-rick

 

first and foremost .. it's not up to them to tell you what should be done.

you did nothing wrong, it was their drivers fault for backing into you and as such you are entitled to having it fixed to the condition it was in prior to the accident.

you can make a deal with them, letting them know your concerns and say you'll allow them to attempt to repair it but if it doesnt meet your satisfaction then you want the entire car painted.

if you start getting the run around .. call a laywer. suit it out of them. doesnt matter how you get the $ for it .. just dont settle.

at the very least, from what you've told us .. you need the fender repaired, front fascia replaced, headlight cover and bracket replaced, plus any possible damage to the inner fender that may have occured that you cant see .. plus paint and all, that total could be around 2-3k.

... i hope it works out for you.

 

Right, I think theyre planning on replacing the whole fender and not just repairing it though. Im still waiting for the adjuster to call me so I can tell him that I want the whole car repainted if the paint is noticable which im pretty sure it will be.
I have never seen a paintmatch that wasnt noticable.

 

when they did my black .. they did a techniquie called blending .. you couldnt tell the difference .. what color is your car?

 

As stated above you don't have to take what they give you. Let them know that they can "try" to match the paint but if it isn't to your satisfaction then you won't accept it. Likewise they are only obligated to give you back what was taken from you. Therefore they don't owe you a whole new paint job. The rest of the car was old paint at the time of the accident.

I was recently hit to the tune of $12k+ to my Vette. USAA was their insurance co. They would not agree to repaint the entire car but the body shop gave me a great price. I paid $2300 for the remainder of the car and $400 to have them wet sand between coats. I now have a paint job that no factory GM paint job could ever match. I also got $3500 in "deminished value" and $4000 for "loss of use" even though I was driving my daily driver. I came out about $4800 to the good and got a $9000 paint job according to the body shop.

Judging from the info you give I don't think you'll see nearly as much in deminished value but they should offer something and it might be enough to get the body shop to paint the entire vehicle rather than deal with your complaints when it doesn't match.

Good Luck!

 

The car is pewter

 

Just take it to a high quality repair shop and have them take care of it. I work at a body shop (paint cars) and have been in the business for about 10 years solid now, my father has been in it for 30+. State Farm is one of the best insurance companies to deal with, trust me! they will have to blend to get that pewter color to match well. As long as the rest of your paint is in good condition( not faded or anything) a good quality shop can do the repair to where you won't be able to tell the difference. Good luck and shop/ask around for the best repair shops in the area. Go to some of the local high end car dealers(Mercedes, BMW, etc.) and ask them who they use for body and paint.

JP

 

My advise is to take what the insurance company offers, get your car fixed and if you have to pop for the remaining cost of the full paint job, then pay the additional costs yourself. Take it from someone who's been there. I tried to fight a large insurance company once and got absolutely nowhere. I hired an attorney like one of the other members here suggested. The attorney wanted $2,000 up front as a cash retainer before they would even take my case. My case dragged on, and on, with letters sent back and forth. Numerous phone calls were made as the case dragged on for nearly three years. During that time, my attorney managed to burn up every penny of my $2,000 retainer and he asked for more money to continue with the case. I hated to throw good money after bad but I had too much already invested to quit. My attorney charged me $150 for nearly every phone call made, even when it was he who called me! He charged me $200 each for several letters he wrote to the company. My attorney said that any phone conversation over 5 minutes in length, he considered to be a "meeting with the attorney" and he charged me $150 per hour for those so called meeting. In the end I received an itemized bill from the attorney's office showing where he took every penny of my retainer money plus more. When it was over, I didn't get a single penny extra out of the insurance company, and I had spent nearly $3,000 in attorney's fees. Yep, it's real easy for someone else to tell you to get an attorney and fight the insurance company, when they don't have to pick up the tab for the attorney's fees at the end.

 

We owned a body shop and ive seen some pretty incredible work from our painter. He blended base/clear onto LAQUER (sp?) and it was daaaamn near impossible to tell where the blend line was, i had too look hard as hell and i knew he had done it. That paint was about 20 yrs old (dad painted that same car back in the day). Point is, if you find a good painter, he can work magic for you, dont worry too much about that. Just make sure they take the time to line it all up right. IMHO thats more noticable than paint.

Good luck