Deer collision damage results in $6k repair. Insurance lessons learned

[Blackbelt]

Deer are just large rats. Here in PA, i think we are number 1 or 2 for deer hits. I dodged the bullet for many years, but the deer got me in 2018. My 3000 miles old Jeep Renegade took a $4000 hit, and 10 months later my Toyota took a $3200 hit. My son hit one last November and it totaled his 2015 Nissan with 28K miles on it. I don't like deer and i think hunting season needs to be year round here.

Sponsored

 

[klutch14u]

My wife hit a deer (buck) in her 2021 4Runner Limited w/4K miles just after Christmas in '21. Cost estimate was $26K, State Farm totaled it (thank God). In my prior experiences with State Farm, if you use one of their in-network shops you don't deal with SF at all. Just pay your deductible to the body shop when you pick it up.

 

[Shehawk]

My deer hit cost over $8,000. Both light units had to be replaced.

Ugh this is a good reminder to keep full coverage on our second vehicle
Love the new truck so am
Sorry for all the deer damage I am seeing on here. It looks like the Mavericks are doing a great job protecting the occupants tho. I would rather have neither but if I had to choose, it would be damage to a vehicle over damage to people.

 

[Shehawk]

Deer are just large rats. Here in PA, i think we are number 1 or 2 for deer hits. I dodged the bullet for many years, but the deer got me in 2018. My 3000 miles old Jeep Renegade took a $4000 hit, and 10 months later my Toyota took a $3200 hit. My son hit one last November and it totaled his 2015 Nissan with 28K miles on it. I don't like deer and i think hunting season needs to be year round here.

I understand your sentiments. Our farm grows grain and they hang out in the yard getting all huffy when people disturb them. Rats with hooves.

 

[NJBob]

At least my shop gave me a courtesy loaner. Ford Flex with a non-functional audio system (bad module). They "forgot" to tell me that in advance ... But free is free!

I actually like the Ford Flex.

 

[bluesteel]

I actually like the Ford Flex.

I liked it more than I thought I would. It has decent tow capacity, too. But the gas mileage left a little to be desired, especially for a Maverick owner (even the eco)!

 

[hellokitty1984]

Hunter numbers are down, at least here in Michigan, and deer populations are going up. It's not the DNR fault that deer are breeding like rabbits. I'm pretty sure you can buy multiple deer licenses here also. I know you can buy at least two for the regular season and multiple more for the extended season. The entire season runs from late September until January 1st.
Slow down at dawn and dusk and you have a better chance of not running them over.

That’s too short of a season. Ours lasts from early September to late January.

 

[Montana]

I saw a dead turkey on I80 from SF to Sacramento, it was huge! People dodged it dangerously..

That is a major issue where I live. Often times the bigger trucks will just plow through them with their massive steel bumpers and it leaves a pile of bones sticking up right in the middle of the road. Run that over and get a puncture vs. slowing down with no indicators because it's a two lane highway and the only other option is swerve into oncoming traffic. People ride each others asses up here too. One reason why I never do unless I'm certain I have plenty of safe space to pass without having to floor it otherwise I'm just gonna go the same speed they are for a while. No rush.

 

[James K]

I had a night collision with a fairly small deer a little before Christmas (a rude gift). I saw it suddenly coming onto the road; slammed the brakes but was not able to slow down enough to avoid it. The road was not obviously icy, but I think I did skid a bit. It hit squarely in the front center. This was coming out of a small town with reduced speed limit, and I was speeding up to get back to highway speed on the two-lane. I'm guessing I was going somewhere around 40 mph at the point of impact.

Cost? A hair over $6,000 when all was said and done. The photos show pretty much all of the exterior damage (I didn't take any from farther back.) It needed a new bumper/covers, impact bar, grilles, ambient temp sensor, radiator and support, shutters, intercooler, one and headlamp.

This incident taught me NOT to submit a photo claim in the insurance company's app or otherwise. YMMV, but I am convinced this will almost always result in an unrealistically low up-front approved cost, then you end up leaving your vehicle sitting at the dealer and eventually undergoing a teardown until they can prepare a supplement request. The body shop also expressed frustration with this process and the fact that many major insurers are pushing it.

I ended up talking to my State Farm agent, and she got corporate to make an exception allowing the body shop to order all parts up front based on their OWN visual estimate, even though there usually is no "takeback" of a photo estimate. Considering I had already been waiting for awhile before that for a backordered grill to come in, I wanted to reduce the risk of another wait for something on backorder after the teardown happened. Thankfully, the grill was the only real wait. For whatever reasons, the whole repair did end up taking two weeks, though.

One hiccup was a used or aftermarket headlight that had a nonfunctional "eyebrow" DRL. After that happened, as the last part of the repair, SF agreed to a new OEM light (yay).

