Tom,
As the self-proclaimed king of accidents, I can honestly say I feel for you.
I'm glad youre ok and nobody else was seriously injured.
After looking at the pictures, I can see why your concerned. It may seem
like $8000 won't fix that, but if you've been in a body shop as long as I
have, that $8000 is a very valad figure for one big reason...State Farm
probably has a contract with that shop, and can intern dictate what they'll
charge.
A usual body shop usually charges $55-$60 per hour, but I have seen shops
that are under contracts bill out at $25-$30 an hour. I kid you not!!
Plus, you have to remember that a total job is 60-70 percent labor. So when
State Farm sends it to that shop, the adjuster is estimating based on THEIR
rates, and then handing the estimate to the shop. That shop usualy bases
their estimate on State Farm.
So yes, $8000 can fix that vehicle, but I guarantee that shop won't make
jack on the job. As far as the vehicle being the same, my anwser is it
would be more of a psycological factor than the actual vehicle. I would
make damn sure whoever is doing the work is backing it with a warranty, and
I would consider trading it in if you didn't feel safe driving it after a
month or two. But at least drive it a month since odds are you'll have a
loaner for the few weeks that the repairs will take.....Driing that full
size SUV will feel a whole lot different after driving a $hitbox rental for
a few weeks.
Gary Hedlin
President
Hedlin Web Designs
http://www.hedlin.net
Gary's Wisdom- #27
-You know the world is comming to an end when wrestlers and body builders
run entire states.....What's next, is Bush sending Sgt. Slaughter in to get
Osama??
"Terrible Tom" <SilverEightynine@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:3F99AF4F.4000901@earthlink.net...
>
> First I want to thank everyone for the well-wishes. My family and I
> appreciate them :-) I'm almost back to normal but my mother and
> especially my grandmother - will take longer to recover. Despite this
> spirits are pretty good.
>
> I snapped stills from video I took of the Ram and the remains of the
> Explorer. They can be seen at the following URLs:
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~silvereightynine/ford/
>
> The local Ford dealer says the repairs will cost over $8000 and we will
> "never know it was in an accident"
>
> I find this hard to believe considering there are strong indicators that
> the entire body of the Explorer has sustaned damage. This is based upon
> my observations that the rear hatch and passenger-side doors are
> seriously misaligned... indicating that the body structure has been
> pretty well deformed. The floor of the SUV is also seriously buckled.
>
> State Farm says that they will only total the truck if the cost of
> repair is 70% or greater. The amount of $8000+ seems low to me as a
> figure that will enclude repairing EVERYTHING that is wrong with it.
> (dash, windsheild, doors, all new front suspension, nerfbar, fender,
> hood, floor, A-pillar... plus there are scrapes in the body that will
> need to be filled - and an all new paint job? Sounds to me like the
> dealer isn't going to be able to fix everything for just over eight grand.
>
> That truck will never be right - no matter how good they say they can
> repair it. I don't want to get stuck with a half-ass POS repair job
> because State Farm took the cheaper route. Can the insurance company
> FORCE us to take the call of repair VS total?
>
> That truck will never be right - no matter how good they say they can
> repair it. I don't want to get stuck with a half-ass POS repair job
> because State Farm took the cheaper route. Do we have any options?
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- > Terrible Tom -- AIM & Yahoo Name: SilverEightynine > > "Take me to the river, drop me in the water..." - Talking Heads > > '89 Silver Dakota RC, V6, 4x2 -- '89 Silver Dakota RC, V6, 4x4 > '01 Graphite Ram Offroad Sport, RC, 360 V8, Auto, Short Box! 4x4 > > http://home.earthlink.net/~silvereightynine/ > http://www.twistedbits.net/WWWProfile/dakota/LkxxVw49jp7dU/ >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 06 2004 - 11:47:04 EST