out. Even minor injuries can haunt you later. 
I may steal inspiration to coin a new phrase. Smells like Malibu. For when the word "piss" is not appropriate. Surprisingly accurate in any context. 

Looks like mostly/entirely body damage and it's a fairly new car so it should be pretty straightforward to fix. Also good that there were no injuries, in my first and hopefully last accident I ended up with shoulder/back problems that took months to work out and what I'm pretty sure was an undiagnosed fractured sternum...

Glad you are okay.  

Rare car with rare parts.  I hope this works out for the Clarity?!

Crashes do indeed suck, but if no one was injured, they suck less.

And frankly, it's amazing that you were hit by a driver with insurance.  By my highly imprecise statistical analysis, if you are involved in an accident that is the other driver's fault, there's a 95% chance they will be driving on a suspended license and will (of course) not have insurance.

Glad everyone is ok. I always have what if thoughts. Like what if I had stopped for that donut I wanted?  I wouldn't have been there to get hit. 

Ouch

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Oddly enough, it was the other guy's first accident too. He was in his 60's and was driving a brand-new Volkswagen. Especially given the part of town the crash occurred in, we were both somewhat relieved that our insured bumpers found each other.

As for the Malibu. Call the insurance company 800 number today and report that the Malibu has a shimmy at 70 mph, even if it doesn't. 

If it's one of the big companies they'll make arrangements to swap it out. 

John Welsh said:

As for the Malibu. Call the insurance company 800 number today and report that the Malibu has a shimmy at 70 mph, even if it doesn't. 

If it's one of the big companies they'll make arrangements to swap it out. 

Why should she have to make up a story?  Couldn't she just say the car she's currently in smells like E36 M3?

Smells like r Kelly's sheets = public restroom = rental malibu

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but....... Honda parts availability for us body shops is pretty scarce right now. Even the shops themselves are all booked out until November here. 

1988RedT2 said:

John Welsh said:

As for the Malibu. Call the insurance company 800 number today and report that the Malibu has a shimmy at 70 mph, even if it doesn't. 

If it's one of the big companies they'll make arrangements to swap it out. 

Why should she have to make up a story?  Couldn't she just say the car she's currently in smells like E36 M3?

Expect that they will invite her to stop by for a free vacuum job and a hit of frabrize. 

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

Last week when I was down in your area I was almost ran into three separate times.  I'm amazed anyone down there has any bumpers left on their cars.

bobzilla said:

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but....... Honda parts availability for us body shops is pretty scarce right now. Even the shops themselves are all booked out until November here. 

Truth. At least the rental is from the other party's company, so they will be stuck footing the bill for the next several months.

Yup, crashes suck, glad everyone is OK.
 

On another subject; I was stopped at a highway rest stop - walking my dogs for a bit, the place smelled like Malibu....

In reply to John Welsh :

The folks at the rental car place already knew I was less than thrilled with the only option on the lot, even before I smelled it. We have an arrangement where I can call back later this week when they have more options and hopefully swap this car out for a more suitable long-term rental. I don't have high hopes, but we'll see what happens.

In reply to ddavidv :

Yeah, supposedly they'll also reimburse me for fuel since they were unable to provide an electric rental car and gas was an expense that I didn't have a budget for prior to the accident. I don't normally like being a pain in the ass, but if it puts pressure on them to make sure my car gets repaired and back to me, I might as well shoot my shot and make that spreadsheet.

Nicole Suddard said:

So it finally happened: last Thursday, while heading back to the office after a doctor's appointment, I was involved in a minor car crash.

No humans or animals were harmed, and the other driver was determined to be at fault. Thankfully, he had good insurance which has promised to cover everything. All good, right?

Well, unfortunately, my baby (2018 Honda Clarity PiH) did not come out of the situation as unscathed as I did:

So now I wait for repairs. In the meantime, I have a rental Chevy Malibu that only smells a little bit like a public restroom. I miss my car. Crashes suck.

Happy to see nothing hurt but pride.  And I hope you are talking about the heavily cleaned, smells like industrial soap and disinfectant kind of public restroom.

Nicole, sorry about the accident.  There are several insurance claims professionals here, including ddavid and myself.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

"Claims profesionals" -- don't believe the hype. 

Glad to hear you are ok!!

Reimbursed for fuel?  I don't see the logic in that from an insurance company stand point. Reading David's article the other month I back calculated the cost per mile of the electricity his bmw electric car used against cost of fuel per mile my cls550 and they were within a percentage point or two of each other. 
 

I don't understand the logic of them paying for your gas because your car is electric when the energy cost per mile is roughly the same. 
 

I mean it is great for you and take it if they are handing you money but I don't understand it. 

The PHEV makes the math a little more case specific, but in general it goes like this:

Looks like the Clarity is officially rated to have an electric range of 48 miles from a 17kwh battery (efficiency of ~3 mi per kwh) and the average home electricity price in FL is $0.14/kwh. It gets 42mpg when the ICE kicks on.

- So cost per mile with the Clarity would be around $0.05/mi on electrons and $0.08/mi when using the ICE.

A 2020 Malibu is rated at ~30mpg in the city with regular unleaded fuel, which currently averages $3.40/gal in FL per AAA.

- So cost per mile with the Malibu would be around $0.11/mi.

So if OP drives 500 miles per month (almost all electric in the Clarity replaced by the ICE Malibu), that would be around $30 price difference or $1/day. If OP uses the ICE in the Clarity more (a few long drives) then the price difference would be lower. If they drive a bunch more miles, then the price difference could be greater.

So when the idiot totaled my jag and his insurance gave me a new Hyundai Sonata rental (I actually liked it) I should have paid them the  15 MPG difference between my jags 20 mpg and Hyumdais 35 mpg?

Are they really micromanaging things to this level now?

There is a chance that they could total your car if getting parts is an issue.  That car is so new at auction it is worth a lot due to the parts situation.  They may be better off totaling it and selling it for parts when you take into account a multi-month rental of a car.