Silver lining: My radiators had a ton of crushed fins for some unknown reason. So at least I have that new. The main radiator was bent in really good after the collision. The back of it got to 1/4-1/8" of the front center of the cooling fan. But the radiator did not leak and remained effective at cooling, thankfully (winter may have helped). So vehicle was drivable until all of the ordered parts came in.

I like to think I've always been pretty attentive at watching for deer, and it would've been pretty hard to avoid this one - but after this reminder of the tremendous hassle of a wait and the deductible, I like to think that now I might get even better at it! (knock on wood)

Sounds like something may have spooked the deer as outside of rut and hunting season they generally don't run. They say not to swerve but I have missed countless deer and one bear by doing so. All have been on low traffic country roads. I refuse to ride my motorcycle during rut, just too dangerous and I already survived one deer motorcycle collision so odds of two are slim. Glad the damage didn't total your truck and by the sound of it, no injury.

 

[Shakesbear]

Deer are majestically derpy.

The only place I like to see deer are here:

And here:

 

[Paulyz]

I had a night collision with a fairly small deer a little before Christmas (a rude gift). I saw it suddenly coming onto the road; slammed the brakes but was not able to slow down enough to avoid it. The road was not obviously icy, but I think I did skid a bit. It hit squarely in the front center. This was coming out of a small town with reduced speed limit, and I was speeding up to get back to highway speed on the two-lane. I'm guessing I was going somewhere around 40 mph at the point of impact.

Cost? A hair over $6,000 when all was said and done. The photos show pretty much all of the exterior damage (I didn't take any from farther back.) It needed a new bumper/covers, impact bar, grilles, ambient temp sensor, radiator and support, shutters, intercooler, one and headlamp.

This incident taught me NOT to submit a photo claim in the insurance company's app or otherwise. YMMV, but I am convinced this will almost always result in an unrealistically low up-front approved cost, then you end up leaving your vehicle sitting at the dealer and eventually undergoing a teardown until they can prepare a supplement request. The body shop also expressed frustration with this process and the fact that many major insurers are pushing it.

I ended up talking to my State Farm agent, and she got corporate to make an exception allowing the body shop to order all parts up front based on their OWN visual estimate, even though there usually is no "takeback" of a photo estimate. Considering I had already been waiting for awhile before that for a backordered grill to come in, I wanted to reduce the risk of another wait for something on backorder after the teardown happened. Thankfully, the grill was the only real wait. For whatever reasons, the whole repair did end up taking two weeks, though.

One hiccup was a used or aftermarket headlight that had a nonfunctional "eyebrow" DRL. After that happened, as the last part of the repair, SF agreed to a new OEM light (yay).

Silver lining: My radiators had a ton of crushed fins for some unknown reason. So at least I have that new. The main radiator was bent in really good after the collision. The back of it got to 1/4-1/8" of the front center of the cooling fan. But the radiator did not leak and remained effective at cooling, thankfully (winter may have helped). So vehicle was drivable until all of the ordered parts came in.

I like to think I've always been pretty attentive at watching for deer, and it would've been pretty hard to avoid this one - but after this reminder of the tremendous hassle of a wait and the deductible, I like to think that now I might get even better at it! (knock on wood)

Guess 2 weeks not too bad a wait. Wish there were some smaller grill guards for the Maverick as I am always watching out for them.

 

[Goose20]

I had a night collision with a fairly small deer a little before Christmas (a rude gift). I saw it suddenly coming onto the road; slammed the brakes but was not able to slow down enough to avoid it. The road was not obviously icy, but I think I did skid a bit. It hit squarely in the front center. This was coming out of a small town with reduced speed limit, and I was speeding up to get back to highway speed on the two-lane. I'm guessing I was going somewhere around 40 mph at the point of impact.

Cost? A hair over $6,000 when all was said and done. The photos show pretty much all of the exterior damage (I didn't take any from farther back.) It needed a new bumper/covers, impact bar, grilles, ambient temp sensor, radiator and support, shutters, intercooler, one and headlamp.

This incident taught me NOT to submit a photo claim in the insurance company's app or otherwise. YMMV, but I am convinced this will almost always result in an unrealistically low up-front approved cost, then you end up leaving your vehicle sitting at the dealer and eventually undergoing a teardown until they can prepare a supplement request. The body shop also expressed frustration with this process and the fact that many major insurers are pushing it.

I ended up talking to my State Farm agent, and she got corporate to make an exception allowing the body shop to order all parts up front based on their OWN visual estimate, even though there usually is no "takeback" of a photo estimate. Considering I had already been waiting for awhile before that for a backordered grill to come in, I wanted to reduce the risk of another wait for something on backorder after the teardown happened. Thankfully, the grill was the only real wait. For whatever reasons, the whole repair did end up taking two weeks, though.

