Unthinkable happened yesterday..:(

Definitely go through their insurance first. If the adjuster is unreasonable or difficult, you can always go through your own. When dealing with the adjuster, just be aware that you are entitled to a rental car comparable to your maxima. Do NOT settle for a neon or kia. You should also be able to pick which autobody shop you go to although they may make you get at least two estimates. I would be leery of "insurer recommended" autobody shops as they often have agreements to do the least-expensive work, although the insurance company may offer you an appealing multi-year warranty. Depending on the damage, your best bet may be to get a whole door (even if from a salvage yard). Do not let them bondo large damage. It'll look like crap after just a few years. Make sure they do a good job with the paint. It should match and the surface should feel slick and smooth. Shops sometimes like to make shortcuts on the paint job.

Your car will never be the same, unfortunately. Your job is to ensure that the work they do will last a good long time since your car is so new. Hopefully you can find a good autobody shop near you. Most, IMHO, do very poor work.

CW

Here in Canada, specifically the Province of Ontario, the insurance industry got regulated to iron out these issues. In a case such as yours, I go to my preferred repair place (Delaer does excellent work and uses origianl parts) and I rent a car. My insurance company covers the costs and then bills the other company for the expenditure. I don't pay a thing, unless I caused the accident.

However, the insurance costs go up if you have a number of accidents, regardless on whether or not I caused them, because they then believe that I live or drive in a high risk area.

I am surprised that for the amount of money you pay that the isurance company doesn't handle the little petty deatils for you, like the deductible and rental. That should be part of the service.

rtt

First find the body shop YOU want the car fixed at. Don't bother with estimates from shops yet, call their insurance company and they'll have an adjuster look at the car. They'll write an estimate which will probably be about half the real damage (they hope you'll cash the check which ends their liability!). Then they will attempt to steer you to one of their "preferred" shops. Read this as someone who will do cheap work for what they say they will pay, panel paint the car etc. If the insurance company won't pay enough, they will cut whatever corners they have to to meet the price to remain a "preferred" shop. Obviously we aren't a "preferred" shop anymore because we won't play those games and neither are any of the good body shops.

Once you take the car to a good shop, they will have to make suppliments, reinspections, argue with adjusters etc etc. It's become a nightmare trying to do repairs correctly but it's the only way to get a quality repair.

You -DO NOT- have to use their "preferred" shops but yes they will make you jump through a bunch of hoops to use another shop. Also DEMAND only new nissan parts, none of their LKQ (like kind and quality) crap parts they will want to use. You are in the drivers seat because it's THEIR insured fault, if it was your fault it would be worse. These companies have be sued enough times now that they -WILL- do the right thing if they realize they can't push you around. Threaten to report them to the insurance commisioner if they start acting stupid -at all- about this! It seems to be the only thing they understand.

I'd also DEMAND lost value as they are going to sell the information to the reseller databases that this car has been wrecked, so even if it is repaired perfectly, it's lost value because they sold your personal information! It could be as much as several thousand dollars! I can't believe it's legal for them to make money at your expense this way, but it is so you need to get paid for this as well. You will probably have to go to a dealer to find out the trade-in/resale value before and after the wreck to determine how much lost value you need to ask for.

In another words, if you don't want to get screwed like 99% of people do, you're going to have to fight with them so get ready! It's gotten so bad we don't like even doing insurance repairs anymore and most of the bodywork/paint we do now is restoration work. Good luck!

There's a good reason for this, the insurance companies won't pay what it takes to correctly fix a car and haven't for years. Anyone that was any good at doing bodywork stopped doing crash repairs a long time ago and went into restoration work. The same thing is going to happen with health care if it hasn't already!

One thing they have been doing is: some insurance companies are buying a couple of body shops in an area, doing work at a loss so they can claim "so and so is at ___ dollars an hour" to set the "prevailing rate" artificially low. Then they refuse to pay any more than that to anyone! Gotta wonder how that can be legal but it is, just as they can get together and "price fix" their rates which is illegal in any bussiness besides the insurance bussiness. It's gotten out of hand but at this point they have too much control in the Gov to do much about it.

I'll just add to all the good advice you have gotten, one other not so nice aspect of this event (at least here in California). I had the misfortunate to have a now bankrupt (and gone) major department store replace a blown Michelin on my '89 Maxima. They apparently twisted it changing the tire. Buckled the roof! I wasn't there but they either dropped it or who knows what. Nightmare.

