Think When You Buy Insurance Online

"Dave the car guy , still here" (a3dave) 11/29/2016 at 14:20 • Filed to: None

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Don’t pick just liability only and/or comprehensive and expect a collision repair for free. You have to choose collision coverage for your own car. Saw a girl crying a few weeks ago because she didn’t pick the right boxes on the web. She had coverage for the other guy but all her repairs were out of pocket. In most states if there is an auto loan in place you have to have full coverage but it seems some things can slip through the cracks if the website doesn’t have idiot proof choices.

Don’t drop your car off after hours and not call the shop where the repair is being done. The car sitting in the dealership sales area parking instead of 300 ft back at the bodyshop will be ignored for days until someone from the insurance company calls a week later to see how repairs are going. This happened today. Without an agent, you are a name and number that has to be channeled through the system. Until somebody cares about their workflow your claim might be idle unless somebody finally checks on why one hasn’t been completed. Its up to you to do the follow ups and checks to keep things in motion.

Don’t assume anything, call the company or inquire at the insurance site about your claim until its done. AND don’t ask the guys at the bodyshop about things involving your policy. We don’t know your coverage, call your insurance company claim representative if you have questions because we have no idea what choices you made while tapping on your keyboard at 3 am.

Finally make sure the keys to the damaged car get inside the body shop or into a night drop box. This is just as important as letting somebody know the car is there for repairs. If the car can still be driven it can still be stolen, don’t leave the keys in it. Couldn’t believe we had a car out front for the past week with keys in the ignition and nobody had taken it.

A random car caravan picture for your enjoyment.

Matthew Phillips > Dave the car guy , still here 11/29/2016 at 14:57

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I’m trying to decide if I want comp on my XJ :/

It’s 29 Years old and I’m broke so if I survive an accident in it I wonder if taking $500 from the insurance company would be better than not having at least a piece of a car.

lone_liberal > Dave the car guy , still here 11/29/2016 at 14:59

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You reminded me that it was time to suspend coverage on the Camaro until spring. Sigh.

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > Dave the car guy , still here 11/29/2016 at 14:59

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You also surrender service with the cheaper carriers, too. Had a vehicle sit in my shop for three weeks, two of which were waiting supplement approvals, the third week was actually production/repairs.

And ask your potential carrier what type of parts they use; don’t get pissed at the bodyshop because your insurance carrier wants to use a $200 aftermarket bumper cover that doesn’t fit. The bodyshop wants to buy the $400 bumper that fits, too (it’s a helluva lot easier to install).

/bodyshop rant over

Dave the car guy , still here > Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever 11/29/2016 at 15:10

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Certainly. I should have mentioned that but it can happen even with an agent depending on the policy. Had a customer with a 6 month old Camaro who was pissed because his cheap policy would only pay for new GM parts if the pieces weren’t available in used or aftermarket. He ended up paying an extra $1200 in upgrade cost above his deductible to get OE new parts.

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > Dave the car guy , still here 11/29/2016 at 15:39

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At least GM will help if there’s an insurance estimate listing A/M parts. My dealer has been discounting OEM beyond my regular discount to match A/M, or at least drop the cost enough so that the customers out of pocket to offset A/M pricing isn’t as steep.

I’m guessing you’re a collision repair guy as well?

duurtlang > Dave the car guy , still here 11/29/2016 at 15:48

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Depends on the car. I’m not going to pay for full coverage for a car that’s worth nothing. If you crash it and you’re at fault you’re not getting more than it was worth anyway, which in an older car frequently isn’t worth the monthly premium. Liability is sufficient for a car like that.

Dave the car guy , still here > Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever 11/29/2016 at 15:52

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Stealership parts guru and work mostly with wholesale, counter customers, and our in house bodyshop.

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > Dave the car guy , still here 11/29/2016 at 15:57

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Are the (insurance side, not shop side) appraisers getting lazy in your market and listing LKQ without calling to verify? I’ve been getting (alot of) estimates written recently where they just use car-part.com for LKQ prices, take the lowest available price and mark it up 25%. Unfortunately, they’re writing the estimate for me to use a door from four states away that the salvage yard lists as having three hours damage (which means it probably needs a skin in reality). 80% of the time, I have a supplement within an hour of receipt of the estimate (haven’t even torn the car down), which is just sad.

Dave the car guy , still here > Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever 11/29/2016 at 16:11

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Seeing some of that. Also have had them using Collisionlink or PartsTrader to dictate new or used prices and then having used parts that we can no longer get by the time the approval arrives. One insurance co screwed themselves last week. Needed a used truck bed side and it was sold by the time they gave the nod 3 days later.

