My $1700.00 Deer

[CrealCritter]

So... Long story short. The evening before my daughter wedding on the way home from town, a doe jumped out in front of me. I was on a two lane hiway, speed limit 55 MPH and I was going every bit of that. I tagged the doe. Stopped backed up parked the my truck and searched for the deer. I could not find her but surely she was good as dead.

I then looked at the front of my truck. Her face was pretty messed up but it didn't look all that bad, bumper bent, passenger side lights loose, etc... But nothing major.

I called my insurance company and left a message. I got a call the next morning (morning of my daughters wedding Friday) and found out I was covered with $100.00 deductible and was given the certified repair shop to get an estimate.

I took my truck in for an estimate to get her face fixed. I about fell out of my chair when I was told i had hit a $1700.00 deer, THAT I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO EAT. I mean at least a 1/2 of the deer would have been nice

Just wondering why the cost was so high, I took the body shop estimate and started pricing the parts. I was able to find the parts for less than a third of the price of the body shop parts. Then labor $60.00 an hour made up most of the rest of the estimate cost. Then of course Dick Durban gets his share (taxes).

So I called my agent and asked, what if I want to fix my truck myself? My agent said tell the body shop to load the estimate to the system and I will deposit the amount minus your deductible to your bank account and that's it. So I did what she said and today she calls me and tells me she just deposited the estimate amount minus my deductible into my bank account.

You know for $1,600.00 I can fix that truck up real good. A completely new face is about $600.00 (I mean everything new, lights, grill, bumper, brackets, etc...) And Dick Durban wont get any of it

So what to do with remaining $1000.00 worth of a my $1700.00 deer?

 

[wyoDreamer]

My friend did the same thing with his Toyota truck this summer. Only he still hasn't fixed his truck up - the passenger side panel is being held on by duck tape and bungy cords, lol!

 

[flowerbug]

good luck!

those buggers have cost us a lot of $ over the years...

we figure between the two of us we could have already bought another two whole cars at new price including a lot of gadgets and even probably included a lot of legal fees a prenup and various other wedding goodies for some future shindig if i were ever so inclineded....

just the last body check from a deer (which got up and ran away) was $4500, it got the front fender and both doors.

yes, labor was a big part of that. also the fancier the paint job the more labor. eggshell white spray can paint never looked so good!

 

[CrealCritter]

My friend did the same thing with his Toyota truck this summer. Only he still hasn't fixed his truck up - the passenger side panel is being held on by duck tape and bungy cords, lol!

Now that's hillbilly right there

My wife just informed me the money is in the bank account in pending status. I know it'll be there tomorrow morning because the bank runs some kind of batch job overnight.

Tomorrow I'll be ordering all the parts to give the old girl a new face and dick won't even get a penny of it. I just can't believe I'm getting paid $1000.00 to put a new face on the old girl.

Besides for tires, I've done all the work on her myself since she rolled off the assembly line in Canada. That truck and I have a special kind of relationship. She has never once let me down, since 2003 and 197,000 miles. I really don't want anyone else wrenching on her, if I can help it.

I guess it's a guy and his truck thing... IDK

 

[wyoDreamer]

He grew up on a pig farm - so I was surprised that no baling twine was in use,

 

[Lazy Gardener]

We recently had some insurance work done on my car. If we have an other claim in the next 10 years, our rate will go up.

 

[CrealCritter]

My poor veggie hauler.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hope you don't have any parts left over when you put 'er back together! Nah - you got this!

 

[CrealCritter]

Hope you don't have any parts left over when you put 'er back together! Nah - you got this!

Lots of bent metal and broken plastic, but I about got it whopped. I got an entirely new face for her, minus the fog lights because they were OK. I even got to keep the bowtie since the deer didn't break that for some unknown reason. I was missing some clips for the air deflector, which i just ordered. Now that i got it tore down i know I really tagged that deer.

 

[wyoDreamer]

My truck has been having intermittent vibrations that I can feel through the steering wheel for a good part of the summer. At first, DH didn't believe me, then he borrowed it for a 4 hour trip and came back saying I know what you mean now...

I said I needed new tires, he said you just need to rotate them and we'll get two new ones for the front end before winter. Then he checked the tires out and said "we are getting you 4 new tires."

I recieved a recall notice regarding the braking system for my truck - I had recall work done on my truck back in the spring when the brake recall first came out. They changed the brake pump at that time.

So, DH had new tires put on my truck on Monday when he borrowed it. Cool, I like having traction again. Boo, the vibration is still there...

So DH calls the dealer to make an appointment - dealer says can you bring it in right away, otherwise I can't get you in for the next two weeks. You betcha we can take it in right away (12:30). When we drop it off he says "we'll call you with an estimate around 3, we con't get to fixing it until tomorrow, and we won't do any work on it until you say OK." They called at 4 to say that it was done and ready to pick up.

they did the work as warranty work and it cost me nothing, plus they did the recall work - reprogram the brake system, which was actually a second recall, an extra fix for the brake problem.

So now I am all set for the 3" of snow forecast for this morning.