I am going directly through her insurance. I looked and the only two things they wrote for aftermarket are the bumper and step pad and I checked a ford dealerships ebay prices and they were lower than the estimate, but I doubt they body shop will shop ebay. On a side note, Fairway Ford in Greenville, SC sells a ton ford F150 parts at below aftermarket prices with free shipping.

The law in SC allows someone who was ticketed in an accident to go to court and fight the ticket, If the other party from an accident does not show, then there are no other witnesses to dispute the ticketed person's claim, the ticket will be dropped and your insurance cannot go up by law. This is not widely know, but I did take advantage of this in an accident years ago at the advise of the officer on scene. The officer who did the accident report for this accident told me, he did not witness the accident and even thought it was clear what happened, he cannot dispute her in court and she can get the ticket dropped if I don't show. He also said it probably would not matter either way unless her insurance company did not play nice, but I kinda want her to pay....
Funny thing about the law is that if the officer found her at fault, and did not ticket her, her insurance would go up and she could not fight it, but having a ticket to fight actually can help you in this state.

 

How is that even an issue if you were stopped at a red light?

 

Insurance companies have legions of attorneys on staff that actively seek to eliminate or greatly reduce their pay out on a claim. Add in an element of potential bodily injury and you'll see these bozos spring into action faster than a S.W.A.T. team.

Great current example is the entertainer Tracy Morgan whose bus was rear-ended by a Wal-Mart OTR driver who'd fallen asleep at the wheel. Wal-Mart and/or their insurance snakes have filed suit claiming Tracy and his passengers (one dead, several severely hurt) were partially at fault for those injuries because they weren't wearing seat belts.

While this speaks partially to Wal-Marts general approach to business in general it demonstrates when a claim can be disputed even without good reason it has to be heard, such is our legal system.

I believe the term is "joint and several liabilities...........".

 

So first off, CarFax will IMHO destroy the resale value of the truck because as someone else already posted they sell themselves as the holy grail of all things car history. I'm dealing with that right now, we had a very minor incident where my wife was rear ended in her Jeep, the damage was next to nothing however since she was hit the other persons insurance got involved which I didn't want and because of that the CarFax report says the vehicle was damaged and now EVERYONE who comes to look at it want's to pay several thousand below blue book because they have the CarFax report that says it was wrecked.

As for being worried about the repairs to your truck, I have over the years owned many repaired/rebuilt and even salvage titled vehicles and most were actually better than when they were brand new. A competent body shop will usually repair the vehicle to better than new condition IMHO. They take the time to make sure the inside of the panels are properly coated, fit and finish to a standard higher than a plastic go-no go gauge and so on. Honestly a good body shop should return the vehicle to you in better condition that before it was wrecked.

 

Personally, I would speak to her "boss", not her. I also would make sure they got the truck repaired at the bodyshop of my choosing. I also would tell them you want OEM parts only as replacement parts, not salvage or aftermarket parts. Before you take the vehicle back, make sure you get it inspected to make sure that no corners were cut.

 

Got the truck back, but i have found a few things and will be dropping the truck off to have them fix it. I wish they would have got everything right the first time, but they were great when I took it back and said they would fix everything. One issue was some running or wrinkling in the clear coat that you can only see at certain angles, the other is some particles under the FX4 sticker, and some fit on the tail light and trim. Other than these items, I am pretty happy. As far as the frame issue, the truck rides great, alignment is perfect and suspension is smooth. I am just getting started on the Diminished value claim. I've called the adjuster and she won't return my calls since I left a message about diminished value. I called three appraisal companies and got preliminary quotes ranging from $2,500 - $10K+

I do have a question for the forum. How much less would you pay or expect to pay for a $40K truck that has been in an accident and had repaired frame damage? If there are any dealers on the site, any insight would be greatly appreciated on diminished value.

 

I tried to get OEM parts but a couple of the parts ended up being aftermarket parts. It is a shame how much the paint an body industry is run by the insurance companies, but you really see a lot of businesses/industries which are run by their largest customers.... Since there are some aftermarket parts, it may help me with my diminished value claim.