I went and got an estimate on damage to the car which is approx 4800 worth. The worst areas are the hood and quarter panels. The body shop said that they’re replacing the hood and will have to repaint part of the car, obviously as well as fixing the quarter panels, trunk lid, roof, etc Talking with my mother about it (she’s my insurance agent) I was wondering if I can just have those 2 things fixed (hood and paint work), and try fixing the roof and trunk lid myself and put the rest of the cash towards my car loan to pay if off that much sooner. From what she understood, they can only cut the check to the shop that’s doing the repairs. Is this true? If so, can they cut me a refund on the rest of the unused $$$, or is this illegal (you never know I guess)? has anyone ever been through this before? Last time my car got wrecked, the insurance company pretty much just gave me a check for $ X amount, but apparently this is a different kind of coverage. Any ideas?
edit:sorry for the run on… firefox 3 apparently doesn’t like spaces on these forms
well, I’m going to try the dry ice method. If that doesn’t work, I have a dent puller I got as a gift like 4 years ago I’m going to try. The dents of the roof, surprisingly, aren’t nearly as bad as the hood, fenders and trunk lid
if all that fails, a good friend of mine’s little brother took auto body in college. He does real good work and I’m sure he’d be able help me out if I throw some cash his way
But long story short, if you have full coverage, they will cut the check to the shop because the car is collateral, they are not going to allow you to “fix” it on your own and then continue to insure the vehicle for full value. If you douched out and just took the check, their collateral isn’t worth very much.
Even when I hit the dear, they sent me a check for $12,000. It cost more then that though so I had to call them and get them to send more, which they did.
If it were my deal, I would hold onto that 5200, and see if you can sell the car how it is to get enough money for the payoff, and come out with the car paid off, and the car sold to someone on ebay or whatever.
Bringing my wife’s 2008 Malibu in today for an estimate. Still haven’t decided where I am bringing it to get repaired. Hoping I get a check cut to me and then I’ll handle it from there.
well, my deductible is 1K and I do want to fix it. I can’t take all the dents on it. I saw DJNick at mickey rats over the weekend and he said to bring it by sometime for him to take a look at :tup: So maybe he’ll be able to fix some of it cheaper than a shop would.