Well....F$%K

[LostWoods]

Stress on mount - or sheered/ruined mount.
There's wires that run in there as well. What about the electric?
The shock of a hit can crack and sheer things not easily seen.

Yeah anyone who has taken that corner panel apart can tell you now delicate the plastics are and there are a lot of joined panels under the plastics. I would be shocked if it's all pristine.

Hell that's where the rear seatbelt mounts so if nothing else that should be verified for the safety issue alone.

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[Jeeperjamie]

Repair quote seems light.


Was it a salvage title too?

Yes salvaged title but he said he wasn't planning on getting rid of it. His plans are to pass it to his daughter when she turns 16.

 

[Dave-in-RI]

If you look at my avatar picture, it’s my old 2001 TJ Wrangler. Got rear ended and it didn’t look too bad apart from tailgate. Closer inspection found the frame itself had twisted and they had to call it a total loss. I’d owned it less than a couple months and it only had 30k original miles— had never even had the top on it! Was some rich guy’s sunny day drive around toy, which I had recently bought (in 2009). Then the insurance company underbid me for valuation using sidewalk dealers in shitty towns. Took me quite a while but I added a sincere 60% to the payout price. But they first came and tried to write a check, the next day, if I signed. I felt fine but in the coming days did not, and found I now had 3 freshly herniated discs which bother me to this day. That went separately from the car accident car claim, and never came to it because he had ample insurance to cover the eventual legal payout (fell into the classic range of medical bills x3; woefully not enough before the lawyer’s third). Police report and fully at fault don’t expire. So yeah, don’t be in a rush and prepare for the worst. Hopefully it won’t be. Thanks for sharing pics and context, makes me worry less about buying a diesel without side airbags. Was your kid in a car seat?

 

[johnchabin]

Glad you’re all ok. Sorry about the Jeep.

I’ve seen a gladiator in a head-on. It protected the passengers well.

 

[Scott0700]

Always read the estimate closely for what the adjuster writes.
Repair = bondo.
Replace = like it came from the factory.
I do not like the amount of Repair on that estimate. It’s why a $15k job is being done for $4k.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Always read the estimate closely for what the adjuster writes.
Repair = bondo.
Replace = like it came from the factory.
I do not like the amount of Repair on that estimate. It’s why a $15k job is being done for $4k.

I spent hours on dent repair on my SX4 - no bondo, all dent repair/removal. A good shop repairs using modern techniques. Bondo is a thing of the past. Look at modern hail repair. It actually takes less time for a skilled person to do it right.

 

[RCott77]

Be sure to collect that Diminished Value check! That will help with upgrades

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Yeah anyone who has taken that corner panel apart can tell you now delicate the plastics are and there are a lot of joined panels under the plastics. I would be shocked if it's all pristine.

Hell that's where the rear seatbelt mounts so if nothing else that should be verified for the safety issue alone.

Got that right. Installed the power steps on both of our Jeeps - I didn't have to get into the rear panels other than pulling things back to release other panels and carpet and so on, but one could tell what a mess it could be. And the seat belt mounts and the retractor must be checked, even tested. If that front belt retractor fails because of something interfering, it could be bad. Doesn't take much to prevent it from working, found that out running wires in there.

 

[kevman65]

OP,

Whomever you decide to use to repair your JT, have them do a COMPLETE estimate for total repair BEFORE they start any work.

Contact your insurance with that quote, also don't forget to ask for their diminished value amount.

If the insurance company then decides to balk, contact an INDEPENDENT Arbitrator, they usually have a flat fee of 10% of the difference of what you're offered and what they get you.

 

[dmwphoto]

Sorry it happened. It will be WAY more than a week before this is resolved.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Whomever you decide to use to repair your JT, have them do a COMPLETE estimate for total repair BEFORE they start any work.

Contact your insurance with that quote, also don't forget to ask for their diminished value amount.

I HATE these "floating estimates". There was a bit a while back where the work was started first - nope, never never.
I know there can be hidden things - broken things you can't possibly find until something else is removed. I've been in that type of work myself, but still, to start work without a solid number is not something I'd ever agree to.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Sorry it happened. It will be WAY more than a week before this is resolved.

Holy cow (it's an Iowa thing) - I can't imagine solid quotes in under a week! i'd never go by numbers given in 1 or 2 days. I expect just the bit of getting estimates and numbers to take a week, and then some "chatting" with the involved parties to take time beyond that. I'd not expect any work to even begin before a couple of weeks.
It took almost a week to get my father's insurance company to finally see the light - that his truck was equipped the way I said and that it was a short wheelbase, not the long wheelbase, making it worth thousands more. That took DAYS, I'd say a week.
Speed is not your friend here. Anyone looking and 15 minutes later giving a number - don't use their numbers. They didn't look close enough.

I used to be one of the types who was called to look over cars and trucks for others - to see if it was what it was being advertised as. It always took some real time to look over every aspect. More than once I found crappy repairs, one time a cracked windshield pointed me in the direction of a car having been sectioned, and not a good job at all. And yet - even the dealer selling it swore they had no idea. I always spend at least a half hour looking things over, sometimes more if I was suspicious of anything. Often things can be hidden - cracked bell housings, torn mounts, wrinkles where there should not be wrinkles. You can't glance at a vehicle for 5 minutes and know all there is to know about it.

 

[Jeeperjamie]

I HATE these "floating estimates". There was a bit a while back where the work was started first - nope, never never.
I know there can be hidden things - broken things you can't possibly find until something else is removed. I've been in that type of work myself, but still, to start work without a solid number is not something I'd ever agree to.

This is fact, never! I remember back in 2002 my wife was in a head on collision where the the lady crossed the center line. My wife was driving a 2000 honda civic at the time and let's just say she loved the car but we had less than perfect credit then so she somehow talked the adjuster into fixing the car off the original estimate of $4350. They got it to the shop and started tearing stuff apart and in ended up being almost $10,000 worth of repairs by the time they got done with shop hours and parts. Not counting the 5 weeks we spent in a rental car waiting on it to be fixed. The shop guy said someone lost their job over that one, but hey they fixed it.

It's definitely gonna be more than week before your riding again in it.

Another time we had a adjuster look at our Ford Escape when I wrecked it , totally my fault should of hit the deer instead of trying to avoid it, but I was sure it was totalled but when the first adjuster came out he said about $3300 worth of damage. I asked for a second opinion on it and another adjuster went out and totalled it out. He said the first guy was green and didn't know how to put the numbers in right.

 

[Chris A]

Long story as short as possible.
Front end collision other driver was 100% at fault. Had to ask the police officer to correct statements in report after taking pictures of seen. I was told officer does not have to correct anything totally up to the officer! Esurance was the other drivers insurance and they suck. 1st was told buy claims supervisor that I had to go through my insurance- wrong! Then was told there was no such thing as diminished value- wrong. Then they tried to assign a portion of the fault on me. Stood my ground. They offered 500.00 and eventually got up to just over 3k. Short by the approximate additional cost to go the lawyer/ court route. These POS insurance adjusters know exactly what they are doing. I was referred to a professional vehicle appraiser as Esurance was giving the body shop a bunch of poop about covering all the unseen damage to assist with the diminished claim. He told me what was going to happen upfront and was spot on. Don’t mention the sue or lawyer words unless you are committed to going that route. On a side note I was able to force them to replace functional parts( intercooler, condenser and radiator) with OEM as I had a Mopar extended warranty and they provided a statement that no OEM parts wouldn’t be covered. I could get on a rant here but insurance companies don’t just do the right thing in my opinion.

 

[Casique]

Don't forget your GAP insurance, even if they fix it, it will be worth less now/future!

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