I know..that is what I cried in the Sheriff's Office...I believe my exact words were "it wasn't even a jackrabbit, just a stupid cottontail!!!" ....the officer said they seem to just jump right...of course the speed limit is 70mph here and I didn't see him coming and was right at 70 on cruise so.... Thanks for the bra comments...my hubby read that and loved it! He is looking into that now. He didn't really want the premium on insurance to go up for such a small fix when the chance of me hitting an animal again is so high.
If you're going to call the insurance company, get the adjuster there before you remove the bunny fur. They look for that as evidence of a comprehensive loss (not chargeable to your driving record) vs. a collision loss (chargeable).
Thats not an insurance repair. Its collison not comprehensive because you hit the creature instead of it hitting you. Absolutely a nono to turn that into insurance. Thats an out of pocket fix. It'll run you about $700-800 probably, bumper cover has to be replaced and repainted. Don't worry about the color matching, computerized color matching makes it much easier to get a good match nowadays. I would never turn a collision repair into insurance unless it was $2500+
that's a different explanation than I've heard before. We were told collision was for hitting animals...we specifically asked due to the large amount of them out here. Maybe it is different for each insurance company?
We'll just have to agree to disagree. Coversations I've had with insurance adjusters confirm that hitting a living animal is not a collision loss. Hitting a dead animal (presumably since it would be stationary in the road) would be collsion.
[off-topic] Yeah, that is pretty isolated. Makes MT live up to its initials. I lived in Melstone for a few years when very young, and we occasionally make trips back there. One year when driving with an aunt we were going to pass thru and made plans to get a hotel in Forsyth. She thought we should go another 20-30 miles that day and stop in Ingomar or Sumatra (they're in the atlas, after all) and get a cheap hotel, didn't have to be anything fancy. On Mom's insistance we stayed in Forsyth, and my aunt was pretty surprised the nest morning driving past those towns. I think there were 10 houses and one general store for both places put together. Then this summer I went to Nye and they're kind of known for their sign "You are now entering and leaving Nye Montana", altho they do have some extended 'suburbs'. After Montana we moved to relatively congested northern Minnesota. There I grew up in an area where the nearest McD's or shoe store or even a stoplight was only 40 miles away, and a one-screen movie theater was 15 miles away. Our school district was bigger than Rhode Island I think. Now I'm down south in a small suburb of Chicago, with more people in this town than the MN county I grew up in.
I had an almost exact damage from a truck tire tread. New bumper, lower grill and foglight, as well as repaint of passenger door, $1300. My car was just two weeks old, around 1200 miles. Expect close to $1000 if done properly. You still did better than the bunny. Sorry. As road debris, mine was handled under comprehensive. Ive never hit an animal though.
Looks not too bad, but it is all plastic (so they will probably have to repair more than u think), I'm interested to see myself how much something like that would set you back, let me know.
yea I think she is screaming for a hose down. a clean car always runs better right? (maybe good enough to evade a speedy little rabbit)
Around here there are three seasons for deer. Bow season which starts a month early, gun season, and car season, which lasts all year. I had a friend who hit a deer. The impact did not kill it. While he was waiting for assistance, some locals stopped their pickup truck, smashed the deer's head in with a tire iron, and took it away. Humane treatment of animals, redneck style.
Ouch! That hurts. If I were running in such open wilderness I think I'd vote to leave the damage as is or try to patch it up myself. King Arthur underestimated a bunny and it cost him 5 (er, 3) knights before it was blown to bits by Brother Maynard's Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
Well....all the comments about road kill are interesting. Due to the large number of trophy animals in Montana it is against the law to pick up any dead animal. People out here have "deer catchers" (grill guards) mounted on their vehicles and there used to be a problem with people purposely hitting animals for the antlers because it wouldn't damage their vehicle. So, they made a law about it. Anyhow, I think we have decided not to fix it. my hubby snapped the black piece back in place. It actually wasn't damaged at all. He put the other pieces back together and is going to put some model glue on there to hold it together, then we are going to order a bra I think off of the internet...the Toyota dealership says they don't have bras for the '08 due to the spoiler??? That should help with the bugs you guys seem so worried about. Really once he snapped things back in place, the damage isn't so bad. I would post pictures, but the bugs are still there and since I'm taking such a hit there I am opting not to post any more! thanks for all of your help! You really gave me good advice and I am so thankful you are here!
The dealer doesn't know what they're talking about, there were no changes to the front of the '08, the Bra from anything after 04 will work.