Insurance question - 2016 TRD OR hit while parked

Hey guys, not really a Gen 3 specific question other than the fact that the truck involved is a 2016, just looking for a bit of insurance advice from anyone who may have experience.

So I street park my truck, and recently while I was out of town someone tagged the front bumper pretty good while parallel parking in front of it. They were cool and left a note, and we've been talking about how to handle it. Seems like they're going to make a claim with their insurance next week sometime and get me in for an official first appraisal.

I had an initial appraisal of the damage done yesterday by a shop of the other party's choosing, and it was around $1200. Fine, no worries, EXCEPT that I was planning to get a winch bumper in the next few months, so I'm eventually going to be ditching the factory bumper.

Now then, I feel like it would be a complete waste of my time and their money to fix a bumper that I'm probably going to be getting rid of anyway, so I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to have their insurance company apply the eventual agreed upon repair cost toward an aftermarket bumper instead of going through a repair saga and being without my truck for maybe a week or more.

Does anybody have any experience with this sort of situation who could offer some insight? I've seen a few posts in the past that suggest this is something that people have successfully done in similar instances, but I don't really know how it would work.

Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated!

 

You could ask for the amount to say you will bring it to your shop of choice. Same thing happened to me a while back and the other persons insurance just cut me a check.

 

I believe you can have in inspected by their insurance and have them write you a check for the damage.

In exchange you generally have to sign something saying if it's more than what they paid you will be out of luck.

Your best bet is going to be ask the agent handling your claim if you can just get a check for the damage.

 

Cool sounds good. I had kind of assumed that's how it would work, but I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything additional I needed to do in order to be prepared to meet with their agent/shop. Hopefully their shop quotes me even higher so I can get a free light bar!

 

You could try and ask for diminished value

 

Is this something that can be readily produced by a shop? Is it something that will often yield a much higher damage figure? If I have to do a tedious runaround for potentially no additional gain, then it becomes a time value of money conundrum and I'd rather just take the max offer they furnish for a straight up repair.

 

Or you could just be nice and honest in return and tell them you don't want to fuck up their insurance for something you didn't care about or plan to keep anyhow. Unless you planned to sell or keep the front bumper and it has $1200 value to you, why take the money to fuck an honest guys insurance rates up? I mean yea I get it he shouldn't have hit you to begin with but at the same time he didn't have to leave a note either. Tis the season....

 

Because I wasn't planning on doing it for a while because I recently spent a bunch on new tires and a Leer top, so I don't have the money to do it right now. Meanwhile it's a brand new truck and I don't want to drive around for 6-8 months with a fucked up front end with dents and gashes all over it.

We initially agreed to do it as a cash deal for a couple hundred bucks if the repair estimate came back at $400 or less, but the first quote we got was 3x that amount so that deal is kind've out the window.

 

Fair enough I spose'

 

You realize with an insurance claim it will show on carfax your vehicle was in an accident, right? Might keep photos and repair receipts so you can prove damage was minimal in future if you decide to sell.

 

We've had a really open and transparent conversation about it, and the other guy is totally fine going the insurance route. I'm being as accommodating as possible and was really trying to do this without going through insurance, but I can't just ignore a fix with a $1000+ estimate attached to it, and the other guy doesn't want to go any higher on a cash settlement, so unfortunately it's going to be an insurance deal now.

 

That is true and it's something I was planning to paper up, but thanks for the advice.

I really didn't want to go through insurance, and I told the guy I would settle for $800 and move on, but so far he's not wild about that offer. We'll see if the situation changes after his insurance company's shop gives their estimate.

 

Since you were planning on a new bumper in the next few months, why not just have him give you the cash for the price of the aftermarket bumper, that way insurance doesn't show up and diminish the value of your truck or hurt the other guys insurance?

 

We're still kind've dancing around the estimated cost of the fix, so we'll see what it looks like after their insurance's recommended shop takes a look at it. The feedback I'm getting from the other party at this point is that they are unwilling to do cash if the final estimate is over $500-600.

 

I've only had to make a few insurance claims over the years. Usually I call the insurance company and they tell me which shop to take it to for appraisal. I send the appraisal and have the insurance company mail me the check for the appraised amount...I've done that twice over the years.

Buuuuttt.....recently my Harley was damaged in Hurricane Matthew. The insurance company said they could only send the check to either the dealer doing the work or the finance company because I have a loan. They would not cut the check to me.

 

Post some pictures of the damage.
If you're willing to settle for 800 I bet you could get them to come up a couple hundred.

Their insurance would defiantly go up by at least 200

 

How much is the bumper you want?

 

If you turn it in to insurance, they won't pay you directly unless you own the car outright. They will only pay to the body shop that repairs it.

 

Not doing that for personal liability/confidentiality reasons. I'm probably already being dumb by posting this thread in the first place.

I'm planning to revisit the cash option after their insurance shop gives me an estimate. I will give them every possible opportunity to avoid insurance.

 

I would take the check from the insurance company and buy your bumper now. Wait a couple weeks and pull a car fax report. If the wreck shows up, I'd go after their insurance for diminished value. It will probably drop the value of your truck 10%. Many dealerships won't keep a trade in that has a car fax hit, they send it to auction. That means your trade value will be low wholesale, because they can't retail it. Probably $2000 plus difference. If they guy that hit you is so broke, or dumb, to avoid a claim over $800, that's on him. He did the right thing by leaving a note, but so are you for offering to take $800 cash.

Not all accidents show up on the Car Fax report. Many insurance companies are tired of paying out diminished value claims, so they don't report it. Most of the accidents are reported by the car dealership body shop software they use. If you get it repaired, go to a local independent body shop, that is less likely to report it to Car Fax. I wrecked a 6 month old GMC pickup, bending the frame. They straightened the frame. A couple years later when I traded it in, it had a clean car fax report. Somebody out there is pissed off and driving a truck with a repaired frame.