Unless there’s something unusual about your insurance, the damage described seems unlikely to result in a new car. The deal with most insurance boils down to “Your car will be repaired to a good standard of safety and appearance.”
Insurance that said “Your car will end up exactly as it was before the problem happened” is not normal and would almost certainly be much more expensive.
Well this is a new car (my first new car too) that I just bought in November and has just over 3,000 miles on it. So it better be exactly like it was before the accident happened.
2 big dents in the roof, scrapes on the back fenders, broken windshield, scratches and dents on the hood, scrapes on the front bumper, and dents on the front fender. Not major damage but a lot of minor damage all over.
Some pics here: Psycho 78 | Flickr
Read your policy, that’s what will govern the quality of the repairs. There may be language about choosing the body shop, aftermarket parts, used parts, etc.
Back in 98, I was t-boned by a woman who ran a red light. I was driving my parents new Nissan Altima; kind of like you, I think we’d only had it for 3-4 months. No damage to the frame, but pretty much every panel that made up the side of the car was damaged; I couldn’t even get the front door open and I had to crawl out through the side door (there were no injuries, BTW).
My parent’s insurance made it so that the car was repaired at a Nissan dealership, using Nissan panels and parts. You really couldn’t tell that there had ever been damage, since the parts were exactly the same replacements as what was on the car beforehand. It really looked brand new when we got it back.
That car wasn’t very lucky; my sister’s ex-bf was driving it once and he fell asleep at the wheel and drove off the road, flipping it over. Just scrapes to the hood and roof, and I think a broken headlight, but again, Nissan themselves fixed it up with new parts for the same model car and it was good as new.
Completely worthless on resale, though!
See if you can get Mazda to do the repairs; it might turn out better than a third-party body shop.
ETA: I just looked at the pics… I love how you have a GIANT driveway, and the tree managed to land precisely on top of your car. Next time, park on the other side! hehe
I’ve got 1.3 fucking acres and that was the only tree or sizable branch that fell. :smack:
It had occurred to me to move my car because of the high winds yesterday, but I was more worried about small branches, not a whole tree top. And to think I trusted Maple trees!