How do I deal with someone else's insurance?

[V]

This morning I came out to my car to see my grille pushed in, hood chrome trim cracked and a nice hit into the front edge of my hood. The grille and trim parts are not repairable, and the hood I want a new one since imo it isn't feasible to fix. the person who backed into me did come forward last night and I have all his info.(he lives in my barracks) So now though, what do I do? call his insurance up? call mine? I've never had to do this before.

I will only take GM parts.
grille is 385 shipped
trim is 60 plus shipping
and aluminum hoods on ebay are 500-800 so an oem gm one may be over a 1000.
then add in paint work of at least 1000....

so I'm looking at least 2-2.5k not including labor...

fml.....

[Mark B]

Call your insurcance company. Tell them what happened. Its their job to go after the other guys insurance.

Do you have a repair shop that you trust? If not, I am sure someone on this board can suggest a good shop for you. Where are you located?

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

Bah that sucks Paul

Originally Posted by Mark B

Call your insurcance company. Tell them what happened. Its their job to go after the other guys insurance.

Do you have a repair shop that you trust? If not, I am sure someone on this board can suggest a good shop for you. Where are you located?

He's stationed at Ft Drum in upstate NY right meow

[Frosty]

Call them up and file a claim.

What year is your truck? You're entitled to be made whole but demanding GM parts might be out of the question depending on the age/mileage of your truck. They'll first offer aftermarket parts and you pay the difference for GM parts...but stand your ground if you're that serious about it(which you should be, most aftermarket sheet metal parts fit like garbage).

I would go get an estimate or two, be proactive in that, don't wait for them. They'll do one of two things. They'll either direct you to one of their repair facilities which you do NOT have to use, they CANNOT force you to use a specific shop, or they'll send out one of their own appraiser's or an independent appraiser. Either way they'll most likely write their own estimate. You can then take that estimate to the shop of your choice and then the shop can handle any supplemental damage directly with the insurance company or independent appraiser.

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

Originally Posted by V

This morning I came out to my car

Originally Posted by Frosty

Call them up and file a claim.

What year is your truck? You're entitled to be made whole but demanding GM parts might be out of the question depending on the age/mileage of your truck.

He has a CTS-V, hence "car"

Paul, will the V2 hood fit on your fenders?

[V]

it my 2005 cts-v. not my winter beater s10. the oem hood is aluminum for the v at least. I've seen steel aftermarket hoods for like 300. being a V, I should be entitled to what type I had stock right? and the non gm grilles are weak and poor quality. gm grille is 345, aftermarket is like 225. the gm chrome trim piece is same price as aftermarket. I even thought about buying a mint used hood, but my color was a one year, v only option.

now I would go for a new ctsv style cowl hood for my car... lol

[Frosty]

FML. I had one of my techs standing next to me talking about his truck when I was typing this and I kept thinking truck truck truck

With it being a CTS-V you have a little more leverage. I mean they may not try to screw you...what insurance company is it?

I'm sure you'll be fine.

[V]

I didn't look at his info yet, pretty sure its usaa.

and the one cowl hood I like it the extreme composites non-vented hood for 795.


or the specter hood but its 1295.



http://www.spectergtr.com/mm5/mercha...gory_Code=C393

I don't need a cowl hood I know, but if I can work it, why not.

also as for a shop... I have nothing I trust up here, maybe just for an estimate ill find a place but NOT to touch my car. only one shop was ever allowed to touch my cars, and they went out of business in 2004. luckily nothing happened since, till now.

I would like a shop just to paint to hood, in my dreams it would be close enough without blending needed, and then I could just install the hood and grille myself.

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

I kind of like the Exteme Composites better. It would look sick without the vents.

[V]

its usaa, just like me so that part should be pretty painless. I would go for the vent-less extreme composites hood. the gm hood is 800ish as well.

later today I'm calling the local gm/cadillac dealer to find out about their dealers body shop since I can request oem parts through them.
ill get an estimate then and go from there. once I have a check in hand ill order parts online from like gm partsdirect. and the hood from extremecompsites.

now I just need a shop to paint it... and I guess blend it....

[r0nin89]

Well from experience (although not a new car) the other guys insurance is going to try to beat you down. I went back and forth for a month with the ******** at the insurance company of the girl that hit my monte ss at school.

In no way did my insurance company "handle it". I called them reported it, they told me it was required that we get and accident report (which was already satisfied), and that I would have to call her insurance, book a time for the adjuster to come and see the vehicle, and then contact the personal at her company that handles claims.

I got a legitimate estimate for like $2200. And when I gave it to the adjuster he told me that having the door reskinned wasnt happening that due to the age of the vehicle it would be a "good condition" crash parts door, also said that a full stripe kit wasnt happening either despite the fact that replacing just the door stripes would never match.

After he knocked it down to $1800 I then went to war with her claims agent. Back and forth on the phone, no call backs for days on end, then he was on vacations. I finally called a supervisor and told them that this is ridiculous its been almost a month and I've been contacted once. I then finally got a call back and the bastard tried to get me to agree to take 90% of the claim money because there was a chance I could have done more to avoid the accident. I told him have a nice day and give me a call when he opened his eyes and looked at the police report where it said that she admitted fault and the accident was deemed 100% her fault by the police.



