Rear ended. Warranty + repair shop nightmares

[AbhorViolence]

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Interesting solution. Would you mind posting a pic or two of this on your truck?

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[Rickmc]

Someone smarter answer this for me but while this "bump step" will help protect your car when it's getting rear ended, an actual car accident will be made worse because all the energy is essentially being transferred through the frame and not the crumple zones?

No way it will do any more damage to the frame than if you don't have it installed. Here's my logic:

Unless the vehicle ramming you from behind is a reinforced MadMax vehicle that has a unbendable plate where it contacts the bump step then whatever part of that vehicle that contacts the bump step will crumble. i.e. their plastic bumper, their radiator grill, etc will deflect inward until the rest of their front end makes contact with your rear bumper and then your bumper will take over.

The bump step, or in my case, a hitch deflector will only save you from minor hits like 5 mph hits where their fascia gets smashed by your bumper doesn't get touched. Probably anything over 10mph and you will still have damage to your vehicle. Again, the only way to damage the frame, i.e. transfer all the impact to the frame only, is if they have a perfectly aligned reinforced plate that is braced to their frame that only makes contact with that bump step.

 

[RiverIndian]

Sorry this has happened to you. Like others said, probably the only thing that's different about having a Rivian in this case is that you're more limited on shops that can/will do the work. BUT you have that handy video, which I'm sure will eventually be important. Glad your insurance has been responsive -- seems like eventually they may be able to subrogate with the other insurance.

I wrote up my similar experience recently on the Reddit -

Damage looks similar to mine (yours not quite as bad, from the initial look); my actual repair was $9600.

Glad that you were able to get your issues resolved with your truck. Did the other insurance company offer the diminished value or did you have to ask for that? Did you try to negotiate?

Thanks

 

[Whhrheb]

Glad that you were able to get your issues resolved with your truck. Did the other insurance company offer the diminished value or did you have to ask for that? Did you try to negotiate?

Thanks

Had to ask. The other insurance made an offer. We had a very light neogiation -- just got them up about $500. But it wasn't hard and required no real work on my part.

 

[Whhrheb]

Glad that you were able to get your issues resolved with your truck. Did the other insurance company offer the diminished value or did you have to ask for that? Did you try to negotiate?

Thanks

Also, you can't start anything with diminished value until your repairs are complete, and of course the other party's insurance needs to acknowledge fault.

 

[Rickmc]

Here is my deflector hitch attachment. Won't save me from anything other than a minor tap. A large hit and I'll still be going through body shops and insurance but if I can avoid any smaller bumps from that hassle, I'm all in.

The only other possible way it saves me from a harder hit is if it's a little s*it box that sits low to the ground and possibly the hoot hits it and causes it to dive under the truck.

 

[rbr19870445]

No way it will do any more damage to the frame than if you don't have it installed. Here's my logic:

Unless the vehicle ramming you from behind is a reinforced MadMax vehicle that has a unbendable plate where it contacts the bump step then whatever part of that vehicle that contacts the bump step will crumble. i.e. their plastic bumper, their radiator grill, etc will deflect inward until the rest of their front end makes contact with your rear bumper and then your bumper will take over.

The bump step, or in my case, a hitch deflector will only save you from minor hits like 5 mph hits where their fascia gets smashed by your bumper doesn't get touched. Probably anything over 10mph and you will still have damage to your vehicle. Again, the only way to damage the frame, i.e. transfer all the impact to the frame only, is if they have a perfectly aligned reinforced plate that is braced to their frame that only makes contact with that bump step.

Appreciate the reply. I live in the Carolinas so everyone around here drives like they are in "Mad Max" the movie and am also 4 hours away from the nearest service center. If there are preventative things I can do to avoid minor repairs, I'm all for it.

 

[ohseedee]

My apologies in advance for the long post and if some of this writing sounds like I am venting - as I am.

I waited over 2 years for the R1S and within a few days of ownership, we got rear ended in stop and go traffic on the freeway. This whole thing has been a nightmare trying to get fixed and I wanted to chronicle it here so I can get some advice and hopefully save someone the headaches I have had to endure working with the insurance companies. Almost 2 months have passed and I am still waiting on decisions.

