While they might limit damage to the truck, they can also serve as a launching point to hurl the deer up and through the windshield causing injury or death to the occupants.

 

I have hit lots of deer (and they hit me) but knock on wood so far none in the F-150. My son hit a deer in his '19 Fiesta ST recently. About $3k of damage. You won't have a choice between OEM and aftermarket on almost all policies. I did make a deal with the body shop, however, to use all OEM parts since only a couple parts like the grill needed to be replaced. I did not use a Ford dealer btw.

My area is absolutely infested with these long-legged rats. There is actually no limit (for Doe) for hunters. I wish there were more hunters!! One of my neighbors harvests them right from his backyard (crossbow).

 

Lack of hunters aren't the issue, the issue is lack of predators. As communities expand, predators leave the area, deer remain. Absolutely agree with the long-legged rat description. Deer serve no useful purpose, and due to lack of predators they are flourishing area, creating overpopulations and disease. They destroy the forest undergrowth, cause extensive damage to landscape, and huge financial damage to vehicles, not to mention injury and death of drivers and passengers.

In a community near ours they approved a multi-hundred thousand dollar program a few years back, split between sharpshooters and sterilization. What a waste of money. Even with hunters, deer simply range over to an area that has no hunters, and then come back. In our previous state, we had two individuals that pushed to get approved as crossbow hunters. While we eventually allowed it, their handful of deer taken each year did absolutely nothing to slow the growth of the herd.

 

I've only been rear-ended once so I'm not really familiar with the process. You can just request different parts and insurance will cover it? I would have thought it all had to be what originally came on the truck.

 

The deer has cost you a lot of money.

 

This tends to be state by state. Some dumbass sideswipped me on the interstate causing about 20k worth of damage, I made them use all factory oem parts for repair and their was no pushback at all.

 

Just talk to the body shop. For instance, when I got whalloped by some loose lumber on the highway (doing $6K in damage... grumble) I didn't care about having the Lariat SE stickers replaced (which are surprisingly expensive and time-consuming to install) but had a couple of other body issues I wanted addressed. They were able to massage the numbers appropriately.

I wouldn't expect them to let you leave the truck "not whole" - but if you want bumper B rather than bumper A or a paint-to-match grille instead of silver, that shouldn't be a problem whatsoever.

 

More depends on WHOSE policy it is on. If someone hits you and their policy is paying out, you can demand OEM. But if your policy is paying, and they specify that non-OEM parts can be used, you have to argue for OEM. Depends on the cost difference.

Some policies allow an OEM endorsement, some do not.

 

Yep! That's the first questions I ask when shopping insurance.

 

damn deers