pixelbend

Hi all,

Early last week my wife was driving back home from class in her 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport when a guy came out of a side street (coming down a hill) in a Chevy S10 at about 35 mph and hit her in the right back door/tire area. It spun her all the way around the street and she ended up in someone's lawn.

The guy said his brakes failed and he couldn't stop. It sheared a few of the bolts in the back end and dropped the rear drive train, messed up the wheel and wrinkled up both doors on that side and the back fender panel. It had to be put on a flat bed to get it out of the street. All in all, I think it took the impact like a champ.

We got her checked out at the Emergency Room and everything was ok (thank god). She got in contact with the other guy's insurance company and we got a rental car from them. We requested an SUV because she uses it for work and to haul around our Great Dane. They said, "We can't do that, it would be too expensive and you are lucky we are even coveing this because it was equipment failure on my client's part. Any other insurance company would not cover it." And at the time we thought he was just blowing smoke up our butt.

The next day we get a call saying that they are not going to cover our claim because it was equipment failure and we need to take the rental car back. We were shocked. We were awed. We thought, "Isn't that what you have insurance for?".

Well, to make a long story short, our insurance company is going to pick up everything and have to sue his insurance company to get their money back. the Jeep is totaled and we will still owe about $900 on it.

So my question to all of you is: Is this bullshait or do most insurance companies not cover this sort of thing? Everyone I have talked to says it's bull. My insurance agent, the rental car guy, friends, family...everyone.

I feel like we are the victim's in this and we are getting screwed at every oppourtunity.