AAA Insurance - The vehicle that hit me from behind had AAA insurance. I had minimal contact with the case agent but have sent information along with a video of their policy holder hitting my Rivian as I was at a complete stop. They told me they were going to investigate fault and get a hold of their client. I have yet to hear from them and the case agent will not respond to the numerous attempts to contact from myself or my claim agent from my insurance.

Connect (AmFam) Insurance - Since I had not heard anything from AAA, I decided to move forward with my own insurance. I submitted photos and videos of the accident and their online adjuster claimed it would be about $1500 to fix. They promptly mail out a check to fix the vehicle which I did not cash. I find a local Rivian Certified Collision Center - European motor car works and they quote me a little over $10k in damages. Connect insurance reviews the quote and quickly mails out another check for $8k which I have not deposited either. Along with this check, they claim that the Certified body shop charges over their standard labor rate and that I would have to pay the rest out of pocket (around $1500). Last I spoke to my claim agent was a few days ago and I brought up my concerns about paying anything out of pocket and also concerns about diminished value on the vehicle but have yet to hear back days after the promised time I was given. With the way everything has gone, and total lack of support even from my own insurance, I can almost guarantee they would fail at going after AAA to recoup my money and already expect my premium to go up.

So here I am almost 2 months after an accident I was at no fault for and just waiting to see what my insurance company will do. I have reached out to other body shops and they will not even touch a Rivian because they are not certified and cant get parts.

Sorry to hear. I had a similar story. You absolutely should NOT pay anything out of pocket. Because you are using your choice of a shop, they are saying you’d have to pay the cost difference between your shop vs theirs. That’s typically fair. The issue is…none of their shops are going to fix a Rivian. My insurance wanted me to go to their shop for similar cost reasons. None of their shops were Rivian certified but because their preferred Service King was close I decided to take an hour out of my day and get this conflict out of the way. My insurance made the appointment. I show up, and before I even get out of my truck the attendant runs over with “you are not dropping that off right? We cant fix it.” I got no more arguments.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Man this sucks and I am sorry your having this experience. I wouldn't start talking about diminished value just yet...get the repairs done first. Did you make a police report? Sounds like you have video evidence of the offending driver "failing to control speed to avoid a collision". Also, your state insurance commissioner/administration should be able to help if the insurance companies don't honor their policies. Time to get out your policy and start going through all the fine print.

 

[kozak79]

Unless my vehicle was not drivable, I would not go to my insurance and just keep calling the other party's insurance until I get them to send an adjuster or deny the claim.

 

[calpolymatt]

I was hit and given the run around by insurance. State Farm would not pay the hourly rate the Rivian shop was charging. The right hand did not know what the left hand was doing. Finally after enough pestering I finally talked to somebody with actual power and they approved the Rivian body shop hourly wage on the spot.
It sucks, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Cause enough of a fuss and hopefully it will be taken care of.
Lastly, my truck has been in the shop for over 6 months and I still don't have it back :-/ That is probably the main reason I will be selling it. Ridiculous that a repair takes that long.

 

[Count Orlok]

what does the police report say regarding fault? was the other driver cited?

 

[VSG]

Unless my vehicle was not drivable, I would not go to my insurance and just keep calling the other party's insurance until I get them to send an adjuster or deny the claim.

I guess I must be missing something fundamental here. I haven't been in too many accidents, but those have always been the other guy's fault. And I have NEVER had to deal with the other guy's insurance company. I just call my people, they take care of it and they deal with the other insurance company. I get my vehicle fixed promptly and I don't have to worry about arguing with some other insurance company that has no obligation to me since I'm not their customer.

So what am I missing? Do you think that by not involving your own insurance company they're not going to know about the accident? That all goes into the record regardless of whose insurance handles it ...

 

[Redline]

Yeah, why are you guys doing the work? That's why you pay for insurance.

Let your insurance go after theirs.

I'm sorry you're going through this. My first weekend of owning the R1S, I've constantly watched my rear view mirror. People are idiots.

 

[kozak79]

Dealing with your insurance and dealing with the other party's insurance should be the same process, each insurance will send an adjuster. If you use your insurance, you have a higher chance of it going up and you have to pay the deductible and wait for it to be given back after your insurance collects. In previous fender benders, I've collected from the other party's insurance and only bothered with mine when the other insurance denied my claim.

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