[tracerit]

Cliff notes of my situation:

-rear ended
-three quotes from body shops of my choice at $800 (give or take $20) from all three
-guy who hit me doesn't have insurance
-my insurance will waive my $500 deductible but their appraiser appraises at $505 damage...

i called my insraunce and they said the body shop will have to fight the appraiser for the $800 fix but the check will be written out to the shop and the fix will have to be done. i was under the impression that a check would be written out to me and i can do wit hit as i please. for $800, i may as well spend another $150 out of my own pocket and get a new Mtech bumper for $950 locally. thing is that i'm not sure i maybe keeping my E90 as i'm strongly looking into getting an E36 M3 this summer. Having an $800 check to use as i please would be better, maybe i can find a used one for $300-400 and pocket the rest.

[1QuikWS6]

Well firstly, I know from experience (at least with Nationwide) that the body shop will work with your insurance and follow their 'rules of the road' In one case for me that meant they were told to repair my pontiac front bumper cover instead of replacing - which I was not happy about at all.

All insurance work is guaranteed for Lifetime thru Nationwide. They repaired the bumper & repainted. 3 months later the bumper broke at the repair area - I had to take it in again, and only then were they authorized to replace the entire bumper cover with a new one & repaint.

Secondly, gone are the good ole' days of you turning in an insurance claim & them simply handing you a check to supposedly fix the car. Now, if you turn in a claim your only option is to have the insurance company pay the shop directly and you pay the deductible (if any).

Normally this is done especially if your car is currently financed - you don't own the car - the bank does. Bank is not fond of people wrecking cars that they own, taking insurance $$ and not fixing the damage. They look at it as if they had to repo your car for any reason - they don't want a piece of wrecked junk to try and sell to recoup their $$.

That being said, if you personally know the body shop well - it is always possible to work a deal with them. I hit a deer with my old Grand Am - insurance was paying for a new hood among other things in the cost. I figured that if I was gonna get a new hood - I wanted the upgraded Ram Air hood. Of course, insurance would not pay the extra for the Ram Air version over std. but my shop simply ordered me the Ram Air hood (at their cost) and charge me the difference between what insurance would pay for std hood and my reduced cost for the Ram Air hood. In my case this difference was like $170 - so I got an expensive factory Ram Air hood installed and painted for $170!

Now this works if you are upgrading using factory parts - don't know if your shop would do this using aftermarket parts.

[dragazn]

Talk to your shop, tell them not to order your bumber and you will be brining in an OEM BMW parts. Tell the shop just give you back the money they would for just the bumber since you are brining in the parts. Or ask if they can order the bumber that you want. I went with option 1 with my body shop since they can't get the mtech bumber, and I just have to eat the difference in the parts.

Make sure you tell them its an OEM BMW parts, alot of shop are real anal until you tell them OEM parts!

[just4kickz]

lol don't they just cut you a check minus the deductible and you use hte money for whatever? that's what farmer's insurance did for me... they have their own list of shops that they work with but i opted to go my own way.

[tracerit]

my bumper didn't take much damage so i won't need a new bumper. all the $800 quotes were going to just repair then repaint instead of replace and repaint.

here's the damage: http://www.e90post.com/forums/attach...1&d=1292893408

i won't be paying anything out of my pocket since i have uninsured motorist coverage. if anything i'll pay my $500 deductible then get a check written to me.

i currently own the car.

i'll try to talk to some body shops to see what i can do. lets say the body shop finalizes that it'll cost $800 to solve this with the appraiser, do they just write the check to the body shop and follow through to make sure the repari was done or do they just say ok, that's it, here's $800, have the customer come in to get it fixed, good bye?

[intensee92]

Well, I recently was backed into by this girl (her fault) and my front was damaged. Hood, drivers headlight and grille and bumper.

The girls insurance appraiser came to estimate the damage and told me everything I wanted to hear beside the repairing of the front bumper. I don't like the idea of it but hey, he said if the body shop wont be able to repair it, give them a call and they will dish out money for a new bumper. I'm going to go to my body shop tomorrow and ask them nicely to tell me that I have to get a new one so I can tell the appraiser that so he will add the cost of a new bumper on for me.