Anyway, here in California, when a car has major damage, one is supposed to disclose that to a buyer. And I had damage...the freakin' frame (unit) had to be crunched back into alignment. Now, insurance paid for all this stuff and the repairs looked fine but I really couldn't sell the car in good conscience without disclosing. Frankly, I believe fair would have been to total (or near total the thing). So, I am not sure of the cure but beware of any need to disclose significant damages.

In my case, I gave the car to my sister (she needed one), in 1995. She and her hubby drove it for 8 years. Got in a head-on with a Buick at low speed, had it fixed. A daughter rear-ended someone with it, had it fixed. Now, nearing 300K miles, one of my sister's kids and her hubby use it as daily driver. So, the result wasn't so sad but it could have been a real pocketbook slammer.

Very interesting info. Thanks.

CW

what a sad story..... I was in a similiar suitation with my Saturn, to make a long story short, it was a minor incident when someone took a turn out of a parking lot a little too shart and clipped the front left part of my car, scratching it pretty bad. called my insurance and they wanted me to pay a deductable, I hung up on them and called the other guys insurance (Geico) they sent an adjuster out in a week or so, and I got 1400 bucks for what was basically paint scratches, had a friend buff out most of them, and just lived with the 1 bigger scratch for a few months and sold the car. it worked out pretty good

-Slick Nick

artificially

Any advice on how to detect if this is happening, and what may be done about it?

Dave

Thank you all for your valubale advice(s). Here is the current status, I got in touch with the State Farm agent (other persons insurance company) and they took my information and told me that someone from their claims department will contact me with regard to fixing my car.

In the meanwhile I went to my Nissan Dealer Collision Center (Roanoke, VA) and they have given me an estimate of about $1500 (apparently these guys are certified estimaters for State Farm) and will take approximately 5 days to repair. They told me that the entire rear door needs to be replaced, the Quarter Pro needs to be repainted and other minor things to be fixed. Also, can anyone guide me in how to claim (and calculate) diminished value for my car due to the accident, especially when it is the other persons fault.

thank you all for your valuable advice and time. I will keep you all updated, BI

Hold on now... surely you're not advocating LYING on resale! Fact is... it was WRECKED, that is the truth and should be disclosed. It is FAIR and something consumers should expect a reputable dealer to tell them.

How well do speedometer disclosure laws set with you... not to mention salvage title disclosures. If the repair is good enough, it can be assessed and given appropriate value, as can the maintenance program behind a 150K mile car in outwardly good condition.

I'd really prefer to take my business to a place where I can trust them to tell me everything about the car I buy.... and the work they do. With posts like that, you'd be well advised to to remove the atlanta racing line at bottom.

BuddyWh

As far as them "price fixing"? They -are- doing it all over the country and our Gov has passed laws that makes it legal for the insurance companies (but no other industry) to do this! Trying to change this is like fighting tort law. As long as these groups "donate" money to Gov officials, they can get any laws they need passed.

Where did I say that?

In the real world that isn't the case. Go trade in a car that has one of these insurance records on it and see how much value they take off even if there is nothing that can be seen i.e. it was repaired correctly. Before these records were SOLD, you could tell the dealer it had a wrecked fender and was fixed and they wouldn't care if it was done right. Now they WILL devalue the car thousands of dollars and it doesn't matter how well it was fixed. People should be paid for this lost value as part of the insurance settlement since the insurance company is the cause of the lost value.

Feel free to go anywhere you like or read negativity into my post if you want. I don't think the insurance companies should sell this information if they -aren't willing to pay the customer the lost value- that selling this information is going to cost the owner of the car. My point was to -get paid- for this devaluation, not that people should lie about the car being damaged.

Find out if they are going to panel paint it or blend onto the adjacent panels. No one can panel paint a car perfectly and you will see the color difference if they do this. Don't let them tell you they can't be responsible for the rest of the paint being "faded", that's BS. The paint all matched before the wreck and it should afterwards, the key words are "pre-accedent condition" and it's in any insurance policy I've ever read.

