Me = Thankful for Z-plan (Thanks Dad!)

 

By M/C do you mean motorcycle? If so, that poor rider and wow.

 

That must vary a lot depending on which state you live in. I got rear ended by a Saturn going 50 mph a couple years ago and they said 50% was totaled here. I'll never ride in a Saturn after seeing what happened to that one...... I drove mine(t-bird) home with minimal damage(bumper cover and tail lights) and the whole front end of hers was ripped off/rammed up into the dash.

Tom-glad to hear you got a fair deal from the insurance and good luck in the truck hunt. Hope Karri gets feeling better soon

 

Insurance is state regulated, not federally regulated, so yes, it varies by state. There are a lot of variables involved in claims and in totaling a vehicle (A LOT OF VARIABLES). Bottom line though, what happens in your state may be completely (180-degrees) different than what happens to your neighbor across state lines. My state is between two states where there are a lot of travelers so I've had to deal with three different "systems" on a regular basis (as an insurance adjuster).

 

Here are the pics of the truck when we went to clean it out on Thursday. Hard to believe it's gone...









I've been so busy the last few days I haven't even had much time to think about it. Closed on the new house yesterday and now we're moving! My big white trailer hasn't been touched yet, we have a LOT of stuff to move. My 2010 F150 rental truck is parked in front:




I have a copy of the final estimate in hand, will post it when I get my scanner hooked up.

 

Man, I've been gone a couple days and just saw this. Sorry about your truck, but sounds like the most important thing (your wife) is fine. Really glad to at least hear that.

 

Glad your wife is okay... That's the most important thing!

 

That's a hell of a cage on the front of that truck. She took a hit and still looks pretty solid. I'm still scratching my head over $28K in damages.

 

I would charge about 3k to repaint one of these trucks and all of the parts you listed are about 2k, so yeah, thats insanely cheap...

 

With what the OP said was wrong I am really surprised its that low.

 

Clearly I don't know squat about body repair other than it's real pricey. I'd like to the breakdown of parts cost and labor costs.

 

If insurance companies knew more about bodywork, the estimates overall would be lower. The problem is lots of bodyshops these days use a pre-programmed estimating system that breaks it down part-by-part and job-by-job and from my experience, it's insanely high. I remember several years ago I had a truck repaired that I could've fixed myself in about 4 hours. It was minor damage and part of the job included having the lower part of the door repainted. The computer esimating system tacked on and additional hour's labor for "re-aligning". Huh? The door NEVER came off, so why would it need to be re-aligned? The total for the bill was 12 hours labor, it took the shop three weeks to do it and State Farm coughed up the money without balking one bit.

 

Bodywork and estimating are two very different things. Estimating takes into account a lot more than just body work. There is usually more than one tech working on a vehicle depending on the damage (body, mechanical, electrical, paint, etc.). That's why if you take the ASE certification tests they don't overlap. If you're ASE certified in estimating and damage analysis it's a completely different test than any body, mechanical, electronic, paint, etc test. They don't overlap because being an expert in bodywork doesn't help you significantly in estimating.

Insurance and body shops typically use the same estimating software, although there are a couple different programs they are very similar. The reason for the software is because it is constantly updated with the retail part prices and many now include used part prices and where they can be found. There is no calling around on part prices, for the most part (except many of the used part prices and locations need to be confirmed). The programs also automatically figure out paint times, overlap of adjacent panels, tell you what items are included in the labor times (i.e., removing and re-installing door handles, mouldings, etc.). It also figures not just the labor and part prices, but the materials (i.e., how much paint the painter will use, whether the painter gets paid to respray corrosion protection material, etc.).

So, the move to computerized estimates shaves time for the body shop and the estimator (whether it's a body shop estimator or an insurance estimator). It makes them more accurate, not less, because there are a number of automatic functions and calculations. It also helps with relationships between shop managers and insurance adjusters because they can both see exactly what's on the estimate up front, can agree on the repair before it gets started and there are no arbitrary issues. They are all spelled out on the estimate.

I wish all estimators had as much training as insurance estimators, or had to keep up their training and certification as state regulated insurance estimators.

 

If its not being blended its assumed that the door will be removed to paint. If they left it on then they had more time in masking which makes up the difference.... If they door had to be fixed and painted there is NO way you could have had it done in 4 hrs. Insurance work is not over priced. Alot of people dont stop and think what actually goes into it.

 

I would have bet any amount of money that I could have done the repair in 4 hours actual working time. The damge was minor, the truck was white bc/cc and the finished quality was horrid. GM truck doors of that era had the hinges welded in place so any adjustments would not be even possible, let alone needed for a minor scrape. Not only that but lots of the stick-on trim was re-used even though the shop billed the insurance to replace it with new parts. Also having done paint work on my own for a while, I'm very familiar with what goes into it. I recently repaired the front wrap on my brother's Dodge Dakota. I charge him $30/hr and did the job for $1,200 where the local shop estimated $4,800. The quality of my work far exceeded anything coming out of our local ASE shops as well.