Car: 95 integra
Aftermarket rims: DTM P1 race wheels (No longer made)
Paint condition: Faded Red

Heres my situation:
I got hit on the passenger side by a guy who switched lanes without looking. So its not my fault.

Damages to my car:
Passenger fender damaged but can be fixed. Will replace though.
Rim (Metal chunk sliced off) still fixable though
Tire chunk taken off. Want a new one.
Scuffs on side of front bumper near fender
Inner fender liner damaged and needs replacement

The person's insurance agent evaluated the car and gave me an estimate and a check already. Now, we all know that the intent of the insurance guy is to save money for his company. Therefore, I believe it was not a fair estimate because the insurance guy said the scuffs on the front bumper can be buffed out. Well, they cant just be buffed out, because they are tangible scuffs and I know that the insurance guy didnt want to add these additional costs for repainting the bumper because it is already faded (My hood, front bumper, rear bumper, and various parts of my car are faded, however the body and fenders still have a somewhat shiny red paint still). Its a tough case for me because my car is faded (An evenly smooth fade, i will say). Also if you attempt to buff, you will just remove the paint.(Honda didnt use clearcoat). In order for this to be resolved, that portion will have to painted thus resulting in having the whole bumper being required to repaint in order to match. The estimate given to me was for reconditioning the wheel, replacing the fender with a used OEM one, painting the fender, adding on the stock stripe decals, and that's it. It was little over half a grand. However, a body shop near me quoted me over a $1000.

Now down to business, I would rather take the money, keep it or save it towards a better car. The value of the car is about $3000-3400. So if i can get at least over $1000 in cash money I would just keep it and be happy.

So, I want the insurance company to give me more money for the things that the ignorant insurance agent missed/neglected and do HONESTLY need to be fixed and added to the total cost of damages. I need a new fender liner, new tire, and to repaint the entire bumper. I would like to reemphasize that they do not want to paint the bumper because it is faded red but i want them to do it.

Im pretty sure they will get me a new inner fender liner a new tire. But how about my whole front bumper being painted?

 

if itis damaged by the accident, they hve to replace it

 

Why did you allow the other person's insurance to provide an estimate? Your insurance should have done that and pay you for the damages / repairs, then go get the money from the other party's insurance afterwards.

Only accident I've ever been involved in, State Farm told me to refuse to even speak with their insurance, and to direct them to contact State Farm instead of me for everything. State Farm then sent out someone for an estimate (car was undrivable), who would have decided a number if it wasn't such a non-standard car. As it was, I was told "This car can't be estimated in value, just go get it fixed some place you trust and we'll cover it." Gotta love collectible cars, I managed to get $5k to repair a 5mph collision on an at the time 21 year old car...

 

Because I have liability only and my insurance told me to go to guys insurance first.

I guess I can try talking my insurance (Geico) and see if they can give me a fair estimate.

Oh and the rim Im talkin about is the rim as my avatar (just in case someone wanted to know what they look like)

 

at this point your insurance company proly cant do much since youve accepted the check your proly going to have to take it up with his insurance company which i be willing to bet is going to give you the run around. State Farm Rocks!

 

I havent accepted anything. They sent me the check but I am not going to cash it.

Seems like I should switch to State Farm.

Thanks for the help guys. This is my first accident and I am a very defensive driver. I have no tickets (10 years of driving experience). I went on here for help so I can learn and handle 1st time situations like this.

Keep helpin me out if you can. Make me stronger, confident and help me win this if I can

 

ok i was in your situation. if you have liability only, your own insurance will not do anythng for you. you have to go thru the other party's insurance to get the check.

what you should have done was take it to the body shop, and the body shop will provide the estimate, and the insurace adjuster would talk to them about the damages. They will cut a check to the body shop, and determine what needs to be done. thats what i did with mine. i was hit in the front bumper when some lady ran her civic on top of my car. the other insurance was about to send a adjuster out to me but i told them to take it to the shop so they can determine what needs to be done. body shop included headlights, hood, front bumper and the total went up to 2300....and some of the damages that I could not see and wouldn't even have known was noted down by the body shop. AND this shop was a friend of mines. so i knew they weren't making up damages....

 

I did go to a body shop first and got an estimate which was higher than the insurance agent's estimate. The body shop was going to purchase me a brand new OEM fender whereas the insurance company was going to get me an OEM used one. The brand new fender would have cost $400 and that is what help contribute to the body estimate to be over $1000. I told the insurance agent that i recieved a quote twice the amount of his estimate from a body shop. However, I did not show the insurance agent the body shop's estimate at that time because the body shop told me not to (Wante to see their estimate i guess) The insurance agent just told me to get the body shop to fax the additional costs and they will send a representative down to justify it.

