Hello fellas,
I love my C5 and I have been doing quite few things to it in the last few years , that some of you would find crazy, good, nasty, nice etc.......
Anyway.....Last week, while the car was parked in the middle of an empty parking lot, a "dude" parked his lifted, oversized wheels/tires truck next to my baby. When he decided to leave, he misjufged the turning radius of his truck and literally drove over my left front corner with the right rear tire of his truck.
The damage looked way worse than it actually is, but is still no small deal. The LF fender is damaged. The front bumper is cracked on numerous places. The inner fender skirt is cracked in numerous places. My DEPO headlight is damaged. My alignment is completely out of wack. There is a slight play in my steering rack. One tie-rod end is shot, The driving light is done for. The foglight housing is completely twisted out of shape and there are some pretty good scuff marks on my lovely custom finished Forgestar wheels. To top everything off, mu car is painted a custom House of Kolor Yellow.
I went to few different shops and all of them told me that matching the color would be a PITA and that it will actually be cheaper to replace the fender and bumper with brand new factory pieces, than trying to prep used ones. Also, they all agreed to do the work if I buy the materials and parts, so I can get from HOK exactly what I did the first time.
Here is where I am freaking out!!!!!
I made a list of all the parts and materials I would need to pull this resto off , plus the labor I know about. It comes to just shy of $6000.
I have a scheduled appointment with a person from the "dude's" insurance tomorrow afternoon. It is going to be some lady, who is coming to my house to take pictures of the damage. I know they are going to try to downplay the damage and are going to try to slide an estimate with LKQ parts etc.. We all know what insurance companies try to pull. I refuse to take a check for less than $6000, as this is going to be the MINIMUM it will cost me to restore the car.
So....How do I handle this? Please give me any pointers on what to do and what NOT to do tomorrow. How do I negotiate with the insurance if they decide that for example $2500 is enough?
Any advise and help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

You sound very passionate about your car, but you should be focused on presenting a rational, evidenced justification of why $6k is resonable. Insurance is entirely based on paperwork, quotes etc. You communicating that "the paint guy said matching the colour would be difficult" is hard for them to quantify and respond to. Any invoices or receipts for the parts, paint etc that was damaged would help them understand the value of the parts. From their perspective, the claim might only reflect a "yellow c5 having sustained damage, with a estimated value of $10-20k". It'll be up to you to persuade them why yours will be more expensive to fix.

i would take your car and get 2-3 complete and professional quotes to restore it to its previous condition and use them as your primary evidence. If you need time to accomplish this, I would postpone the appointment until your suitably prepared.

 

Pics of damage please?

 

Maybe they do things differently in Colorado, or it could be an insurance company thing, but when my Vette was hit by a guy who ran a stop sign, the damage was close to $10,000, and the insurance company did not make the check out to me, it was made out to the body shop doing the work.

Bob.

 

 

Why not have your insurance company deal with their insurance company ?

 

I did a very simple thing.
Opened up Eckler's and made a list of the necessary parts with their part numbers and prices and then added shipping. Next I went to the HOK distributor and put together an order for two quarts of each material/paint I needed. (HOK are weird and require everything matching - from primer to clear). To those two bills I added $300 for the DEPO lights (can't buy just one) and $500 for the clear bra, which is what it costed me to be done the first time. Add a $1000 for labor, which was the lowest quote I got and I am at $5900. I never suspected that the inner fender skirt is $700, but that is what it costs.
The car is paid off. They will write me a check. My main concern is how I go about it, if they just send me some check that is not anywhere near what it should be? Because, let's face it, I may decide to open up a whole new project and "invest" the money in the drivetrain and put the bodywork on the back burner. In which case there is no "compensation for the difference after the work is done".
I don't like the way they try to do things. They - the insurance - already tried to tell me "just take pictures with your phone, send them to us and we'll cut a check for what we think the damage is." They were insisting to send me a phone app to download, which gives me an "express estimate". I had to fight that off on the phone, trying to explain to them, that I can not show them a picture of the play in my steering, nor that in order for the car to go straight, my steering needs to be turned 45 degrees. After WEEK of arguing with them and dealing with their nasty attitude, they finally agreed to send someone and asked me when I am available. Tomorrow is my only day off and next week I am working every day and then I am off to Hawaii for my 15th anniversary with my wife for ten days.
So this is it. I need to deal with it tomorrow and I need advise from people who have dealt before with similar clusterf....