You might have to go around like you are wanting to buy a car and trade this one in, find some value then tell them it's going to show up as having a $1500 wreck and see what they say. Might be hard to get a honest answer out of them but I know several people who ended up getting 10-15% less on trade in once this sort of report showed up in the car's history.

That is a false premise: the insurance company is not the cause of the lost value, the WRECK is the cause of the lost value. The insurance company just made that fact be known.. and rightly so!

You appear, very strongly, to advocate they NOT be disclosing to an agency that makes that knowledge publicly available. That fosters a system where dealers can, and will, easily perpetrate the lie. Justify it as you want, but enabling others to lie, and sharing in the profits of it, also makes you share in the lie itself. At the very least, it makes you an advocate of their ability to do so.

At best it is a sign of very poor ethics. Surely you can imagine why they were willing to only mark it down slightly before? Perhaps because they knew they could retail it at full value? never telling John Q about the wreck? Now, though, John Q has access to some information (just like the odometer disclosure... and salvage title disclosure...)

Me read negatively?? don't write negatively... maybe proof your rants before posting.

It may be unfortunate, but the wrecked auto is worth less if the market makes it so. If you just want them to reimburse that lost value... I imagine that's as hard to prove as trying to get the true worth of a well maintained auto that gets totaled (or when selling it outright for that matter.) It just ain't gonna happen very easily simply because it is very hard to prove something that is basically theoretical.

Bottom line is... don't get in wrecks.

One thing we do agree on.... they shouldn't be selling it. They should be obligated to report it, without remuneration (just like the odometer and salvage title).

BuddyWh

One last time, what I'm advocating is the insurance company should pay people for the lost value due to the wreck, especially since the insurance companies are capitalizing on this information since they are -selling it-. Many people don't realize how much this will cost them at trade-in time.

Maybe you can't understand when I said :"I don't think the insurance companies should sell this information if they -aren't willing to pay the customer the lost value- that selling this information is going to cost the owner of the car. My point was to -get paid- for this devaluation, not that people should lie about the car being damaged."

You think the insurance company is concerned about the buyer of the car later and this is why they sell this information? They see this as a way to increase their profits or they would give the information away for free!

??? Because I recomend people try to recover this lost value at the time of the accedent, especially when if wasn't their fault? Or do you think they should take it on the chin because someone ran into their car to save the insurance company some money?

Yea that helps when someone runs into them! Did you read the OP's post? They were sitting still and someone drove into the side of their car. So you believe they should just eat the lost value due to someone else's negligence so as not to burden the insurance company?

Obviously you've got a bee in your bonnet about something, maybe you're still upset about that "antiseize on sparkplugs" thread or some other thread where you were proven wrong? Get over it! :-)

Glad to hear you're not hurt.

One thing to check out as well is diminished value compensation. You can find websites which will appraise your car's diminished value. I'm still fighing with State Farm on what they should pay me for my car's diminished value.

By the way, I took my '98 to a shop which not only specialized in accident body work, but was well known in the resto-mod world of classic cars. I figured that they get paid to do work for people who really care about their classics, so they must be good.

Turns out, I've been quite happy since getting the car back. I really don't notice any issues. It did take three months to get my car back after my wife's accident in '02, but the rental car did agree to let me drive a Park Avenue Ultra while I was waiting.

HTH

Oh, yes, In my post I forgot to mention the genuine Nissan parts. I insisted on this (with the body shop's help) and the insurance company (State Farm) aquiesed. It only delayed my repair by two weeks to wait for the parts to be shipped from Japan.

Since you're working with State Farm, they WILL balk at the diminished value aspect. (They did balk at my claim - $3000 - for DV.) Here's a link to THIER own site discussing diminished value. Do a google search and you will find plenty of companies willing to perform a DV inspection.

Being in this situation right now, I agree with Steve here. DV is paid by the insurance company because I won't get the full value on resell. I don't think anybody's advocating lying about the fact that the car was in an accident. Besides, CARFAX and the like have that information nowdays.

I have some co-workers that tried that. They even kept their cars (classic '40's and '50s cars) in the garages.

When the fires came through, though, couldn't help the cars.

As for my accident, my wife was at a stoplight behind another car when ours got rammed at 47MPH.

Where do you think Carfax gets their information? And you think they get it for free? Of course not and why I think the insurance companies should use the money they get for selling this information to help pay for the DV the accedent will cause.