Need some advice about dealing /w insurance about sy wreck

[syntax]

Little background info first: I was just minding my own business cruising down a street in las vegas when a mini van made a illegal left hand turn across my lane of traffic, i tried to avoid him but ended up clipping his back quater panel with the passanger front right of my truck. Cops came ect, he was ticketed and i was not, i went home in a somewhat driveable syclone( brake light was on and brakes were extremely mushy, going all the way to the floor and barely stopping the truck). the damage was: hood, front passnger fender, radiator support, front bumper cladding, bumper, cladding braces, front right passnger fender cladding, passenger headlight assemnbly, and the passenger door(fender backed into it), well i took it to a body shop that is part of a GM dealer here in town(they do good work had my 98 s10 there before). Well the bill ended up being 6,100.00 dollars, mostly due to the 1,200 front piece of cladding and the 700.00 fender piece, then 250.00 for the fender, 400.00 for the hood ect ect..

Well the Body shop needs to paint the hood, and fender, and passenger door, and 2 new pieces of cladding to boot..
Now a little background on the exsisting paint, the previous owner of 9 years always parked the sy outside, now althouh the paint has no physical damage, its a little oxidized, i didnt really mind the oxidation, because at least it all matches, now im very afraid that when they paint the 3 body panels with brand new paint and clear coat its going to look super-crappy next to my 11 year old paint, same story with my cladding, 2 brand new black pieces of cladding next to 11 year old grey cladding, I think not.

I would rather have a truck with all oxidized original panels and paint that matched, than 3 panels jet black next to the rest that wont match.

So my Question to all of you, has anyone had any experience with anything like that? what are my chances of having the insurance company paint my truck? am i taking a selfish stance on this? or am i being reasonable? im not trying to extort the insurance company for a free paint job, i truely feel that the truck will look like crap when they are done if they dont paint it. Do you think this is something that is going to require a suit? (lawyer)

The company i am dealing with is called California Casualty, and the reps first responce was to total the truck because she thinks it is nothing more than a 11 year old s10 with 6 grand in damage, if that gives you any idea what i am up agianst, i know i have a legal right to force them to repair the truck as long as the repair bill dosnt exceed the value of the truck, so im not worried about that. anyway enough with the rambling and thanks to any insight anyone can offer me.

 

[ParTyBoy]

Re: Need some advice about dealing /w insurance about sy wre

Re: Need some advice about dealing /w insurance about sy wre

Not sure what to advise about any insurance dealings/proceedings.. This is another syclone ?? not the one you parted out back in march??? geese man... try to keep a truck in one piece.... Hope everything goes well...
Best bet I would imagine is to is collect any and all documentation/technical nature as to the value & collectability of the trucks.. website information, links, etc.. Anything and everything you can find... Then submit it ...

 

[syntax]

Im trying to keep this in one piece, one of the reasons i refuse to take a total claim on this truck and am going to force them to fix it, im not letting this one go to the yard

 

[Mephisto]

i went through the same shit with an ins. co. last year when my sy got rearended. to say the least allstate were a bunch of assholes when i complained saying the paint wasnt gonna match, they basically said this is a professional body shop and they can match any paint even if its 10 years old and oxidized... so for the sake of my sy not looking like shit, i paid to have the rest of the truck painted. once the new cladding pieces arrived, i called the ins. adjuster to come look at the new cladding and held it up next to the old cladding, and after enough bitching, they agreed to paint all of my cladding to match.
Bottom line... Be an asshole, make it very clear to them that this is a rare truck, say it constantly, make them understand this is your baby here, and you want to be compensated! remember youre not at fault! let them know this is a major inconvenience and you should be taken care of accordingly.

allstate is so effn stupid, they paid over 10 grand to fix my sy, and paid over 5 grand for my rental car! all they had to do was total it, let me buy it back and give me the 15grand i was asking for. But i guess they like to do paper work.

 

[turbotruk]

Syntax, stand firm with the insurance company that you want the complete truck painted. Of course they are going to say no and you are going to keep saying yes.

If the adjuster doesn't budge ask to speak to their boss and you have a 80 to 90% chance of them saying yes.

Two other options if that doesn't work for you is when the truck is taken in for repair work a deal with the body shop to paint the rest of the truck. You'll have to pay for the other work but it shouldn't be too bad as they already are doing the other work. Great way to get a new paint job much, much cheaper than if the truck wasn't damaged.

The other option is to have the insurance pay for a complete detail job on the rest of the truck to match the new repairs but this shouldn't be the case if you just stand fiem that the whole truck needs to be painted.

Dealing with the insurance adjuster is kinda like buying a used car from the dealer, lots and lots of negotiations.

One other thought is maybe to "hint" that you will be forced to sue the other party in small claims court for the repaint if they don't take care of it now.

 

[NCTyphoon]

Re: Need some advice about dealing /w insurance about sy wre

Re: Need some advice about dealing /w insurance about sy wre

You should be able to gather enough info on value on the net from places like Kelly blue book, Nada collector vehicles, etc. When my GN got crashed I had all values infornt of me, so I knew what I should be able to get value wise. If they are going to have to paint all you have listed, there should be really no question that the whole truck would need to be painted to bring it back to pre-wreck condition. Just don't get excited or frustrated and let insurance try to force you to take less than what you need from it. If at all possible, don't get a rental car, they will have to pay you like $20-25/day lost use of your vehicle if you don't get a rental. That can add up if it takes several weeks to get finalize the claim. You can come out ok, especially if you run down parts yourself, takes a little more time, but may be worth the savings v/s having body shop buy them. Just my opinion, speaking from prior recent experience

 

[jvanforx@cs.com]

accident repairs

accident repairs

the bodyshop has been able to get an oem bumper support and cover for your sy? the shop my ty was at, rebuilt both because new parts were not available anymore. the fit was not good so i insisted on new parts and offered to find them myself. my insurance (auto club, good company) okayed it and will reimburse me. i purchased one of the 2 bumper covers left in the usa and a repro support as there no oem's anymore. as to the
paint they have to return the car to the condition it was in before. perhaps you are experiencing physical discomfort now and will settle for what it costs to paint the whole car. good luck!