 

This is the only picture I have.



It does not look like much on it, but the inner fender skirt is cracked from the round opening for the brake vents, all the way up. it is broken almost in half. The fender is gouged where it meets the front bumper and it is cracked under the black stripes. A whole half of the wheel is scuffed and is actually black looking. There is an inch and a half gap in front of the headlight through which you can see the braces holding the headlight are ripped off. Othe braces holding the bumper are bent too. The driving light is broken from behind, where it bolts to the bumper. The foglight housing (black plastic part covered on Z06 with a screen) is mangled and cracked. The outer corner of the Depo light is also chipped off.
On the picture the wheel is straight, but after the hit it was actually turned in. It had visually different camber, altho not drastic and I was afraid something was bent. Dealership inspected it and said luckily no frame or suspension damage, other than weird play in the ball joint of the tie-rod end and about half an inch play in the steering rack. The dealership (Chevy) said that the rack is not repairable and needs to be changed.
The color looks like a regular yellow. It is not metallic, but it is a candy yellow and depending on the light goes from really deel yellow to pale lemony yellow. It is no joke to work with. I know because I was involved in applying it the first time around.

 

The guy who did the damage was very decent. I did not see it happen. Yet he came over and told me what he did. He could have easily left. His insurance however is some company from Arizona that I have never heard of before. That is where I am getting scared.
This is the car before the damage. I don't have many pictures of my car.

 

 

That's a good looking car...minus the headlights.

 

Thanks. The headlights were put on because they saved 45 pounds of weight. That car is about 300 pounds lighter than when it came out of the factory. But, please, let's stay on point.
Can an insurance estimate be negotiated and how is it done?

 

If it's ok to drive get some quotes from the shops and present them to the ins company. Don't let them screw you over, I had one try and only offer to pay 75% after a drunk guy hit my parked car. I found a place that I wanted and towed it there and told them to fix it without a quote or anything, I had acess to a lawyer also.
My best advice is call yours and his company explain and go from there. They'll negotiate depending on what it is.

 

After actually reading, it's late and I'm tired I skimmed earlier. talk with his ins provide, quotes from a shops. They probably won't wanna just take your word and hand over a check. If they refuse you may have to look into a lawyer or atleast having a lawyer send them something say we can take this farther of need be. You may wanna try and schedule a different meeting with his ins after everything you've got going on calms down a bit. Good luck with everything though, that's about all the advice I've got. I do hope you get it all back like it was.

 

get quotes from multiple shops, that will definitely help... and you do not have to take it to the shop of their request, I would advise against that actually because those shops work out deals with the insurance companies to fix the cars for less and that "cost savings" usually trickles down to the quality of job they do on the car... if you own the car the check should be made out to you... you also don't have to accept their first offer which more often than not is a lowball, if they give you a hard time just let your insurance company deal with them... I'm not positive about this but I was told that claims adjusters get paid on how fast they settle a claim so the longer it gets drawn out the less they make... this has been my experience in tx, it could be different in your state but I can't see it being that much different

 

Here is what I would do. Pick the body shop you are going to use to do the repair. Bring your car to their shop and let them do the negotiating with the other company's adjuster, that is their expertise. You can be there to observe the proceeding in case they settle on something that isn't right, but the insurance company is going to try and screw you. I had a minor incident and it was because of the body shop's intervention that I got the insurance company to correct what I wasn't satisfied with. A part that didn't fit right and not to my satisfaction was replaced at the company's expense and redone. Don't settle!

 

When someone parks next to me in an empty parking lot....that's making a statement. Listen to the statement.

You shouldn't be involved in the estimate process.
Your problem is exactly what attorneys are for. Find a good one in your state and let him/her go to work on it. Again, find a personal injury attorney...that's one that only specializes in personal injury.

 

I Would go to a Chevy dealership because they are going to get you OEM parts.....

 

not always true... a dealer I used to work for had to close the account of another dealer that used to buy parts from us because they were giving estimates for oem parts and buying them so there is proof on paper and then returning them after the fact and fixing the cars with cheaper aftermarket parts... our parts manager caught onto it when they started returning the bulk of what they were buying from us... not saying every dealer is that way but you do have to be careful

 

People above have given you good advice, especially about getting documentation on repair costs and getting your insurance company involved if need be. After all, that's what you pay premiums for.

Good luck - I hope you can get the car back into the great looking vehicle it was before the accident.