Taking advantage of my wife's bad driving

My wife put my truck - white '07 off-road Tacoma - into a telephone pole and fence today. She claims it was the snow's fault, but strangely enough I've never put my truck into a pole while driving in snow....HMMMMM....

Anyways, I'm hoping to turn a sack of rotten shitty lemons into sweet lemonade, and get some upgrades out of the insurance process.

First of all, the damage:

driver's door/mirror - trashed
driver's rocker panel/door frame - all bent up. Fortunately only the outside part as far as I can tell, and no frame damage.
front bumper - pretty scratched. I'm hoping they have to replace it and can't just touch up the paint
grill - broke, I think. Not obviously but I think the mounts are trashed.
passenger headlight - pushed in. Assorted small plastic mounts relating to the light, grill, bumper etc are broken. Hopefully nothing more serious behind all that.


So my question: Should I be able to upgrade the front bumper and grill without paying any out of pocket? I know it can be stupid expensive to return stuff to factory condition because of price gouging on stock body work. Anyone have recommendations for nice aftermarket or off-road setups for the front end that I could have installed on the insurance co's dime? I have a leveling kit on the front of the truck, wouldn't mind an off-road set up to go along with it. Anyone have experience with getting aftermarket parts put on during an insurance claim?

I'm looking at a 40% pay cut if congress doesn't fix this sequester within a month, so I really can't afford this accident, but hopefully I can make the best of it all.

 

Sounds like a total loss to me and you will be needing a brand new 2013 to replace it. After all you wouldn't want her to be risking her life driving around in a less than perfect truck. I'm sure the wife will understand and appreciate the logic/concern.

 

She's not allowed to drive my truck anymore.


Best off road setups? I've never looked into this before because I didn't have the money to spend on it.

 

You have some wishful ideas on how insurance works.

 

good luck

 

Sorry about your truck, hope your wife is OK.

Do some homework on what it is you want to replace the front end parts with vs. OEM replacement cost. Insuance companies aren't in business to modify trucks.

Like someone else said, good luck.