Ugh. I was driving on Sunset Blvd in San Francisco at 11:30pm in my RX-8 and approached a blind turn at about 30mph which is the posted speed limit. As I straightened out after the turn, all of a sudden this yellow cat decides to bolt right across from the un-illuminated area into the illuminated area of my headlights. At that point, it was too late to even stop because the cat was streaking across so fast, there was so little time to react.

So to the damage. The stupid cat hit smack dab right in the middle of my MS bumper. It cracked the bumper mostly on the passenger area as well breaking off the mesh in the middle. Looking carefully inside, I noticed that the flat plastic piece that connects the bumper on the bottom to to plastic panel was shredded pretty badly. Fortunately I still have the OEM bumper but the damn plastic was shredded badly and I'm not sure if it would fit again.

Now my questions for anyone with knowledge about the aftermath of killing a cat and needing bodywork on their car:


1. Is it possible to claim insurance under the "comprehensive" section ? Would my rates go up because of this or should I just pay this out of pocket ?

2. Can the bodyshop repair cracks in an authentic mazdaspeed bumper as well as th semi-shredded plastic bottom ?


Sigh, I know now this incident plus the hard time the cops give me, I think its a good time now to just sell the rx-8 and move on to something more inconspicious, and perhaps even handle a stupid cat's stupidity.

Pictures will come later in the evening when I get home if anyone's interested in seeing the damage. Also if anyone is living in SF, the cat is still there, sprawled like a pancake on Sunset Blvd. :\

 

not to sound preachy, but... it was a blind corner -.-; even if the speed limit was 30... slow j00r **** down...

poor kitty... =(

newayz... i feel sorry bout ur car... and hope it comes back good as new...

 

so do i, poor kitty cat. good thing you didn't get your m3, huh? if you head your bmw, it would of been all all bad

answers to your question, claim it under comprehensive, some companies let it go, some don't. depends on your insurance (personal experience).

body shops do wonders, go to a professional, and recommended body shop from reliable sources, they can of coarse fix it, just have to go in for a free estimate. i would recommend a shop in san jose, got my car done there, wonderful work. PM me if you want the info.

if this happens with a bmw, you'll beat yourself up twice as hard as you are now... and repairing it will be costly........................ just my way of trying to keep you in the club... hahahahaha

 

Here are some of the pics.







Note in the last pic, a tiny piece on the bottom section was cracked and the black mesh in the middle was ripped off. Luckily it fell in the compartment inside. Also the black panel underneath the car was torn to shreds. :\

So is the damage repairable or is it considered a goner ?


Note that I said the posted speed limit was 30 mph in the blind turn and I WAS going 30 mph. Yeah you are right, I shouldn't have followed the speed limit and should have went 10 mph expecting a cat to streak across like that.

Anyways, I know **** happens in this world. Now I need to get all this straightened out.

 

Well at least there wasn't any kitty guts splat all over it. Okay that was bad. Sorry to hear of your car's misfortune. Hopefully it wasn't someone's pet.

 

If you look at this picture you can see there is some cat guts on this car. Look left of the fog light and you will see a what looks to be like fur. OMG, you cat murder you. Sorry to hear about the accident and everything. Good luck at getting it fixed. Btw if you are thinking of selling your 8, how much would u want? how many miles and what are all the specs on it?

 

Fur?... looks more like a feather to me.....

... You sure it wasnt a pegion?

-RoMeO

 

answer to your thread
i think you won, cuz you killed the cat
there's this one time i almost hit a raccoon in twin peak lucky i'm fast enough to react and cut to the next lane before i hit that little sucker
sorry for your bumper dude, but I'm sure any bodyshop can fix that
i just saw your car parked on Ocean Ave last week, sorry to hear this

 

Your insurance will likely call it an "at-fault" accident since you actually hit something whilst driving.
I just did the same thing with a piece of truck tire and the damage was similar (only no satisfaction of a kill and I was doing 75 on the freeway). Progressive listed it as at-fault and wrote me a check for $2k.

A shop might be able to fix it - I am going to send mine out at some point - but I wouldn't count on it looking too good. The "Metton" that it is made out of can't be repaired with FRP permanently.

I ended up just putting on a new bumper with the insurance money.

 

^LOL. "Satisfaction of a kill." That cracks me up. I think I was more pissed than satisfied at killing the cat.

I think I'm going to get an estimate for the damage if its repairable or not, then see if its I can talk to my insurance company and ask them to reimburse me under the "comprehensive" claim. I was reading an online comprehensive claim form for my insurance policy and this is what the header said:

"Complete this report if your vehicle was stolen, vandalized, damaged by weather,
fire, falling object, or animal."

So hopefully they will cover me. But I have a bad feeling they are going to jack up my premium.

Luckily I still have my OEM bumper. What's worse is that they don't make anymore yellow Mazdaspeed bumpers anymore from the factory.

BTW, I'm pretty sure it was a cat I hit. It was a nice yellow cat that ran out of it's 9 lives unfortunately. Talk about yellow on yellow.

 

I have been an adjuster for 10 yrs now. It's a comprehensive loss. Although it is a collision with an animal most companies will (should) handle it as comprshensive. It does not matter if the animal is dead or alive at the time of impact.

A good body man can easily fix it.

 

rofl... kitties are 5 points... racoons are 10... its universal

 

Poor kitty should have been looking where he was going ,,,,,

 

wow sorry to hear about the run of bad luck - I hit a raccoon doing 60 one night (it was a fat son of a bitch too) and it tore the **** out of my bumper and AC condenser.

I claimed it under insurance as the total cost was like 2000 dollars to fix it all - only cost me 500. No rate increase.

Cats suck anyway now there is one less in the world hah

 

Dam kitty got it and your 8 got it too Hope you get your car fixed soon

 

Imagine hitting a deer....a dumb dumb animal.

 

take that to a bodyshop, and you'll be fixed up in notime!