I was just informed my car got side swiped in San Francisco. To make things even better, I found out my insurance doesn't cover hit and runs.

What kind of damage would cause the rear wheel to sit toed in like that? Broken LCA? Subframe?

What other damage would you guys suspect? Frame damage?

I'm in LA, so I can't inspect it.

 

Broken diff...look at the oil spots in the photo.

 

Might just be an axle pulled out of the diff. Unless the carrier arm snapped too. Looks like new control arms at least if you're lucky. Rear fender looks salvageable.

Good luck, I've dealt with hit and runs before.

 

Control arms and/or subframe. Could be expensive. Hope you got lucky and it's just the LCA.

 

I think you need a new insurance company.

 

That 15minures saving you 15% is going to be expensive.

 

Ya know. Something that would cover things like hit and runs or break ins.

 

this. rofl. your insurance company/plan is absolutely horrible.

the other thing I care to cover is when people do damage to my car, not when i do damage.

honestly this should fall under uninsured motorist.

 

since hit and run is usually either collision or comprehensive and not everyone carries those... it's not surprising that he's not covered for it.

on the other hand, I carry both on my mini and was bumped in a parking lot. no note. virginia considers it an uninsured claim and it falls under collision. the deductible is $200 even though my collision deductible is $1000.

 

Liability with State Farm

 

In the PUSSCAR (Peoples United Socialistic States of CaliforniA Republic), you mean to tell me your minimum insurance coverage doesnt include both comprehensive and collision? This would be a non-issue with my GEICO MA coverage, call the ins co, they send an agent out to look at it, they walk back into their car, cut me a check from inside their car, I go fix it for 1/4 of what they quoted including beer, all is well.

 

Looks like in CA, the min insurance is liabilty coverage. If that's all kenzo42 had, then he's SOL and only covered his car for damages to fix other people's property when he's at fault... bet he wished he splurged for that extra $5 to cover any damages other's do to HIS property.

 

Before everyone goes jumping on the OP for his insurance choices... I want to add a datapoint as a socal resident. I carry liability/comp on my miata. I happen to have 4 cars on my plan so adding the miata with 6-8k miles a year with that level of coverage was a like no change.

I am 32, absolutely perfect driving record with no tickets or accidents. For me to insure the miata with full coverage if it were my only car for 10-12k a year with a 500 deductible would be around 150-170 per month. Without comprehensive it would be around 70-80.

Not saying it justifies it but it is about 600 per year adder... and on a nearly stock 1.6NA all it takes is 2-3 years and you've already paid out the value of the car in insurance costs.

Again... I'm not that dumb, but I have money to burn and have learned my lessons the hard way.

 

The minimum is liability-only, yes. The idea is that you can make a choice about how much risk you're willing to take with your own property, but you can't make that choice with someone else's property. Kind of ironic to think of California legislation giving more freedom than other states…

(Of course, the state minimum is $5K in property damage, which is barely enough to open a can of paint these days, so…)

Then there's the fact that even if the car had collision coverage (which is what would pay for this), it's a 1991. At a minimum it needs some combination of a subframe, control arms, a wheel, probably a tire, and some metal/paintwork on the rear fender, maybe even a diff. The fender doesn't unbolt, it's part of the unibody, so that's extra spendy to fix. There's no way that's going to be less than $3-4K at SF labor rates (and could easily be double that), so the car would be totaled and they'd be handing Kenzo a check for $1500 or so. There's a reason why people skip collision coverage on a 25 year old car, the annual premiums can easily be a third or more of the actual payout value.

--Ian

 

That's exactly the case in NY state and is exactly why I've never bothered getting collision on cars that I paid less than $5 for; you pay for the car every three years.

Oddly, I can get glass coverage for like $10/year. I buy it, of course, but have yet to use it. I wouldn't mind a fresh windshield on either of my cars....

 

An older woman called out of the blue and admitted to hitting it (a card with my phone # was left on the windshield). She said the sun was in her eyes. She hit it with a Mercedes.

 

WOW man, that's a stroke of good luck. Good luck getting that sorted asap.

I don't have a single car with full coverage. I also don't have a car that is "worth" more than 5k (as far as the insurance companies know anyways).

If i had a fancy newer car, of course I'd have full coverage. But come on guys, it's a miata. It's not worth paying that much on insurance. If mine gets wrecked I'll buy another 1,000 shell and swap the parts. YES, pain in the ***, but still a better deal for me.

 

Drop me a PM if you need/want control arms.

 

I got ~$5000 for my totalled 93. I spent ~$3000 on a 91. Moved most my parts over to the new body. Sold a bunch of ****. and netted over $2000 in profit after upgrades.

or I could of just had a worthless lump...

 

My brother took some pictures.

I see the rear UCA is bent. I think the subframe (where it connects to LCA) looks bent too. Do you guys see anything else? Are the shocks likely damaged too? They look straight from photos.