Question about professional body repair
 

A lady slid into my front left fender during a snow storm on Thursday. What should I be telling my body shop guy? Are there things that the insurance company won't pay for that I should ask for? My insurance company is USAA.

Not sure what you mean by things an insurance company won't pay for. You should be going through the lady's insurance company if she is at fault. The insurance adjuster will come out. . .evaluate the damage and provide an estimate back to the insurance company for approval. Once it's approved, they'll fix the car back to stock. You don't have to tell your body shop person anything. They won't do any work until they get approval to start repairs from the insurance company. If you have collision, you have the option to go through your own insurance company which is usually faster and then your insurance company goes after the lady's for payment.

I am going through my own insurance company. Her insurer has a bad reputation. The question I have is whether I should settle for the standard insurance repair, or ask for something more. For example, should I ask for two coats of paint, or clearcoat, or whatever.... to make sure that the repair brings it back to original quality?

Most of Insurance Companies will only cover to bring back to pre-wreck condition. USAA works well with Body Shops. The body shop will paint 3 -4 coats of paint and 2-3 of clear. If the painter is good, you should have no issue with it looking good. Out of personal experience from working in a body shop, we have replaced OEM broken parts with aftermarket replacements (for example Projector lights on a 97 Prelude) that the customer wanted, and insurance approved it due to lower cost ($500 for the set instead of $725 for 1 OEM headlamp).

To get more info, talk to your estimator. Have him show you the shop, explain the repair process, and ask if you can get more info on the paint process from the painter at the shop.

That if he swirls up your car you'e gonna :bonk::bonk::bonk:


Also, how did you decide on the shop where your car is at?

USAA does not ask the shop to cheapen the repairs. The responsibility falls on you when it comes to picking out the body shop. USAA will work with your shop to come to a fair agreed price and will pay for it. If you get a crappy job it's not because USAA asked them to take short cuts. It would be because you picked the wrong shop.

Ask for all genuine Subaru/Toyota parts for the repair.

I bet you're an appraiser aren't you.....? ;)


No insurance company's protocol is to "ask" for a shop to cheapen a repair. It boils down to different expectations/understandings of the person pushing the buttons on the estimating database not knowing what is the right thing to do and what isn't. Many insurance companies don't train their appraisers properly and many don't don't what the processes are to fix a car and actually do the repair. All these factors contribute to turbulance within the repair process.

No.