One hiccup was a used or aftermarket headlight that had a nonfunctional "eyebrow" DRL. After that happened, as the last part of the repair, SF agreed to a new OEM light (yay).

Silver lining: My radiators had a ton of crushed fins for some unknown reason. So at least I have that new. The main radiator was bent in really good after the collision. The back of it got to 1/4-1/8" of the front center of the cooling fan. But the radiator did not leak and remained effective at cooling, thankfully (winter may have helped). So vehicle was drivable until all of the ordered parts came in.

I like to think I've always been pretty attentive at watching for deer, and it would've been pretty hard to avoid this one - but after this reminder of the tremendous hassle of a wait and the deductible, I like to think that now I might get even better at it! (knock on wood)

I am paying 1k year for insurance on a base XL hybrid.....More than my Mustang eco boom.....Costs are crazy..Our 2020 dev hybrid was hit in parking lot...Needed new rear passenger door...Cost 7000.00 dollars...Nutz .....

 

[NJBob]

I liked it more than I thought I would. It has decent tow capacity, too. But the gas mileage left a little to be desired, especially for a Maverick owner (even the eco)!

Yrs thought it makes good use of the space. But not getting 17mpg like my F150 did.

 

[bluesteel]

Ugh this is a good reminder to keep full coverage on our second vehicle
Love the new truck so am
Sorry for all the deer damage I am seeing on here. It looks like the Mavericks are doing a great job protecting the occupants tho. I would rather have neither but if I had to choose, it would be damage to a vehicle over damage to people.

"Full" coverage means different things to different people, but animal strikes are under comprehensive coverage (relatively cheap), in case you don't know!

Yeah, definitely no damage to me from this one - I barely even felt the impact in the truck.

 

[HughdMan]

I had a night collision with a fairly small deer a little before Christmas (a rude gift). I saw it suddenly coming onto the road; slammed the brakes but was not able to slow down enough to avoid it. The road was not obviously icy, but I think I did skid a bit. It hit squarely in the front center. This was coming out of a small town with reduced speed limit, and I was speeding up to get back to highway speed on the two-lane. I'm guessing I was going somewhere around 40 mph at the point of impact.

Cost? A hair over $6,000 when all was said and done. The photos show pretty much all of the exterior damage (I didn't take any from farther back.) It needed a new bumper/covers, impact bar, grilles, ambient temp sensor, radiator and support, shutters, intercooler, one and headlamp.

This incident taught me NOT to submit a photo claim in the insurance company's app or otherwise. YMMV, but I am convinced this will almost always result in an unrealistically low up-front approved cost, then you end up leaving your vehicle sitting at the dealer and eventually undergoing a teardown until they can prepare a supplement request. The body shop also expressed frustration with this process and the fact that many major insurers are pushing it.

I ended up talking to my State Farm agent, and she got corporate to make an exception allowing the body shop to order all parts up front based on their OWN visual estimate, even though there usually is no "takeback" of a photo estimate. Considering I had already been waiting for awhile before that for a backordered grill to come in, I wanted to reduce the risk of another wait for something on backorder after the teardown happened. Thankfully, the grill was the only real wait. For whatever reasons, the whole repair did end up taking two weeks, though.

One hiccup was a used or aftermarket headlight that had a nonfunctional "eyebrow" DRL. After that happened, as the last part of the repair, SF agreed to a new OEM light (yay).

Silver lining: My radiators had a ton of crushed fins for some unknown reason. So at least I have that new. The main radiator was bent in really good after the collision. The back of it got to 1/4-1/8" of the front center of the cooling fan. But the radiator did not leak and remained effective at cooling, thankfully (winter may have helped). So vehicle was drivable until all of the ordered parts came in.

I like to think I've always been pretty attentive at watching for deer, and it would've been pretty hard to avoid this one - but after this reminder of the tremendous hassle of a wait and the deductible, I like to think that now I might get even better at it! (knock on wood)

A friend had a similar experience- someone backed into the front of his new Colorado. Not much damage, but it cost almost $5K to fix. He traded it the next week because he foresaw a future with $$$ expensive parts.

Last year I hit a big buck (10-point) on the way to work in my '14 Volt. It also cost $6K to fix, but it had a lot of damage- front grill, radiator, bumper/cover, both fenders.... they almost totaled it but I talked them out of it. In those days of pandemic shortages, it was worth $7K+ (now it's less than $2K). It looks brand new now and I will drive it again when the weather warms up (lithium is cold natured). The Volt was covered with deer whistles and he still jumped in front of me (going 35mpg). The Maverick is now covered with deer whistles too!

Sponsored