Aftermarket warranty company stuff is just as bad. Had to get a used Impala 3.9 for a car that had an oil leak that seized the engine. By the time approval arrived in two days all the other used ones were almost twice the price and the first engine was gone. Took them another day to approve a higher priced engine. Then the engine had to come to Ohio from Upstate NY.

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > Dave the car guy , still here 11/29/2016 at 16:27

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PartsTrader is (was? been away from State Farm’s DRP for 1.5 years) a gigantic clusterfuck. Most of the recycling yards were employing the “throw shit at a wall and see what sticks” method of quoting; they’d quote everything we ran, and we’d have to write the estimate to use the parts. Lock estimate, order parts, create supplement 2 hrs later after PartsTrader message that the parts weren’t there/damaged/etc. I had multiple State Farm reps tell me their parts expense went way up after implementation of PartsTrader (the reputable salvage yards I work with told PartsTrader to pound sand, they didn’t want to be a part of it).

Sidwndr > Dave the car guy , still here 11/29/2016 at 16:28

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If you just drive pos that will be totaled...

Dave the car guy , still here > Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever 11/29/2016 at 18:58

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Still used around here to some degree. I called it Parts Traitor in the face of one of the reps, he won’t talk to me after that which I’m fine with.

DynamicWeight > Matthew Phillips 11/30/2016 at 14:37

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The math is easy. Check the box and see how much the payment goes up. Multiply that by how many years you want to consider and then compare that to the blue book value.

Basically, when you get comprehensive, you’re betting against yourself (not a bad thing really).

For your car, I can’t possibly imagine it would be worth it. Better to start a “just in case” savings with the difference in monthly cost. ( which you should be doing anyway )

Dave the car guy , still here > Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever 11/30/2016 at 14:48

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You know how when you talk about someone and then they show up? Here I am a day later and the Part Trader rep is breathing down our necks. He is one of those guys who tries to convince the body shop writers that they know best. They don’t care if we make a profit. Their concern is the insurance company gets by on the cheap and screw us.

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > Dave the car guy , still here 11/30/2016 at 15:04

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Wow, what an asshole that guy is.

He’s breathing down your necks, yet he’s a service provider that you (parts department) pay for his services. He’s just another shill for the insurance carriers (or just State Farm, in this instance, unless others have adopted their ridiculous ideas of parts procurement).

It blew my mind when I was hearing at the start of PartsTrader that they wanted to charge a monthly fee to the parts vendors. We’ve already got a tried and true method of ordering parts (phone/fax/email/manufacturer specific web page), all PartsTrader is doing is giving insurance carriers access to repairers profit margins, and attempting to cut into both the vendor and the repairer’s profits to benefit the insurance carrier. Who the hell wants to pay to lose money?

Dave the car guy , still here > Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever 11/30/2016 at 15:12

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He even voiced that the writer shouldn’t send us anything for quote that he is sending to aftermarket and wrecking yards to quote. So what he is saying is we don’t get a shot at selling an OE part at a reduced price and we make less money. So we might have the part on the shelf and can’t even sell it because they would sway business away from us. Plus as you stated we pay for this service to get screwed out of sales.

Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever > Dave the car guy , still here 11/30/2016 at 15:36

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The twit doesn’t even understand how his own software works. The writer writes the estimate for all OEM parts, then runs it on PartsTrader for all vendors to see (OEM, LKQ, and A/M), minimum run time of 60 minutes as of August 2015 (may have changed by now). The vendors quote the parts listed with their respective available stock, the estimator reviews the received quotes after the minimum 1hr run time, adjusts the estimate to use the most cost effective parts quoted, then locks the estimate for submission to the insurance carrier as an estimate of record. The writer doesn’t really choose who it’s sent to, if my understanding is correct, it’s posted for a certain geographic range of vendors to view and quote.

Here’s the cover sheet I used to send to my parts department on all PartsTrader orders:

Dave the car guy , still here > Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever 11/30/2016 at 16:11

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lol, I love the cover sheet.

Parts Trader can be tailored to only send quote requests to certain vendors that way you aren’t pissing everyone off with a ton of email alerts for looking at doing quotes. Its such a pain.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Dave the car guy , still here 12/05/2016 at 10:19

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Morning Dave, this is a Caprice L77 Holden PPV. That wheel isn’t a 5x4.75 by any chance, is it? Those rims would look tight on my old Vandura.

(This is a rather annoying video...)

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/10-10-intro-1789682701

Dave the car guy , still here > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 12/05/2016 at 10:34

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It is 5 x 4.75 but 18x8 size. Not sure what offset was on earlier rims and how they would clear on inside at arms etc. Might take trying one out at a wrecking yard to see.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Dave the car guy , still here 12/05/2016 at 12:50

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I probably want to stick with a taller sidewall and a smaller-diameter rim anyhow. But I’m after something clean more so than stylish, but that rim is both.