Someone managed to use my car as their brakes to keep off my lawn I guess. Not sure how since I'm the second house in from the corner. Trying to decide how to proceed.

I'd appreciate to hear thoughts on the value of this damage for when I talk to their insurance company. I don't have any experience with collisions so I don't know what to expect here.

Hi Ian,

They will have to have a body shop give you a quote to repair the damage. It doesn't look all that bad really. Shouldn't have hurt anything else (I hope).

Sorry to see that happen Ian.

Like Craig said the other parties insurance will require at least a couple of estimates for repair, you get to choose the shops you want so pick good ones. The issue you are probably going to run in to is that the repairs will be more than the book value of the car. If it was on your insurance they would just write it off and you're screwed unless you had an actual cash value policy which likely would still be short of the repair value in this case. Not sure how it works when the other party pays for the damage. Keep posting and let us know how it goes, I know someone else will know more on how this goes down.

A hit and run, I guess? That sucks, Ian - call the cops for sure, and good luck with the repairs.

I guess you'll have to look at the doors from your gold car and see what works. Hit and run is really shitty.

I got the impression from this that the offending party owned up???

Hmm, I missed that part. Good catch Jim. My guess is that it'll be the other side of $3K to repair that properly.

It looks like the rear wheel could have been bumped as well. Is it best to tow it to an alignment shop or should I first take it for a drive to feel for a wobble. I'd like to be armed with some information before I meet with an adjuster but I also don't want to spend a bunch of money towing it around town before they tell me it's worth nothing...

I can't see even a smudge on the tire, let alone any dents in the beauty ring or hub cap?? Take it for a low speed spin around the neighborhood, see what it feels like and decide from there. When you take it to the body shops for estimates have them look at the suspension/axle mounts for any sign of displacement.

That's a good point. Maybe they bounced off the rear quarter and then recontacted the door. I'm going to try to post another pic to see if I figured out the resizing thing.
The upload was rejected because the uploaded file was identified as a possible attack vector.

Are you using photobucket? Resizing should be easy.

Ian, don't take this the wrong way, but you're getting bogged down in details that don't really matter. Take if for a low speed spin in the neighborhood and you'll know soon enough if it's fit to drive without endangering anyone's life. If it's drivable then get to some some body shops ASAP.

You need to get going on getting the 2 or 3 repair estimates the other parties insurer is going to want before anything else can happen. This happened last weekend so you should have gotten this done already. The claims process can take long enough as it is, you need to be the one pushing the pace as the insurance companies won't do it on your behalf. Do you have collision coverage or just PL&PD on your car? If you have collision your insurer will help with the process as they don't want to be paying for the damage if the other insurer starts dicking you around, if not you are on your own dealing with the other parties insurer.

Update here. I got three quotes as was suggested. Then I contacted their insurance company (AMA). They only wanted to deal with body shops that they already have a relationship with. One of my estimates worked for them and they are going to pay out the cost of repair because the body shop said there were unobtainable parts. I believe that was the result of Kustom Auto in Coaldale going to bat for me as I had explained that the car can't be written off. So I want to give full marks to Kustom and AMA for being sympathetic in a bad situation.
On the other hand at the front desk at city police the officer asked me why I was upset after I found out they had filed a report and said the damage was $1000. I said that no one consulted me on the value before my wife hustled me out of there. They're paid to get yelled at right?
Anyway now I need to pick a direction, sell it, fix it, fix one of my other ones, or sell all my Volvo stuff...

I'm glad to see this is going in a positive direction. Hey, you'll get one side fixed for minimal cost and be able to get that engine fixed and get it rolling by summer. Just a thought.