Now I know there might be additional damage that i do not know of, however this would mean I would need the body shop to tear down the car and show the insurance agent what the additional damage is. The thing is, I DO NOT want the insurance agent to give the money to the body shop. The body shop does not know that I want to keep the money. I cant have them tear down the car and have them find out that I dont want them to fix it. Maybe Ill just pay them for the tear down?

 

Don't cash it. The instant you actually "accept" the money, its done (or close enough that it isn't worth continuing).

State Farm ain't cheap. I've saved $5,000 in the past 4 years since I've switched from State Farm to AAA. I don't expect AAA to treat me anywhere near as nice if I file a claim, but that $5k I've saved will go a long way towards making me care less when they don't pony up as much cash for a claim.

If it helps any, my gf had her car totaled in an accident last year.

Insurance offered her $13k. When we questioned the value, they tried to give us more lies and bull$#!t than I could keep track of. 6 weeks and countless phone calls and faxes later, $17.5k was finally given for the car.

You can fight over value for quite some time. If you just keep wearing them down, they might start to accept that arguing with you is costing them more than they would just pay you to shut you up.

Of course, the instant we took the check they also sent a letter explaining how after her current term was up, she could not renew and would need to find another insurance company. Mercury can die in a fire, as far as I am concerned.

The true humor of the story is that the week afterwards, we found an exact replacement car (same make, model, year, and mileage, but different options) for $13k.

 

another thing you should have done is get a printout of quote for the the price for one wheel and one tire... at least that would have had the wheel covered in the final amount... you must have agreed on the amount of the check or them to send it... if they didn't check with you first, you can dispute it...

 

ok well insurance i know do attempt to find used parts...same thing for my headlight..when the body shop quoted new headlights, the insurance said to find used ones instead. which saved them about $300. then again, you can always argue with them that u want a new part since you're not at fault and shouldn't or do not want to accept used parts.

what you do need to do is show them the body shops estimate. tell them the body shop said the front bumper scratches cannot be buffed out as they claimed. if the body shop tells them that the marks are too deep and cannot be removed from buffing, they have to include the price of refinishing, repainting the entire bumper.

most bodyshops give free estimates. all you have to do is show your insurance the estimate from the body shop. tell your insurance that this is the place you want the work done. but you want to make sure all charges are covered before you take it in. tell them that u want to make sure you receive a full amount of the body shops estimate, and then u want to bring it in.

 

Wrong.

Insurance companies do this all the time. They're trying to entice you to take the money as opposed to doing the work and get full repairs.

At the same time, the other insurance company is allowed by most state laws to do their own estimate, you're just never usually involved at this point as the car is at the body shop when the other company takes a look at it.

I had a situation similar to yours except my teg is in near mint condition. The guy backed into my door and basically fubared my outside door skin. Well his company cut me a check for $1k. I said F- that and went to the most expensive place i could and they got a new door skin and paint matched the entire side and charged them $2.8k. The company was so shady that they tried to hold me liable for the car rental, which i had to basically threaten to take them, and their customer to court AND to beat the claims adjuster's *** before he accepted the fact that i wasn't gonna roll over.

You're allowed by most state laws to get your own estimates as far as fixes and then you let your insurance company and theirs haggle.

 

I just gave the check that the insurance agency sent me and the body shop said that they start with that amount and then go back to the insurance agency for the supplemental and for more money.

Funny enough, i went through the same BS with my ex with State Farm. I totaled her Civic and they offered $10k. Well the kicker was how they got their 'market sample'. I go on cars.com and take a look for local civics and sure enough, the lowest 10 cars in the sacramento area out of 40 total were their 'market sample' and the real sample put the car at $14k.

 

Problem is guy, is thats why they cut you that check. If you want it to be fixed right, you need to take it to a shop and have them show the insurance company an itemized bill for labor, materials, Etc. I seriously doubt they'll pay anyone the full amount unless the repairs are already completed. They'll authorize repairs for the full amount but they won't pay it out unless they usually get confirmation that it's been completed.

 

thats ****ed up, a little over half a grand for that ain't ****..

 

want to post pics of your damage?

 

So i guess im left with these 2 options:

1)Take the money i already have now and keep it or 2) get everything fixed with no more headache

I just wished i could have gotten at least a 1 grand.

As far as posting pics, I wasnt sure if i should because people who work at the bodyshop know of honda-tech. Thats why i didnt really disclose all sensitive information.