The point of my long winded rant is the insurance companies will more than likely try to cheat you at every angle they can find. Your car may very well be a different case seeing as how its much newer and a cadillac BUT dont be surprised if they go "O well we're not paying for GM parts, aftermarket is just as good"

[V]

the only thing that may help me is the fact we both have the same insurance company, USAA which is primarily for members of the military.

i doubt ill get the full amount, i understand that, but even if i have to pay out of pocket a little for a cowl hood, im okay with that. i look at it as if i did the hood by myself, it would be 800 plus paint. in this case... even if i had to buy the hood for 800, itll get painted, one way or the other.

ill be calling the insurance company after work to see what i need to do and explain the uniqueness of a "V".

[r0nin89]

Originally Posted by V

the only thing that may help me is the fact we both have the same insurance company, USAA which is primarily for members of the military.

i doubt ill get the full amount, i understand that, but even if i have to pay out of pocket a little for a cowl hood, im okay with that. i look at it as if i did the hood by myself, it would be 800 plus paint. in this case... even if i had to buy the hood for 800, itll get painted, one way or the other.

ill be calling the insurance company after work to see what i need to do and explain the uniqueness of a "V".

Yep I would take that approach. Get as much money as you can out of them. Then do the remove and reinstall labor for the paint yourself and save a few hundo. Be aware that if your car has a very metallic paint shooting just the hood may look funky.

[HardcoreZ28]

Paul if you need someone to shoot it let me know...I may be able to take care of it for you as well. What is the actual color of the car?

[V]

paul, the color is "Red Line", and code is - option 29U - Paint Code WA964L

it was only on the 2005 CTS-V's apparently.
If that color was used on any other models, then it was under a different name.

my front bumper could use a repaint, so a whole blending may not be a bad thing... i dunno...

and the stock paint isn't very metallic at all


Oh and MSRP for GM parts comes to 1442.41 (shipping not included but i could pick up at any dealer.)
GM parts direct total is just under 950 shipped (MINUS hood shipping cost)

[Frosty]

You "shouldn't" have much of a problem with USAA, they're a decent company to work with.

[V]

well got an estimate locally with a place that deals with USAA alot

good and bad news

1st off, I was informed that for my car, there are NO aftermarket parts approved for use by USAA policy, therefore all parts are new GM OR used...

They wrote the estimate up with getting a used grille... at a price of $500. I do not understand that when i can get a NEW one from GMparts direct for under 400 shipped. Then the chrome trim would be GM new, but they wrote the hood as repairable. I do not feel comfortable with a repair. I could barely pop the hood this morning, its more than just a dent. And i really dont like the idea of bondo slapped on an aluminum hood. that really angers me. Before that idiot backed into my car, my hood was perfect no bondo, no bs... but now, thanks to him, i have to fight to get it done to how i think it should be.
I take care of my cars and ill always get mad thinking that there's a repaired spot on my hood, even if you cant see it, id know its there.

oh yeah, that estimate was $1,375.00

Im calling USAA tonight and talking to them and asking for an adjuster to come out. and maybe tomorrow or in a few days ill try to get some more estimates...


worst case.. ill make the idiot pay out of his pocket.

[V]

heres a pic.


i already yanked the grille back into place but its loose, and bowed in. the outer chrome is chipped and scratched along with the emblem. its obvious in person that its damaged.

[qwikz28]

It's totaled. Give me the car.

[emolineaux]

damn paul that sucks. it you have people you know that work at body shops you can talk to them about what you want to do. they might be willing to help you out.

i got into an accident with my genesis coupe and part of the damange was the car needed 2 new wheels and 1 front strut. well needless to say i have a set of aftermarket wheels and upgraded to the R-spec suspension for only an extra couple hundred out of my pocket.

they told me that since im the owner of the car that its up to me if i want to upgrade stuff on my car, (leased would be a diff. story) so they just figured out prices and i paid the differance. .

[V]

i was just working with the number and even with that 1375... i could buy a new GM grille, new GM chrome trim and new Extreme Composites hood(all shipping included).
I'd just have to pay about $250 out of pocket to have to hood painted. (according to the one estimates pricing of 3.6 hours paint work @$45 and same 3.6 hours @$23 for paint supplies)

[Mark B]

Whats his deductable? If the total is only going to be $1375, its probably not worth going through insurance.

[V]

thing is, he barely has 500, i don't care if his rates go up, lol
i also dont know if theres a deductible for him when his liability pays out to someone else. i dunno, i never made an insurance claim either way .

when i told him a new grille is 500 he was speechless, and then finally said, ok ill get you 500 next paycheck, then i said "yea, but then the hoods f'd too, plus paint etc..." and he then gave me his insurance info.

and that 1375 was the only estimate i go so far, and thats a used grille and repairing the hood, both of which ill be fighting(mainly cuz their used grille is 500 and a new one is 400 online)

[Frosty]

His deductible is irrelevant, that's only if HE(the other driver) wants his own car fixed through his own insurance company.

Your own deductible only comes into play if you damage your own car and you want your insurance company to fix it....it never ever comes into play when insurance company is fixing a claimants vehicle.

[Mark B]

Originally Posted by Frosty

His deductible is irrelevant, that's only if HE(the other driver) wants his own car fixed through his own insurance company.

Your own deductible only comes into play if you damage your own car and you want your insurance company to fix it....it never ever comes into play when insurance company is fixing a claimants vehicle.

Frosty, you are correct. I forgot we were talking about liability here.