Insurance Damage Estimate

Muddy Duck

Muddy Duck

New member
So, no good deed goes unpunished. A friend asked me to move a boat trailer for him and I was happy to do it. When I was backing through a wooded lot to hook up the trailer, I clipped a pine tree. I should've seen it, but I didn't; I'm an idiot.

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At least this gives me a good excuse to do the SR5 to TE conversion.

My preferred body shop here in Raleigh, Piperformance, has done excellent work for me before and I would like to use them. However, their quote was $5200.

My insurance company, with nothing more than five pictures (one being of the odometer) I sent in through their nifty app, has sent their estimate of $3700.

Their listed price for the tail light assembly is $100. Cheapest I could find was around $150 from a junk yard. The OEM part is more than twice that.

I love a good fight with an insurance company as much as anyone, but I just want my truck fixed. Fixed well, and fixed relatively quickly, so that I can bury my shame for backing into a massive pine (my wife won't forget...she remembers everything).

Any suggestions on how to work this out with the best outcome and the least headache?
 
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I have a couple suggestions. First, get your insurance company to actually send an adjuster to look at it personally. Get the adjuster to give you a written estimate with a line by line breakdown of the work they think needs done and what they're estimating the cost to be. Have your preferred shop do the same thing. Then get two more estimates from other shops - I recommend getting one from the nearest dealership that does body and paint work, and another high-profile body and paint shop. If your insurance is lowballing you, these other estimates will be much higher, and if you have the line by line breakdown of parts and labor from each of them you can use them to demonstrate that your insurance payout should be higher.
 
I see you are in law school, so read the language of your insurance contract. If his is a us company, 99% sure the language gives them the power. They are allowed to repair with that all generic "OEM or like" quality which basically means aftermarket.

Been where you are and unless you can convince them aftermarket parts will not meet their quality standard, no way your getting 2k more out of it. Go ahead and gear up for a fight, but the law is 100% on their side on this.

As for parts pricing, welcome to discounted national relationships. Its exactly the same dynamic that allows Blue Cross to pay a fraction of what you would for similar medical billing.

When the adjuster wrote that repair, it was based off what they could and would pay. Going to be hard to get them to budge. I just had repair work done and I found there is a national repair book with part prices from various parts makers which is what allowed your insurance to do a quick qoute.

Not saying you can't, you absolutely have the right to negotiate.... But the power is in their court.
 
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I have both work as an adjuster for an insurance company and at a body shop working with insurance companies. The estimate they wrote you is just that an estimate. They are only going to write for the damage they can see and may have missed something. My advise, take it to the shop of your choice (that is the law by the way). It doesn't matter what the estimate was that you received from the shop. Give them a copy of the estimate you received from your insurance company and they will use that as a starting point. They will tear down the car and call in a supplement. The shop will work it out with the insurance company.
 
I am currently an auto damage adjuster. They will select LKQ parts aka previously loved parts at there choice or aftermarket before going OEM. Sure the picture quote came in cheaper it always will. Here in PA we are not allowed to write estimate based off pictured. Like mentioned above its just an estimate. Take it to a shop to have the repairs done and an adjuster will work it out with the insurance company. If you have any question please feel free to ask.
 
Completely unrelated to your question, OP. But is the driver's side of the tailgate damaged too? Was that a previous accident or did the force of "clipping" a pine tree reach that far?
 
Driver's side lift gate was damaged in a completely unrelated incident. And viewing the damage, it does look like I was hauling buggy when the tree jumped out and bit my rear end, but I was actually moving fairly slowly. My body shop owner said that cars are currently designed to crumple upon impact to absorb the energy of impact and this turns minor collisions into major body work.

The replacement Gadsden Flag is already ordered and will go on my new TE bumper cover.
 
Just from the picture, I'd guess:

-Tail lamp assembly
-Rear bumper cover (they come unpainted)
-Clip pads for bumper cover
-Associated sheetmetal repair, bodywork, and painting
-Labor to remove bumper cover and transfer over all parts not being ordered (i.e. back up sensors, foam under pad, foot pad, trim, ect.) and/or possibly remove the rear quarter window (to repair the body work properly, that crease would have possibly cracked it if it had gone further north), remove interior panels, ect.

I believe the common repair at that point is to cut the spotwelds and replace the entire quarter panel sheetmetal and then stitch weld it back to the body. I could be wrong, but that is how a few vehicles with similar damage in that area have been repaired by our body shop we contract with.
 
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Don't feel to bad we have all done similar....."wtf" events (be it in a vehicle or not). It does hurt worse when the damage DOES look like you were going 55mph in reverse.....through the woods :) Best of luck
 
Engineer said:
Don't feel to bad we have all done similar....."wtf" events (be it in a vehicle or not). It does hurt worse when the damage DOES look like you were going 55mph in reverse.....through the woods :) Best of luck
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!

*Insert Metal Gear Solid Alert Sound Here*

AN IMPOSTER! [MENTION=66316]1engineer[/MENTION]
 
And the worst part was that I turned off the parking sensors immediately before putting it in reverse because I was backing up to a trailer. Anyway, thanks for the encouragement.
 
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