Body Shop Questions

The contractor who's forklift hit my truck would prefer to pay out of pocket for the damage versus involving his insurance company. It doesn't matter to me, except one of the shops I would have liked to do the work just flat out won't take anything but insurance work right now. The other can't get to me for almost three months, but something they said made me think that if insurance were involved, I'd be higher up on the list.
The Toyota body shop is the one that could take me in three months, they wrote up about $2900 worth of damage, but warned that once the bumper came off, there was likely more they couldn't see.
What I don't want to happen is the dude pays me the $2900 now and then three months from now when they finally tear down the truck, there's another 2 grand worth of work waiting below.
The contractor left me a message that he "has a friend with a body shop". I'm very disinterested in that option.
Someone advised that I should just turn it in on my own insurance and let them go after him.
Any thoughts?

 

I hate to say it, but unless you have reason to trust that person, I would report it to be safe. Unless he was driving a personal forklift the company’s insurance should be covering it anyway. If he has a problem with that he shouldn’t hit people’s vehicles with forklifts.

 

Yep, its not worth the hassle. If you file with your insurance and pay your deductible, your insurance will surely subrogate against someone, whether his personal insurance, work insurance, or himself if he's uninsured.

This is why you get raped in the rear monthly by your insurance. To handle these exact matters for you. Use it.

 

They want to use insurance because they can pull some bullshit moves and up charge and make more money.

shitty game and just one of a thousand reasons why insurance rates suck.

How bad is damage? If it was minor, I’d probably take cash and buy aftermarket bumper. But I’d have to see it, first.

 

It's not too bad. $2800 so far. Big dent in the tailgate, back bumper is trashed. Hitch is bent a little.

 

The biggest thing is you got that sexy paint job, so using a good shop that can blend into the right places will be critical. Can you post some photos?

To Jynarik's point, you can take the cash and you will for sure have what you need for the tailgate. Take the change and put it to a nice metal bumper.

 

oof yeah, since you have a 2021, I’d probably just use his insurance and get it repaired back to normal.

now, the downside with that, is if you plan on reselling, you’re gonna have an accident on its record and your value will dramatically drop. And even being not at fault, your rates may go up.

do you have a picture?

 

Thats true, but the majority of the reason is the shop is about speed. On the tail end of my insurance career, I became an estimator at a body shop in Kansas City.

When someone says they will pay cash, they are under the impression that the initial estimate is the damage.

The biggest issue is when you have tear down on the vehicle, we have to write that supplement immediately. Now here's two paths. One, if you're working with insurance, the body shop already has access to the supplement database for most insurance companies or they have a direct phone line to the adjuster for the insurance company to get the supplement approved, order parts, and immediately continue to keep the momentum.

in my experience when you're dealing with out-of-pocket claimants, people are hard to reach, they don't want to return calls, and then they start to complain when you tell them that the supplement is another few thousand bucks. So now we have a truck taking up space in the body shop whether inside the shop or the parking lot and we can't do anything about it because people don't want to except the reality of the cost.
The owner of the vehicle who was already indecisive to begin with by going with the cash option continues to display the same traits and can't make a decision.

This is why again all of us get raped to smithereens every month on our insurance bill. Just take advantage of it put it to use and don't deal with the stress.

and keep in mind that I've been back in tech from the last seven years so I'm indifferent to the whole process. I just worked in insurance and claims for a half a decade and I have personal insight on it. Ill insert an edit here: A good body shop will do right by both you and the insurance company, but there are many that are sleaze bags and try really dumb things to inflate their rates.

 

Report it to your insurance, collect their insurance information and report it to their insurance also. Have your insurance handle the claim and subrogate against the other company. Things will move quicker and it is a lot safer. You received a preliminary estimate before a tear down. 9/10 times there is extra damage below that will require a supplemental estimate. Don't let this contractor grease you off on the preliminary estimate and dip out. They have insurance for a reason. Protect yourself and your vehicle's value. Allow them to make you whole, prior to the incident. I used to be a claims adjuster back in the day and that's the best advice I can give.

 

Get the cash (from insurance!), open up the panel and push the hatch back out, get the Coastal Offroad rear bumper kit and a welder, put the remainder in the bank.

 

Good advice guys, thank you.

 

I think I agree with bionic on this one. Squeeze a little more cash from him, have PDR pop the dent if you can’t, upgrade your bumper.

guess it depends on your plans for the truck, though.

 

Realistically, my only off road needs are the occasional trek through an unfinished subdivision or onto an undeveloped property. So I wouldn't NEED an upgraded bumper. But maybe I WANT one. I think the tailgate will have to be painted, its taken some paint down to bare metal in the dent, and theres some chipped off paint on the edge where the bumper smacked it.

 

rig is too new and too beautiful. use insurance

 

That'll buff right out

Seriously - all the best getting it fixed.

 

Being since forklifts are incredibly dense, unyielding things, they probably act more like sledgehammer in an impact.

I’d be worried if I saw a bent hitch. Specifically I’d be worried the frame’s rear crossmember is bent, because hitch is mounted directly on the face of rear crossmember. Also, the hitch itself is very hard steel and not really big/long enough to bend. I would guess the crossmember is just plain mild steel, meaning much more deformable that the hitch steel. The bending you see might actually be the deformation on the frame crossmember itself.

Just because of the real possibility the crossmember might need to be cut off and a new one welded in, I would not take cash. Insurance all the way. Unless the guy is willing to buy the 4runner outright from you.

I would also be pissed off paying a deductible. Why couldn't you file directly with the guy’s insurance? Him not wanting to use his insurance is his problem, and he’s trying to make it yours.

 

I should back up and say this company is used by several of the builders I work with for their trash removal, so I think he is on the up and up. I suspect he thought it might be $1,000 fix that he would pay out of pocket, but might want to get his insurance on board now that it's more like $6k (including the other damage that was done on the way to my car.)

 

I don’t understand how his mistake is now your problem.

 

This. Never take the cash offer unless you know 100% what the amount of damage is.

 

15 years body shop/insurance experience. No way I'd take cash for that. Insurance all the way. Sucks it will end up on the carfax, it is what it is.