Although the bumper costs around 4-500, thats alot of money I can squeeze out of her insurance. My total quote at my body shop was around $3700 and the appraiser was going to cut me a check for $31xx. I'm going to get the extra money for the bumper and tell them to cut me a nice check.

Her insurance was State Farm btw.

If I were to go to her insurances certified body shop (a shop they have a deal with or something) though, the body shop would give me lifetime warranty on the paint and labor if anything were to happen to what they repaired.

As for your dilemma though, if you were to keep the e90, I would def. work something out with the body shop to get that MTech bumper that is local. But since you might not keep it, just couldn't they just write you a check? If not then, find a local bumper and tell the body shop to buy it and paint. Or a repair since it is the rear bumper.

[tracerit]

the guy who hit me, his insurance didn't mind writing me a check for $800 until they realized their insured didn't have coverage. so my insurance most likley won't get any money from him, so they want to pay me as low as possible.

what do you mean if i don't keep the car, have them write me a check? kind of like a depreciating value type of thing?

will the insurance/appraiser keep an eye on things to make sure the money they end up paying the body shop is used to repair and repaint the bumper instead of buying a new one?

[intensee92]

but would his insurance have to pay for your damages regardless if he have that type of coverage or not? that doesn't sound right...

Like couldn't they just cut you a check anyways I think is what I was saying.

I don't think the insurance will keep tabs on what is done with the check when given out.

[tracerit]

so you're saying i still have a chance to totally exclude my own insurance from all this? i should just call up his insurance and say write me a check for $800 and you ding your insured for his accident.

[intensee92]

thats what I would do. He was totally at fault from what your story concludes so his insurance should pay for damages. i don't know how it is in Cali but I know I wouldnt want my insurance rate to go up bc of some fool that backed into YOUR car.. ya know?

[dragazn]

Originally Posted by tracerit

so you're saying i still have a chance to totally exclude my own insurance from all this? i should just call up his insurance and say write me a check for $800 and you ding your insured for his accident.

You should have just call their insurance and claim it under the party that damage your car. That way you don't even have to pay for the deductible, since its not your fault. Put it this way, every time you used your insurance and it doesn't matter if it your fault or the other party, your premium will be increasing at the renew time.




You can use the money to fix or not depend on you once they have ridden you a check.

[VTECaddict]

The guy that hit you should be paying...if he has no insurance coverage then he should be responsible for paying for your damage out of his own pocket.

Only reason to go through your own insurance is if they have no insurance and you can't get them to cooperate (which I think would be essentially like a hit and run?)

If he has insurance then there is no way it will NOT cover damage to your car if it was his fault. That makes zero sense at all. That is the whole point of insurance. If he doesn't have comprehensive coverage, then his insurance won't pay to fix his OWN car, but CA law requires you to have liability insurance at the minimum to cover damage to OTHER peoples' property.

[tracerit]

Update: It's final, I'll be going through my insurance company. Problem now is that I want to get the estimate raised from $500 (by my insurance) to $800 (what three other body shops estimated). I called all three bodyshops but they basically want to hold my car hostage and work on it the day i come in so that i don't run away with the $800 check... understandable, but is there anyway for me to get the check written to me?

[lpphreakx06]

That's odd, I've always had the insurance company make the check out to me. Since I'm able to choose any auto body shop I wanted.

[tracerit]

normally i think they wouldn't mind. it's just that my insurance company hired a third party appraiser and they said it's only $500, so that's all they're willing to pay me. if i want to get the $800 that three other bodyshops estimated, i'd have to bring it into their shop, but once in, they won't let it go unless they start working on it otherwise they'd charge me for removing and putting the bumper back on -_-

i'm also thinking about having my insurance step out of this and i'll personally sue the guy in small claims court for $800-1000 but then i've read it could be a pain to recover the money also.