Tacoma Involved in a Hit and Run

The shop will write a Preliminary estimate off what they can see and then Supplement estimates after the vehicle has been completely torn down.

 

Welcome to my world last Sept. She totaled hers when she hit mine. She left a bad phone #, Bad insurance card....had to track her down months later with some threats. She paid cash. Yours looks like a total. It's jacked A to B.
Zim

 

I did brotha, I didn’t budge until they arrived and took my info down

 

One place the insurance companies try to sneak by is if you have either the one year newer or in some cases full replacement on your policy. They might sell it to you then “forget” when you file a claim.

Read your policy if you don’t understand it have an attorney read it.

My Jeep was hit by a drunk a few years back. Because of the nerf bats there was no body damage. But he did hit the rear tire hard enough to snap the shock and spring shackles. It pushed the tire over against the frame. Significant damage on a 33yo vehicle.
Turns out we both had the same insurance company. They pushed really har to total the Jeep. It would have been cheaper for the company.
We have an retired attorney in the family. Amazing how fast they decided to make repairs after a short letter from him.
Insurance companies are not your friend anymore. Was a time but no more. In fact on my Jeep I wouldn’t even have insurance if the state didn’t mandate it. Now tell me politicians aren’t in the insurance companies pocket.

 

Most of these lawsuits are not property damage. The payout would need to be much larger like personal injury.

Also, if you win the attorney fees are still your responsibility so payout is 30 to 40% of in this case the trucks value.

Recuperating attorney fees would require proving the insurance acted in bad faith which is tough to argue if they offered to repair the truck.

Any attorney who takes this case is pretty terrible at their job and not likely to win anything.

 

But chose a repair shop that has a fair balance between availability, warranty on paint etc.

Caliber may not be the best, but being a larger national chain can have some advantages.

Another post mentioned using a Ferrari dealer/repair center. I think that is a bigger pain in the ass than this truck is worth. Specialty shops like that are no better than big chains, they may have special skills for high end cars, but that is not applicable here.

 

Ask the high end exotic car dealer in your area who they use. Take it there. I’ve done that twice and its perfect. Mine was very bad also.

 

From what i've seen of body shops their at the mercy of the insurance companies to get the job done for a lot less time than it would normally take them to do it right yet still be able to make money off the wreck. Plus if these insurance companies don't like dealing with a particular collision shop they will recommend another. We had those issues when our shop vans were involved in accidents. In one case the van had a bent rear axle, plus the body damage, yet the body shop sent it out that way back to us knowing about it. We had to put in another claim to get more insurance money to get the shop to repair it under unseen damage.

 

first part I agree with, second part UR being an ass

congrats

 

Hahaha well, I stand by that "U" and "UR" are not English!

And YES I am an ass.

 

This is the internet my dude. You get offended when people use LOL cause it should be L.O.L.?

 

The dealership is probably the most expensive place to have it fixed so if it were me that's where I would be going to next and with any luck the cost will probably meet that threshold to just total it out for you. Sorry bout ur lose

 

Relax and be patient. For what it’s worth I took my truck to a body shop my insurance company had a relationship with and everything turned out just fine. I’m not in the business but I think the insurance company wants a shop it can trust to do a decent job and not defraud anyone. I don’t think there are any safety concerns, but I understand the thought that your pristine truck will never quite be the same. If the insurance company doesn’t total it, sell it afterwards if you want a shiny new truck.

 

P.S. "U" and "UR" are not English!

 

If I'm correct all insurance company's has a list of preferred body repair shops they do business with but YOU always have the choice to choose your own shop, I think it's even the law. If I'm correct

 

If you read the fine print, you have a choice of where the work is done, but not how much they pay.

For example.....if you want to use your buddy's shop that will charge $10k, and they have independent estimates and the adjust is calling it $5k, then you get a check for $5k.

Now if there is a reasonable delta between the two, you can likely find middle ground. Suing them is just not going to work unless you get by without a vehicle for half a year or more while you go to trial.

Even if you win attorney fees are much more than $5k.

At trial, you have to demonstrate they acted in bad faith, they have to provide evidence that their offer was consistent with other settled claims.(they have thousands upon thousands).

Of course this all is state to state but generally this is how it works.

 

emojis are sooooooooo 3rd grade after spyke has taken Ur PBJ ...........................

 

this is why i dont cheap out on shitty insurance. a few years back i totaled my car when i drove into a curb due to my own stupidity and they paid me the sticker price of the car since it was less than a year old.

 

I have to agree that you probably have a crappy insurance company cause I have had the same insurance company for decades and when I have had the unfortunate occasion to fix damage I have taken it to the dealer to have it fixed and all my parts are all oem. So if the insurance company estimates it's going to cost 5k and the dealer says it's going to 8k my insurance is paying 8k and when it gets torn down there are always supplemental attached to the 8k for stuff they cant see. So my insurance is never going to tell me here is my estimate of 5k and were done. My insurance doesnt work that way, maybe yours will tell you that and you may get all aftermarket parts and not oem parts but this comes down to how good is your insurance policy and do they give you oem or aftermarket parts, it's all in your policy.

 

My 2 cents is that your cover looks to be in pretty healthy shape, no airbags went off, and all 4 doors seem to be in original condition. Based on the current undamaged value of the truck, I doubt they'll total it unless there's frame damage.

No matter which way it goes, it just sucks all the way around.